References compiled from the Agni Yoga Series
162. In upward flights we learn the great gift of patience. Radiant, creative patience does not resemble the murky cloak of non-resistance to evil... Creative patience holds the key to the New World; therefore, patience creates a power which is intensified with each hour of reality.
Non-resistance is like a long-opened flask of perfume, but creative patience is like old sealed wine.
167. One can enumerate a great number of exercises of the will about which it would be fitting to say, “Bees create their hives with patience.”
351. When I speak of patience it is necessary to understand it as a fundamental part of daily life.
523. For experiments with psychic energy a patient and steady process of accumulation is needed. It is harmful to send out energy without co-measurement, for impulsiveness can undermine the quality of the accumulations.
67. It is time to gather into the chalice of patience all the designs and to remember that each fluctuation of climate and atmospheric pressure also exerts its deep influence upon the psychic laws.
30. Why do so many experiments remain without result? First of all, on account of impatience and the lack of desire to assume responsibility... Exercising patience, it is useful to acquire a conception of beginning. For some, everything is definitely an end, but for Our pupils everything is a beginning.
178. The knowledge of respect even to the smallest will help one also to acquire patience. What patience is needed when facing Infinity, especially when we know its inevitability. And we know how each complaint impedes the path. One must replace the burden of non-respect for the smallest with the joy of observation of the multiformity of creations. In simplest words, thus can we help each other.
179. Who, then, will help in the days of Battle? The one who, after patience, accepted the armor of courage.
186. Foolish people assume that the training of the heart and consciousness can be hastened at will, but these apparatuses must be adapted very wisely and patiently when we cognize Infinity.
212. Patience is the gift of heaven — thus spoke the ancients. Why should patience belong to heaven when in reality it should belong exclusively to the heart? Yet how shall we exert patience without knowing the Higher World? Only when the silver thread will be drawn from the heart to the Higher World, will the understanding of patience come. We revere that quality; it is close to tolerance and containment, in other words, to the opening of the Gates. If something is not close to us, but it opens the heart of a neighbor, would we not tolerate it only to kindle someone’s heart? Would we prefer to satisfy our own pleasure and embitter the heart of a neighbor? Moreover, would it not be a beautiful test to keenly observe exactly what will open the heart to Good?... The trial by patience is one of the highest tests.
239. If a mother does not listen patiently to the first wishes of her baby, she is not a mother. If the Teacher does not show patience to the first steps of a disciple, he is not a Teacher. If the Teacher does not understand the path of a disciple he is not a Teacher. If a Teacher does not lay his hand upon the eyes of his disciple, he is the one who commits him to blindness. Thus let us guard the path of the heart. Each oppression is foreign to the Teacher’s heart. He observes the disciple’s experiment and only will gently take away his hand if it touches fire. Patience is the gem of the Crown. It testifies to the approach to Infinity.
478. The character of people is known to Us. Therefore We place Our confidence in the force of patience. Asserting courage, We will not forget patience. It is a solace to know that patience overcomes any irritation. In the intensity of patience a special substance is created which, like a powerful antidote, neutralizes even imperil. But, of course, patience is not a lack of feeling. During criminal indifference, benevolent reactions are not evident. Patience is a conscious tension and an opposition to darkness.
479. Yet patience is the source of BLISS. Nothing so tests the heart as conscious patience. You know the essence of that which now occurs. Can you resist the tensity of the spheres without the experience of patience acquired through many ages?
568. Tolerance and patience are also the path of the Bodhisattva. This path is not in the clouds but on Earth.
581. With sufficient accumulations one can attain the state of highest consciousness instantaneously. But in the midst of work let us not look for the highest measures. The human spirit advances slowly—let us remember this. Hence, patience alone is not sufficient, let us apply joyous patience. Let us even consider that each instantaneous illumination is not applicable, and in this way we will become convinced of the need for timeless labor in the education of the heart.
326. In the simplest handiwork, and in music, one can have most instructive experiences. Sometimes one finger alone is not firmly applied at the correct place and thus the full tone is lost; but even then such a misapplication does not at all mean that the fault is irreparable. Some centers harmonize quickly, but others, for many reasons, require far more protracted cooperation. Patience, that great constituent of success, will be tested in such adoptions of the centers. Often, precisely the slower adaptations serve for the good; they not only combine the centers, but, as it were, they unite energy to the future. Thus patience is an adornment of the heart. Each one who is inexperienced in patience will not know how to adapt himself to the Fiery World.
407. One should break away from personal expressions as from harmful habits. A feeling which has been tempered in the fire of Hierarchy will not become distorted. Thus learn how to balance feelings on the truest scales. Much patience is needed in order to be able, without losing the feeling and the heart, to check upon their quality on the scale of Hierarchy.
437. The chief factor of success lies in internal, invisible circumstances. One must apply great patience, and exclude any irritation or wavering... The principle element is patience.
244. Without a realization of patience it is impossible to reflect on Infinity. The dimensions of the tasks of the Higher World require tests of patience.
341. The paths of communication know no barriers; so, too, the paths of knowledge must blossom in the exchange of ideas... The path of those who know how to investigate freely will be the path of the future. Actually, the battle with ignorance is as indeferrable as that with dissolution and corruption. Not easy is the battle with dark ignorance; it has many allies; it is sheltered in many countries; and is covered with different garments. One needs to be supplied with both courage and patience, for the battle with ignorance is a battle with chaos.
344. Patience is a conscious systematic understanding of what is taking place. Patience needs to be cultivated as a promoter of advancement. It is absurd to represent patience as an inner atrophy, on the contrary, the process of patience is intensity. Thus energy takes part in events, contributing to them and not making erroneous premises in advance.
Thus one should accustom students to patience in its true meaning.
345. People attempt to understand the path of patience as an undergoing of adversities. But such an understanding will be inadequate, because it debases the meaning of energy. The man who knows that it is wiser for him to apply his strength not today but tomorrow will only be one who discriminates the useful path. He is not a sufferer, but one who understands utility. Therefore, it is so important to clarify the meaning of many appellations.
361. One has to understand patience in order to return to the same subject from another angle.
382. Learn to observe patiently what conditions are most favorable for experimentation. There may be cosmic conditions which will favor experiments either with color radiations, or with minerals, or animals.
56. Patience, patience, patience — let this not be an empty sound, let it protect one on all paths. When it seems that all forces have been exhausted, such an illusion is most dangerous. The forces are inexhaustible, but people themselves try to cut short their flow.
Also, the path to Brotherhood requires much patience. The same power of thought must be applied in order to draw close to the consciousness of the Three Worlds.
119. It may be noticed that patience is developed to the extreme in certain people while others are totally lacking in this quality. What is the reason for this? Such a basic quality cannot be a matter of chance. Know that the possessor of patience has built it up in many lives. A patient man is a worker of vast experience. Only in great labors does a man cognize the worthlessness of irritation. Before the Great Image he perceives the complete insignificance of transitory manifestations. Without many testings it is impossible to appraise and distinguish the qualities of manifestations in life. One should not assume that patience is a distinction conferred wihout reason; on the contrary, it belongs to the qualities that have been earned with special difficulty, both in the earthly and in the subtle sojourn. Hence, the patient man is rich in experience while the impatient one is a novice in life. Thus let us remember, for the Path.
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by H. P. Blavatsky
Fragment III
“UPADYA,* the choice is made, I thirst for Wisdom. Now hast thou rent the veil before the secret Path and taught the greater Yana.** Thy servant here is ready for thy guidance.”
‘Tis well, Sravaka.*** Prepare thyself, for thou wilt have to travel on alone. The Teacher can but point the way. The Path is one for all, the means to reach the goal must vary with the Pilgrims.
Which wilt thou choose, O thou of dauntless heart? The Samtan**** of “eye Doctrine”, four-fold Dhyana, or thread thy way through Paramitas*****, six in number, noble gates of virtue leading to Bodhi and to Prajna, seventh step of Wisdom?
The rugged Path of four-fold Dhyana winds on uphill. Thrice great is he who climbs the lofty top.
The Paramita heights are crossed by a still steeper path. Thou hast to fight thy way through portals seven, seven strongholds held by cruel crafty Powers — passions incarnate.
Be of good cheer, Disciple; bear in mind the golden rule. Once thou hast passed the gate Srotapatti******, “he who the stream hath entered”; once thy foot hath pressed the bed of the Nirvanic stream in this or any future life, thou hast but seven other births before thee, O thou of adamantine Will.
Look on. What see’st thou before thine eyes, O aspirant to Godlike Wisdom?...
“I see the PATH; its foot in mire, its summit lost in glorious light Nirvanic. And now I see the ever narrowing Portals on the hard and thorny way to Gnyana.” *******
Thou seest well, Lanoo. These portals lead the aspirant across the waters on “to the other shore.”******** Each Portal hath a golden key that openeth its gate; and these keys are:
1. DANA, the key of charity and love immortal.
2. SHILA, the key of Harmony in word and act, the key that counterbalances the cause and the effect, and leaves no further room for Karmic action.
3. KSHANTI, patience sweet, that naught can ruffle.
4. VIRAG’, indifference to pleasure and to pain, illusion conquered, truth alone perceived.
5. VIRYA, the dauntless energy that fights its way to the supernal TRUTH, out of the mire of lies terrestrial.
6. DHYANA, whose golden gate once opened leads the Narjol (A Saint, an Adept) toward the realm of Sat eternal and its ceaseless contemplation.
7. PRAJNA, the key to which makes of a man a God, creating him a Bodhisattva, son of the Dhyanis.
Such to the Portals are the golden keys.
Before thou canst approach the last, O weaver of thy freedom, thou hast to master these Paramitas of perfection — the virtues transcendental six and ten in number — along the weary PATH...
Armed with the key of Charity, of love and tender mercy, thou art secure before the gate of Dana, the gate that standeth at the entrance of the PATH...
Fear, O Disciple, kills the will and stays all action. If lacking in the Shila virtue — the pilgrim trips, and karmic pebbles bruise his feet along the rocky path.
Be of sure foot, O candidate. In Kshanti’s (patience) essence bathe thy Soul; for now thou dost approach the portal of that name, the gate of fortitude and patience...
The more thou dost advance, the more thy feet pitfalls will meet. The path that leadeth on, is lighted by one fire — the light of daring, burning in the heart. The more one dares, the more he shall obtain. The more he fears, the more that light shall pale — and that alone can guide. For as the lingering sunbeam that on the top of some tall mountain shines, is followed by black night when out it fades, so is heart-light. When out it goes, a dark and threatening shade will fall from thine own heart upon the Path, and root thy feet in terror to the spot...
But once thou hast passed the gate of Kshanti step the third is taken. Thy body is thy slave. Now, for the fourth prepare, the Portal of temptations which do ensnare the inner man.
Ere thou canst near that goal, before thine hand is lifted to upraise the fourth gate’s latch, thou must have mastered all the mental changes in thy Self, and slain the army of the thought sensations that, subtle and insidious, creep unasked within the Soul’s bright shrine...
For, on Path fourth, the lightest breeze of passion or desire will stir the steady light upon the pure white walls of Soul. The smallest wave of longing or regret for Maya’s gifts illusive, along Antaskarana — the path that lies between thy Spirit and thy self, the highway of sensations, the rude arousers of Ahankara (the feeling of one’s personality) — a thought as fleeting as the lightening flash will make thee thy three prizes forfeit — the prizes thou hast won.
For know, that the ETERNAL knows no change.
* Upadya — a spiritual preceptor, a Guru.
** Yana — vehicle.
*** Sravaka — a listener, or student who attends to the religious instructions.
**** Samtan (Tibetan), the same as the Sanskrit “Dhyana”, or the state of meditation, of which
***** Paramitas, the six transcendental virtues; for the priests there are ten.
****** Srotapatti — (lit.) “he who has entered the stream” that leads to the Nirvanic ocean. This name indicates the first Path...
******* Gnyana—Knowledge, Wisdom.
******** “Arrival at the shore” is with the Northern Buddhists synonymous with reaching Nirvana through the exercise of the six and the ten Paramitas (virtues).