Relax. Effort Not Required

“Effort is required to become,
but what effort is required to be?”

As a make-things-happen kind of girl, taking charge is deeply encoded in my DNA. Taking a step back when all of my animal impulses say move in, step in, fix, explain, help people understand, do something… is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to learn in this lifetime.

The concept of non-doing has been a big part of my own life lesson and message, which is why most of what I teach and write about is about letting go.

Yes, letting go, so that I, Stephanie, can make friends with it. So that I can trust, and rest in, the Divine Intelligence that is as play.

In this light I share this poem/contemplation that I saw on Facebook.  (Thank you Jeffrey Stevenson for posting it).

GIVING UP THE FIRM

Who is behind this whole manifestation?

Look, and you will …discover
that it is going on
by itself!

When you see this,
then your consciousness
becomes unoccupied.

Until then, it is being occupied
by the doer sense,
‘I must do something, I must understand’.

Effort is required to become,
but what effort is required to be?

So, remain as what remains;
witness spontaneous Existence.

It is not chaotic.

Whatever goes on, goes on,
and it does rather well.

The supposed manager
– mind–
is causing a lot of trouble.

And no, we are not just
firing the manager,
we are giving up the firm!

See if the universe stops.

Many of you are not enjoying
the cream of life, because
you’ve purchased the mind’s version
of how things should be.

This idea has cut you off
from the Source of yourself,
so you no longer flow.

Disharmony results, and suffering.

You are the Self,
the Absolute,
expressing as the spontaneous,
but you don’t know it.

You don’t even trust it!

You think, ‘What will happen
if I give up my control?
My world will fall apart!’

So you remain
in ignorance
to the excellence
of the Beingness
that you are.

Existence is looking after the body.

Stay as the ‘I Am’ –
the intuitive sense that nobody gave you;
that is and has always been present.

Out of ‘I Am’
everything is manifesting.

It merely observes
the mechanism of the universe
which is moved by this vital force,
this breath in your body,
the animating power in all bodies.

It is a mystery, and it cannot be solved.

So don’t try! Observe.

Who you really are
is not predictable.

Mind is predictable
in it’s attempts to control
the spontaneous.

Fearing the unknown,
the mind simultaneously
arises out of the Unknown,
which provides the space
for the mind to play as the unknown
and the apparent known.

This play is not your business.

Don’t worry about anything.

Be like a child in the lap of God.

Just enjoy.

Neither the policing of thoughts,
nor manning an immigration office
for feelings is required.

You can relax.

Yes. Relax.

–Breath of the Absolute – Dialogues with Mooji
page 121 & 122