| The capacity to wait, despite its very | | | | we can accept the postponement of what our |
| ordinariness, can be a profound spiritual tool with | | | | human embodied self would wish to have happen, |
| which to dismantle the needs and pressures of | | | | and allow our smaller self to rest in the embrace |
| both our ego and will. Important in this is the kind | | | | of the larger. Waiting allows us to practice |
| of waiting that takes place, for there are many | | | | devotion in any area of life. It creates a |
| kinds, and not all of them are capable of releasing | | | | transformational path through surrender. This path |
| the ego in a way that is beneficial to spiritual | | | | is not easy to follow, for the history of the ego |
| growth. | | | | being in charge has been a long one, and any |
| The kind of waiting that is transformative is | | | | efforts to move in a different direction is likely to |
| based on the capacity for surrendering our desire | | | | arouse complaint. No, this is the narrow gate by |
| to have things be the way our smaller self wants | | | | which those who choose to will pass, not through |
| them to be, if they are not in alignment with what | | | | the mastery of external life-circumstances, but |
| God and our higher Self wishes. This kind of | | | | through mastery of the self alone. |
| surrender that overrules one's personal interests | | | | The rewards of this narrow way can be |
| is the opposite of what is currently popular as a | | | | described in one essential word - Love. Along this |
| path of spiritual development today, namely, a | | | | way there becomes only one Thinker and one |
| path based on the principle that we create our life | | | | Intender, and that Thinker is the One who is the |
| through our thoughts and intentions. | | | | Source of all of life. This relationship, whose |
| The question here is: Who is it that we wish to | | | | means is surrender, is founded in Love. It is a |
| create our lives - our familiar self that is conscious | | | | relationship that can begin at any time, at any |
| of having needs, wishes, and desires, or God's self | | | | place, and in any circumstance. It's basic prayer is: |
| that is individualized within our higher being but | | | | "Show me the way. Lead me and guide me in |
| that is not the same as our conscious mind-self? | | | | Thy light." This prayer does not disempower the |
| The place where intention comes from defines | | | | self as some feel in relation to the word |
| the difference between a life built on a certain | | | | 'surrender'. It redefines who the self is, and seeks |
| kind of mastery - one that uses thought to | | | | to unite the lower self with the higher. This is |
| create desired effects in life - and a life in which | | | | what makes the practice of waiting |
| the power of thought is turned over to God so | | | | transformative. |
| that God's thoughts may direct our life and not | | | | Such a practice does not have to apply to every |
| our own. This distinction is profound, yet in one | | | | area of life, but it can. And it does not have to be |
| way not as substantial as it might appear, for the | | | | pursued deliberately, for there are many |
| factor of the creative power of thought remains | | | | circumstances in life that find us in the normal |
| the same. Only the source of intention that is the | | | | course of events, making it unnecessary for us |
| creative force differs. In the second case, it is the | | | | to go looking for them. What the sacred practice |
| individualized aspect of Spirit that dwells within | | | | of waiting involves is a willingness to use these |
| each of us that is what we surrender to. This | | | | circumstances of life as steps along a spiritual |
| individualized Spirit, by whatever name it is called, | | | | path. Such a path has been carved out by many |
| involves the knowledge of oneness with the | | | | holy men and women of the past and it remains |
| Divine and it belongs to every child of God. From | | | | equally valid today as a path of ascendance. It is |
| this place of holiness, and to the extent that this | | | | a matter of having the courage to embrace what |
| place of holiness is approached, the 'I' that creates | | | | is difficult, and to know that in the embracing, one |
| is no longer an 'I' that is separate. It is an 'I' that | | | | is not sacrificing one's real self. One is releasing the |
| exists only as part of the greater Whole that is | | | | aspects of self that are less real in favor of those |
| God. | | | | that are more real, in keeping with the lines of the |
| Waiting, therefore, when life-circumstances require | | | | poem that say: |
| it, asks of us to make a choice with respect to | | | | Lord, lead me from the less real to the more real, |
| which 'I' we wish to direct our lives. We can be | | | | From the finite to the infinite, |
| impatient. We can feel that life is treating us | | | | From death to immortality. |
| unfairly. We can feel optimistic or pessimistic. Or | | | | |