How I learned to do nothing.

The Tao Te Ching famously says: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

But the often-forgotten second half adds: “When the student is truly ready... The teacher will Disappear.”

The wisdom here is that true understanding lies beyond what can be taught.

If you remain fixated on what you learned in the past, you will never be ready for the future.

Over the past few months, I’ve been able to let go of attachment to some of my old techniques.

And I’ve discovered the immense power of simply being with things as they are.

Today, I’d like to reflect on this evolution and show you how you, too, can practice simply being.

My New Teachers Appear

Recently, I’ve been working hard to make new connections and expand my online contacts.

If you’ve been following me on social media, you may have seen some of this.

It was through this process that I had the pleasure of connecting with fellow mindfulness teachers Dan Goldfield and Alex Pappas.

While we first connected for networking, their distinctive energies and teaching styles quickly made a lasting impression on me.

Dan has a cool and relaxed composure like I’ve never seen before. He effortlessly spouts calm wisdom in a charming British accent.

Alex is one of the most empathetic teachers I’ve ever met. In his IG reels, he’s like a close friend talking directly to you, letting you know that everything is okay.

Both of them are well-trained in many meditation styles, but their current methods are far more minimal.

For them, the essence of practice is to allow one’s experience to simply unfold naturally in each moment.

This is true both in formal sessions and in daily life.

The more I spoke to them, the more I realized how fixed I was in some of my own views.

Of course, I was aware of how to rest in a state of natural awareness. My teacher Josh has been sharing these ideas for years now.

But in my own personal journey, I was subconsciously holding myself back.

Some of the modalities that had helped me so much in the beginning had, over time, become a form of hindrance.

I realized that it was time for some of my old lessons to disappear.

Creating a Solid Foundation

When you first come to meditation, techniques are the foundation that holds your practice together.

Most people are so detached from their minds and bodies that they need a strategy to make sense of it all.

Approaches like anchoring with the breath or noting can help you immensely with learning to find a deeper sense of awareness.

(I go in-depth into techniques like these, as well as how to move beyond them in my 8-week immersion: Embodied Mindfulness.)

As you become more familiar with them, these practices become even more profound.

When the mind becomes more focused, you will start to see many of your mental patterns.

You can see the things that you are attached to and the things that you are resisting.

By seeing these things more clearly, you will be able to let them go.

Releasing Unnecessary Duality and Effort

However, over time, these methods can become a form of attachment in and of themselves.

Because, by their very nature, they create some level of reification of our experience. They require you to create dualities between different categories of experience and require you to be actively engaged in the processes of your mind.

This engagement and influence prevent the mind from fully showing all of its movements and reactions.

In effect, the practices themselves actually prevent us from seeing some aspects of our experience.

Because of this, over time, it can be necessary to let them go.

Doing Nothing

The heart of the great Zen teacher Dogen’s teachings is that the simple act of sitting in meditation creates a state of enlightenment.

The practices of his Soto Branch of Zen are based around just that - sitting (Zazen 坐禅)

Not noting. Not becoming absorbed with the breath. Not solving koans. Just resting in experience.

This ultra-minimalist way of practice can allow for a more direct level of connection than more applied systems.

And when you let go of techniques, you will begin to see the subtler levels of resistance that you are still holding on to.

Rather than try to label them or fixating on them, you can just let them be.

By letting them be, the resistance will naturally run its course.

The more you let things be, the more peace you can experience.

It is this way of practicing that will allow you to unlock the deepest levels of realization.

How to Systematically Do Nothing

Over the past few months, I have made this simple act of sitting the core of my daily meditations.

While the practice’s intention is straightforward, a basic framework is still helpful in the beginning.

Here is how you can adopt a simple practice of Just Sitting (Zazen 坐禅):

• Find a comfortable seat facing close to a blank wall.

• You will practice with your eyes open, softly focused on the wall in front of you.

• Find a posture that is comfortable and upright but not rigid. Relaxation is a crucial factor to this work.

• Sit in relative stillness and notice what happens.

• Do not direct the attention towards anything in particular. Just notice everything.

• Over time, thoughts will inevitably come up. Don’t engage with them, nor push them away. Feel the thoughts. Notice the thoughts. But leave them completely alone.

• You will notice a similar process in the body. Discomfort will arise, but don’t resist it. Encourage the body to relax, and adjust your posture if needed. But let the body just sit in stillness.

• Stay like this for the desired time of your session.

Embrace Simplicity

The power of this practice comes from its supreme simplicity.

We are not fighting anything; we are just sitting and being.

Sometimes, it will feel easy; others, it will feel hard. None of these are problems.

Practicing like this is the first step towards training yourself towards greater acceptance and less resistance.

If you can learn to give yourself permission to simply sit and be, you will feel much less stuck in the usual turbulence of daily life.

And without the attachments that can come from more applied techniques, the mind will be able to naturally equalize itself over time.

Because ultimately, the nature of our mind is to be pure and clear.

We don’t need to fix it or make it different from its natural state.

The ultimate wisdom is to simply allow it to unfold its natural radiance.

Doing nothing is the direct path towards revealing everything.

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Thank you for reading!

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop me a line or leave a comment.

If you want me to guide you on a comprehensive 8-week journey that includes the power of techniques as well as how to move beyond them, please join me for my course: Embodied Mindfulness.