The Paradox of Being and Doing in Meditation Practice

Understanding the Paradox

• 💡 In meditation, we learn to navigate the paradox of being and doing, recognizing awareness versus the impulse to act.
• 🧩 Initially, we may favor one over the other, either resting in awareness or focusing on action.
• 🧘 The teachings of the Buddha, as found in texts like the Body and Mind, illustrate that phenomena, like musical notes, arise and cease without a permanent self or location.

Deconstructing the Sense of Self

• 🧠 The Buddhist tradition views the sense of self as an illusion, a construct of cooperating confirmations rather than an inherent entity.
• 🔍 Through mindfulness meditation, we can systematically deconstruct this sense of self by naming and labeling experiences like thinking, seeing, and feeling.
• 🛠️ This analytical process helps us become free from the contents of the mind, though sometimes we might cling to the tool of meditation itself.

The Nature of Awareness

• ✨ Awareness is described as a mirror-like, non-judgmental presence that simply is, distinct from consciousness which has an object.
• 🚫 In awareness practice, the goal is to relax the sense of doing and notice when the impulse to act arises, learning to ease around it.
• 💭 Nisargadatta's teachings suggest that when there is no 'I am,' there is pure awareness, which is motionless and timeless.

Experiencing Pure Being

• 🌌 Deep concentration can lead to experiences where the physical realm and sense of self disappear, leaving only that which is aware.
• 🔄 These states can be cyclical, with experiences of pure being emerging and receding, yet the underlying awareness remains constant.
• ⚖️ Life pulsates between being and not-being, with each state needing the other for completeness, suggesting no preference should be made for one over the other.

Integration of Being and Doing

• 💖 The poem 'The Seed Cracked Open' illustrates a shift from a confident sense of 'what I will do' to a state of shared action and mischief with a divine presence.
• 🚀 As practice deepens, the sense of awareness and the flow of doing can merge into presence, allowing us to see the bigger picture beyond dualities.
• ✅ By learning how these stances flow and augment each other, we can achieve a greater integration of being and doing.