On Doing and Being

Here's a great reminder from John Cali and Chief Joseph from their weekly newsletter. Find other messages and words of wisdom at John's site, Great Western Publishing dot org.

Doing

If you grew up the way I did you know our elders were forever pressuring us to work hard if we wanted to succeed in life. We always had to be DOING something.


John Cali

We live in an action-oriented society today. Even during our so-called "leisure" time, we have to be doing something productive. We work hard at relaxing. After all, working hard is the only way we'll ever achieve anything worthwhile.

Right?

I used to think so. But no longer.

The Taoists have a concept called "wu wei." It has various shades of meaning, including doing without doing, acting without action. But it does not mean doing nothing. Sounds like a paradox, doesn't it?

Chief Joseph often talks about be-ing as opposed to do-ing. But, as with the Taoists, he does not advocate doing nothing -- becoming lifeless lumps of clay. Quite the opposite.

Here's Chief Joseph.


Chief Joseph

Friends, you cannot live in your physical world without taking action. Even a choice to take no action is, in a sense, an "action."

Where the imbalance lies is in the pressure your society puts on you to always be doing something. To do nothing is a mortal sin. You feel guilty even when you take time from your busy schedules to relax and enjoy a little "down" time.

Often you act almost out of desperation, doing something -- anything -- as opposed to doing nothing.

That is almost always counterproductive because it's forced. It feels uncomfortable. Whenever your force yourself to do anything, especially for the sake of avoiding inaction or to please others, you're getting yourselves way out of alignment with your higher selves.

That is our real point here today.

When you stay aligned with your higher selves -- that is, when you feel good -- your actions will be productive. You will find yourselves able to do much more in far less time.

We call that inspired action.

Any time you do anything that does not feel good to you, you are going to feel frustrated and will accomplish little or nothing.

Inspired action springs from that quiet center of power within you. It springs from your alignment with your higher selves, with the God you all are.

So it behooves you to take time from your busy lives to "do" nothing -- meditate, watch a sunset, sit in silence with a loved one, pet your dog or cat, listen to the birds or the wind, and so on.

"Doing nothing" is good for you. Then you will find all your actions easy and effortless. You will create what you want in your lives in the quickest, most powerful way.

Enjoy your "doing." But enjoy your "being" first. Then all will be well.