tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post5016071479779652709..comments2024-03-28T11:58:31.928+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Patience is a virtue - but why?Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-53695955522908622242013-11-30T05:36:50.175+00:002013-11-30T05:36:50.175+00:00@TDT - I am saying something different. I am sayin...@TDT - I am saying something different. I am saying that impatience is never a *virtue* (although impatience may, of course, sometimes lead to desirable consequences); but it is sometimes virtuous that patience is over-ridden by something more important in a particular situation - like love. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-54104016006138722502013-11-30T00:15:25.942+00:002013-11-30T00:15:25.942+00:00"Each virtue must be balanced with the others..."Each virtue must be balanced with the others..." Exactly.<br /><br />Were impatience not valuable, it could never balance patience.<br /><br />And it needs to. The costs of impatience are obvious and immediate, but the costs of patience can be quietly corrosive and cumulative.Titus Didius Tacitusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-86416065468987184652013-11-29T06:13:08.313+00:002013-11-29T06:13:08.313+00:00@TDT - No, that is the wrong conceptualization. Wh...@TDT - No, that is the wrong conceptualization. What you should be saying is that each virtue must be balanced with the others, and that any one pursued to excess and in isolation is a vice. So it is not right *always* to be patient. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-26051074998894575642013-11-29T02:37:19.941+00:002013-11-29T02:37:19.941+00:00Impatience is valuable. It is the enemy of "c...Impatience is valuable. It is the enemy of "cooling out the mark".Titus Didius Tacitusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-37338524976670490632013-11-26T19:00:03.690+00:002013-11-26T19:00:03.690+00:00@Adam G - Thanks. The insight came after reading t...@Adam G - Thanks. The insight came after reading the early chapters of 3 Nephi, and also reflecting on my own spiritual situation - in which I am sure that patience is needed (i.e. being asked for), rather than immediate assertive action. <br /><br />In general, I recognized a year ago that the need for patience is a recurrent theme in the Old Testament http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/living-patiently-prepared-for-old.html - and also in the BoM. <br /><br />But there is not much about patience in the New Testament - partly because he timescale of the 'action' is so compressed - thus evangelicals (who are NT-orientated) often display impatience (which is bad) as well as energy and urgency (which is good).Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-54005682338699205172013-11-26T15:41:49.042+00:002013-11-26T15:41:49.042+00:00As you are so fond of reminding us: Free Will.
So...As you are so fond of reminding us: Free Will. <br />Sounds noble, but most often ends up being manifested as crack-addict slavery to easy habit. <br />Also, I am sure, paradox, and the inability of most humans to become familiar with its workings. <br />The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04323413604073160469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-40575171564819997052013-11-26T15:08:27.588+00:002013-11-26T15:08:27.588+00:00Very good.
Patience is a recognition of love and ...Very good.<br /><br />Patience is a recognition of love and time. Love means that other people and beings matter--so you don't just eliminate them if they don't fit your plans, and time means that they can change, and you can change.<br /><br />Patience and hope are connected, which is how patience differs from resignation and despair.Adam G.http://www.jrganymede.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-23909286748292506012013-11-26T10:10:10.227+00:002013-11-26T10:10:10.227+00:00@Crow - "our own parents, our introductions t...@Crow - "our own parents, our introductions to religion, our educations, all conspire to convince us that there is more to it than simple acceptance."<br /><br />Yes indeed - but where does that come from? Why do they thus conspire - where or from whom comes the idea that there is 'more to it'?<br /><br />And why are we vulnerable to this silly misconception? <br /><br />Why don't we just ignore them - why are we 'built' such that we are so vulnerable to this misunderstanding. <br /><br />If the universe is 'perfect' why aren't we? Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-29614590562876231572013-11-26T09:00:36.060+00:002013-11-26T09:00:36.060+00:00Bruce: I observe that we are made that way, to see...Bruce: I observe that we <i>are</i> made that way, to see the adventure as the adventure it is, from the beginning. But if you think back, and recollect, you may agree that our own parents, our introductions to religion, our educations, all conspire to convince us that there is more to it than simple acceptance. <br />We come to not trust the obvious inference of intuition and experience, and depend, instead, upon the persuasion of others to interpret life for us. <br />Both you and I have spent many years trying to recover from that little sidetrack. <br /><br />What was that passage about the scales falling from the eyes? That's an apt description. The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04323413604073160469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-44074760461537295912013-11-26T08:47:17.021+00:002013-11-26T08:47:17.021+00:00@Crow
"People run into trouble trying to det...@Crow<br /><br />"People run into trouble trying to determine exactly what sort of value that is."<br /><br />But why do people do that. Why don't they just accept? Where does that error (of trying to determiine exact value) originate from?<br /><br />"Granted,living to the full is a big, big trick, but only until discovering that the trick is the realization that there isn't one."<br /><br />But why is any trick necessary? Why aren't we made such that we see that "life is its own reward" from the beginning? Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-18200155377737961242013-11-26T08:36:15.918+00:002013-11-26T08:36:15.918+00:00Bruce: patience, as life, is its own reward. Given...Bruce: patience, as life, is its own reward. Given this gift, does one waste it trying to establish what exactly it is, or does one take it at face value, and simply get on with living it? <br />There doesn't really have to be a 'point' to it. It <i>is</i>. It must have value. <br />People run into trouble trying to determine exactly what sort of value that is. <br />Granted,living to the full is a big, big trick, but only until discovering that the trick is the realization that there isn't one. <br />The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04323413604073160469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-87080760136457553242013-11-26T07:54:04.818+00:002013-11-26T07:54:04.818+00:00@MC - Thanks!@MC - Thanks!Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-9551506726876859232013-11-26T07:53:52.175+00:002013-11-26T07:53:52.175+00:00@Crow - If you believe that, then there is no reas...@Crow - If you believe that, then there is no reason for you to be patient. Your (psychological and philosophical) difficulty then is in explaining why, nonetheless, you seem to be having to wait for things - why things don't just become what they must be. In fact why aren't they already what they must be. In fact what's the point of all this mucking about, growing, decaying, happiness and suffering and death? If things really are just a single moment - why the illusion that they aren't? - what's the point of illusion? Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-68918905542497739332013-11-26T07:32:17.559+00:002013-11-26T07:32:17.559+00:00One of your best.One of your best.MCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-74923061472331014682013-11-26T07:25:47.524+00:002013-11-26T07:25:47.524+00:00Linear time is a quality of physical existence. It...Linear time is a quality of physical existence. It does not apply to the soul, or to pure consciousness. <br />Entropy is a quality of linear time. <br />Physical existence observes. <br />Non-physical existence does not. <br />The realm of God is a single moment: past, present, future, all at once. <br />This is eternity. <br />Known, to those who do not yet know, as Heaven. <br />The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04323413604073160469noreply@blogger.com