Forget about being serious or trying to put in extra effort to get somewhere or even anything. We have been already too serious in life that makes a fool out of us. Fool in the sense of developing our ego more than annihilating it. Of course there is nothing wrong to that, except it is not who we really are. We are just too serious in relationships, hurting ourselves many a times. Too serious in our outlook too and have taken too much unnecessary time and effort just to look good for others to see – it takes less effort and much relief to let go of that mask. And just too serious in what we should or should not do, making us more stagnant than growing wiser.
There is much attention given to things that are not beneficial to our innate well-being, in terms of our spiritual needs. Instead, much is given to feed the ego, our false self. And when we finally take the step to embark on the journey of spirituality, we unknowingly bring along that unconscious need of strengthening the ego instead of transcending it. Spiritual egoism is not uncommon among practitioners of faith.
Meditation is the opposite of seriousness. Not that we are called to take the practice likely, but on the contrary, we are called to take notice of the seriousness of growing our ego unconsciously. Wanting to get something out of the practice is already an egoistic purpose. Trying to achieve something other than what is already perfectly here in our space is already resistance to what is – another camouflage of the ego. So meditation is not about doing or not doing anything but rather non-doing, a practice that request from us nothing more than simply getting out of our own way. And it can be a difficult practice to work on, considering that we have already always intruding ourselves in our lives, practically in anything we lay our hands on, even during times when we thought we are not involved in it.
Non-doing calls forth in us to sit back, literally speaking, and observe the incessant wanting and not wanting pattern that is going on in the mind. It can be pretty uncomfortable not to succumb to it the first time we learn to watch it. Worst, in the beginning, we may not even know or aware that we are already into it, though we think we are not. With a little persistence, without putting any extra effort to overcome or to beat it, but simply to surrender to the addiction, we come to recognize a space of freedom and peace where we are no longer a victim of the ego, but instead a master to the mind.
The journey is a lifetime, and more often than not, lifetimes, and the practice is not something that you can eagerly complete and call it a day. Much patience is needed. Much wisdom, unspoken. Compassion is a necessity. And importantly, not forgetting not to forget to be aware each time the mind goes back to its old pattern of seeking – to stop, applying non-doing and allowing that dance to die itself naturally.
Each moment is required a mindful living, as each moment is where the ego dwells. Only then can we see light at the end of the tunnel, the journey home.