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Louie
Canada
26 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 02 2012 : 3:44:38 PM
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It always irked me when I came across cryptic sayings from Zen and Yoga masters that encouraged people to Be and not Do. However, I think I am starting to understand what that means.
What we are really is unbounded freedom and potential. However, it does not feel this way because we have trapped ourselves inside of a complicated structure of beliefs that limit us. We believe in certain limitations and therefore we have those limitations.
On the spiritual path one can encounter an entire spectrum of practices that can help one to circumvent those limiting beliefs to some degree. However, these practices are only useful to the extent that they help you to change your own beliefs about what you are or are not capable of.
Eventually, hopefully, one will reach the point where they see that it is not the practices that make them free. It is the relaxing of their own limiting beliefs that make them free. In that sense, any practice will do so long as it helps to eliminate limiting beliefs about what you are and what you are capable of.
The ultimate achievement, in my opinion, is to step free of the need for practices and just accept that you have no limitations at all and thus no need for methods to circumvent them. This is the collapse of all limiting belief and the emergence of true freedom. You are freed form the prison of your own creation.
That is what I think it means to Be and not Do.
However, it is still kind of useless to give that advice to people who are just starting out. If they do not know that it is their own limiting beliefs that are causing them to suffer, then this wisdom will make no sense at all. |
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maheswari
Lebanon
2516 Posts |
Posted - Mar 02 2012 : 3:58:03 PM
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hello Louie
lesson 325 explains it very well |
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karl
United Kingdom
1812 Posts |
Posted - Mar 02 2012 : 6:41:50 PM
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Well, the philosophy is one thing, or is ithat two things ? 
The belief that there are limited beliefs is equally flawed. The belief that you do practices is flawed. You already are, there is no becoming. That's the weirdness of trying to understand that perspective.
So be, not do. Do without doing. If you stop practices it is also an action, just like the silence before the beat of the drum allows the drum to sound.
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mikkiji
USA
219 Posts |
Posted - Mar 04 2012 : 7:41:01 PM
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In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna uses many analogies to illustrate to Arjuna the Truths he needs to understand to make the correct decisions. Because Arjuna is an archer, some of these lessons involve the bow and arrow as symbols, whose operation and mechanics Arjuna understands intimately. At one point, Arjuna is paralyzed into inaction by doubts. Krishna teaches him how to meditate, and Arjuna wonders what good sitting doing nothing will do him when it comes to acting. Lord Krishna explains that moving forward with the best possible course depends on starting from a withdrawal into the opposite of action. Look at your bow and arrow, Arjuna, he explains. You cannot have the arrow shoot forward with force and accuracy by just placing it on the bow. You must pull it back, in the opposite direction you wish it to fly, back to a state of stillness and potential. From that place of stillness, removed from action, it gains its maximum potential and when you let it go, it flies to its mark. To let the arrow fly, first pull back on the bow. To allow action to be strong and correct, pull back into the silent stillness of meditation, and from there we spring forth with maximum intelligence, creativity and energy. This is what we mean by "BE, rather than "DO". Once we perfect the technique of Being, the Doing takes care of itself. Of course, we still act, we DO things, but from silence, doing has been given the qualities of Being. We then act in accord with Nature, in harmony and balance. We become established in Right Action because we've become established in Being first.
Michael |
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Leo17
USA
29 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2012 : 01:01:43 AM
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| I think this is one of the spiritual teachings that can inflict a lot of damaging effects to a persons mind. I remember reading this "teaching" in my college days and to be honest I am not sure how helpful it has been "knowing" this. It is essentially saying do nothing, take no action, or at least that's how I interpret it. And I have to really disagree with that. |
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maheswari
Lebanon
2516 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2012 : 02:07:33 AM
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thank you mikkiji ...very nice explanation of the Gita analogy |
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lufa1212
India
45 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2012 : 10:41:14 AM
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That was beautiful, mikki ji. Many many thanks for such a wonderful explanation...
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SeySorciere
Seychelles
1553 Posts |
Posted - Mar 06 2012 : 12:15:27 AM
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| The more inner silence you have the easier it is to be rather than do. You even get to know what is meant by that ! |
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My take on the whole idea of Be rather than Do
