I think we suffer from a belief in options, options of how we could act in any given moment (present, past or future). I use the word “this” (which is kind of trendy these days but unrelated) to signal to my mind that this is what I’m doing right now, and therefore, this is what I am supposed to be doing. There is only one “this.” The word indicates where the body is right now which is what we call “action,” since action can only happen by the physical body in real time. So there is only one “this” and it really just refers to the fact that there is only one body (per person), and an action is only the combination of a body occupying space at a given time. It is a situation of a body occupying some space (which is really falling onto a surface because of gravity), no different than a rock or an ant. The understanding is that this alone is what I am supposed to be doing forever, because my body will always be my only actor. And, so, because the body will always be doing something, if it’s alive, then that absolutely, automatically precludes any other option for action that my mind is concerning itself with. The more acutely we can recognize this reality (in the same way we look at the horizon and instantaneously know that Earth is round and not flat), the clearer it will become that the concept of an option of action is an illusion.
It is an innocent misperception based on how something seems. It seems to us that we have various possibilities of action to choose from, but in reality, with the way action actually comes about for us in the moment, we can only do that which we see our body doing. The illusion arises from the feeling that actions come from the mind, when in fact they are only physical activities. (Thoughts are physical too, but the information they carry is unreliable.) Actions are represented in the mind, mulled over, stewed over, speculated upon, predicted and guessed at, and sometimes correct, but the only thing that ever displays an actual action is what I am referring to as “this,” i.e., what my body is doing every millisecond of my life. Without the illusion of options, we can surrender to our own actions knowing that they are what we are supposed to be doing.
Jill Eng 