Inner Work

For the week of November 14, 2005

Non-Waiting

In our outer life, we often must wait for something. Circumstances constrain us: a traffic jam, the slow grinding of a bureaucracy, an overabundance of people, or a schedule that cannot be accelerated like baking a loaf of bread. So we accept the wait and perhaps make the best of it by doing something useful or entertaining in the interim. Otherwise we wallow in boredom or frustration.

In our inner life, we also frequently wait, but not because we must. We wait for the right moment to practice presence, a free moment not taken by some busyness. Or, if something is off-kilter in our body, we wait until we feel better. Or, if we deem our immediate circumstances not to be conducive or propitious, we wait for a better time or place.

During the day, when we remember about our spiritual practice, we might think: “After I get off work, I’ll sense my body.” And during the commute we think: “After I get home, I’ll attend to my inner work.” Then instead of practicing kindness and acceptance toward our fellow commuters, we practice anger and frustration at those who get in our way. And during dinner we think: “After I finish eating and cleaning up, I can practice being here.” And after the cleanup we think: “I’m really tired, I’ll practice presence in the morning and right now I’ll just relax with TV and cookies.” Then in the morning we think: “I’m running late, I better hurry,” and we forget to be in contact with our tense body and give little or no time to prayer or meditation. And so it goes with us, as we wait for that perfect moment for our spiritual work.

Now perhaps all that is an exaggeration. I hope it is. But you can look at your own inner life and judge for yourself how much unnecessary waiting you place between you and your path.

Because it is now, every moment is the perfect and only moment for awakening our spirit, for creating our soul, for serving the higher. For this week, stop waiting.

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