Soul Sustenance

The Power To Tolerate Think of a tree, its branches laden with fruit. When a child throws a stone at it, it bends its branches low and offers its sweet fruit to the child. The child eats the fruit, becomes satisfied and learns to value the tree. This beautiful image of the power of tolerance contains several lessons. It shows me that if I am to achieve the same, I must become laden with the fruit of attainments from the Supreme Soul. When I am filled with fruits like joy, love, wisdom, beauty and peace, even when the stones of difficult circumstances come my way I'll still be able to respond creatively, with strength. If I'm empty, the stones will injure me, and I'll react with anger or fear. I must also remove any dryness or hardness in my heart, which may have developed as a result of injuries experienced in the past, when I did not have the Supreme Soul with me. These will prevent me from bearing and sharing, the unlimited fruit made possible by the company of the Supreme. Real tolerance does not just mean putting up with a difficult situation, and still counting how many times I have had to endure it. Tolerance means that no matter what stones come my way, I recognize that those throwing them are empty, and so I continue to share good things with them. (To be continued tomorrow …..)