PDU said:

discipline and understanding.

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Very clear, precise, and complete answer.


Peace.

CerebralFlower said:

What helps one gain patience?

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Quote:

I once asked the Bishop of Geneva what one must do to attain perfection. "You must love God with all your heart," he answered, "and your neighbor as yourself."

"I did not ask wherein perfection lies," I rejoined, "but how to attain it." "Charity," he said again, "that is both the means and the end, the only way by which we can reach that perfection which is, after all, but Charity itself . . . .Just as the soul is the life of the body, so charity is the life of the soul."

"I know all that," I said. "But I want to know how one is to love God with all one's heart and one's neighbor as oneself."

But again he answered, "We must love God with all our hearts, and our neighbor as ourselves."

"I am no further than I was," I replied. "Tell me how to acquire such love."

"The best way, the shortest and easiest way of loving God with all one's heart is to love God wholly and heartily!"

He would give no other answer. At last, however, the Bishop said, "There are many besides you who want me to tell them the methods and systems and secret ways of becoming perfect, and I can only tell them that the sole secret is a hearty love of God, and the only way of attaining that love is by loving. You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves. If you want to love God, go on loving God more and more. Begin as a mere apprentice, and the very power of love will lead you on to become a master in the art. Those who have made most progress will continually press on, never believing themselves to have reached their end; for charity should go on increasing until we draw our last breath."

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fireworks_god said:

The question is how does one begin to practice patience.

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One cannot practice patience without first knowing what patience is and how to practice it.

Thus, what realizations are necessary to begin practicing patience, and what is required to then practice patience?

This is what is being asked. Discipline and understanding sums it up, but further elaboration may be necessary.


Peace.