Table of Contents
Being and Doing: The Importance of “To Be” and “To Do”
The interesting thing about Being and Doing is that the phrases “To be” and “To do” are two different planes of existence. Each verb has its own depth and its own space of existence.
Most people connect both these verbs but find them inseparable. However, it becomes important to understand each verb. Then, it can open the doors towards understanding ourselves better and trigger the process of “Realizing the Self”.
When we give enough attention to the deeper systems of life, to our own inner processes, the gateway to Self-realization shall automatically open up. We cannot assume such an approach to be merely philosophical.
It bears within itself the seed of “Higher Life”, the “Higher Self”.
Being and Doing: Karma and Intentions Drive the Doing Process
When we find ourselves doing some activity or indulging in some sort of thought, word or deed, it fundamentally symbolizes the “doing” aspect within us.
This “doing” aspect has a great evolutionary history behind it.
It has a colossal engine of Karma and intention operating behind it. So, in doing things, one uses the force of previous actions and intentions. These intentions and actions can also result from “reactions” towards certain people, circumstances, events, or biases.
So, the whole philosophy of “doing things” expresses itself as an “outcome”.
This outcome, therefore, does not define us, obviously.
Being and Doing: One should prefer Shreyas over Preyas
The outcome becomes just another reaction to earlier positions taken by an individual.
There, however, exists, a great disconnect in the “doing” process.
This disconnect results in disillusionment and a “lack of holistic” purpose. Hence, a person who does work, with a short-term purpose usually “Preyas”, misses out on the larger and the deeper dimension of being. In the Deeper Dimension, one can excavate through the process of discovering the “larger good” or Shreyas.
Only Dissatisfaction in the End
The exasperation, at the end of the complete “doing process”, stems from ignorance.
Ignorance qualifies the lack of insight into whatever one is performing. This ignorance makes a person wary.
A person would have done the so-called best things in life. He would have traveled to the best places. One would have worked in great organizations or would have become a great businessman.
But there comes a time, when one looks back and does not feel very happy about one’s own achievements. One may have achieved great goals, but those goals ultimately turn out to be fruitless in the larger scheme of things.
All work that we do in this material world, seems to be empty in the end, entirely purposeless. Why?
The Problem: Doing supersedes Being
A feeling of purposelessness exists because the heart does not know satisfaction of any kind. The thirst for existence still remains and disturbingly lingers on.
We still keep looking, trying to do and achieve things endlessly; we continue to hope that someday something will result in satisfaction. That only makes us warier and gloriously dissatisfied.
What we now need to focus on, is “being”, the real light of the “one who is doing”. Inner work becomes compulsory in order to get established as the “doer”, so that “doing” happens instead of the usual forceful effort that goes behind the doing.
This forceful effort saps one of energy and brings about utter dissipation and exasperation.
Being and Doing: Buddhism focuses on Being
Man has never stopped looking outside for help.
This “looking out” for help has become the source of those very problems.
Unless one completely realizes the fact that the mind alone causes dissatisfaction and ultimate suffering, our redemption becomes impossible, Buddhism addresses this very difficulty.
Our focus needs to shift to “being”. The solution lies there.
Awareness Holds the Key to Being
When one becomes sufficiently aware of one’s actions and becomes aware of the responses that the universe throws back at us, one slowly graduates towards “insightful living”. Until such time, every effort is just a shot in the dark.
Once we see that our experiences simply result from our own mental creation, we shall make rapid progress towards “being”.
Hallucinating About The Purpose of Life
When we say “being”, it means our very core, our true nature, and not much about what “the world expects of us”. Unfortunately, people start hallucinating about the “Purpose behind their birth”. This becomes the sole cause of suffering.
Instead, we shall become wise if we recognize our own innate nature, the “being inside”.
The more one vibrates with the “being”, the more one gravitates towards self-sufficiency and peace. Our defeat lies in the point of “trying to change things or people”.
We are in a constant tiff with ourselves and the world.
We are continuously trying to “get somewhere” and that is not in consonance with the “being”. Naturally, we miscalculate and misdirect our assumptions right from the word go.
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Being and Doing: Brahman and the Being are Same
Unless we sufficiently conserve and preserve mental energy, thereby intelligently directing it, we can never find the being”. The moment we find the being, we realize that “We are already that being”.
We had never been away from it. We never have to do anything or “change anything”. The Yoga Vashishta is one such scripture that alludes to our being and gives practical tips towards establishing ourselves in the “being”.
We should first realize that we are here with a transcendent purpose, with no existential or material purpose. The transcendent purpose is to connect with the higher consciousness.
Some call it Sri Krishna or Sri Rama. Others call it Brahman, our True Self. Other than that, there exists no purpose whatsoever.
Being and Doing: Soul Transcendence
That Brahman is “being”.
Our “individuality” has identified itself with lower tendencies and lower goals because of which intelligence becomes clouded. When the individual transcends this illusion, he automatically gets established in Brahman or the being.
This qualifies as “Soul Transcendence”.
Fear: A Major Roadblock Towards Transcendence
We are multidimensional beings and this we have forgotten, or perhaps never known. If we know this, we would never have any “materialistic ambitions”.
We would never worry about our “survival”. Since the fear of obsolescence and survival harasses us in our dreams, it becomes safe to assume that we have never known our transcendent self.
Being and Doing: How can we get established in the “Being”
Unless we get rid of the small fears of life, namely the fear of loss and survival, we can never get rid of ambitions. Ambitions are fueled by desires and unless desires are extinguished, our journey can never begin.
Only when we realize at our very core that life cannot offer us anything and that we do not have any specific purpose in life, our journey can never start.
The world is real. This illusion too grips us.
Unless we have faith in the masters, our journey cannot begin. We have to realize the word of masters that, “The world is in your mind.”
“It is your making”. Until such time, we can never get rid of the illusion of living. These delusions need to withdraw somehow before we gravitate towards the being.
Once established in the being, “A new doing” shall arise, born out of freedom, born out of utter purposelessness and abandon. That “doing” turns out to be exhilarating and invigorating, keeping our vibration at a high pitch.
That “doing”, born out of “being” is Akarma that Lord Krishna refers to, in the Gita.
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