ARE YOU A HABITUAL "WAITER?"

How much of your life do you spend waiting? There are two kinds of waiting. ‘Small-scale waiting’ is waiting in line at the post office, in a traffic jam, at a ticket counter, waiting for someone to arrive, to finish work, and so on. ‘Large-scale waiting’ is waiting for the next vacation, for a better job, for the children to grow up, for a truly meaningful relationship, for success, to make money, to be important, to become enlightened. It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.

Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don’t want the present. You don’t want what you have got, and you want what you haven’t got. With every kind of waiting you unconsciously create inner conflict between you’re here and now, where you don’t want to be, and the projected future, where you want to be. This greatly reduces the quality of your life by making you lose the present.

 For example, many people are waiting for prosperity. It cannot come in the future. When you honor, acknowledge, and fully accept your present reality – where you are, who you are, what you are doing right now – when you fully accept what you have got, you are grateful for what is, grateful for Being. Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is true prosperity. It cannot come in the future. Then in time, that prosperity manifests for you in various way.

If you are dissatisfied with what you have got, or even frustrated or angry about your present look, that may motivate you to become rich, but even if you do make millions, you will continue to experience the inner condition of lack, and deep down you will continue to feel unfulfilled. You may have many exciting experiences that money can buy, but they will come and go and always leave you with an empty feeling and the need for further physical or psychological gratifications. You won’t abide in Being and so feel the fullness of life now that alone is true prosperity.                                      – Eckhart Tolle