Uselessness

2026, March, Issue 191

Here we are again,

Clinging, ignorantly

clinging to distraction,

avoiding what is,

as it is,

doing whatever

we can to remain,

utterly unawake,

creating useless beliefs,

believing in a non-existent reality,

reifying this or that,

fictionalizing self,

fabricating self

into something entirely useless,

imagining only what is not there,

avoiding reality at all costs,

stopping others from discovery,

getting in the way of what is,

angsting about phantasms,

ignorance perpetuated,

disturbing emotions seen as real,

hatred and fear given too much,

cravings for what cannot last,

born into this world,

doing our best to avoid understanding,

to stay unenlightened, ignorantly

applying every effort

to say that this fiction is real,

embracing and complaining

all at once as an enigma,

profoundly contradicting the obvious,

pretending this or that fantasy within

this terrible pain, this turmoil,

perpetuating what is not,

what cannot be within this

energetic turbulence,

thinking this empty

abyss of infinite potentiality

is somehow substantial,

uselessly grasping

at permanence, when it’s not,

when nothing of the sort can ever exist;

When we choose to exist,

When we choose to perpetuate

our cyclic existence,

we choose uselessness.

A poem by Robert Aho © 2026

We’re very busy all the time. We’ve been this way for forever. We have a strong belief that our actions mean something, even if we’ve never examined what those actions may be. Even great Spiritual Practitioners might be offended by what I have to say about this.

When we are in cyclic existence, everything that we do is utterly useless, unless our actions are created from within the intention of awakening. This means that every action that stems from emotions, belief, concept and mind only perpetuates our attachments and suffering. Even doing things that make us happy will perpetuate this shared eternal suffering, simply because of ignorance. Everything we do from a relative point of view, as sentient beings, is utterly useless.

It may not seem obvious; however, it is enormously common for sentient beings to not only create their own suffering and demise, they also do whatever they can to perpetuate this suffering with all those they encounter. An example of this is when someone goes on some crusade to help others in some way. They have an idea in their head, maybe stemming from political or philosophical views, where they see themselves in some sort of righteous light. In short order, they are establishing lines and boundaries that focus on us versus them, becoming embroiled that way. All this actually does is create karmic connections and an agitated mind.

This is an example of someone choosing to do something positive, then quickly engaging in battles that create agitation and dysfunction, rather than peacefulness and awakening. If we wish to be useful, rather than useless, we can’t start with an agitated mind, we must create an intention that is beyond subject and object, an attitude of Enlightenment Mind. We simply go to our initial Aspiration to Awaken, then intuitively craft our actions into beneficial karma. Something as simply remaining in a state of equipoise, with the wish for all beings to awaken, will be far more useful than any other action we can take while embroiled in cyclic existence.

All of our actions, since before beginningless beginnings, have been for nothing, utterly useless. We generate wealth, only to lose it. We do what is necessary to become famous, only to be forgotten. We seek praise, only to be blamed when anything goes wrong. We hope for happiness, only to find ourselves suffering and miserable. Everything we do in a typical life leads to us being fully entrenched in this embroiled uselessness of cyclic existence. Only awakening can remove this perpetual pain, suffering and what is really rather unnecessary nonsense.

If we choose to live altruistically, then we have found an avenue away from this perpetual suffering, which is generally referred to as samsara. With a genuine altruistic attitude, we no longer see self and other as separate. We truly see that what we do to others is the same as doing these things to ourselves. The ignorance we’ve been creating by thinking self and other are separate, by believing in duality, begins to diminish. With this, by engaging in our enlightenment mind, we start to see mind moving into the Nature of Mind. This is not something that can actually be conceptualized, it is beyond belief, beyond our limited point of view.

As sentient beings trapped in cyclic existence, it is important to find ways to go beyond. This means looking within, meditating, being mindful of each action that we take, always going to our initial Aspiration to Awaken whenever we do anything. This creates a positive intention in life that is based upon this seed of Ultimate Reality, rather than various arbitrary and unexamined assumptions about reality.

We don’t need to become fully enlightened before we can start to go beyond uselessness, we only need to step onto the Spiritual Path by Aspiring to Awaken. Then, slowly slowly, we start to generate benefit by having this intention in all that we do. We begin to engage this existence in ways that cannot always be understood through belief and concept. Our own process of awakening moves us from uselessness into loving compassionate necessity.

Blessings of Source,

Rigdzin Robert Aho