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Human doing versus human being

I happened to be sitting on the train today, and a podcast featuring Deepak Chopra 'appeared' in my YouTube feed.

In the intro, a bold audio snippet caught my attention: "Our human condition causes suffering, and is a function of our inability to sit quietly and do nothing."

I know that my thoughts and perspective influence my reality.

I have benefited from meditation, and agree that a lack of controlled attention could impact my mental wellbeing. 

But the suggestion that human suffering is caused by an inability to sit quietly... That seems a bit of a stretch, and I wonder if I'm the latest victim of auditory click bait? Ok, I think. It is Deepak Chopra. I'll give it 5 minutes and reassess.

The discussion goes deep fast. The topics being covered are so dense and complex, even with Deepak Chopra explaining them.

The interviewer is asking questions without allowing appropriate space to address the explanation, and already Deepak has wheeled out several juicy koans - Zen paradox statements - to rebuff the logical questions.

Koans serve to stop logical thought and undermine routine mental ruts, and I usually relish the mental gymnastics and uncertainty associated with Zen philosophy.

However, in this conversation, the koans function to destabilise an argument with obvious impossibility, and I get a sense that the meta-concepts will be glossed over.
 
I pause the podcast and commence my writing.

Inspired by smattering of Zen philosophy, I'm already deep and pondering the distinction between human being and human doing. 

The term 'human being' suggests an implicit value of existence, irrespective of the material measures that can be applied. 

It is true that our action in the world is a function of our existence.

To do, we must first be. 

However, in the current human experience, the term 'human doing' seems more appropriate and the gap between being and doing is difficult to perceive.

When I speak about who I am, I have a rich vocabulary about not now.  

In my past story, I have come from somewhere, I grew up somewhere, and I went somewhere or studied something. The descriptions involve physical experiences and accomplishments.

In my future story, I am going somewhere, I will travel somewhere on the weekend or on holiday. The descriptions involve physical actions and locations.

Both stories evoke imagination, for me and for those who listen to my story, but they are not real.

In the here and now, without reference to before now and after now, my description is less confident. I find it challenging to define me without referring to past or future.

So if being is so important, why is it that our descriptive vocabulary about the 'here and now' is so limited? Perhaps it is related to the amount of time and attention we allocate to simply being.

Because schedules are full and minds constantly chatter, we don't know the terrain. This makes sense, and I've argued in other posts about the importance of experience in understanding.

In the short segment I listened to, Deepak had stated that 'our human condition causes suffering, and is a function of our inability to sit quietly and do nothing.'

To realign, he suggests we take some time to sit quietly each day, unoccupied, and ask these questions:

Who am I?
What do I want?
What is my purpose?

Sounds simple enough, until we try to find a quiet spot to reflect. 

The mind, a trained elite athlete, only knows how to think. 

Without anything to think about, the inner environment gets a bit unruly.

It's like a mad monkey focussed on an attractive object. Your mind seems to consume itself as it chases a never ending stream of jabbering thoughts.

But hang on, what was I supposed to be thinking about again? 

Oh, that's right, the questions.. and then, I'm off again, lost in a rabbit warren of mental smoke and mirrors.

I pause, and acknowledge the thought process and it's monkey characteristics. This is fascinating.

So Deepak continues: 'If we don't ask these questions, we only know that we suffer and we seek a solution, an instant fix'... 

It's a bleak picture being painted, and in this frame of reality, it is no wonder that we reach for an antidepressant. We are literally thinking ourselves insane.

Now I am not a master meditator, or a Zen monk or anything like that. However, I've dabbled in meditation and have experience sitting in silence. 

And I still experience the mad monkey mind.

But I think that is ok, normal even.

For me, it's not about stopping thoughts. 

It's certainly not about chanting ohm or sitting in full lotus for 10 hours straight in the snow.

It is about acknowledging a rapid pace and making a conscious choice to pause and reflect.

So I've decided that the questions are not intended to generate logical responses. I'm not sure that they need a response.

Given the space to breathe, they open doorways to a deeper awareness of the experience of life and living.

It's amazing how a couple of questions can shift a perspective, even if only for a few silent seconds.

Maybe, just maybe, in my silent seconds, I'm starting to reconnect to my core human being essence.

In any case, I've given myself permission to ponder and allow the questions freedom to just be. 

It's a good place to start.

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