Beautiful stuff man! "A creature gifted with a mind that naturally outputs neuroses and insecurities as part of its normal functioning" is a powerful statement. In this spirit, off I go messing stuff up and worrying about it🙏
I've found it useful to frame do nothing as "do anything". I got that from some Headspace guided meditation that at the end had an instruction that went something like "and now let your mind be totally free, if it wants to be quiet then let it be quiet, if it wants to think then let it think". And then letting it think whatever snapped me into the kind of a state you're talking about.
Since that was pretty much the best part of the guided meditation, I shifted to doing a lot of pure "do anything" after that. If my mind wants to think or daydream or stress out, I just let it. And if it wants to impose more control on itself and _not_ let itself do that, I let it impose more control on itself, too. Or if it confused what "allow it to do anything" even means if that includes a permission to forbid itself from doing things, then that confusion is allowed too.
This can still get corrupted in the ways you mention, and often does, but it seems to be the framing that has the best success rate for me.
I like this framing. It's incredible/enraging how quickly the do-nothing focus gets perverted into its polar opposite. And how often I've realised this, tasting the sweet release of giving up, only to discover myself trying to manufacture the experience (the experience that occured when I *stopped* trying to have a particular experience) a week later. Kenneth Folk has a good meditation on this. Same vibe, slightly different flavour, called "I don't have to do anything": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z0-zcWFspQ
Beautiful stuff man! "A creature gifted with a mind that naturally outputs neuroses and insecurities as part of its normal functioning" is a powerful statement. In this spirit, off I go messing stuff up and worrying about it🙏
The re-frame from Do Nothing to Give Up feels better already
honestly the first description of any meditative technique that I might plausibly one day be able to try
😂
Exactly what I'm dealing with right now! Sounds like a good way to go. Thanks for posting this!
I've found it useful to frame do nothing as "do anything". I got that from some Headspace guided meditation that at the end had an instruction that went something like "and now let your mind be totally free, if it wants to be quiet then let it be quiet, if it wants to think then let it think". And then letting it think whatever snapped me into the kind of a state you're talking about.
Since that was pretty much the best part of the guided meditation, I shifted to doing a lot of pure "do anything" after that. If my mind wants to think or daydream or stress out, I just let it. And if it wants to impose more control on itself and _not_ let itself do that, I let it impose more control on itself, too. Or if it confused what "allow it to do anything" even means if that includes a permission to forbid itself from doing things, then that confusion is allowed too.
This can still get corrupted in the ways you mention, and often does, but it seems to be the framing that has the best success rate for me.
I like this framing. It's incredible/enraging how quickly the do-nothing focus gets perverted into its polar opposite. And how often I've realised this, tasting the sweet release of giving up, only to discover myself trying to manufacture the experience (the experience that occured when I *stopped* trying to have a particular experience) a week later. Kenneth Folk has a good meditation on this. Same vibe, slightly different flavour, called "I don't have to do anything": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z0-zcWFspQ
Very good post.
I 'do' this and add inquiry. I found that constantly asking asking asking is a way to not do not do not do. Then meditation just happens.
That’s practically fucked up. Thank you.
Well put maestro, especially the side-turns and backsides...