Saturday, February 18, 2023
No-one seems settled. I think it’s because modern life has just become about doing, consuming, and thinking (which is more doing). There’s too much noise. A one-thing-after-the-next lifestyle creates freneticism, a low-level body unease, and a general dissatisfaction that perpetuates more and more activity.
Constant activity and thinking about all that you “have to do” cannot yield solace. The feeling of “I should be doing something” always seems to promote guilt. In other words, if I’m not doing something, I should feel uneasy. That’s savage mind chatter. What about stopping, and I’m not talking about plopping on the couch in front of the TV. I’m talking about just being with no thought, no activity, and no noise.
Very few connect to the part of themselves that’s just alive. That’s being rooted in stillness, and it provides sustenance that doing cannot. Doing may give you some fulfillment, but there’s never enough, and often compulsive. Being would be wildly unpopular to the constant busybody. However, I’d rather be a constant source of quiet; a channel of peace; and an intentional creature of being, rather than a frenetic robot. The quality of everything you do would be better, if you were rooted in quiet attention. But if you’re addicted to doing, you’re just flitting from one thing to the next. But one day, life will force you to stop, either by death or tragedy. Try to explore just being. It will put you in touch with a different dimension of existence, one that is purely inward. It has taken me a long time to realize I had this inner dimension. When I first discovered it, I learned I was always uneasy. How would you feel to just stop for a while and explore the gap in-between thought, activities, and sounds? It’s the only thing that I have found that has truly calmed me down.