Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There

My mind is swirling with options and choices and I can’t make a decision. Some people are served by just doing something, trying whatever, striking out. I am not one of them. With that in mind, I’m resharing this post from November 2021. Enjoy.

Sometimes I think the expression, “Don’t just do something, sit there,” was made for me. I’m not prone to inertia and people often describe me as “tenacious” and “hard-working.” If something doesn’t work, I’ll try something else. And then something else. And then something else. I’m not tapping into intuition – I’m throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. That works for some people. It does not work for me.

So much of the self-help and advice world is one-size-fits-all. The person or people giving the advice assume it will work for everyone. It does not. That’s why I appreciate systems that allow for more individualization like the five Buddha families, also called the five wisdom energies, which are Buddha, Vajra, Ratna, Padma, and Karma.

Each person has a predominant Buddha family with strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Vajra family people have an aptitude for mental clarity and the ability to correct any distortions. They are scientific, logical. But when they are encumbered, when their energy is bound up, they can become angry, judgmental, and critical.

All of the Buddha families speak to me, but the one I align with the most is the Karma family. Karma family people are hard-workers, they know how to get things done. When their energy is encumbered, they become envious, comparing themselves with others and finding themselves lacking. (I laughed upon hearing that because the description is so apt.) The meditation for a Karma family person is to be in the flow, to think about the wind picking up a sail so that it moves with ease, not force. In other words, the practice for people like me is to take inspired action, not compulsive action.

I’ll admit, that’s so freaking hard because my compulsive doer is strong, but taking inspired action seems to be the message I’m receiving over and over again. The universe seems to keep telling me, “Pause, my dear. Just pause.” This is also in alignment with my spiritual philosophy because my teacher says, “[M]ovement through speed and pause is an essential factor for each and every animate or inanimate object. Wherever there is existential factor there must be this pulsation. An entity acquires strength and stamina during the pause phase, and emanates vibration during the speed period. There cannot, however, be any absolute speed or absolute pause in the created world.”

In other words, I’m paused now but it won’t be permanent. I just have to wait for wind in my sails. How long I’ll have to wait, I don’t know. It could be a while, or it might be three minutes from now. The answer is unclear. But for now, it means instead of just doing something like I normally do, I’m sitting here.

I dream of a world where we recognize constantly doing all the time is a recipe for burnout. A world where we understand the importance of sitting still and waiting. A world where we understand there’s power in pausing. A world where instead of compulsively doing, we wait for inspired action.

Another world is not only possible, it’s probable.