Patience
The Virtue to Bear Evil with an Equal Mind
What is Patience?
When we face evil and experience sorrow or frustration, it is by the virtue of patience that we can bear these evils without letting our reason and reason-informed actions be disturbed by those evils. We can think of patience in the usual situations of life, where we face something annoying or frustrating, but patience applies also to situations that cause us sorrow and discourage us, such as when we suffer many evils in our pursuit of a worthwhile career. Patience aids us in persevering, and as such is considered part of Fortitude/Courage.
How do we develop Patience?
We develop Patience similarly to Fortitude: through the practice of Reflection, where we reflect on previous incidents where we were impatient, we can identify where we are impatient and resolve to prepare ourselves to bear those evils better next time—such as through thinking of what goal you have in mind and to refer to that hope when facing difficulties.