Don't Just Do Something, Sit There!
Freedom from the charades of an agitated mind
“Don’t just do something, sit there” - The beautiful phrase, and title of writer and Buddhist teacher, Sylvia Boorstein’s popular book - which nicely articulates the essence of meditation.
In opposition to the busyness of always-on, run, jump, achieve, ‘must attain’-filled minds; meditation invites us to simply be with the moment as it is. To observe. To listen. To feel. Without effort. Without a goal. Without a need to get somewhere.
To just sit there, and witness the unfolding moment.
Which… for the agitated egoic mind is the most difficult thing in the universe.
Why? Because the very nature of the mind is to get somewhere.
To attain something.
To be someone.
What does this agitation look like?
In its most intense and dense form, the mind projects outwards, as a range of external objects in the world—to be attained and held onto. This can be in the form of situations, relationships, or physical things.
Simply put, the patterning formulates itself as ‘when I have x, then I will be y (happy/content/free/at peace/etc)’.
And the tragedy here of course is that for this whole ruse to work, the egoic mind needs to convince itself, that right now in this moment, something is wrong.
‘I am missing something. There’s a gap. A gaping hole. There’s a lack’.
Sound familiar?
In seeing this bottomless charade enough times (maybe enough lifetimes), we can let go of the fixation with worldly attainment.
And typically at this point, there is a turning inwards…
To working on ourselves, unearthing traumas, quietening thoughts through concentrated attention, healing the body… and all the rest of it.
And we might continue performing these practices for sometime. And they may provide benefits to some…
But… if we are not completely lost in the allure of these exercises, what will become apparent is that the same patterning of the mind is present—just in subtler form.
‘If I continue doing x, then I will attain y (happiness/peace/love/awakening/harmony/alignment/enlightenment/moksha/etc).’
Again, see the charade at play — Let’s slow it down, and zoom in a little:
‘I don’t have y (peace/love/joy/happiness/etc) right now,
but if I do ‘x’ practice(s) for long enough,
then some day,
in the future,
I will attain y.’
The egoic mind’s dead give aways are expectation and conditionality.
‘I expect to receive y in the future, on condition of performing x now.’
What is Driving this Seeking and Thirst for Attainment?
The simplest answer is psychological survival.
Ego is a verb appearing as a noun.
What I mean by this is that the egoic mind is a cluster activity deceptively appearing as a solid entity. In order for the entity to continue appearing to exist as a separate individual, the activity of seeking, of mental pulling and pushing, needs to continue.
Like the image of a static photo, displayed through a film projector, requires a tape to be continuously running, the solidity of the ego requires the mental movement of constant seeking.
—and so the cessation of this persistent seeking activity, is the very dissolution of the egoic entity.
Psychological agitation is the ego’s fuel. Mental fixation is its oxygen. Without these activities, the egoic mind withers and dies.
Oh how courageous it is then, to just sit!
To simply observe without expectation.
To feel without a goal.
Go on brave soul—
Don’t just do something, sit there.
See what you really are.
And what a marvel this life truly is.
Take care,
David