What do all this paths have in common? (Zen, Taoism, Advaita Vedanta, Christian Mysticism....)

There is something that Zen, Advaita Vedanta, Taoism, Buddhism, in terms of especially Dzogchen or Vipassana, which all these paths together are probably one of the best. It's like 70-80% of the best of human spirituality over time and over cultures. I love Christian mysticism too. What do all of them have in common? Well, the key to all of them, at least in my opinion, after studying this for a long time, it is non-doing. And if you go through all these teachings, you're going to see it all around in different ways. That's why I'm trying to help you today, just to notice. It's a very significant similarity and that makes it very important. If all these paths have been pointing directly at this aspect, it must be very important. What I would call non-doing, which basically consists in non-striving, meaning you're not trying to do things better. You're not trying to prove yourself. You're not trying to make this enlightenment a goal. You're not interfering with what's happening. Whatever you're observing, you're letting it be the way it is. You're resting as awareness. So you're resting in what you are. You're pointing to the essence of what it is already. And of course, you're not trying to control anything. You're letting go of any attempt to control it, which is basically most of your thoughts. Most of our thoughts are attempting to control the world. So just letting go of that aspect. Yes, that is already a huge chunk, a huge revolution. So all of this culminates in non-doing in different paths, name it in different ways. For example, in Advaita Vedanta, for example, they talk about resting in awareness, letting awareness be as it is, aware of awareness, the unchanging aspect of your experience, noticing what is noticing, who am I by inquiry, and that aspect of you that is unaffected, your primary essential attention of this moment, your aliveness. That's why they point out, which is obviously something that is not doing. You don't find it by doing. If you're doing, you're not already resting. So we lean that together with Zen, for example. In Zen, they have Sikhan Taza, which is also known as just sitting meditation, especially in the Soto school, where you just basically just sit. Many Westerners have, when they figure out that actually Zen is one of the quickest paths to enlightenment, many people have been searching and trying to accomplish this. It's a bit of an intelligible, complicated thing. It's impossible to understand, actually. And the practice, it is just sitting. You don't do anything. There's no clear instructions for it. So it just seems mysterious, which just makes it more attractive even. That is very frustrating because you try to sit and do nothing. What happens? Many people will say nothing happens. Okay, you're not doing the practice. If you do nothing, something happens. And it's not something that happens that hasn't been happening. You just noticed something that has been happening. I don't want to confuse you. Nevertheless, just sitting is definitely my way of correlating in Zen. Then you have Taoism, which is probably one of my favorites, because they explain it in a way with the concept of Wu Wei, which means non-action. And I love that because all these other paths insist all the time in non-doing, non-doing, non-doing. But it could lead to the misinterpretation that you actually have to not move your body or your mind. And although that could be useful, absolutely, life is way more complex than that. You just don't lock yourself in a cave and stay still forever. That's not the point of any of these paths. And yet Taoism, knowing that, they wanted to make the emphasis clear. No, you attend to all your responsibilities in life. You attend to your job, attend to your relationships, any responsibility. But you do it in a way that you spontaneously merge with the activity. So there is no resistance. You are in flow. You are not trying to control the experience. You are non-doing, non-doing in action. Then you have Tsog Tsen, for example, in Tibetan Buddhism. In there, they emphasize that you rest in your mind as it is, as it is. That's a very important point. You rarely hear that. I think it's a beautiful thing to say, because most people will think, oh, there's something wrong with my mind, or you're trying to change your mind through meditation, or you're trying to improve your mind or have better thoughts or become a better human. I don't know. No, rest in your mind as it is. That is actually the path. You're not trying to change it. You're not doing anything. Then you also have Advaita Vedanta that I mentioned already, which is resting awareness. Then you have Christian mysticism, for example. They have the concept of resting in God, centering prayer. You're resting in the presence of God. So by means of contemplation, by means of, which is similar to what in Eastern countries know as meditation, but they call it contemplation, by means of what is also called the via negativa, which means you're not doing anything. And the negative path, for those of you who cannot translate that, that via negativa means the negative path in some way, meaning that you're not really adding anything to you. You're just purifying yourself. And how do you purify yourself to discover what you are already, to discover what God is? By doing nothing, by trusting, by faith in that if you don't do anything fully and completely, God will guide you. God will do all the arrangement for your insights and transformation without you doing anything. Just grace will descend to you by doing nothing. And I don't know if I'm leaving any path behind, but I hope you get the idea that in all of these paths, and let me emphasize that this is definitely some of the most sophisticated and profound paths for true happiness, not all of them, but definitely most of them, it's very interesting that all of them have in common this single aspect of non-doing. Why is that? Because we're always trying to do, we're always trying to change. So take it as definitely one of the main pointers in your spiritual development, if you want to call it, but it's more like purification probably, like you're not really developing anything. Even when it seems to be happening in time, you are already there, you're just putting together your mind and your presence by resting, by not doing anything. And that sounds very simple to say, right? But sit and do nothing. What will happen? Well, like if I tell you relax your body, it's all tension that you're actually doing in some way, but through certain breathing techniques, scanning techniques, you will be able to relax your body deeper, right? And how would describe that experience as doing less? You're doing less tension. Relaxation is actually nothing. It's not an activity. You're just letting go of tension. That's what relaxation means. So beyond the experience of your body, that's something you may comprehend. You will notice that it's not as easy as it seems. If you're nervous and someone tells you to relax, we probably will understand quickly that as much as you would like, there's a lot of unconscious patterns that we are not noticing that are uncovering this activity. So we don't even notice. People don't notice why we are suffering. We don't notice why we are misinterpreting the presence of God. And we're just suffering. We just don't understand why. And we try to do something about it. That's what we know. But that keeps us in a wheel forever. And in all these paths that I mentioned before, it led to, for many people, to full-time lives meditating and not necessarily achieving anything. Because you can try to meditate and also fail. So just by non-interfering, by stepping back, it doesn't mean that you are... you're detaching but you're not disentangling the sense of you are not cutting your experience. On the contrary, the fact that you are retracting your intentions helps you see more clearly what's happening and that I'm talking about your mind, I'm talking about your body, I'm talking about your thoughts, your actions. And when you see that, it's like as if someone would just have opened the curtains and there is the movie. And it's fascinating. It's like a great Hollywood movie. This moment is exciting. It's full of aliveness. Every corner of the movie, every character of the movie is fascinating. So it is this moment in your life right now, without improving anything. Because you don't have to improve anything. And even these strategies to do something to do nothing, they're just temporary. As Buddha said, it's just like a canoe you take to cross the river and you have to leave it. You have to leave it behind. So in your letting go, at some point you have to let go of your letting go and just surrender to what is, without doing anything, without trying to change yourself and just navigate this moment as it is without interference. I think it's fascinating that it's so simple. And does it work for you? Did you know this? I think you did. Do you have any problem putting into practice? Write it in the comments. I'm pretty sure there's going to be other people who also would like to know. So thank you for your time and I wish you a good day.