Last week I wrote about becoming, the part of us that’s always reaching for more. This week I want to turn toward the other half of the teaching: being.
If becoming is the branches, being is the ground.
The Ground That Doesn’t Need to Be Earned
Think about the earth beneath you right now. It was there before you woke up this morning. It was there before your to-do list, before your worries, before every version of you that has come and gone. It doesn’t need you to earn it. It doesn’t change when you have a hard day. It simply holds.
In yoga and in Tibetan Buddhism, being is described in a very similar way. Underneath the parts of us that are always changing, the body, the moods, the thoughts, the stories, there is awareness itself. The one who notices. It has been here for every moment of your life, quietly and steadily, the whole time. And it has never once been less than whole.
Being Isn’t a Special Feeling
I want to be careful here, because this is easy to misunderstand. Being isn’t a special feeling. It isn’t calm, or bliss, or finally having it all together. Those are experiences, and experiences come and go. Being is what’s aware of the calm and aware of the chaos, equally. It’s the ground that holds the wildflowers and the weeds without preferring one over the other. Which means you don’t have to feel peaceful to recognize it. You can be anxious, tired, or heartbroken, and the ground is still right there underneath you.
You Can’t Do Being
Here’s the distinction I most want to share with you. Being isn’t something we can do. There’s no technique that produces it and no effort that gets us there. The moment we try to do being, it turns back into becoming, one more thing to achieve.
What we can do is learn to recognize it. We learn to notice awareness itself, the quiet knowing that’s already here as you read these words. Then we rest into that awareness. And little by little, we discover we aren’t someone standing outside of awareness, looking at it. We rest as awareness.
When we rest there, and really study it, again and again, something becomes clear. Nothing is lacking. Awareness is already full. It’s already whole. It doesn’t need to be improved, fixed, or finished. It never did.
This is what I mean when I say we are already whole. Not that we’re finished growing, but that the ground of who we are is already complete, and every step of becoming happens on top of it.
Letting the Ground Hold You
There’s something I say often in class: as you release into the ground, feel how the ground rises up to meet you. It’s a physical instruction, and it’s also the whole teaching. We don’t have to climb our way to wholeness. We have to stop holding ourselves up long enough to feel what’s already holding us.
That’s harder than it sounds. Most of us are so used to bracing, so used to carrying our own weight, that letting the ground hold us feels almost unfamiliar. Some part of us doesn’t quite trust that it will. The body learns it slowly, through practice, again and again. And every time we let go a little more and discover we’re still held, something deep in us begins to relax.
We can’t become being, and we can’t do it. We can only recognize it, and rest. It’s been here, holding us, all along.
This Week’s Practice
Once a day, find a place to sit or lie down. Let your weight drop. Feel the places where your body meets the floor, the chair, the earth. Exhale, and release a little more into them.
Then notice the ground rising up to meet you.
Stay for a few breaths. Then gently turn toward awareness itself, the knowing that is aware of all of this. Don’t try to make anything happen. Just recognize that you are aware, and rest into that awareness.
If thoughts come, let them come. If feelings come, let them come. Notice that whatever arises, awareness doesn’t go anywhere. Let yourself rest as awareness, rather than as someone watching it. And if you’re curious, study it gently: is anything missing here?
Nothing to fix. Nothing to become. Already full. Already whole.
I’m leading the Rooted Fall Retreat this weekend, and this is exactly what we’ll be practicing together. I’ll be thinking of all of you.
If you’d like to practice with me, this month’s guided meditation, Home in the Body, was made for exactly this. It’s waiting inside The Practice
Quick Answers (FAQs)
Add these four FAQs at the end of the blog post, before the author bio.
1. What does it mean to say we are already whole?
It doesn’t mean we’re finished growing. It means the ground of who we are, the awareness that notices everything, is already complete. Every step of growth happens on top of it.
2. Is “being” the same as feeling calm?
No. Calm is an experience, and experiences come and go. Being is what’s aware of the calm and the chaos equally, so you can touch it even when you feel anxious or tired.
3. Can you practice being?
Not by doing. Being isn’t something we can produce through effort. What we can practice is recognizing awareness, the knowing that’s already here, and resting into it until we rest as awareness itself.
4. What does it mean to rest as awareness?
It means no longer standing outside of awareness, watching it, but resting as the awareness that notices everything. When we rest there and study it, we recognize that nothing is lacking. It’s already full and whole.
