The Supreme Spiritual Practice

With so many spiritual practices to choose from, you might wonder which one is the best. Well, the question is: the best for what? What are you trying to accomplish?

Some practices may help you to be happier, better, richer, holier. And while that is fine, this immediately excludes them from the title of the Supreme Spiritual Practice (SSP).

Why?

Because the goals are relative — no matter how happy, good, rich, holy you are, you can always be happier, better, richer, holier. If the practice doesn’t lead to the supreme achievement, it cannot be the supreme practice.

What is the supreme achievement?

The supreme achievement is the recognition of the present moment as the only reality. And this recognition has no degrees or conditions. It’s supreme because it’s unaffected by duality — duality appears in and as it.

This recognition can take 10 seconds or 10 years — it has nothing to do with time. It can be likened to a lightning bolt or to the clearing of fog. It can punch you in the face or it can sneak up on you and suplex you.

Part of the recognition is that you’ve always recognized this — that it was never hidden, that it was you all along.

So the supreme way of talking about it is saying, “You are perfectly awake and realized right now; nothing needs to change or happen.” After all, we’re talking about the supreme — it’s perfect and complete no matter what.

What this also means is that the supreme achievement isn’t an achievement at all. It’s a booby prize. It’s like receiving a medal for participating and then being told that participation medals were the only ones available.

Speaking from the supreme understanding, what then is the SSP?

Doing nothing.

That’s right. If everything is already the supreme, and it is, then doing nothing is the only thing to do or not do.

Saying “do nothing” immediately sends the mind into overdrive. The mind can’t make sense of “do nothing,” because nothing isn’t something the mind can grasp.

You can’t think of nothing; you can’t imagine nothing; you can’t show nothing around; you can’t make nothing your God.

You may think you can do all these things but, really, you can’t.

So how then does one practice the SSP called doing nothing?

One doesn’t. Can you guess why?

That’s right. Practicing isn’t doing nothing, is it?

But then… how… what…???

I’m not saying this to be a smart-ass or make you feel helpless. I’m saying this to evoke a spontaneous feeling — the feeling of doing nothing.

If I have failed at evoking this in you, then I’m sorry. Seems like my spiritual powers have failed us both. Let me offer something else.

I’m going to contradict what I said earlier and tell you how to practice doing nothing.

The practice is really really simple. But before you get into it, check yourself. Doing nothing won’t lead you anywhere. You won’t reach a special spiritual destination — enlightenment, heaven, nirvana, samadhi, etc., etc. You’re not doing it for anything or because of anything. It’s not meditation. It’s not a spiritual thing. Nor is it an unspiritual thing.

Okay now that we’re in the correct mood, let’s see how to practice it.

First, I want you to notice what doing feels like. We’re all familiar with the sense of doing something with the body, like lifting a package, working in the garden, or writing a letter. Then there’s also doing something with the mind, like making plans, calculating the odds of your existence, or worrying about everything. For people interested in spirituality and self-knowledge, which I assume includes you, there’s another kind of doing with the mind, showing up as meditation — counting your breath, repeating mantras, moving energies, asking “Who am I?”, and so on.

This sense of doing might feel like contracting, grasping, tensing, pushing, pulling.

When you’re clear on what doing feels like, you’re ready for the main gig. Whenever you notice the feeling of doing, release it. And if releasing the feeling of doing feels like doing, release that too.

That’s it. That’s the whole practice.

You might want to try this sitting with eyes closed, like formal meditation practice. But when you get it, you can keep your eyes open if you want. You can also be standing or walking or loitering.

Soon you might notice something. All doing only ever happens in the mind. The body doesn’t do.

Yeah, I know this sounds dumb. Sure, the body does things, relatively speaking. I’m not denying the body’s activity. What I’m saying is that the body can do stuff without the part that makes it feel like you’re doing it.

The body can go. It can go far. It’s the sense of doing that drains energy.

This sense of doing is exhausting. That’s why when we think a lot, we feel tired. That’s also why when we’re in a loop of overthinking, we feel drained. It’s because thinking can be doing. Not all thinking — only these two kinds of thinking:

Active, deliberate, rational thought.
Involuntary thoughts that come with contracting, grasping, tensing, pushing, pulling.

People who feel depressed can be tremendously tired even when their bodies are doing very little. Their toxic conceptual worlds are sucking all the energy. When you think life instead of living life, you’re tired.

Doing nothing means resting. Truly resting. Some people never rest. They don’t know how. I don’t blame them. No one ever teaches us these things. On the contrary, incessant activity is praised as a worthy ideal. If you’re not always doing something, moving toward something, chasing something, then what are you doing?

Your body can be lying on the beach but you might be busy as hell — planning, preparing, plotting, ploying, projecting.

Or you can be in the middle of the big city’s hustle and bustle and be doing nothing at all.

This is what doing nothing will show you. It will reveal how much activity you’re really engaged in. It will reveal that who you believe you are is one big fat tumbleweed of never-ending doing.

By “practicing” the SSP, doing nothing will become the norm more and more. All unnecessary doing will start falling away on its own. And at some point, you’ll be surprised to see that even amidst the greatest activity, you’re as still and silent as a lake on an uninhabited planet in a distant galaxy no one will ever know.

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Luka

Hello friend! My name is Luka and I am the creator of mindfulled. Here you'll find illustrated essays and stories about spiritual awakening and the art of living.