I’ve spent weeks contemplating this observation from Franz Kafka:

“All human errors are impatience, a premature breaking off of methodical procedure, an apparent fencing-in of what is apparently at issue.”–Franz Kafka

Is that so? W.H. Auden came to fundamentally the same conclusion, with a mythic flourish:

“Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.”

This conclusion so surprised me I had to examine it in light of my experience. It has helped me not only to see what is going on but also what will help and how important it is. I reached the limit of my patience for this study of impatience and no doubt will return to it again.

I first gave it consideration when I heard it quoted by Marshall Vian Summers, who is the morst careful man on Earth about what he communicates, unable to make the error of inattention made by Hillary Clinton because he is so very aware of the power of his legacy that affords no error.

Mr. Summers has provided a new context for evaluating all things in their proper perspective. The Greater Community Way of Knowledge is a method for discerning the core reality in any situation. That insight into the truth of the matter is called Knowledge. The Way of Knowledge shows that impatience is the simple inability to wait for the certainty that is Knowledge. It is an indicator of a relationship that is insecure and it is the most basic, the relationship with life itself, with one’s own self and with one’s ground of being. 

“Impatience means you are trying to operate without Knowledge. Impatience means you do not trust life or yourself and are rushing ahead to secure a position for yourself.” (from Relationships & Higher Purpose, Chapter 14: Completing Relationships)

This is what Auden saw, what he expressed in the language of the Way he followed in the Christian church. To exhibit impatience is to act on impulse, to be overly reactive and at heart, fearful of survival. Impatience shows little trust or confidence in anything beyond the needs of the moment. 

“Everyone seems to have difficulty learning patience.

This is because people are living without Knowledge.

They are trying to establish their goals in life without Knowledge.

They are trying to establish their primary relationships without Knowledge.

They are even trying to be at peace without Knowledge.

Thus they are at the mercy of the machinations and the conflicts of the mind.

And they are at the mercy of the conflicting forces that exist within the mental environment and the physical environment.

Thus things seem continually unstable and out of harmony.

Great effort is exerted in building things that can fall apart in a moment, things that have no stability or permanence.” (from Step # 3 of Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training)

It is paradoxical that in the developed world, there is a great deal of leisure but so much of it is invested in distraction. Distractibility has become a pathology, and the marketplace offers a quick fix, at a price. The Way of Knowledge found at www.newmessage.org offers an alternative to being blown about by every whim, notion and object crossing our path, through development of a foundation in life that can sustain a contribution of a higher order. Those who yearn for this, on finding the New Message from God, might mistake it for another easy fix. In fact, it will require a thorough evaluation of all the influences and attractions that have gone into shaping the life we live.

“Everyone wants tremendous results with a minimal investment. Everyone wants a bargain from life where they have to give very little and get a great deal. Everyone wants to be comfortable and yet have all the rewards of an inspired life. Learn patience. You do not yet know what has to be unlearned and what has to be learned. You do not yet know how great the mountain is because when you are on the mountain, you can rarely see the summit. In fact, when you are on the mountain, you do not even know what it looks like as a whole. You just keep climbing. You keep going. You follow Knowledge.” (from What must be avoided?)

“Your task is to follow the emergence of Knowledge within yourself, to be true to that, to be the recipient, to pull yourself in, to take the time it takes for a great emergence to happen within you. And do not be impatient, for it will emerge in its own time.”  Building a Bridge to a New Life (February 25, 2008)

There are two kinds of impatience: aggressive impatience that is grasping, and passive impatience that gives up in the face of the tedium of careful methodology. Both waste time. 

“It is only when people are ambitious and impatient, when they seek to have the great rewards now instead of later, that they get into serious trouble.”  (from  Living The Way of Knowledge, Chapter 10: Being Present in the World)

“Take the slow and careful path of learning. Many have failed [and] many will fail…. They will fail because of their impatience. They will fail because of their ambitions. They will fail because of their unwillingness to learn the essential lessons and to integrate themselves correctly and appropriately according to their nature and to the greater truth which they are attempting to realize and to express.” (from  Greater Community Spirituality, Chapter 7: How is wisdom achieved in life?)

What becomes available through studying the Greater Community Way of Knowledge step by step, day by day, is commitment to the calling that is your very own and the freedom to devote your entire being to it. It is unique to you and no one else can define it for you except by joining with you in it. It is contagious! Because if true, it is supported by the forces for good that have been guiding us all along.