What Do We Do? The Power of Presence Over Action

Why intention, preparedness, and handling each moment fully matters more than doing.

“What do we do?” This is often the question. When we forget why we are here, and our systems that we’ve so dutifully (or undutifully) been members of, change, it is the question especially.

First, what we do is less important than how we do it. The intention—which is to say, what is happening in the body-mind-psyche that one is going into it with, or even more powerfully, the collective body-mind-psyche one is harboring and launching from—colors the interaction and even changes the lines of the drawing, if we could see our interactions like moving pictures. There is a temptation to act without considering intention, and sometimes this temptation is so overwhelming in nature, it creates a narrative that the intention is wholesome when it isn’t. I mean, things want to live, all matter of things. Thought forms get the best of us for most of us on most days. When the stakes are highest, this is evermore the case and the work is more difficult, especially if one hasn’t practiced beforehand. Which leads me neatly to preparedness.

This could have been first, but knowing why preparedness is important at all requires some semblance of what and how intention works. What we know and bands of armed forces for several millennia have known is that preparedness and right-practice makes the warrior effective. A lot can be said on what effective means. In the context of this article, and possibly all contexts, effectiveness means experience of peace, of freedom, of flow, an ecstasy that rises through and up and out the body, all bodies, continuously. This is our true, natural state.

Next, handle whatever comes up. To do this, one has to make a commitment to oneself that they will indeed be able to handle whatever comes up. This one brings up a lot of resistance, largely because it gets tangled with preference, but there is a very subtle and important difference here so pay attention. Just because one doesn’t like something, doesn’t mean one can’t handle it. Just because one doesn’t want something, doesn’t mean one can’t handle it. Just because one doesn’t need something, doesn’t mean, one can’t handle it. Just because one’s expectation is otherwise, doesn’t mean one can’t handle it. Just because someone likes something, doesn’t mean one can’t handle it. Just because something feels good, doesn’t mean one can’t handle it. Handling it comes before taking any action. This is the part that most of us miss and ruin our lives over.

The quality of handling is having the experience of whatever is happening. That’s it. It’s so simple, it’s hard. Because all these forces, like thought forms, tend to come in and make all kinds of noise that have the result of keeping us from experiencing fully the moments of our lives as they are, and so our entire lives we remain without peace and blame what happens to us for it. This is what I mean when I say ruin our lives. A problem that is inside oneself and created by oneself cannot be solved by who or what is outside. When we believe if everything that happens to us be our way in order for us to get what we truly want (that peace and freedom) then we’ve stuck ourselves squarely in hell. When we believe that life is a bunch of things happening all the time and that it’s not only our duty but our birthright and gift to experience “the hell out of everything” then we’ve essentially prevented the build-up of whatever blocks that heaven in us, and the heaven that is always all around regardless, we recognize as ourselves, too. Like the sunbeam is distinct from the sun, and has always been and has never not been the sun.

Now, finally, if one has prepared, has intention, has handled what experience has happened (by experiencing only), then it’s time to see if any and what action is called for. In my experience, nine times out of ten, no action is needed. In other words, most often the answer to “what do we do?” is “nothing.” Following this process leads to a reduction in harm caused, to ourselves and others, and produces the most effective action—when action is necessary—on the face of the planet.

I understand there may be a lot of resistance to the idea that there is nothing to do, but if you are tired enough of feeling awful, then you’ll make the leap besides the resistance to try another way of being in the the world. Until then, of course we are free to be stuck but that isn’t any kind of freedom. We are so free, we are even free to be unfree.

It can take no time to take this path or surrender to it, like all paths. We will encounter a lot when we change. We aren’t alone when we step into our fullest capacity as individuals and in collectives and do what mostly doesn’t look too grand right now, but amounts to gloriousness in the swath of our lifetimes and a slice of heaven for us on Earth right now.

Let me know what good questions you have.