The Greatest Achievement is to Do Nothing

We are all so compelled.

So much of what we do comes from an inner drive that we do not even realize is there. This inner drive comes from a tension between what needs to be done and the process of doing it. This is the root cause of stress, in our homes, our workplaces and our relationships. After awakening we find it much easier to simply be, in stillness and silence - not because we are trying to be still, or because we are practicing, or because we want to, but rather we are still because it is our nature.

The journey from awakening to enlightenment involves being present to and letting go of our remaining compulsions. To lead a life completely free (of compulsion) is the enlightened state. In the enlightened state we are not so much caught up in the process, as we are the process. The thing needing to be created and the creator are One. Such creativity carries the hallmark of effortless perfection.

To lead a life beyond compulsion, does not mean we have no drive, or that we don’t want to do anything. Rather it's a state where we are moved by the whole of life, in a mysterious way that is highly creative, with no clear objective, and where we are totally relaxed all at the same time. That’s because we are not coming from “I want to do this” but rather from being completely immersed in the doing, magically merging movement with stillness.

Where else can we witness this state of total absorption? Have you ever watched a heron, standing stock still on a rock in the middle of the river. Although it is completely still it is utterly absorbed and focussed. We can witness the power of this when the heron suddenly snaps forward to catch and claim its next meal, a hapless fish.

As humans, we too possess this power of stillness in action. Indeed possessing this power is the secret to extraordinary achievement. Human achievement, unlike the heron, is not instinctual, but creative. Uniquely in the animal kingdom, the power of the creator runs through us. Man can create like nature. Where evolution by natural means proceeds slowly and co-arises unconsciously alongside changes in the natural environment, evolution by people responds to a rapidly changing human environment, proceeding consciously as people across the world are inspired to fulfill unmet human need. This means Planet Earth is Waking Up - for the first time in its history the planet is reinventing itself by becoming conscious.

For example, the development of flight in animals, although around since the pterodactyl, has proceeded without conscious intent and at a snails pace over thousands of millennia. Human flight however, although little more than a century old, is a conscious response to human need that has taken us to the moon and back - such is the power of divinely inspired, human creativity.

At its peak of perfection, this creative response is born out of total inner stillness - the required understanding received in the moment it is needed, perfectly formed and ready to be slotted into place.

That is how, by magically merging movement with stillness, we manifest everything our heart desires. And that is why the greatest achievement is to live in abundance while doing nothing.