We experience two distinct phases of the meditative experience within the tradition of Kriya Yoga and many other meditation practices. The first phase is typically more active, employing certain techniques and disciplines. The second phase tends to be more contemplative, or what the Bible describes in numerous verses as Waiting upon God. Waiting upon God implies our willingness to be patient and allow God’s presence to emerge in God’s perfect timing without any conditions on our part. Our job is to remain gently awake and alert. While it is good to be aware of our longing for God’s presence in meditation, we must avoid the tendency to grasp after any sort of experience. Waiting can be uncomfortable. In these uncomfortable moments, it helps to place my attention on my heart and employ a simple mantra such as “Om.” At times a spontaneous prayer emerges from my interior depths, and I go with it. Eventually, something opens up, most often my heart. A stillness emerges, a sense of presence arises, or a spaciousness envelops me. Sometimes, nothing noticeable happens at all. What does occur over time is that waiting upon God becomes a subtle but noticeable aspect of our ordinary awareness, manifesting as an interior spaciousness, the capacity to compassionately witness the machinations of the mind and the world, and even as the capacity to laugh at ourselves.
Beloved God,
I wait upon you
With deep longing
And great love.
