11-25-2007, 07:09 PM
DJ defined "doing" as what gives people their shields. So you could, in addition to other definitions, say not-doing is what lowers our shields and makes our gap vulnerable... what allows death to touch us.
A not-doing, if not another definition of not-doing, is to do nothing.
I'm aware of several ways to do nothing:
One is to not respond to thoughts and events that arise as if they mean something personal to you - thoughts and events arise; that's their nature. It doesn't mean you have to do anything about them.
Another is to just be - meditation without an object. It's nearly impossible for most people to just stop and do nothing.
Another is to remove the idea that you are the doer. You do nothing - you are "being done" by the source.
Another is choiceless awareness - simply engaging the actual present moment without thinking, weighing options, decisions... there's only one here and now, what choice do you have?
In zen there is the expression, wu wei, which has been translated as not-doing. From my understanding, it refers to the concept given by Buddha that thoughts arise, yet there is no thinker; deeds are done, but there is no personal doer thereof.
The uninvestigated belief in an individual ego-self which exists distinct and seperate from the world as the subject-object relationship is, IMO, the greatest habit, assumption, routine, doing... that we do. It is the root of all other doing. No other doing is done without the "I" thought first arising.
A not-doing, if not another definition of not-doing, is to do nothing.
I'm aware of several ways to do nothing:
One is to not respond to thoughts and events that arise as if they mean something personal to you - thoughts and events arise; that's their nature. It doesn't mean you have to do anything about them.
Another is to just be - meditation without an object. It's nearly impossible for most people to just stop and do nothing.
Another is to remove the idea that you are the doer. You do nothing - you are "being done" by the source.
Another is choiceless awareness - simply engaging the actual present moment without thinking, weighing options, decisions... there's only one here and now, what choice do you have?
In zen there is the expression, wu wei, which has been translated as not-doing. From my understanding, it refers to the concept given by Buddha that thoughts arise, yet there is no thinker; deeds are done, but there is no personal doer thereof.
The uninvestigated belief in an individual ego-self which exists distinct and seperate from the world as the subject-object relationship is, IMO, the greatest habit, assumption, routine, doing... that we do. It is the root of all other doing. No other doing is done without the "I" thought first arising.