The Art of Non-Acting

Non-acting is a great mystery to our Mind. If we do not act, we just sit there passively in one place, we soon starve to death here in the world of forms and shapes. 

The very essence of this world is the constant change, the constant action. A lot of us would like to do nothing in life and still live a good life. But if that desire is fulfilled, and we try to live without doing anything, we will very soon be bored of passivity, and we soon find something to do in order to expell boredom.

So it is really difficult not to do anything, because we are used to doing something all the time. Our parents and teachers always told us that are actions determine what kind of a person we grow up to be. Our personal identity is therefore rooted in our actions and the results of our actions. 

The book of our personal history is the chronicle of our actions and results. We are what we have achieved during our life.

If we do nothing, or our actions do not bear the expected fruit, we–as a result of our upbringing and education–feel that we are not useful members of society, and we should be ashamed in front of the other people. It will sooner or later lead to disturbances in our self-evaluation and the emergence of a negative image of ourselves. On the other hand, if we are constantly active, and our actions are successful, we will be respected members of our society, appreciated and highly esteemed by the other people. As a result, we will have a good self-evaluation and a highly positive image of ourselves.

The idea of action is rooted in our socially conditioned mind, the Ego. The ideas of achieving, obtaining, acquiring something are all present in our Ego-dominated mind as forces urging us to act. The desire to control, to lead and manage are also powerful factors that spur us to act. But if we are able to reach beyond mind and its forces making us act, the Miracle, the great mystery, unfolds in front of us, and we realize that the real state of our existence is non-action.

This non-action is, however, not identical with being passive in the world of forms and shapes. We can be active in the state of being non-active, we can perform our work, we can bring up our children, and we can keep in touch with our environment. The secret of non-action is that we no longer identify with our actions, the motivation and the results of our actions.

In this way, even if we do something, we do not become the actor in the action. But it is only possible if we give up all ambition to be in charge, to be in control, and submit to the present moment, accept it and we do not try to change the moment to match it our own ideas.

If we give up the idea of action, things suddenly begin to happen by themselves. It is the highest level of surrender, the complete release of control. When we have quieted down in this way, the moment will carry us away, we do not need to change and the action, the deed just happens.

When the resistance against the present moment is over in us, the Life, the Miracle virtually carries us away and takes us to a direction that leads to the original state of Consciousness. This is the experience of the Miracle itself, perfect harmony with Existence in which there is not separation, there are no parts, only the whole Completeness.