Episode #40: Are you a Human Doing or a Human Being? - a podcast by Frank Anderson MD MPH and Lisa Barry

Episode #40: Are you a Human Doing or a Human Being?

We “do” lots of things- that’s what life seems to be all about.  Many of the things we do are fun, some are not, and some just need to get done. The never ending list of things to do is always there, even if they are not written down. Meditation is probably somewhere on that list -may be near the bottom -making it seem unlikely, time consuming, and difficult to fit in the schedule. However, the essence of meditation is not a “doing” but is “being”- and “being” never goes anywhere. Sure, it can be clouded over by “doing” but “being” is a natural state. Meditation then becomes a way to become familiar with that sense of “being”. Exploring the awareness of “being” clears the clouds of obstruction and allows the present moment to be what it is, even during all of doing of the things that need to get done. There is an opportunity here to wake up to the truth of being. No matter what the conditions are in the world, opening to a shift in perspective away from identifying with all of those conditions to an identification of pure presence and of pure being may provide the answer.  This creates a feeling of “don’t know” which could be the source of all wisdom- as Socrates famously observed, “I know one thing, that I know nothing.”

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