There is a phase in every seeker’s journey—
a subtle, often misunderstood phase—
when the sense of doership begins to dissolve
and the witnessing self starts to emerge.
In this transition, a profound confusion may arise:
To act or not to act?
For in the past, action was driven by ego,
by the desire to achieve, to prove, to control.
Now, as the witness awakens,
the seeker begins to see through the illusion of doership.
Actions once filled with purpose and intensity
now appear hollow,
empty of their former urgency.
And here, the question arises:
Should I act at all?
Or should I remain inactive,
letting life flow as it will?
But inaction, too, is not the way.
Inaction is not dharma.
Life is movement,
and dharma is the river that flows through it.
To block the river
is to deny the natural order.
So what is the way forward?
The Middle Path:
Neither forced action driven by ego,
nor passive inaction masked as detachment.
But rather,
a state of effortless, selfless action—
action without doership,
action as witnessing.
In this state,
one’s actions arise naturally,
untainted by the ego,
unaffected by the outcome.
But the world may not understand.
To those around,
the transition may appear as a loss of vitality.
The one who once acted with intensity and aggression
now seems quieter, slower, even dull.
The world interprets this as weakness,
as lack of ambition,
as incapacity.
But the one in transition
knows the deeper truth—
that the aggressiveness has been replaced by calm,
that the intensity has been refined into clarity,
that the doing has been replaced by witnessing.
And in this state,
disturbances—
whether psychological, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual—
lose their power.
They may still arise,
but they are seen as waves on the surface,
while the depths remain undisturbed.
This is the practice of immunity—
not from action,
but from disturbance.
And as this immunity strengthens,
the mind becomes clear,
the heart becomes steady,
and the witness stands firm—
untouched by praise or blame,
success or failure,
action or inaction.
For now, the focus is not on what is being done,
but on the state of being itself.
And in that state,
life flows effortlessly,
like a river moving towards the ocean—
without conflict, without confusion,
without the burden of doership.
Ra Ma
11/5/25