F#CK IT! The Ultimate Spiritual Way
“ Saying Fuck It is like a massage for the mind – relaxing you, releasing tension, giving up on things that aren’t working. Just starting to say Fuck It can transform your life. Saying Fuck It feels good – to stop struggling and finally do what you fancy; to ignore what everyone’s telling you and go your own way.”
Giving up and surrendering is exactly the method used in many spiritual techniques that are aiming at getting at something both immanent and transcendent; it is about the only thing our minds can understand is the giving up and relaxing with the way thing are. Your mind cannot get there so it has to surrender all effort.
In Zen practice if you're trying to get something out of your meditation you're doing it wrong and the answer to why Zen Masters meditate becomes a riddle or koan in itself. As Zen Master Dogen says, "meditation is simply the expression of enlightenment it is not a cause for enlightenment."
In Tibetan Buddhism the highest meditation practice is called ‘no meditation’ . It’s still sitting on the ground silently but it is giving up all technique, giving up all effort to get somewhere and even giving up the subtle conception that your meditating. This is the final stage and is meant to very advanced and the Tibetan Lamas say it should only be practised after years of preliminary meditations and study, but I say fuck it, why not start with this ‘non meditation’ meditation if it’s the ultimate practice? Just sit and just say Fuck it, I’ve arrived.
Another versatile spiritual use of the word Fuck is not ‘giving a fuck’ , which as people say, is not giving two fucks about what people think of you, or not giving a fuck about what you wear or how you appear to others or anything else that society puts extra pressure on you for. This can be incredibly liberating and I definitely understand Parkin’s when he describes this as spiritual. Being ‘spiritual’ can come with its own set of assumptions and pressures to be a certain way too, so not giving a fuck and just being your self is often more authentic and dare I say spiritual than anything you can wear, eat or any workshop you can attend.
The Dalai Lama has even come close to saying fuck it when at a public talk he urged people to listen and learn from what he teaches but if something doesn’t suit you or work for you he said to just ‘fuget’. He meant forget it but with his thick Tibetan accent this sounded suspiciously like ‘Fuck It’, and that’s how it was even transcribed in the notes, and it’s how I will always remember his words of wisdom. If something doesn’t work for you then just say fuck it!
Written by Chad Foreman
Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation, has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who spent 6 years living in a retreat hut studying and practicing meditation full time and has now has over twenty years’ experience teaching meditation. Chad holds regular
Meditation Retreats on the Sunshine Coast Australia, has
Online Meditation Coaching, delivers three online programs - The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to help guide people gradually from the basics of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of awareness.
Breath-work to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and
The Bliss of Inner Fire which is a Buddhist tantric method for purifying energy blocks and contacting the clear light of bliss. You can also now get Chad's free e-book Insights Along the Way.
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