The Silent Donkey: Why Mindful Movement Meditation Morning Practices Aren’t a Path to What You Already Are

We often find ourselves in a peculiar comedy, much like the old story of the man searching frantically for his donkey while he is already sitting on its back. This is the essence of the spiritual search. We look for a presence, a silence, or a state of being as if it were something located elsewhere, perhaps at the end of a long road of discipline or through a specific mindful movement meditation morning routine. But who is the one looking? And where could they possibly go to find what is already the ground of their very existence? When we sit in silence together, it isn't about achieving a result. There is a common misunderstanding that meditation is a ladder we climb to reach a higher floor called enlightenment. But the absolute has no floors. There is no "up" or "down" in the totality. If we engage in mindful movement meditation morning practices, it might make the body-mind feel more regulated or comfortable in the moment, and that’s perfectly fine. It is a natural movement of life, like a wave rising in the ocean. Yet, the wave does not become the ocean by moving in a certain way; it is already the ocean, whether it is crashing against the rocks or lying still in the sun. The separate self is always waiting for the next moment. It lives in the "horizontal" dimension of time, believing that if it just practices enough, if it just purifies the mind enough, it will eventually attain a state of permanent peace. But liberation is not of the separate self; it is from the separate self. It is the realization that the one who thinks they are practicing is themselves a movement within the totality. When we wake up from a deep, dreamless sleep, there is a brief moment where "I" emerges—not a defined person with a name and a history, but a pure sense of "I am." This aware presence is the condition that allows everything else to appear. Without this presence, nothing appears to the body-mind. Yet, we quickly cover this pure "I am" with labels, stories, and the illusion of a journey. We talk about being distracted from being, but can the absolute ever truly be distracted? It is more accurate to say there is a distraction from the recognition of being. We get caught up in the film playing on the screen and forget the screen itself. The film can be a tragedy or a comedy; it can be a story of a great meditator or a story of a person in deep suffering. The screen remains untouched, unstained, and ever-present. Whether the body-mind is engaging in a mindful movement meditation morning session or sitting in a chaotic city street, the absolute is equally present. There is no hierarchy in the totality. The movement of a leaf in the wind is as much a perfect expression of the absolute as the deepest state of Samadhi. Many seekers are tired of the noise. They are tired of the "spiritual separate self" that often permeates groups where everyone is trying to prove how "awake" they are. But who is there to be awake?