"Just as a waiter attends to the needs of those at the table he serves, so one waits with unknowing astonishment at the quixotic play of life. In subordinating his own wants to those of the customer, a waiter abandons any expectation of what he may be next called to do. Constantly alert and ready to respond, the oddest request does not faze him. He neither ignores those he serves nor appears at the wrong time. He is invisible but always there when needed. Likewise, in asking 'What is this thing?' one does not strain ahead of oneself in anticipation of a result. One waits at ease for the response one cannot foresee and that might never come. The most one can 'do' is remain optimally receptive and alert.

"We hate waiting. When a train doesn't come on time or if a friend is late, we find ourselves frustrated by a situation over which we have no control. Rather than things happening according to plan, we are suddenly at the mercy of someone else and powerless to influence the outcome of events. As the consoling illusion of a dependable and manageable world evaporates with each passing second, we are exposed to the anguish of life's intrinsic unreliability. Our impatience mounts, the self's composure crumbles into resentful frustration or erupts into panic, and we are exposed as an infantile creature of Mara.

"Instead of regarding it either as an affront to one's dignity or a waste of time, waiting can be seen as a cipher of nirvana. Since life is ultimately a situation over which we have no control, waiting is a response that accords with its fleeting and unreliable nature. The practice of waiting is to learn how to rest in the nirvanic ease of contingent things. Yet waiting is not passive inaction any more than emptiness is nothingness. As an alert stillness that cradles perplexity, it is the ground from which we can respond in unpredictable ways to life's unfolding and the inevitable encounter with others."