We are all waiting for something to happen; perhaps with desire or fear, or maybe with openness and alertness. To wait fruitfully means to pay attention. To pay attention, Laurence Freeman says, is to love – it is to sustain our gaze at the other, and to be open to their gaze towards us. The ego’s reflexes – fear and desire – can block our capacity for waiting with the gaze of love. But we can learn that the patterns the ego has created are capable of change. Being a disciple of truth in reality leads to more than a temporary change. It opens up the permanent transformation which listening to the mantra reveals. 

These talks were given at a weeklong silent retreat at Monte Oliveto, Italy, in August 2008