Why Are We Here?

“We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh

Question: Why are we here?

Short answer: To find happiness and enjoy living.

Freedom is inherent in doing things deliberately.

It’s mind-boggling how well everything works out when you pay attention to what you are doing. You could call it deliberate, or thought-free, living. 

After we learned to think and communicate, we did not learn that thinking is a tool that was added to original, inherent awareness. 

There is a saying: use the right tool for the job. Thinking is a tool for practical activities, like making a grocery list, following a recipe, packing for a trip, and so on. 

Thinking breeds problems, so trying to think your way to well-being is like trying to loosen a screw with a chair. 

Being aware is the right tool for living. Once you know how to do something, being aware of what you are doing is all you need to

Ramana Maharishi, on why we are here: “We have taken this vehicle [the body] in order to know our real state. …  What is desired by everyone is endless happiness. Although we seek to attain it in various ways, it is not something to be sought or attained as a new experience. Our real nature is the “I” feeling which is always experienced by everyone. It is within us and nowhere else. Although we are always experiencing it, our minds are wandering, always seeking it, thinking in ignorance that it is something apart from us.”

We are here to find and abide in our Self, which is peace, happiness, and love. The direct path to the Self is: Know you are aware . . . know you are not thinking. 

Become aware of more activities that do not require thinking. Drying off after a shower, trimming your fingernails, getting dressed, walking or driving around, and so on. You don’t need to think to do most things.

Make it a game, each day, to add a new thought-free activity to your list.

Stop participating with ideas, concepts, and beliefs, and there is a fullness, waiting: imperturbable happiness. 

Looking at Ramana Maharishi, I don’t doubt that.

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I’ll post a new topic each Friday afternoon, in one of two categories. One will be on shooting, and the other will be on living. Or: how I learned to live from what I learned by competing.

Thanks for coming in.