Waiting in Emptiness
The soul that lives and breathes within each human being does not need to wait for anything. It is already complete. It is already where it wants to be. It is the conscious self, the embodied self, that goes through this passage in order to be reunited with its wholeness, its Divine knowledge.
There is a spiritual passage that many face with different degrees of intensity that has to do with a time in which the future is entirely obscure and there is nothing to direct movement toward, and the past has receded, no longer holding the reality or engagement that it once had. This passage which I am calling ‘waiting in emptiness’ comes to the soul that pursues the All with a degree of fervor and commitment that requires the giving up of all past identities so that union with the All can take place. Such union, to whatever degree is possible based on the readiness of the embodied soul, is the goal of ‘waiting in emptiness.’ One surrenders everything in order to be filled by that which is Everything.
The discomfort of this time is very great for some who cling to outcomes, while for others it is as natural as breathing. One must be capable of resting in the unknown and of trusting the helplessness that is intrinsic to the experience. Only the beating of the heart in its determination to trust and to have hope in the unseen can guide the way. Because of its difficulty, many who seek to remain with this passage fall back to ways of control and of active pursuit of goals when the helplessness of waiting becomes more than they can bear. To live through such a time, one must view helplessness without fear, without mistrust, but as a giving over of control to the Divine One who is the source of the waiting, as well as its goal.
The discomfort of this time is very great for some who cling to outcomes, while for others it is as natural as breathing. One must be capable of resting in the unknown and of trusting the helplessness that is intrinsic to the experience.
The soul that lives and breathes within each human being does not need to wait for anything. It is already complete. It is already where it wants to be. There is no fulfillment that is missing. It is the conscious self, the embodied self, that goes through this passage in order to be reunited with its wholeness, its Divine knowledge. The conscious self which has claimed ownership of its life now recognizes that its life is not really its own, and that no meaning of great importance can be given to this life except through action of the Divine and the meaning that the Divine brings to it. Such a loss of meaning of what one has placed value on in the past is part of the experience of waiting, and one bears this loss with the knowledge held with different degrees of faith, that it is the surrender of the past itself that allows the passage to move forward to completion.
This darkened passage into the unknown has been written about by those saints and mystics who could settle for nothing less than becoming one with the All, for it has been known since the beginning that a way would always exist for each embodied being to return to their spiritual home. For those for whom the desire for that ‘home’ has become an unquenchable thirst, a passion that supersedes all others, the experience of ‘waiting in emptiness’ will be magnetized to them without the conscious mind knowing how or why this is happening. For it is not the mind that directs the waiting experience. It is the will and the desire for wholeness that is the human aspect of that which is essentially a Divine mystery. It is this mystery of Divine union that is achieved by ‘waiting in emptiness,’ and one who enters this passage must have gained the strength to hold fast to the light that is invisible at the end of the tunnel in order to endure the hardship that it causes for all of one’s former habits. One waits in the unknown, for an unknown period of time, for the unknown to reveal itself. What is the greatest challenge for the ego becomes the gift of the soul.