A PATIENT MAN NEVER WAITS
A PATIENT MAN NEVER WAITS
Driving around town picking up groceries and supplies, a small series of interruptions occurred. The first was a forgotten item that I had to go back into the store to purchase. Just as I pressed the unlock button on the van key fob, I took one last look at my shopping list and realized my missing items. Back into the store, select the items, get to checkout and pay again.
Then on to another store for curbside pickup. After loading the van, I had to go in-store to buy some items for a friend. Got to self-checkout in record time, hopped back in the van and proceeded to my next stop.
At the next store, I realized that at the previous store I had paid with the company credit card instead of my own. Was not a huge amount of money, and the company could well afford the amount, absorb the few dollars and probably tell me to be more attentive next time. Back to the store to customer service. Initiate a return, then pay again using my credit card.
Fuel. Had to put gasoline into the vehicle. The gas station was not that busy but one of the pumps was not in service so a line was forming. At the pumps in front of me were two older slower gentlemen. After what seemed like an eternity, finally I was able to pull up to the pump and fill the van.
At the traffic light the green light appeared and off we go! Except that the driver in front of me was a little slower to move. Yet another seeming interruption to the rhythm of the day. Finally on the move, driving a couple miles per hour a little too fast. I drove to the intersection a little too fast, because at that moment the traffic lights turned red. I was already in the middle of the intersection during a red light. Stopping would have been more risky than gunning the engine and shooting through, which I did. At that moment, the realization of my inattentiveness struck, and my heart raced somewhat faster than usual. Then all at once, seemingly unbidden, without work I’s or a sequence of work I’s, the ‘simple separate person’ that Walt Whitman describes appeared. Higher centers were present.
As the state receded, the experiences of the day up to that point, projected themselves via my memories. At each interruption the moving and instinctive centers suffered the lack of movement, a seeming lack of progress. At each interruption the steward reigned in expressions of irritation having to wait while the cashier rang up a forgotten purchase, smiled at the customer service cashier while waiting for a credit card refund, waited patiently for the two gentlemen at the gas pumps and checked the impatient foot from the accelerator to the brake.
There is no waiting in higher centers. There is no patience in higher centers. There is no movement nor rest in higher centers. Higher centers are simply aware. Presence has no preference nor denial. Presence is aware of itself, imbuing its experience with consciousness and receiving consciousness in return. Patience belongs to the steward. Presence belongs to itself.
Allegory of Patience, Carlo Orsi, c. 1677 Private Collection
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