ARTICLE: July 2005

How is it that one can enter the environment of spontaneous healing? The answer to this question involves a lot of compassion – a lot. Sounds potentially big and complicated, but it’s not. Ironically, it’s small and simple. This however doesn’t mean that it isn’t challenging, because as we all know, it is very challenging. To create a space for healing is simply to dare to ‘actively’ do nothing. To do nothing is perhaps one of the most frightening things a working, doing, achieving being can do, but the outcome of this daring and courageous practice is magical, miraculous and marvelous.

Why is doing nothing so frightening to most people? It’s frightening because our conditioning has told us to do the exact opposite; keep busy, get ahead, go out and get it. At the very prospect of doing nothing the mind trembles, and often retaliates by feigning boredom. Without distraction of some sort, the mind becomes bored quickly. But, what about the heart’s reaction? The heart cheers, for it knows very well that to do nothing is shanti (peace).

So, what does it mean to ‘actively’ do nothing? The concept of wu wei in Taoism helps us with this question. Wu wei, or creative quietism, is not what many perceive as being overly passive, nor is it being completely inactive, but rather it is ‘tuning’ oneself to one’s natural and spontaneous being. From this new orientation all actions will arise from their most natural, instinctual origin. In large, and in yogic terms, this new orientation is that of witnessing. To witness in the sense of yoga’s Purusha (cosmic Self) is not to halt all activity, but rather to act and to notice in a way that is truly active, that truly participates.  From the perspective of karma yoga, the yoga of action and service, to act from the standpoint of the witness is to release one’s own personal investment as to a desired outcome. This allows the karma yogi to be truly present, and to give attention to what each moment needs, rather than doing what they themselves think the moment needs. Gandhi said, “Detachment is not indifference. It is the prerequisite for effective involvement.” Through witnessing, one can detach from the body and mind’s drama, and thus act effectively to serve each unique moment in a manner that is both natural and creative. This in turn creates an environment of healing, of true compassion.

In all traditions there exists some sort of spacious void that reveals itself through the practice of witnessing. This witnessing is most often what we term ‘meditation’. To actively do nothing is to shift perspective in a meditative way, a way that puts witnessing at the fore. This shifting ultimately helps us to get in touch with that part of experience that is always still, that always seems to be doing nothing, nothing except holding space for healing, that is. This part of experience is experience itself, or meditation. To truly feel and experience in this way one must stop thinking (yogas chitta vritti nirodhah; Yoga Sutra 1.2), because thinking and feeling cannot be experienced simultaneously.

So, what shape does this healing practice of meditation take in relationship to your asana practice? When practicing hatha (physical) yoga, the body will of course move, and the mind will also move and wander. During this experience, try getting in touch with what does not move, what does not wander. Do this by watching your breath with more interest than you ever have before. Really allow the breath to enlighten your experience, and feel yourself riding each inhale and exhale effortlessly. Notice the flowing presence that you are; watching what moves will teach you what does not. Try getting in touch with awareness itself. Awareness doesn’t move or wander. At times this will feel almost as if you’ve left your body, and in some ways you have. From this new perspective, watch the body and mind doing their practice; witness, meditate – and you’ll truly be doing your practice. Feel the energy of the practice, and let this energy guide you from deep within. Breathe, look, smell and listen not with your mind, not even with the senses themselves, but rather with your heart’s spaciousness and wakefulness. Be truly present, for it is this presence that creates space for healing. Nothing else is needed. When you do this, a whole world of hidden emotions may come running to be noticed: rage, joy, anger, happiness, sadness – greet them all, treat them all as guests in your home, as this is exactly what they are.

Know ahead of time that you will be challenged by non-doing, but know that to be challenged is what stretches you, what helps you to grow. Growth and challenge are two of the major reasons yoga has become so widespread, its focus is to help you grow by challenging you to feel what it actually means to be you. Be diligent in this process, for the mind will chime in, disguising rationalization and excuse to look like compassion. Return to the breath, finding a deeper compassion, compassion beyond what you want, beyond what you like, ultimately arriving at a new compassion that brings you to the place where you are truly fed, the now.

In the state of complete presence and meditation, where total healing is possible, each one of us will be relieved to find our own unique gift waiting. This gift is the realization that all of our efforting, all of our doing, has been an attempt to do something that we could never actually succeed in doing – that is ‘to become’. It is impossible to become something that you are not, no matter how hard you try. When one realizes that most of their actions are an effort towards this impossible goal, then and only then can one be present, heal, and truly be what no one else has ever been, nor ever could be. They learn to be themselves, and it is effortless, it is meditation, it is sat chit ananda (being, consciousness, bliss). To hold a space for this miracle, the miracle of your own life, is your task. So stop trying to be a great yoga student, but instead practice yoga and be an amazing you, for that’s the gift you’ve received.