All You Have to Do is Nothing - A Radical Perspective on Healing & the Spiritual Path

That’s it. The entire spiritual path summed up in one sentence. The mystic essence of all the world’s religions. The achingly simple, hilarious cosmic joke (when you get it, you’ll probably erupt into ecstatic laughter and finally understand why the saints are always smiling.)
Brilliantly said by Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj in “I Am That,” a collection of transcribed conversations between him and several persistently ignorant spiritual seekers, who endearingly insist that they think they have to do something, go somewhere, or have a lightning bolt realization in order to “attain” perfection. In every way imaginable, he calmly and consistently returns to the simple truth that all you have to do is nothing. The very essence of your being is the ultimate Reality, and you can’t do anything to achieve it because it was never lost. All you can do is help yourself from seeing, and creating, obstacles.
If the words of an old (now deceased) Indian man don’t do it for you, and you’d rather hear them repeated by a modern girl who paints her toenails, eats chocolate, and has a thing for hip-hop, perhaps I can elaborate in a contemporary American vernacular.
I can get befuddled by occasional obstacles, hurled into hormonal hallucinations, and stuck in mental ruts like everyone else; I don’t claim mastery. I am learning to abide in “the art of repose” more and more, and when I read the ancient texts and mystic works, I have a lucid, tingly, expansive feeling and I think I know what they mean. However, just this should give you warning; anyone who says they know is obviously deluded, because the mind cannot know, and words will always fail to describe Reality. So, take my words for what they are (words), and with a mountain of salt. As always, let your inner experience guide you.
Most of us earnest seekers on the spiritual path get a certain satisfaction from doing our practice (be it yoga, meditation, going to church, surfing, volunteering, or whatever we do to feel good and stay connected). We feel that we need to do good, in order to be good, and the more good we do, the better we are. This is a nice idea, but a tiring one, if our identity rests upon it and considering ourselves good requires doing something. If that’s what we believe, perfection will always be just out of reach. Untangling ourselves from these leaden shackles we’re habituated to wear, put on willingly every day, and even get angry at someone who tells us they’re not necessary, requires – well, nothing. There’s nothing in this world, no service, no penance, no teaching, no mantra, no breathing technique… nothing you can do that will free you. Because… get this…
YOU’RE ALREADY FREE!
(Insert your argument to the contrary here: ___________________________)
No, you’re actually free!
(Insert your next argument here: ___________________________)
Repeat the argument however many times you like, it won’t change the fact that YOU, your essence, that very same divine being that causes the light by which you see, the sound by which you hear, the form by which you take shape, etc. never was, is, or will be anything but perfect. There is no exception, only a grand projection of a dream that it was not. (Enter: time/space, you/me, death/birth, good/bad, light/dark, and the whole drama of saved/savior repeated throughout history.)
You don’t like the turbulence of the ocean, the temperature of the water? Get out! There’s a reason the teachings of those who know are dumbfoundingly simple (and those who are struggling to figure it out make it oh-so-complicated!) All you have to do is nothing. Rest in your perfect-ness, just as you are. If you can’t find it easily, imagine the simple being-ness of a contented baby, and remember your own simple being-ness.
If that seems too easy, I’ll share with you that I reached a point in my contemplations about this very topic that I like to call “divine futility.” I thought, “I could be wrong! The so-called enlightened ones could be wrong! What if it’s all a sham? Maybe we really are eternally damned, or maybe I’m the only one God doesn’t love, because my deeds are so shameful and my very core is rotten…” And then I decided, if that’s really the case, then it doesn’t matter if I believe otherwise; if I experiment with what life would feel like if I were eternally free. It feels better to think I’m free, and it’s WAY MORE FUN! I’ve always had a tendency for audacity, so I decided, “What the f^#*!” and have been trying on this life ever since.
There are definitely residual beliefs that arise to be seen against the mirror of clear consciousness, and I’m occasionally susceptible to the bombardment of “You’re not enough as you are” messages from society, media, the self-help industry, etc. After all, our whole economic engine grinds on the friction of selling a solution to a problem. When you’re healthy, happy, and free, there’s no need to buy in, beyond the basics or for sheer entertainment value. Wars for more land or fuel to feed the endless consumption habit need not be fought. Do you get where I’m going here? Without inner peace, there can be no world peace, or whatever your favorite quote is on that subject. Tangent over, I promise.
All in all, I must say the pole shift from “doing good = being good,” to “being as I am = being as I AM” has been a really, really, really fun ride. If I told you the whole spectrum of fabulousness that is my life you wouldn’t believe me. However, I’m ecstatic at the sound of crickets chirping, leaves budding, rain falling, and a million other things, so you might think I’ve just lowered the bar and gone totally nuts.
I still do my practice (yoga, mantras, meditation & pranayama), but I enjoy it as a way to more deeply saturate in the essence of Self and gracefully transcend the appearance of obstacles, not as ritual self-flagellation. I share and help, because there are billions of fragments of the Dreamer (aka people) who don’t know they’re dreaming, and I’m dreaming I help them wake up. Hysterical, isn’t it? I’m here in a body, so I could pass the time making widgets for people who think they need widgets, or I can help people who think they need help. Either way, the joke’s on us!
Because… All you need to do is nothing!
We could go on and on about just how to do nothing, what doing nothing really means, and the myriad ways in which doing something doesn’t help you wake up, but words become convoluted and none can describe without the slavery-addicted mind picking more arguments to justify and rationalize its existence. So to close, I’ll leave you with a translation of one of my favorite mantras, a great reminder:
This is full, That is full. From the fullness, arises the full. If you take away full from the full, fullness remains ever full. (Visit the website to hear this ancient Sanskrit chant over a hip-hop beat.)