Being

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes…As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” — Carl Jung

“Modern society has become materialistic and prefers ‘Having’ to ‘Being.’”– Erich Fromm

“Identification with your mind causes thoughts to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don’t realize this because almost everyone is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being.” — Eckhart Tolle

Any addiction is a huge, self-absorbed exercise in frustration and fear. It’s the constant manipulation of everything around us for the purpose of using an external “Thing” to bring us the “happiness” of oblivion from reality. After we have a handle on our most harmful obsession or addiction, we still need to be on guard not to revert to our old behaviors of avoidance and manipulation in our everyday lives. We need to learn to trust our hearts and NOT use force, avoidance, or coping techniques. We need to quit “coping” and begin to live fully in truth. We need to deal wisely with our fears; they no longer defeat us, but now we strive to use them to inform us to be brave and open.  

“Trying to change ourselves does not work in the long run because we are resisting our own energy. Self-improvement can have temporary results, but lasting transformation occurs only when we honor ourselves as the source of wisdom and compassion. It is only when we begin to relax with ourselves that a transformation process takes place.When we step into simply Being, when we are present and aware of the experience that is occurring, moment to moment, can we let go of harmful processes? Through the qualities of steadfastness, clear seeing, experiencing our emotional distress, and attention to the present moment, we inherently renounce our abusive habits in a natural and healthy manner.”  Paraphrased from The Places That Scare You by – Pema Chodron.

Simply Being has more to do with feeling and experiencing than thinking. I may project what might happen, good or bad, and then I am emotionally and mentally enmeshed in trying to manipulate a situation. Or, I can be filled with something that has happened in the past—good or bad—and that past experience, though it is over and done, emotionally discolors what is happening NOW. It’s like playing two movies on top of each other; a movie of the past over our experience of the now. Quite a mixed up show. To simply BE involves dropping all past and all projections, and relaxing…honoring the clarity, the space, the open-ended awareness that naturally exists in our hearts.This leads naturally to a deeper understanding of our self, our world, and a compassion for others.

“Earth teach me quiet ~ as the grasses are still with new light.” — Ute Prayer  

“Wakan Tanka, Great Mystery,
Teach me how to trust my heart, Teach me how to trust my mind, 
Teach me how to trust my intuition, Teach me how to trust my inner knowing, 
The senses of my body, The blessings of my spirit. 
Teach me to trust these things so that I may enter my Sacred Space 
and love beyond my fear, and thus Walk in Balance 
with the passing of each glorious Sun.” — Lakota Prayer
 
Meditation is one way we begin to learn to not fight our thoughts, but to recognize thoughts and gently return to a deeper, more open and honest place of clear experience that resides naturally within us.
We can then take the realization of a deeper, quieter awareness and extend that awareness into our “normal” daily life.

“Being” is more about not doing anything than it is exerting any effort to accomplish anything.

It is a bit surprising how much we need to exert ourselves in order to not exert ourselves. It does get easier to simply BE; it comes more naturally as we continue to practice simple Being. If we dropped everything, we would not have any baggage to carry. This is action through non-action, or Wei Wu Wei.

A more common interpretation of wei-wu-wei sees it as action which does not force, but yields. Rather than being a version of doing nothing, this might be called “the action of passivity.” Under the weight of a heavy snowfall, pine branches will break off. But by bending, the willow can drop its burden and spring up again. To act with wisdom and a sense of rightness.

When we do relax, emotionally, physically, and mentally, we permit an open awareness to occur, a spaciousness arises in our Being, and we can more fully and richly experience the NOW, the Present. But we so often feel—from habit—that we need to fill any space with mental and verbal blather, to find fault and assign blame.

When we feel busy-ness occurring, we can smile, breathe deeply, relax, and feel our Being filled with the space that is never full. It is because water is the softest and most yielding thing that it is able to overcome the hard and strong.

“For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.” — Prayer of Saint Francis 

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
How do you fill your bucket? One drop at a time.
The great arises out of small things that are honored and cared for.
Heart Of Recovery web site  —  fcheartofrecovery.com