So I think many of you are aware that I'm a big fan of Rodney Smith and lately I've been reading his book,
Touching the Infinite,
And I came across this exercise that he gave us and there's plenty of exercises in this book,
But this one I thought would be a good topic for a practice.
I'll read you the exercise.
How much do you depend upon commotion to feel engaged and meaningful?
If you are alone and your cell phone and other devices are quiet,
Is there a subtle feeling of emptiness?
This is the condition that keeps you from being still.
Yet stillness is central to spiritual awakening.
To counter the need for noise and move in the direction of quietude,
Repeat as often as helpful,
Nothing needs to be happening.
Let the nothing be sufficient despite what the feeling of nothing might indicate.
Embody the quiet and see what remains when noise is absent.
Be careful not to reach for a book or another distraction.
Simply allow the silence to surround you and see what remains.
So nothing needs to be happening.
I thought it might be a good approach to a practice.
We have a lot of ways in practice in which we do things or need things to be happening.
So the invitation for this practice is to notice when they arise and just to be able to say to ourselves,
Nothing needs to be happening.
That's the invitation.
I invite you to take a deep breath or two and find an awake posture that aligns with gravity and then just to allow,
To settle,
To be with.
Nothing needs to be happening.
Noticing that the nature of thought,
When we engage with thought,
Is a happening.
There's a busyness about it.
There's a doing that's required to think thoughts,
To actively think thoughts.
Nothing needs to be happening.
What remains when nothing needs to be happening?
That's really the investigation here,
The query.
Having a tendency perhaps to drift towards an anchor,
And by an anchor I mean the thing that you do when you meditate,
Whether it's following your breath or a mantra or whatever it may be.
And even something as subtle as that,
Just reminding yourself nothing needs to be happening.
Now of course,
If the mind is going wild and there's just no way of managing it and you're very distracted,
Anchor is a very helpful thing.
Definitely return to the anchor then.
But if it's just a default,
If it's just what you do,
Nothing needs to be happening.
Noticing the tendency of the mind to grasp,
To want something to be happening,
To try and make something happen.
That's all you need to do,
Just notice.
You don't need to stop it,
That's a happening.
You don't need to control it,
That's a happening.
Just see,
Be receptive.
Is everything really clear or is it more like a dream state right now?
If it's more like a dream state,
Notice,
Acknowledge that a dream state is a series of thoughts.
It's a happening,
It's a doing,
And that's all.
Just the acknowledgement,
The noticing,
What remains when that comes into your awareness.
Things shift as you become aware,
Things shift as you notice,
But it doesn't have to be you doing them,
You causing the shift,
You making the shift happen.
Just watch,
See the shift happen,
Just with a simple acknowledgement that nothing needs to be happening.
And then what's left,
What remains?
It's not nothing,
Is it?
Probably more importantly is recognizing whether this space that remains when nothing needs to be happening,
Is it what your mind tells you would be happening or tells you things would be like if nothing was happening?
It's the mind telling you,
If nothing's happening,
It's got to be boring,
Right?
Is this a boring space or is it alive?
All in its emptiness,
Nothing needs to be happening.
May you have had the opportunity to experience some moments of clarity,
Depth,
Aliveness,
And the spaces between where nothing needs to be happening.
And maybe it's more than just a space between,
A space that's always here,
Always available.
This great indicator that it's available is just being bored.
Right below that is this.
So an invitation as you move through your day and through your week to remind yourself,
Whenever there's that sense of agitation,
That sense of needing to do something,
Busyness,
That in this moment,
Nothing needs to be happening.
And to sit with that,
To be with that.
If you're looking for something to do,
It means that in this moment,
You don't actually have something to do.
So it's a wonderful opportunity,
One that you may experience several times through a day.
You're about to pick up your phone,
You're about to go to the fridge,
When you find yourself thinking,
What is it I need to do?
Nothing needs to be happening.
Thank you for your practice.
And I hope that you find it helpful.
