We perpetually feel the urge to be doing something. Sitting silently, doing nothing, we get fidgety and anxious. We feel compelled to take up tasks, projects, or trips, even if they are meaningless; or to escape repeatedly into entertainment, which is yet another thing to do, something with which to occupy oneself.
In this state of compulsive activity, contentment has to be postponed until everything we are doing is done. But we are perpetually finding and creating new things to do. No gap is ever allowed between two activities. Because if we are not occupied and nothing is being done, we feel restless and bored, afraid of missing out on something, or perhaps guilty of wasting time. Existential dread starts setting in, unpleasant and suppressed thoughts and feelings start to arise. In fact, most of our activities are just a means of escaping from this state of not doing anything. But that is precisely the state where contentment, happiness, and relaxation are found. If we are desperately in search of contentment, then why are we are doing everything we can to avoid it?
For a change, as an experiment, remain in this state of not doing. Make some space between two activities, and leave it empty, even if it is just for 5 minutes. Try to look at not doing anything in a different way, as a state of just “being”.
In being, you are present and alert, whereas in doing, you move away from the present moment into some future, far away goal, into a daydream. In being is serene stillness; anything you do can only disturb this intrinsic stillness. Sitting silently, with eyes closed: just be, don’t do.
Striving, seeking, searching, accomplishing, reaching, trying — doing has many forms, and you will have to be alert and aware, otherwise you will unconsciously slip into doing in one form or another. When all forms of doing and all efforts are dropped, what remains is the state of non-doing and being — and it has always been there, just under the surface of doing, silent and blissful. All activities are distractions from this pristine underlying state of non-doing, so just drop them all.
Keep in mind that doing nothing is not only a state of the body, but also of the mind. If you are sitting still, but your mind is running, you are still doing something. Thinking about what needs to be done, what you will accomplish, where you will go – these are all forms of doing. Silently chanting or focusing on a mantra or object is also a form of doing. The real problem is in the mind because the body can become still and silent very easily, but not the mind. Even if physically you are not doing anything, the mind is very adept and agile at making all kinds of efforts, and it is running on autopilot, so you will have to be very alert to notice these subtle inner activities of the mind and drop them. In fact, keeping the mind running and active takes a lot of strenuous effort. Just drop all efforts of the mind and be effortless, as you are. Doing is difficult, being is easy, because it is the default state.
The feedback for doing it correctly will be instant. You will feel a sense of ease, relief, and peace that is deeper than ordinary. It is similar to the feeling of sitting down after running for a long time, but at a deeper level. The mind has been running for so long, that when you succeed in actually stopping it from the very root, even temporarily, the result is cathartic. Don’t get disheartened if this state doesn’t happen immediately. It can take some practice.
Being is already there before doing can even begin. Nothing is needed to be done to acquire it, you already have it, you are it. Being requires no effort on your part, it is the initial condition. Before you begin to do anything, you are.
Being means being here and now, as you are, with no goal or underlying purpose – not going anywhere, not living in or for the future, not brooding over the past. Be here and now, in both body and mind.
Imagine a lake where a large rock falls in and creates disturbances and ripples in the water. How can you get rid of these ripples? Anything you do will only add more ripples. Only if left alone can the lake’s disturbances subside on their own. The mind is like this lake. When all ripples of doing and effort are allowed to subside – by simply being as you are, here and now, effortlessly – the intrinsic stillness of the mind and body is revealed.
In being is the fulfillment that we are desperately seeking by doing and pursuing. In being, insight and creativity are born spontaneously. In just being is the serenity, simplicity, and beauty of meditation.