Don't just DO something, SIT there

The first of February is special - a herald of something new around the corner, even if I don't know what it is.  Back in 1989 I did a three-week therapy group in Pune, India called 'Fresh Beginnings'.  Ever since I've had hints that February is bringing fresh shoots, new opportunities.  That group - a week each of Primal, Tantra and meditation practice certainly catapulted me onto new paths. Brigit is the Celtic Irish goddess of fire, fertility, cattle and poetry.  Aspects of her personality passed to the Christian saint Brigit (St. Bride) who lived in fifth-century Ireland.  She was so generous she drove her father to despair, freely giving away the family property to the poor.  Brigit - Goddess and human - embodies new growth, celebrating spring, planting seeds.  Spring is a generous season, giving away her fresh goodies.   I spent a few months on the West Coast of Ireland in 2001 and visited St. Brigit's Well on the coast of County Clare....

Is it self-indulgent to follow your bliss?   I complete necessary chores and tasks before I allow myself time to follow what I love.  Bit of a Protestant ethic there, and maybe just my character too. And there's that general conditioning to 'do something'.  But to do what I love often involves more than I bargained for.    Moving towards what I love does n't guarantee a smooth ride, in fact it can be the opposite as old ways are stripped away. Following my heart's desire involves letting go of the comf ortable and familiar.  It can also involve resisting the urge to 'do' and instead to wait receptively with the unknown.' I love playing music and singing, but for me that can end up being stressfully goal-oriented.  I have heard that to become excellent at something, goals and persistence are needed. But if I let go of goals and ambition I find a different focus.  Music-making in the here-and-now - bringing all my energies together - ...

 ...... sit there.   This is one of Osho's brilliant phrases that's grown with me.  It turns our western addiction to activity on its head.  We've internalised the command to keep busy so well, we don't need someone else to tell us.  But it's not simple, I know.  I lived - or maybe I didn't really live - trying to squeeze in more and more activity to less and less time.  With a background anxiety that if I didn't, time would run out and my dreams would stay unfulfilled.   Then I was drawn to meet Osho, one of the greatest commentators and teachers of meditation, when I was 23 and I knew the wisdom he was offering was food for my soul.  He said that all his discourses were different ways of saying 'meditate', 'know yourself'.   But outside the structure of an ashram or meditation retreat, it's much harder to just sit.  Apart from the necessities of life - and who decides what they are -  the desire for distraction...

An odd thing to start writing, when the title of this blog is 'Don't just do something, SIT there?' That's the paradox of meditation in the marketplace and a lifelong lesson from my spiritual root teacher, Osho.  Answering a disciple, Osho replied 'Meditation in the marketplace is my whole message.'  How to be centred, in a non-dual resting place, when the world around me seems to be going crazy. Or is incredibly boring, not what I want it to be. For most, there's no retreating into a hermit life (or escaping to the Himalayas as Osho used to put it). We're here now, in this world of contradictions and separation. It can also be a world of joy, peace and fulfillment. Often it's not the content of an experience, but the way I respond which colours my feelings. Then operating in the marketplace can be a mirror, a mirror flickering and changing as the events, impressions and challenges of life impact me. And who is it that observes this mirror? Well, jus...