As I grew over the years, my love of the abstract found many and varied practical applications. I became interested in the mental side of martial arts, read a book, and learned how to hypnotize my friends, discovered how to reduce pain and increase strength through meditation techniques, and, as a chiropractor, studied half-a-hundred healing procedures, from manipulating a joint to multiplying bioenergy. I fell in awe of Einstein’s orientation of the universe and learned to appreciate the nonsensical reality of quantum physics. Those unusual, non-classical snippets of ingenious lunacy began to work their way into my mind, my heart, and even my perception of daily reality. And that brings us to the present, or almost.
Several years ago I had an epiphany. We all know that too much mental activity actually interferes with the success of activity. When the daily goings-on of talking, working, learning, and loving flow from a quieter state of mind, those activities become easier and yield far more fulfilling and successful results. This realization by itself is not new by any stretch of the imagination. After all it is the foundation for meditation, healing chronic diseases, the creative arts, and crafting the perfect jump shot. During my revelation I discovered that one can actually “do nothing” mentally, a kind of getting out of the way and letting Nature take its course, after which remarkable things begin to happen. I saw the entire universe as non-moving, frozen in time. I didn’t know it at the time but later research revealed that this perception of non-movement had been established theoretically by Einstein and others. Just like the beginning, middle, and end of a movie are all contained within a single DVD, so the whole story of the universe is frozen beyond time. But we still haven’t gotten to the exciting part.
I have always felt that there is nothing wrong with having your head in the clouds as long as you have your feet on the ground. What good is the perception of a timeless universe if it has no practical application? Now here is the exciting part! Along with the perception of an absolutely non-moving universe came the technique of non-doing: how to create fulfillment, fun, and success starting by doing nothing at all. It turns out that every one of us already has timelessness built into our genes. Timelessness is the touchstone for deepest success. Those people who give stillness a place of honor in their lives are themselves happier, more successful, compassionate, creative, and loving. There are more of these people around than you might imagine, and later in this blog we will devote a whole section to their virtues so you can recognize those virtues when they appear in you. The point here is that because of a simple flash of insight I had in a moment of extraordinary lucidity, and we now have a practical process that balances our lives between inner stillness and its dynamic and vivacious application to outer life. The profundity of this technique might not immediately be appreciated until you realize that it unifies rather than polarizes.
Here’s what I mean.
(Continued next blog…)
Book: When Nothing Works Try Doing Nothing
Audio Download (including The Nothing, Eufeeling and Eustillness Techniques): Eustillness Technique
Free Download: 90 Days to Becoming Fully Human