I was thinking about the seemingly unusual and obscure things I do to follow my own personal path to this “goal” called enlightenment. At least it feels unusual when I try to explain it to others. The quest to deepen and expand awareness does not come with a step by step manual. It’s also not a linear journey, and quite frankly who knows if we ever reach a final goal, or if in fact, a final goal exists. It’s like there is an idea of a goal- enlightenment- but no real steps to unravel the mystery of it. I remember Maharishi talking about the art of non-doing. We get everything done by not doing. How crazy does that sound to the Western ear? I suspect this had more to do with the idea of not over-extending or pushing ourselves all the time. I think we, as Americans, are multi-tasking over achievers. Sometimes this is great, but it can translate into all the negative ills that run rampant in our culture, such as the inordinate amount of stress we are under. We can also experience an intense level of anxiety, or the feeling of our worth being tied up with how much we own, or what we look like. That’s because we are terrible non-doers. We think we can make anything better by doing something about it. This of course is a myth. Sometimes we just need to stop thinking about the problem so a solution can present itself, we give it some space to work itself out. There’s a perfect example of non-doing getting the job done.

My good friend made the observation that we are human doers rather than human beings. We spend so little time just being. Being in nature, sitting quietly with a cup of tea, ruminating, the kind of being that doesn’t have a goal attached to it. So if there could be a first step in expansion of awareness that’s really a non-step, it might be cultivating more being rather than getting lost in constant, endless doing. We’re much more familiar with doing, it’s like being on auto pilot, not-doing takes a different kind of effort we’re not really well acquainted with, and an undefined effort at that. I know what you’re thinking, how do we squeeze one more thing into our already over-scheduled day? The truth is we have to make the time. Just like anything else we want to do, we make room for it in our lives. How we incorporate this ephemeral thing we call non-doing in our day to day life, is a whole other question. Since these are non-steps and there is no one way to achieve this mysterious goal, I would say it depends. I’ve practiced TM for over 20 years. I will say a form of meditation or contemplation that resonates with you, is a great first step to the non-doingness of it all. It creates a sense of inner spaciousness, of timelessness and I think this really goes a long way towards cultivating that illusive state of being. Being in the moment, being present, being in the flow of what’s happening. Non-doing is a way to infuse peace into the chaos, and some form of meditation or contemplation is crucial to bringing more silence of being into our busy lives. It helps take the pressure off constantly doing. But we have to make time and space for this quiet side of ourselves, and this requires practice.

We are all so use to over-doing it’s difficult to just be. Be quiet, be with our thoughts, our issues, be with who we are in this moment. And when we finally do quiet down, that’s when we begin thinking of all the other things we could be doing. Trust me, those things aren’t going anywhere. There will always be more things to do than there is time to do them. This is about making a choice. We are choosing to be still, to have some quality non-doing time. This will help us to relax into the rest of our life, and find a deeper balance in living. It’s the non-step of non-doing that throws us a life line from the center of silence within us, and helps us navigate through the constant, perhaps mindless, doing that saturates our life.

The outside world can derail us from the stillness inside. Bringing back that silence into our lives, in whatever quantity or way, is the first non-step to finding the expansion of awareness that brings deeper meaning and mystery. This is the real work of the soul.

So here’s to beginning the doing of non-doing and finding the peace of being.

kb