The Pooh Wisdom

Years and years ago, I had this period of my live when I seriously started looking to explore “the depths of my faith”. I just started a new relationship, I was in love, I was motivated, I was eager to “do stuff”. At that time I was close with the local order of Dominicans; very spiritual fellows and most importantly scholars, with down-to-earth approach to life. In my search I wanted to immerse myself in the lecture of spiritual texts. With a look of determinations and all the eagerness of a young heart I wandered through the corridors of the old monastery to find a fellow monk, a friend of mine, to ask which scripture would suit such an eager spirit like mine! Thomas was happy to help and as he saw I barely can sit still, ready to explore, he offered some quite prayer to set the stage. Clearly, it wasn’t his first encounter with such eager spirit. He sat quietly and led me explain all the grandiose ideas and  “what-not” of mine. I was obviously expecting a long list of scholarly texts I could study and through them achieve enlightenment, union with God, or whatever the kids calling it these days. To my complete surprise nothing of such sort happened. In his wisdom, without trying to kill my spirit, he simply said: If God wants to find you, it’ll happen even if you only read local newspapers”. It’s been almost 20 years, and I still come back to this sentence as one of the greatest revelations of my life.

The modern society is defined by quantifying “doing”; how many books you’ve read, how many degrees you have, how many times you went to the gym this week, how many followers you’ve got on Facebook etc. Amongst all these metrics we forget the simple truth: we are human beings, not human “doings”. We already arrived, we already possess everything to be happy, right here, right now. Sit, close your eyes, relax, and wait. If you have enough patience and allow the active mind to settle (easier said than done!) soon enough you experience happiness, enlightenment, union, oneness – everything you are looking for. It is not through doing but through stillness that all gifts come to you. Yes, they will come to you! Perhaps this is a secret that is so difficult to understand in the era of constant action. Doing does not necessarily bring you closer to the things that you need; doing brings you closer to the things that you want but, then, how many things you wanted in your life made you truly happy? “Want” and “Need” are different in the same way as doing and being. Most of us have to do many things before we realise that only in being we are truly ourselves.

This whole reflection, was inspired by a recent movie “Christopher Robin”, based on a  famous book by A. A. Milne – and hence the title! In this story the adult Christopher Robin, like most of us, is immersed in doing, chasing his own tail in a big  London corporation. As in every Pooh story, the bear is the real hero. In his brilliantly juvenile, matter-of-factly words, the Pooh delivers most important spiritual truths that were clearly forgotten by the modern society:

“Doing nothing often leads to the very best kind of something”

and

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day”

I want to leave you with that wishing you (and myself) much being and less doing.