Doing vs Being (Day 138)

In this week between looking at our emotional reactivity (suffering) and getting into our bodies, we are taking a moment to subtly recalibrate our practice. Namely, we're exploring what it means to 'do' a bit less, and just 'be' a bit more (like the meditation joke goes, "Don't just DO something...sit there!").

We're all excellent 'doers', and have been training our 'doing' muscles and getting rewarded for it since we were little kids. But even though we're human beings (and not human doings!), we have much less familiarity with this side of ourselves, and are often uncomfortable when there's nothing to do.

Mindfulness practice involves doing the very least you can. It's not your responsibility to make something particular happen (in fact, everything you're observing is happening by itself, or is something you're going to work out how to stop unconsciously and habitually doing) or to understand something. Your only jobs are to be aware of and accept what is happing.

PRACTICE

What does it mean to just sit and observe, without trying to have a certain experience?