stories

I read a question today: “how do you define progress” … and I found myself lacking a definition, lacking any idea, lacking anything at all, on the subject of progress. Nothing I thought about it felt right. My head would persist in providing me with all sorts of reasons why progress was good: the improvement, the growth, the development, the help extended to those in need, the cure for diseases, the better world … but my body was not convinced. My body is not convinced. I sit here right now feeling what progress is, and it feels to me like a mind running wild. Progress feels to me like my mind getting very busy, determined, motivated. It feels to me like my mind creating a whole reality for itself, a story, like a virtual life, where mind sets the rules, values and goals. In this virtual reality everything has to always move forward, because mind can not rest. In this reality things must be always happening, there must be always something to do, more things to do, and more, and more… In this virtual reality, created by my mind, all issues, problems, dilemmas, are solved by more activity, more doing, more creating, better creating, better doing, better, faster, more … As I sit here, observing my mind, seeing where it goes at the though of progress, my body is unmoved. It sits here, warm, comfortable, peaceful. My body sits on a chair. There is no need to move. There is no need to do anything, there is no need at all in my body. It is simply here, present. And it feels good. Calm, relaxed, grounded. I am here. That is all, there is nothing else and there is no need for anything else. The need is in my mind, not in me. Progress is in my mind, not in me. I am here.