#WITHOUT EXPECTING ANYTHING

Without expecting anything

Happiness is a state of being more than doing

Unlike the western world, most of Eastern cultures and traditions, expecting nothing is presented as a state of being rather than doing. An extreme case for us would be the sadhus (saa-dhu) or Hindu or Nepalese ascetics, who spend long periods evaded the world without practically moving, eating or drinking. Simply meditating in silence to transcend their earthly and material bonds that lead them to a state of essential purity. They wear saffron-colored robes as a sign of blessing the fertile blood of Shiva, and they paint their faces with colors and the trident of Shiva. The three streaks of ash on their foreheads is a sign of preparation in the face of death and represent the three impurities they have to clean, the maya (illusion), desire and selfishness.

Oriental traditions take us centuries of advantage when it comes to spirituality, and we have much to learn from them. In the Western world we are still involved in that continuous maelstrom that action produces success or that we have much to do so that we are valued or loved. It is so internalized that doing in all the daily fields that even meditating has become in most cases a path focused more to look for a result, to the movement more than to the stillness, to become more than to be. A path that through effort and discipline entails being calmer or happier, or in the worst case, the prize of enlightenment. In short, a means to an end.

This concept of the action that we have been taught so as a child should not be a problem, on the contrary, it is an opportunity to learn from these mistakes and get into their deepest sense. For example, in Taoist philosophy called wu-wei, doing nothing means not forcing situations and adapting completely to them.

Not expecting anything does not necessarily mean stopping what one does, not even stop meditating many hours a day, turning away from the world and becoming a hermit if that is what one feels at that moment. What happens is that sometimes that stop doing becomes another movement of doing, based on supposedly wiser or spiritual ideas or perhaps as a response to a feeling of disappointment with the world. After all, all this has to do with the result of actions directed from a personal interest.

According to our individual characteristics, there may be a predisposition to be alone, to a non-doing, or perhaps continue to lead a more dynamic pace of life at work, relationships or family, daily duties or responsibilities. There may also be an attraction to spirituality or not at all. Not expecting anything has nothing to do with these external conditions and circumstances, in how it develops particularly in each individual.

In any case, life seems to become waiting for a confirmation, waiting for something to happen around us that makes us happy, a new relationship, that touches us the lottery, a kind of recognition at work or the people around us.

On an inner level, there may be expectations that something will happen inside that changes our outer reality, that we may advance spiritually when we can progressively leave the material part behind, but all this remains part of the field of thought. In reality, there is an incredible liberation when we realize that there is no such thing as moving forward or backward if it is not from the illusion of thoughts.

The daily actions that we carry out during the day, when they transform into something simple, far from the devices of the mind, when they are the result of a deeper understanding, we do not really expect anything from them, because there is no interest own in taking advantage of them. The same goes for people, we don't expect them to change in favor of our peace of mind. We know that this is how it happens to us.

It is precisely to expect something from situations, people, from life that brings us anxiety and suffering.

Anyway, when we have a certain understanding that this must be so, this search can be replaced by waiting. In waiting there is a principle of understanding that the search for objects in the world does not provide happiness, but on the contrary, perpetuates suffering. He no longer goes in search of things from this more intellectual basic understanding, hence I hope that things come to me or that love will come when I am prepared in the future. But in this new attitude there is a subtle way of searching. The new object or objective can be called deep silence, happiness or perhaps some exotic or spiritual name.

We all look for happiness in one way or another, since it is something that is part of our true nature. Sometimes, it is hard to believe because of that fixation in our suffering also become that of the world.

The natural way we seek happiness resembles a drop of water that seems to have lost its purity. Those tiny molecules that make up that drop of water have been able to pass through many states. Since it emerges from the source it has been temporarily corrupted until it reaches the sea. It has been possible to mix with waste and dirt, it has been able to go against the tide, and at some point it seems to stagnate and lose all that strength, purity and transparency.

However, at the slightest possibility that this drop of water has, return to its original nature, it will. Somehow it will be activated, because it has memory and knows how to recognize its essential state where nothing has changed, it still retains the same pure qualities that define it in the background and that it can never lose.

We can never lose what we are, only the beliefs in the thoughts impel us to look for happiness or love through action, in a single person, in something intangible, when in reality closer to what we can imagine, it is here always with us...

We are pure happiness.