Living vs. Being

This is an interesting distinction to make in order to understand what awakening and enlightenment are.

When you first open your eyes in the morning after a long, restful sleep you don't immediately sprint into living. You may look around and feel relaxed for a moment, instead. Before the obligations and schedules for the day come rushing back in, you are in a moment of just Being what you are. When you remember all the things you have to do, and your roles as parent or student, or chef, or whatever, then you jump back into Living.

When you are just Being, you don't have to define yourself as anything other than a Being. You are something, somewhere - you are what is called conscious and alive. Your heart beats, you breathe, there is movement, there is a world around you; and fortunately you are not alone in a dark, lifeless place.

You can look out through your eyes, and touch, taste, feel, and smell the world around you. This is you as a Being. It's a mystery how you got here, and what you come from, but here you are experiencing this, whatever it is.

Pretend for a moment that you don't call yourself anything; you don't have anything to do, no obligations, no opinions, no thoughts even - you just are something, experiencing something. This is the state of Being, and it is what is fundamentally true about you. Living gets piled onto this state of Being, but you can just be without any of the Living.

Living is so many things - it is the game, the adventure, and the drama of taking on a role in the big movie humans participate in. Living is deciding to not just quietly exist, but to dive into being a particular someone, building a story, opinions, and experiences.

Living, in this sense, is also a choice, because you could decide at any moment you don't want to have the name you have anymore, and you want to change everything about your appearance, and opinions, and beliefs. You could just choose to sit and relax and contemplate your existence all day, also. It may be a difficult choice for you and those that count on you, but it always is an option, to opt out of the game of life. Being, however, is not a choice - you are, you exist.

In the Living is where the suffering happens. Being is just Being. Awakening is realizing you don't always have to be Living, taking the Living so seriously, and suffering for the events of that Living. You can let it go, not give it your attention and concern, for as long as necessary. Forget the Living for a while if it is causing pain and suffering, and just be in the Being. This is an escape from the suffering of Living - for Living cannot exist without Being, but Being can exist without Living.

Falling into Being consistently and finding the joy that is so bountifully available in just Being, while seeing the whole of Living as a game and not being affected by its troublesomeness - this is a path to enlightenment. You have lightened your load by not Living so Seriously. You now have time and attention to spend on investigating the greatest puzzle and mystery of all - you. Existence is an amazing absurdity that is wondrously available to all, at all times. Dive into this and you will find peace, joy, and an enlightenment.