Life Is Doing Life: Surrendering the Illusion of Control
When it comes to making the most out of life, it doesn’t have to be complex - always the thing is— Our engagement.
That's what brings depth to the experience.
We could be in a potentially powerful moment, but if we're not really there for it—if we’re not present with it—it won’t feel deep. It will be shallow. It won’t feel meaningful.
So the key to everything is: how much are we engaging with what's happening? That’s what determines whether it’s a deep enriching experience, a powerful one, or a shallow, superficial, meaningless one.
In other words:
We bring the meaning.
We bring the purpose.
We bring the depth—through the energy we give to whatever we're doing.
So the yogis said, “Okay, if that’s true, then it means: if we access this capacity within ourselves to truly engage, to be with what’s happening… then every experience can be rich. Everything can be profound, meaningful, deep. We can have a deep life.”
They said it doesn’t matter so much what you’re doing—it matters how you're doing it.
The idea with the Sharanam Meditation is to inspire yourself to interact with it more deeply than you’ve ever interacted with it before each time you do it.
The thing with yoga is—it’s necessarily repetitive.
That’s how it goes deep.
In the same way that, if you wanted to dig a hole, you’d have to keep digging in the same place, wouldn’t you?
That’s repetition.
But that’s how you get a deep hole.
And if you dig deep enough… you hit something.
Might be water. Might be gold. Might be oil.
If you’re not digging in the same place, you just end up with lots of shallow puddles. No depth.
Yoga is necessarily repetitive.
I’ve been doing the Sharanam Meditation—in some form—for 30 years.
The same essential reflection, the same enquiry, the same understanding… it's been there the whole time.
So I’ve had to become an expert at keeping it alive.
Keeping it fresh.
And that’s almost an essential skill in Sadhana.
Coming together like this—us—we share in such a way that we keep adding new depth.
And once you get used to doing that with each other… you’ll find you can do it by yourself too.
Because what Sharanam Meditation is really saying is:
Life is doing Life.
Life is everything.
You can’t get outside of it, can you?
It's like… a wave trying to be separate from the ocean.
You just can’t have a wave hanging out somewhere other than in the ocean, can you?
And that’s the same as Life.
Life is everything. It’s infinite.
And everything is an expression of it.
These few simple words: Life is doing Life…
It means Life is doing everything.
Which means — largely speaking — we’re doing way too much.
And that’s why we’re stressed to our eyeballs.
That’s why we’re anxious.
Why we live in fear.
Why we experience misery and suffering.
It’s because we’re trying to overdo what’s already being done—magnificently and beautifully—by Life itself.
So then the question becomes:
How do we relinquish this overdoing?
So we can start to experience the wonder of what Life is already doing—
If we just step back a little bit.
I’ve meditated on this so deeply, you know—for years.
At first, it only went in shallow.
That was all I could handle.
But gradually, I started to get to grips with it:
The same power that’s shining in the sun,
That’s blowing in the wind,
Turning the tide,
Raising mountain ranges,
Growing trees,
Living every single organism there is—
That same power is also living in me.
It’s one power doing all of it.
And that one power is behind every single one of its manifestations—including me and you.
The whole ocean is behind every wave.
Think about it.
Is the ocean saying,
“Here, wave, I’ll give you just a little bit.
Oh wait, I like this one more, let me give that one more power.”?
No.
The entire ocean is behind every wave.
That’s worth meditating on.
Especially if you’re feeling weak, or insecure.
That big power—it’s breathing you right now.
And you weren’t even aware you were breathing just then, were you?
But right then—it was breathing you.
Even in your sleep.
It’s literally living you.
It’s beating your heart for you—right now.
Is that so?
Or are you the drummer boy?
Are you beating your own heart?
Digesting your own food?
Managing the sophisticated dance of hormones in your brain so your whole body works in harmony?
No?
Didn’t think so.
This is terribly humbling.
Because that same one power—that’s doing everything to keep you alive—
It’s doing it in every other being too.
Even if you just count human beings—seven billion of them—
Simultaneously!
And that’s not even mentioning the burning of suns, the spinning of planets, or whatever else this extraordinary intelligence is managing.
And yet…
We assume we’re smarter.
We assume we know better.
We assume we are the doer of Life.
But this single meditation—this knowing that Life does Life—comes again:
Settle down.
Humble yourself.
Accept that you are being lived by Life, every single moment.
That Life is transforming itself continuously—in everything.
It’s always letting the old go, renewing itself all the time.
And it’s doing that right now—in you.
It’s recreating you as we speak.
You’re not the same “you” from a second ago… now… now… now… now… now.
Like you couldn’t put your foot in the same river twice—
That’s you.
For me, it’s a lifetime’s meditation.
It puts me back in my right place:
In awe.
In joy.
In wonder.
In humility.
And it drains the anxiety right out of me.
It helps me overcome fears.
It stops me from planning shit I have absolutely no say about whatsoever.
And it stops me complaining about things—
Because I’ve got to start assuming that it knows better than me about where it’s taking me in this life.
That’s how powerful the Sharanam Meditation is.
And I’m only 30 years in.
I’m so looking forward to it.
If Life chooses to keep living me a while longer…
It's just going to get deeper, no?
That’s been my experience so far—so I’m assuming:
It’ll just keep getting deeper
Until there’s nothing left of me to deny that power.
And according to the yogis…
I will just become it.
Instead of assuming myself to be separate from it.
The wave is ocean, no?
So the idea is:
Put yourself in that space.
I try to talk to you there.
But I can only do that if, energetically—physically—you go,
“I open to this. I feel this truth in my body.”
That’s when it happens.
The whole process of sadhana
Is to become convinced.
Beyond any shred of doubt whatsoever—
About our already-existing connection to this great power called Life.
And to feel that as our actual reality.
Not just in our minds—
But right here.
In our bodies.
As real.
And to keep doing it…
Until we’ve overcome all our doubts.
It takes a little bit of time.
It’s like a deconditioning of the mind.
You don’t need to be certain about anything else.
At all.
Because there’s no certainty anywhere else.
But if you can get absolutely certain about this one thing—
You will become unshakeable.
You’ll become immovable in truth.
You’ll become utterly fearless.
And self-standing.
You won’t need anything else to back you up.
You will no longer have to outsource your certainty:
“Do you agree?”
“What do you think?”
Instead you will say, “I know… in my bones.”
One being like this can change the world.
Because a being like this no longer functions according to the whims of the mind or the whims of other people’s minds.
They are moving in the certainty of truth.
But we have to prove it to ourselves.
This is what Sadhana is.
This is what the yogis have been doing for thousands of years.
They weren’t making funny shapes to feel fit and healthy—
Even though, yeah, they did get fit and healthy.
That’s just a side effect.
They did it to gain certainty that this was so.
So they experimented—in the postures.
Like we do now.
It’s like,
“Alright… what happens if I do the absolute minimum?
If I get out of the way with my mind?
If I stop trying to force the body to go somewhere?”
Because if I am forcing—
Then I’m assuming I know better than the body.
Which means I’m assuming I know better than Life.
So let me get humble enough…
To not enter the posture…
And say:
“I should be getting here. I’m not as flexible as yesterday” etc.
Life is going to take you wherever it wants to take you
—in your body—
In the particular few breaths you get to have in that moment, in that posture.
And if you just breathe it…
And let it go…
You’ll find it hits the perfect point of stretch, every time.
That place where your breath doesn’t wobble.
When there’s too much effort, and you start doing again—
You’ll feel it.
But if it’s just sweet…
And you just keep touching that space…
It will be perfect.
And at the end of the posture, you’ll be able to say:
“I didn’t do much there at all.
I just agreed to go with the breath.
I let it show me where it wanted to go in the stretch.
And I just stayed there.”
And Life took me on an absolutely perfect journey—
To exactly where I needed to be in this moment.
All I had to do was follow.
Can you do that?
After a while, it will just become normal—
Occasionally, my mind will interfere.
I can feel it now—my mind goes:
“Steve, you’re not very flexible, are you?”
And now I’ve learned to go:
“Mind, do one. I’m in bliss.
Are you?”
This is absolutely fantastic.
I’m actually enjoying myself—
In my own body.
At long last.
Yeah—it’s intense, the stretch.
But I love it.
It feels good.
My body’s enjoying it.
Everything agrees.
Life’s happy.
Rocking.
Not that thinking is bad.
It’s just when the compulsive thinking is trying to ruin our fun—
That’s the problem, isn’t it?
The mind will start to listen.
The thinking mind will start to realise:
“Hold on a minute… I’m not in charge.”
Before, all it had to do was whisper in your ear, and you’d be off—doing a right one.
And now?
It’s making all kinds of suggestions:
“You’re not good enough.”
“You should be somewhere else.”
“You should be getting somewhere.”
And you’re not listening.
You’re just not listening to it.
It might get a little grouchy sometimes—
That’s totally normal.
But gradually, thinking will recede—
Back into where it is supposed to be.
Because thinking is an instrument.
Something we can go to when we want to use it.
And then we leave it—
To get on with life.
Which is not thinking.
We go to thinking when we need it.
Otherwise—
It sits down, nice and quiet.
But it takes time—
Because thinking is used to getting your attention all the time, isn’t it?
You don’t have to get aggressive with it but the thinking mind has to learn: “I’m doing something else now. I’ll speak to you later.”
It’s the same way you would parent a misbehaving child.
And then you just sit.
And you become the master of your mind.
Not by controlling it.
Just by leaving it alone.
This is the way home.
Does it take time for the mind to calm down?
Yeah.
But every time it happens, you’re winning.
You’re creating space for yourself to abide—without interruption.
.So, you know, Kath said something really brilliant the other night.
She said:
“I’ve got all this staying-easy-in-myself going on.
it’s actually really lovely…
But my mind’s now saying,
‘Kath, I’m not sure we’re getting anywhere.
I’m not sure we’re progressing.’”
Like: “I know you feel better than you’ve felt in your entire life…
but where are you going?”
That’s just the thinking mind.
Getting a bit anxious about it’s position in the world.
It’s the great controller.
It’s a wonderful moment when you can go:
“Hey, I know you’re concerned.
But honestly? This is going really well.
I’m what’s called happy, currently.”
But I’m happy. Here.
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