Why Humans Cannot Sit Quite?
- Madhukar Dama
- 17 hours ago
- 4 min read
INTRODUCTION
Before the smartphone, there was the radio.
Before the radio, there was idle gossip.
Before gossip, there were meaningless rituals.
Before rituals, there were mindless chores.
And before that —
there was just the restless human heart,
beating against the terrifying walls of its own emptiness.
The disease is old.
The instruments have changed.
Human beings have always struggled with one great enemy:
Being alone with themselves.
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1. THE ORIGINAL FLIGHT: ESCAPE FROM INNER TRUTH
The mind has always been terrified of silence —
Because in true silence, the mirror becomes too clear.
In stillness, a person sees:
Their illusions melting
Their masks slipping
Their wounds gaping
Their borrowed identities crumbling
Thus, even in ancient times, people invented:
Rituals for every hour of the day
Gods to pray to without needing to reflect
Wars to avoid confronting boredom and mortality
Social status games to stay "busy"
Silence was seen not as wholeness,
but as a void that must be filled.
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2. THE AGE-OLD RESTLESSNESS
Long before gadgets, restlessness had many names:
Busyness
Social duties
Farming chores
Ritual performances
Family politics
Mindless work for prestige
Villagers would sweep the already clean courtyards,
not because it was needed —
but because sitting still looked shameful.
Kings would wage unnecessary wars,
not because they had enemies —
but because peace was unbearable.
Thus, humans became addicted to movement —
not outward movement,
but the inward flight from presence.
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3. THE FALSE RELIGION OF DOING
Across cultures and ages,
Doing was made sacred,
while Being was made sinful.
The hardworking laborer was praised.
The quiet, thoughtful wanderer was mocked.
Religions invented pilgrimages,
fasts,
chantings,
confessions,
sermons —
not all as true practices of awakening,
but often as disguised activities to keep the mind busy
so it need not face the raw mystery of being alive.
Even the idea of "earning salvation"
turned into endless doing
instead of silent surrender.
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4. THE MODERN EXAGGERATION
When industrialization came,
this ancient disease became visible like never before.
Factories needed endless labor.
Schools needed endless memorization.
Governments needed endless productivity.
Now, "doing something" became the only respectable existence.
Even rest had to be justified:
Vacations became "refreshing yourself to work harder."
Meditation became "optimizing your brain."
Yoga became "enhancing your energy levels."
Nobody was allowed to just sit and be.
It had to have a purpose.
A result.
A productivity benefit.
Thus, even rest became work in disguise.
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5. THE SUFFERING OF NOT KNOWING HOW TO BE
The ultimate tragedy is this:
Humans have built entire civilizations
—without ever learning to be with themselves.
And because they cannot sit quietly, they:
Destroy forests for unnecessary projects.
Destroy their bodies through mindless consumption.
Destroy their relationships through constant drama.
Destroy their own minds through anxiety, addiction, and distraction.
Destroy the planet through restless expansion.
All because they cannot sit for five minutes without feeling the need to escape themselves.
Thus, it is not smartphones, TVs, factories, religions, wars, or politics that are the real cause.
It is the inability to sit with one's own being
— a disease older than history.
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HEALING DIALOGUE
Scene:
A barren hill at sunset.
Only the wind moves.
Madhukar the Hermit sits cross-legged,
his eyes half-closed.
A traveler approaches — not a youth this time, but a middle-aged man, Raghu,
whose eyes are hollow from years of running from himself.
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Raghu:
"Madhukar-ji... why does stillness scare me so much?
Why do I feel I must always be busy, even when I hate what I’m doing?"
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Madhukar: (gently opening his eyes)
"Because, Raghu, somewhere deep inside, you believe that if you stop moving... you will disappear."
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Raghu:
"Isn't that true? If I stop working, stop striving, stop achieving...what am I?"
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Madhukar: (smiling)
"You are Life itself.
You are the wind moving through the trees.
You are the silence between two heartbeats.
You are existence — without titles, without achievements, without noise."
---
Raghu:
"But why does it feel so empty?"
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Madhukar:
"Because you have filled yourself with so many illusions —
that without them, you mistake emptiness for death.
But emptiness is not death.
It is freedom."
---
Raghu:
"How do I begin to live differently?"
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Madhukar:
"Begin by reclaiming five minutes a day.
Five minutes where you will not invent chores, not replay conversations, not plan tomorrow.
You will sit.
You will breathe.
You will listen.
You will watch.
You will do nothing.
Not because it is useful —
but because it is true."
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Raghu:
"Will my pain disappear then?"
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Madhukar: (gazing at the horizon)
"No, child.
Your pain will not disappear.
It will change its shape.
It will become wisdom.
It will become love.
It will become understanding.
And eventually, it will become the soft music of your being."
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FINAL REFLECTION
The real miracle is not building empires,
not traveling the world,
not inventing machines.
The real miracle is to sit quietly —
without craving, without fear, without pretending —
and feel the pulse of life itself moving through you.
For in that silence,
you are not "wasting" your life.
You are finally living it.
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"SITTING IS A REVOLUTION"
they told you to run,
so you ran.
they told you to climb,
so you climbed.
they told you to work, earn, marry, save, serve, hustle, please, obey.
and you broke your knees doing it.
but nobody —
nobody ever told you:
sit down.
not for money.
not for salvation.
not for God.
not for applause.
but just because
the damn sun still rises without your permission,
the river still flows without your plans,
your heart still beats without your ambition.
they never taught you
how to be useless,
beautifully, joyfully, gloriously useless.
they never said:
it is enough to breathe.
it is enough to blink.
it is enough to feel the wind on your dead tired face
and not chase anything at all.
and now look at you —
a machine in a broken body,
running in circles with no edge,
no start, no end.
and yet the hill waits.
the tree waits.
the empty chair waits.
sit down, you fool.
sit down and become a revolution.
the world doesn’t need your busyness.
it needs your being.
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