One of the most important virtues that we can cultivate on the Path, is patience. There are many other important virtues that are indispensable, such as honesty, chastity, love, compassion, will etc., but in order to acquire those, we need to have patience. Therefore, with patience we can climb the ladder of the Being, and eventually reach the Human Soul – the first of the parts of our inner Being that we incarnate on the path to liberation.

“With patience you will gain your soul.” – Luke 21:19

To build up patience is a process in itself. Many people already have it somewhat developed from previous existences, however if it is not there it would have to be developed, and this is achieved by doing the inner work. Though practices of self-remembrance and self-observation we can reach the state of detachment from ‘ourselves’, from our egoic nature that does not like patience; not unless it is in its selfish interest. Further ahead, with practices of the dissolution of the egos we purify our psychological centers and liberate our consciousness from our defects, allowing for our true nature, our consciousness, to expand. This then helps us to be more grounded in it and thereby in its divine qualities such as peace, compassion, love. By so doing we nurture the emerging virtue of patience, that grows parallel with our increasing consciousness. And with the transmutation of sexual energies we have a powerful force at our disposal that is furthering up this whole process of the inner death and the inner birth.

To have patience means to be at peace with the inner work. First there needs to be an understanding of what the inner work and the path is for; in the beginning we understand this on the intellectual level, and often time also we may feel that there is something to it – that there is something to the inner Being and our gradual mergence with it that happens on the path. Having that understanding, we do the inner work, and if we do it properly, we would see that things would start to unravel and that our life would become much more interesting, but also intense. This unraveling of things within us and of the path (both probationary path and the path proper) is what gives us ability to hold on to the inner work and its requirements, so not to get pulled back into the ‘river of life’. By holding on to that experiences (both internal and external), we build up conscious faith, because we begin to know that there is something real and substantial to the path. This helps us go further, until we eventually and gradually develop patience. Thus, patience in the inner work is not a stand alone quality, but rather a quality that co-operates with other qualities, such as faith, chastity, strength, love etc., in the effort of the Being to dissolve the animal nature and to graduate from the School of Duality.

It is important to understand that the inner work is not something that is done for one or two years and then it is over; like this nothing concrete is gained. Rather, the inner work is a lifetime thing, because the path cannot be completed in a few years; and even if in some rare scenarios it could be completed, the person would still have to maintain their inner state, as long as they have the physical body in the physical dimension. But normally, it takes a while until we start reaching milestones of the path, such as the incarnation of the Human Soul, of the Divine Soul, of the Spirit, of Christ, and so on. This can take a while, lifetime even, which is why it is important to be content with the inner work being the most important aspect of ones own life, in which daily life is lived from the inner state that supports the inner work, and activities of our free time are used as fuel for the essence.

We need to have patience to reach our Being and its many qualities. There is no other way but to do the inner work in the best way we can, and to be patient.The passing of time for us is not the same as the passing of time for our Being – we look at it from the perspective of our life, and he looks at it from the perspective of eternity and his many lifetimes. Nevertheless, in one lifetime a lot can be achieved, as long as we dedicate ourselves to the path and live our life in co-operation with the Being.

HDP, July 2020.