Hierarchy (1931) - 362: 362. People are often more perturbed by thunder than by lightning. Likewise with events - people are more troubled by the reverberation than by the essence. One could say that there is no need to be terrified by thunder if the lightning has not struck! Only a novice fears the thunder of cannons and does not hear the flight of a bullet. Psychic energy reacts to the lightning. It can be seen how the natural capacities of the organism protect one from perilous conflagration. Thus psychic energy sometimes induces artificial swellings in order to divert a dangerous conflagration from an adjacent center. It is a very rare manifestation when, under one's eyes, the Yogi's extremities swell and the tissues as quickly contract to their former size. You witnessed such a manifestation when the center of the larynx was threatened by conflagration. In spite of the danger the psychic energy speedily mastered the fire. Brotherhood (1937) - 119: 119. It may be noticed that patience is developed to the extreme in certain people while others are totally lacking in this quality. What is the reason for this? Such a basic quality cannot be a matter of chance. Know that the possessor of patience has built it up in many lives. A patient man is a worker of vast experience. Only in great labors does a man cognize the worthlessness of irritation. Before the Great Image he perceives the complete insignificance of transitory manifestations. Without many testings it is impossible to appraise and distinguish the qualities of manifestations in life. One should not assume that patience is a distinction conferred without reason; on the contrary, it belongs to the qualities that have been earned with special difficulty, both in the earthly and in the subtle sojourn. Hence, the patient man is rich in experience while the impatient one is a novice in life. Thus let us remember, for the Path.
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