Being is the new doing. Someone said “New?” and I smiled because the ego is deaf, dumb and blind to truth. It can hear it a bazillion times and still go into “I can do something” mode. One of my favorite lines comes from Robert Johnson, the noted Jungian writer. He said it was a well known-saying that if you are in a bad situation and can’t think of anything else to do, pee on it. I am paraphrasing but you get my drift. The ego knows how to pee on things but other than that, it is a hard-pressed endeavor to break new ground.

I have been on the path far longer than I dare admit and being comes naturally to me. Doing is something I don’t do well. I never quite get the hang of it. I never volunteer to make crepe paper swags to hang over doorways. I would rather die than hand-fashion a wreath out of pine cones and a can of glitter. But being I know. Being I can do.

Being is love. Being is awareness. Being is heavenly and is its own reward. You can’t try to be. You can’t do to be. But being oozes out of you despite your puny little ego efforts. I write from being and nothing else. I am still pestered by my ego to do things, to become something, to be better today than I was yesterday. The ego has bought into time and holds a stop-watch over us most of the time. That is why we have to sleep at night—to get some relief from all of the trying that we do.

So to recap, being is the new doing. There is nothing new under the sun, but the ego has to be told again and again that its idea of being is just an idea. Real being comes down from heaven as a true reward for a quiet surrender. The news media cannot report on such things. And if it does, it ruins them. Spiritual heroes become media darlings and you know what happens to those.

That’s all from here, this place of ignorance, repentance and starting all over again for the millionth time. I will get there one day but it won’t be through an act of effort.

Vicki Woodyard