I’m a Human Being – Sitting at My Desk, Fingers on My Keyboard
A new mindfulness realization dawns on marble head.
My therapist told me about a book called Clinical Dharma: A Path for Healers and Helpers by Dr. Stephen Dansiger. She said it had been helpful to her, and she thought it would be helpful to me.
In this book, the author talks about applying Buddhist principles to clinical practices – and beyond. Specifically, this relates to the Noble Eightfold Path. Some of it has resonated with me, some not as much.
If you are unfamiliar with the Eightfold Path, it includes,
- Right view
- Right resolve
- Right speech
- Right conduct
- Right livelihood
- Right effort
- Right mindfulness
- Right samadhi (concentration, meditation, or contemplation)
As I was reading the section on Right Mindfulness, Dr. Dansiger wrote about an experience he had while seated in zazen (meditation practice), and afterward excitedly told his teacher (Roshi),
“I just realized that I’m a human being – sitting on the ground!”
Reading that washed over me like a wave as I considered my path and the actions I am taking. It’s so simple but so profound.
I’m a human being – sitting at my desk, fingers on my keyboard.
Yeah, so what? you might question.
This is the essence of everything, and applicable to and for everyone. I am a human being – being.
This profound simplicity is a quintessential recognition of genuine mindfulness.
Mindfulness is knowledge and power for you
Our culture and society love to distract and turn attention away from difficult questions. Rather than emphasizing accountability and responsibility, we see example after example of blame, denial, obfuscation, and making shit up out of thin air.
This is the opposite of mindfulness. This also means that it leaves you with ignorance and disempowerment rather than knowledge and empowerment – power for you.
I know many people who suffer from depression, anxiety, and the like. I also know many people who have been diagnosed with ADHD, a place on the autism spectrum, and/or some other form of neurodiversity (or a term a friend uses – neurospiciness). Many seek and get treatment and/or medication to help with these. Full disclosure – I’ve been fighting clinical depression for most of my life and am on an antidepressant and seeing a therapist for it.
While therapy and psychopharmacology can help – they won’t do you a lot of good if you don’t take responsibility and be accountable for any effects from your issues. Instead, they become points of blame and deflection.
For example – acting like a know-it-all-asshole and blaming your neurodiversity for it.
Mindfulness is another name for active conscious awareness. It’s knowing, right here and now, who, what, where, how, and why you are. This opens the way to working on better recognition of your inner being – specifically your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and actions.
Yet there is a far more direct, and in-the-moment recognition that is the root of mindfulness. And it’s dead simple. I’m a human being – sitting at my desk, fingers on my keyboard.
Well, duh. And yet – it’s so profound and clear that I feel like face-palming and crying out, “Of course!”
Why does being a human being matter so much?
In a world where common practices involve blame, obfuscation, denial, and outright bullshit, it’s all too easy to lose sight of yourself. And that’s how and why people get swept into counterfactual beliefs, political and religious cults, and other overzealous reactionary groups.
Fear is the root of it all. That fear is based in uncertainty, the unknown, the “other”, and various factors that are frequently weaponized to exert control over the collective consciousness.
For your own good or your protection, they tell you that you need to do this, that, or the other thing – or else risk suffering.
That’s the truest root of fear we’re sold. The fear of terrible suffering.
In The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho addresses this beautifully.
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.”
But to speak to “your heart”, you need to be actively, consciously aware of yourself. Mindful. Mindfulness works only in the present. It’s here and now – not the past nor the future.
Ultimate mindfulness is recognizing what, why, where, how, and who you are. All of which can be summed up in one phrase of recognition.
I’m a human being – sitting at my desk, fingers on the keyboard.
Being is the key here. Being is both existence and the core of personhood. You are – in this form, reading these words – a human, being.
This ties into what Yoda truly means with my all-time favorite quote,
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
This can translate to – Be by doing or don’t be by not doing. Yes, I believe it’s that profound. But also that stupidly simple.
Don’t always reject the simple and obvious
When I’m teaching someone new to fencing various elements of swordplay, we reach a point where they recognize a trap when they see one. But then there’s a point where to fight in tournaments, they go through what we call an authorization process – a fight against an instructor to see if they are safe and have basic competence.
Often, as part of that, the person fighting the new fencer’s authorization leaves obvious holes and openings to see if they recognize them and will take them.
But apart from the authorization process, these are often the chess-like moves we set to misdirect our opponents into a trap so we can win the fight.
Life often shows us really obvious paths and options. Yet we get cynical and skeptical and anticipate how they’re more likely traps and tricks. Thus, rather than doing things the easy way – we do the opposite.
Being often gets relegated to this. Just being is too simple, too basic. It doesn’t address things like doing, having, wanting, desiring, or other similar concepts.
Here’s the question – how can you do, have, want, or desire if you’re not aware of being? Who, what, where, how, and why are you – here and now?
I’m a human being – sitting at my desk, fingers on my keyboard.
From there, what am I doing? Writing this blog article.
When I’m not doing – typing at the keys, watching these words hit the screen – I’m being. Thus, I’m a human, being.
Recognizing that feels powerful.
As a human, being, the potential and possibilities are endless.
Everyone is a human being, not a human suffering
While Buddhism will tell you that life is suffering – the word “suffering” is kind of a misnomer. A better interpretation of the concept might be that life is experiencing.
That means good, bad, amazing, awful, joyful, sorrowful – you’re experiencing it all. And so long as you draw breath and are alive, you ARE a human, being.
Suffering is frequently used to scare us. If you do “X”, you will suffer. When the “other” crosses the border, they’re coming to take your job and impoverish you. If you don’t buy “Z”, you’ll suffer tremendous humiliation. Everywhere you look you’re being sold both suffering – and cures for it.
It gets so bad that it soaks into your head, heart, and soul – to the point where you wonder if you are just a human suffering.
How disempowering is that? Is that all we’re here to do is struggle and suffer?
No. We’re here to experience. BUT – some experiences will inevitably lead to suffering. Yet more often than not – as quoted earlier – the fear of suffering is far greater than the suffering will be.
You are not a human suffering – you’re a human being. And that means you have all the power to be empowered, to make choices and decisions for who, what, where, how, and why you are.
The starting point is in and at this moment. It really is both that simple and profound.
For me, that looks like this: I’m a human being – sitting at my desk, fingers on my keyboard.
What does being a human – being, look like for you right here and now?
This is the six-hundred and twelfth (612) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.
Follow me here!
