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The Two Me’s 257

I suggest that we often tend to confuse patience with ignorance. We
may look at the struggling peasant in the third world and think that he has
great patience. No, he doesn‟t. He only appears to have patience because
he does not know any better. It is only when he sees how things could be
that he needs to exercise patience. The average peasant‟s lack of patience
was shown by the success of communism in the emerging third world
during the twentieth century. When the ignorant peasant encountered the
baubles and trinkets of Western civilization, he saw for the first time how
much better his life could be. Because he lacked patience, he was deceived
by communism and revolution—it promised a shortcut to consumer
paradise. However, by destroying the Perceiver integrity of sowing and
reaping, private ownership, honesty, conscience, and individuality, the
revolutionary denied to himself the path of patience and plunged headlong
into the option of suffering. By rushing ahead with his physical body rather
than probing first with his mind, he had to grow up the hard way, and in
the process, often destroyed the very physical wealth for which he lusted.
The individual with patience is the one who sees how good things
could be and yet still acknowledges and accepts the way things are. He
sees the future, but chooses to live in the present, so that it can be turned
into the future. Patience means living next to a mansion and being satisfied
with my bungalow while doing the hard work that is necessary for me to
get my own mansion. Patience means going to church and worshipping the
mental image of a perfect „God,‟ while accepting that I am imperfect and
that I need to be changed step by step in order to match up to my internal
vision of perfection. Patience means seeing all the items which are
advertised in the media, and then enjoying what I have while saving up for
what I really want. Patience means electing a government which will stop

Path of Suffering Path of Patience

Feels

Good

Normal ‘blah’ me

Life

Feels bad me

Bad

TIME