Patience and Focus Win Every Time
Feb. 23rd, 2008 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabrinamariIn 2004 I stumbled on a meditation group in Princeton, NJ. At one of the first sessions I attended, I saw a videotape of a workshop by a woman I had never heard of. Her advice was some of the best I had ever heard for growing through pain and tumult; in my personal world, I contextualized it as a detailed guide for walking through the challenges of Neophyte and Second Degree.
As I went back each week for the next session, the guidance kept getting better and better, and more and more spot-on. At the end of 2004 my marriage ended, and these teachings were a core resource for me as I sought to walk through the chaos of The Tower with integrity and wisdom.
I told myself that I would find these tapes and buy them, and make them---or parts of them---available to myself and to any Blue Star people who wanted to work with me on personal growth (especially Neophytes, Second Degrees, and anyone facing The Tower).
The problem: these tapes were rare and hard to get. They were available only to members of the monastic order to which this woman belonged. I looked online, I asked around, but to no avail. "They are very expensive," a Buddhist nun told me, "and usually available only to Buddhist study groups",
I will get them, I thought to myself. Eventually, I will find them and I will get them and I will figure out how to use them to help myself and anyone who works with me in the future.
Every six or seven months, I scanned the net for them. No luck.
Today, I found them, They are still expensive. But they are now available on DVD. I found them through a "coincidental" series of links arising from my enrollment in Pema's Omega workshop. Or perhaps, they found me.
Interestingly:
They are a perfect incentive to get me started on my business(es). I have decided that if I earn the money to buy them from work outside of my daily job, I can acquire them. Regular pay, however, will continue to go towards necessities, building a larger emergency fund and retirement investing.
The lessons I take from this experience:
1. The primary tool for progress is patience and a refusal to give up. Just be careful that you are refusing to give up on the *right things*!
2. If you keep yourself aimed at a clear goal (I want to learn THIS THING....I want to be happy and fulfilled in THIS PARTICULAR WAY...and you stay aimed on your goal, but remain flexible about how you get there, you will get there.
As I went back each week for the next session, the guidance kept getting better and better, and more and more spot-on. At the end of 2004 my marriage ended, and these teachings were a core resource for me as I sought to walk through the chaos of The Tower with integrity and wisdom.
I told myself that I would find these tapes and buy them, and make them---or parts of them---available to myself and to any Blue Star people who wanted to work with me on personal growth (especially Neophytes, Second Degrees, and anyone facing The Tower).
The problem: these tapes were rare and hard to get. They were available only to members of the monastic order to which this woman belonged. I looked online, I asked around, but to no avail. "They are very expensive," a Buddhist nun told me, "and usually available only to Buddhist study groups",
I will get them, I thought to myself. Eventually, I will find them and I will get them and I will figure out how to use them to help myself and anyone who works with me in the future.
Every six or seven months, I scanned the net for them. No luck.
Today, I found them, They are still expensive. But they are now available on DVD. I found them through a "coincidental" series of links arising from my enrollment in Pema's Omega workshop. Or perhaps, they found me.
Interestingly:
They are a perfect incentive to get me started on my business(es). I have decided that if I earn the money to buy them from work outside of my daily job, I can acquire them. Regular pay, however, will continue to go towards necessities, building a larger emergency fund and retirement investing.
The lessons I take from this experience:
1. The primary tool for progress is patience and a refusal to give up. Just be careful that you are refusing to give up on the *right things*!
2. If you keep yourself aimed at a clear goal (I want to learn THIS THING....I want to be happy and fulfilled in THIS PARTICULAR WAY...and you stay aimed on your goal, but remain flexible about how you get there, you will get there.
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no subject
Date: 2008-02-23 04:43 pm (UTC)The internet is an amazingly potent tool for navigating paths to the right place at the right time. I think things come into our lives at the right time, even if it's not clear why this time is write.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-25 01:21 pm (UTC)