The mind hates waiting. Especially when it enters its existence unexpectedly and suddenly.
He is helplessly condemned to do nothing by external influences. His plans do not work out. The chain of cause and effect has taken on a life of its own and forces him to realize that he is so dependent on everything else despite all his ego perseverance and individualization. Unwillingly he realizes that his God-likeness is nevertheless so fragile and so quickly reaches the limits of its power. When fate or chance or simply an appointment that comes too late will it: Then he must wait. And he is discontented because he can do nothing.
Then the time has come to say goodbye to one’s plans – at least for the time of waiting – and to lose the thought of what is to come. To lose the (waiting) time. Maybe to look at the ground. And there, for the first time, to consciously perceive the pattern of lines on the sidewalk slabs. To see only this. To immerse oneself in it. To recognize that it is there, even if my busy schedule otherwise deprives me of any attention to it. To lift my head. To look around slowly. „What else is there in this world that I never really see? What else is there that I can let enter my heart in this time of silence and non-action? My material action has been given a forced pause. What does the street tree next to me tell me on a non-material level? Quiet contemplation. Contemplation. And then all at once! All at once the waiting time is over! Further it is to go in the fast step toward the planned goal! – And possibly the mind would wish now to be able to extend the waiting time nevertheless still a little. To be allowed to remain still a little in this oasis. The oasis, which is so near and does not seem to exist nevertheless in its daily perception. A mirage that only seems to become real in the waiting time. – In the waiting time. The only time in which the mind must rest with its activities. And that only because he is forced to it. But it must not linger! He must go on, because all go on. Its rhythm is the rhythm of the driven ones, which drift in the unison senselessly through their life…
The waiting time never comes planned. When it surprises us, we should take advantage of these rare opportunities.
– – I wrote this text some time ago. Now I would like to add something: One of the last gaps outside of his sphere of influence has been closed by the mind. The waiting time which was once so unplanned and so frighteningly out of his control: It doesn’t exist any more. The mind spreads over the worldwide radio network. It is always and everywhere present in the wireless Internet. Whose ego feels threatened by the danger of waiting and the loss of the ability to act simply reaches for his smartphone. Then the mind is active again. It wipes and scurries and types opinions, generated from opinions, generated by opinions, based on opinions of countless egos who want only one thing, namely to act, act, act at any price and who fear nothing more than the void in which they might once come to their senses. – The waiting time at the bus, at the cash desk, in the traffic jam, at the train station, in the café, at the counter, it has almost been eradicated in our society. An endangered species that would be so fruitful and healing for man, if only he could rediscover it for himself.