Spirituality for Living

Does non doing suggest belief in a greater order? Perhaps a lesser order. It can be seen as just accepting what you are. You don’t have to see it as metaphysical. You can see it as just very realistic.

To the left, and to the right, to the left again, and to the right. Forever we march never realizing that we march in circles. The center is a vital root. If you would know strength in your path as you chose it, the center is still necessary.

“When one seeks to regulate something,
he is in fact going contrary to it.

Where he seeks to embellish something,
he is in fact harming it..

Nonaction does not mean being completely inert,
but rather that nothing is initiated from the ego-self.”
– Huai Nan Tzu, translated by Roger T. Ames

Doing Non-Doing

The spiritual concept of non-doing. It’s the principle of natural action. Doing from a point of being. Known in Taoism as wu wei, but more specifically I will be talking of wei wu wei. It is a sort of paradoxical concept, but one I find very helpful. Doing non doing. There is a lot of concern about what we are doing, and what is the right thing to do. To my experience that gets in the way more than anything. We do the right thing when we are in our right minds, and that doesn’t come from anxiety. That doesn’t come… Seek More

Do With Your Heart

Do you have a very difficult time doing anything without your heart being involved? Then don’t exclude your heart. It isn’t necessary. The only way it’s ‘meant’ to be done (if that word has any meaning at all) is the way it’s naturally done. People often expect great mystical events from meditation, yet most often meditation helps us with mundane living like washing the dishes. There is no grand insight, but meditation can help you get to your heart. That helps in living, even doing the dishes. People expect spiritual wisdom to be somehow removed from life. It’s right at… Seek More

Cooperating with our Strengths

We have to cooperate with others, but you aren’t cooperating if some principle mandates it. You co-operate when you are still being you, and working with the other who is who they are. Some say we have to compromise but it depends on your definition of compromise. You can compromise your contribution out of existence. I act from essence. There are windows to that, not always mind, not always heart. Nature reflects essence. I do what comes through me, and I don’t evaluate best or worst. I don’t judge myself. Just do. When you do something, you will have an… Seek More

Non Doing Meditation

When you meditate that is non doing, but many people see it as a special state of mind. We meditate to get in touch with the now and who we are now. It isn’t by any struggle that we can do this. Struggle prevents this. Yet people even struggle to not think or do anything during meditation. We have a contrived way of being, doing and thinking that often puts us out of touch with the obvious. It makes us behave in ways that we later regret, and we don’t know why we did.  This makes life seem chaotic and… Seek More

Endless Struggle

In trying to ‘non do’ you find yourself doing, again back to the struggling. That is the essence of doing non doing. Like thought, action arises. Thought being its precursor. You can allow action to occur through you without disturbance and without anxiety. If you experience the doing instead of trying to be the doing, then the anxieties, the ego, the distraction, the resistance, will lessen in time. And even the doing can change and become more congruent. How often do we find we act out of synch with our values?  I would say part of that is the idea… Seek More

Have You Seen Your Soul Lately?

How are we aware of our soul?  Well, awareness of the soul is scary. Like in the Egyptian book of the dead, it’s the encounter with a mirror. It’s an awareness of what about you can die and what changes.  That can make people feel very insecure. But unless you will see what changes, you won’t be able to see what endures. It can be great comfort to experience the soul once you have. But it is a fearful journey. If you see this as scary, you see the reality of it. Our greatest fear isn’t that we are powerless. It’s… Seek More