‘Not-doing’ Had Happened

Recently I have had a number of conversations with people who have described how their practice has turned a corner and how they’ve discovered a new approach to meditation.

Almost certainly all of these individuals had already heard teachings on how trying too hard to overcome obstructions didn’t help; how what was needed was a willingness to receive all they encountered along the way and to understand the reality of these obstructions. Being in a hurry and trying desperately hard to overcome hindrances makes them more difficult to deal with.

However, despite their good intentions, until recently the effort they had been making had always involved either struggling to get rid of the apparent obstruction or indulging in it, followed by attempts to avoid the painful consequences of their limited efforts.

In one of these conversations a young man was explaining how for a long time he had been struggling intensely with painful and humiliating indecision. During periods when his daily activities were not structured, he would often become caught in confusion. If somebody else told him what he should be doing with his time, there wasn’t the same problem. The struggle only arose when he had to make the decisions for himself: Should he find some manual work to do? Should he spend time with his exercise routine? Should he make himself do sitting meditation, or walking meditation? Should he be doing more study?

Then one day it came as a surprise to find that instead of fighting with himself and these various options, he simply sat on a chair, tuning into the body-mind perception of not knowing what to do. It wasn’t that he had adopted a new technique of ‘not-doing’ so as to resolve the conflict. He simply found ‘not-doing’ had happened. After about 30 minutes the conflict had resolved itself and he was at ease.

Importantly, he knew that he hadn’t done the resolution. Nor was he feeling overly pleased with himself for having sorted out his problem. Even though consciously he might not have understood the process, resolution happened because by that stage sufficient self-confidence, steadiness and discernment had been established.

It probably couldn’t have happened six months earlier.

This reflection by Ajahn Munindo is from the book, Servant of Reality, (pdf) pp. 30-31.