Human Doings
What are you avoiding?
Human beings have become human doings. And in our doings, we hide. We are hiding from WHAT IS. Beneath every habit, beneath every relationship, lies some fear, some sadness, some personal responsibility, which we are running from. Which we are avoiding.
Even in our emotions, we hide. With every emotion, we create a story:
I am angry because…
I am upset because…
I am sad because…
And none of this “because” is what is. Every story is something we carry from the past, some happening which does not exist in the here and now. Something that is not what is. What lies underneath your anger, if you look ever so closely? What is hiding underneath your sadness, if you pay such close attention? What is hiding underneath your yearning to be loved, if you have the courage to really inquire?
The answer is fear. Fear is what is here now. Hiding beneath your stories, beneath your thoughts. Beneath all your doings. Fear is what we’re avoiding.
What if you stopped all of your doings? Every single one of your habits, your social media scrolling, your tv watching, your podcast listening, your phone gazing. Stopped every single doing which you use to distract yourself. What if you just…stopped? And sat? Not sitting with an objective to clear the mind; for that, too, is a doing, a hiding.
Stopped. Sat. To be with what is here…right now. To be with that fear in the pit of your stomach which hides beneath each of your doings. Underneath your emoting. Underneath your stories. Underneath your thoughts.
What might it mean to stop? To be with what is? To sit, so quietly, so patiently; to allow emotion after emotion to roll up and out, without any resistance; and with each emotion that arises, you dig a little deeper down. A little closer to the bottom. And then when the mind kicks in to tell you that you’re finished with the sitting, sit some more.
Until finally you hit the root of all your doings, all your avoiding: the fear of nonexistence. And you sit with it, so quietly, so patiently, that eventually you make friends with it. You accept it, completely. And, eventually, you dethrone this ruler; so that you may finally know what it feels like to really live.
