The Art of Being

Many of us wonder about the true nature of reality and what our purpose is here on earth. In my latest podcast 'Your Gift to the World' I spoke about the all important topic of our true purpose in life, and how we are supposed to be human beings not human doings. We are here to be, not just to constantly "do." 

If you don't believe me, take a moment to consider where all our busy doing has got us...it's not pretty right now!

But since recording that podcast episode, something occurred to me - and that is that nobody teaches us how to be. 

Almost from birth we're taught to "do" all kinds of things, and this continues through our childhood, both at home & school as we are told to be productive, helpful or useful, and we begin to believe that it's doing things that gives our lives value and purpose. 

But what if that was wrong, or at least incomplete?

We spend so many hours, days, months, years trying to do so many seemingly important things in life, always in the belief that doing or achieving something will make us better people, that we will feel better, happier, more fulfilled. And yes, sometimes that's true, but we get so lost in the busy doing of things that we forget to live - we forget to BE.

Nobody on their death bed ever regretted not spending enough time at work.

~

So this is your little reminder from the universe that you are a Human Be-ing, not a human doing! 

The purpose of your existence is to be, to experience, to feel. 

In principle there's nothing wrong with doing, and it can certainly be useful to do certain things, but I feel this is where humanity has really been pulled off course.

Our obsession with doing has kept our minds so busy that we forgot who we were, forgot who we are:

We are Spiritual Be-ings having a human experience. 

People often ask me what the key is to spiritual growth & advancement, and the answer that I normally give them is to meditate. 

But what is meditation? 

Well, it's the practise of be-ing fully. Meditation isn't so much a doing as a being which is why I believe so many people struggle with it. They feel like they should be doing something, not realising that meditation is actually the opposite of doing in many ways.

Through the calm and peace of our own be-ing we can reconnect with higher and wiser aspects of ourselves, find the elusive peace of mind that so many people wish for. We can also enhance our connection to our spiritual or psychic abilities if we choose. But it's not a doing - you don't "do" meditation. You have to do nothing - that's kinda the point. And THAT is what people struggle with most. Not doing.

But why is that?

Simple - our ego-mind loves doing! By 'ego-mind' I'm referring to the logical, computer-type part of our brain that thinks it runs the show, and that many of us identify with so closely that we don't realise its true nature, or that's it is supposed to be there to serve us rather than rule us.

It is the part of us that we learn to observe and when needed ignore, through mindfulness meditation or the practise or being fully present and in the now. 

The ego-mind can never reach enlightenment because it doesn't actually exist outside of the human realm, any more than our physical body does. As I've said before, enlightenment would mean its complete annihilation and it would cease to be, because we simply wouldn't need it anymore. We would transcend the ego-mind, and leave it behind. 

The mind doesn't want that, and I suspect this is one of the reasons it may try to slow down your spiritual progress or get in the way if you haven't learned how to keep it in check yet. 

The ego-mind can be very useful for certain tasks, but like a computer or perhaps like fire, it's a useful servant but a terrible master.

~

Somehow, over time our society has diminished the value of be-ing until it barely exists anymore except for those who go searching for it. 

Some of us however, have managed to find it again and it's noticeable that this concept is picking up pace with more and more people adopting meditation or yoga practise, learning about mindfulness and quietening the ego-mind in order to find peace and joy.

To me this marks a real turning of the tide in our evolution and gives me such hope for our progress in the near future. I feel as though humanity reached a point in the last century, particularly in the Western world, where we finally realised that all this do-ing and not be-ing leads us on a path to destruction, exhaustion, and great suffering rather than the peace and joy that we instinctively yearn for as human beings. We are still integrating this new learning in the collective, so we aren't fully living that knowing just yet, but we are on the brink.

Our inner core knows that we are here to be and not just to do, but the messages we receive from family, society, school and governments still tell us otherwise. We are called lazy, idle or unproductive if we are not diligently spending all our energy on incessant doing.

It's time we change that, so I'm calling time on doing!

There may be a time and a place for doing certain things, but most of the activities we conduct in the work place are unnecessary, you might even say a distraction. Much of industry is excessive, wasteful and polluting, doing more harm than good to the world. 

When I consider my previous career in the corporate world, I can see that most of our activity is actually superfluous. It doesn't bring joy, happiness or peace to others; it's mostly unnecessary bullshit when it comes down to it.

We live in a system that values doing and punishes those who don't want to work 8 or more hours a day and slave themselves to their graves. But why? What do we really gain from that incessant productivity for the sake of being busy?

Well, we have managed to do a lot of harm to the natural world, to the animal kingdom and to our bodies with all our busyness, but what good have we done? The sad truth is, very little.

It's also apparent that many of the positive spiritual elements of religion were stripped away a long time ago, so the only opportunity many had for any sort of spiritual connection until recently was focussed on supplicating a seemingly capricious higher power for help with some disadvantage or inconvenience, and feeling bad and guilty for some "sin" or other they were supposed to have committed. There was little chance for be-ing, for oneness or finding inner peace.

~

Religion has never been my thing admittedly. Right from age 5 when the teachers at my school tried to force me to pray in assembly, my rainbow soul rejected it with a passion! I was a very spiritually aware child, but being told to pray to some old man with a white beard that I didn't know and who actually sounded like a bit of an asshole from how he was portrayed, just didn't speak to me at all.

Unfortunately dogma and the control of the masses was woven into most religions many generations ago, and we are much worse off for it. Not only did that dogma and restrictive narrative keep many in a box, unable to access their soul potential, but caused many others to reject spirituality altogether and to live lives mostly devoid of peace or meaning. 

Well I have good news - peace is making a comeback!

As we enter this new age and new energy, we are going to see people instinctively turning back towards being, searching for peace and meaning in themselves rather than looking outward, trying to find their happiness and meaning in the form of possessions or praise and admiration from others. 

It's truly beautiful to witness. 

The purpose of the human being is to be. And when we allow ourselves to spend time in that alert, calm and present state of being, everything starts to make more sense. 

We are able to find the joy, gratitude & compassion within ourselves again and attain higher levels of calm, peace and enlightenment.

The truth path to enlightenment comes from simplicity - from being not from doing.

Be-ing is our natural state and will take us to greater advancement as a species than any so-called "productive" ego-mind activity could ever hope to achieve.

~

If you would like to experience or practise mindfulness and being, you are very welcome to join our new Mindfulness Meditation Group which is held weekly on Zoom.

This is an informal group facilitated by Helen, which is free of charge.

The purpose of the group is to help people to learn mindfulness meditation, which can help us to experience higher levels of calm, joy and peace in life and to learn how to be still, present and alert i.e. how to be.