The Spectrum of Being and Doing

(An edited transcript of the mp3 entitled The Spectrum of Being and Doing on the Listen to Satsang page)

The tradition I come from is a path of Jnana, a path of knowledge. So as a result there's often a lot of words. It's just a particular path that uses the mind to go beyond the mind. But the point is what lies beyond the mind. What is beyond the mind is not separate from or lacking in the mind; it just also extends beyond the mind. So there's an invitation to approach the words in a particular way because they aren't really the point. It is possible to approach the words very gently and hold them lightly, especially the content of the words. You can let the words just carry you somewhere, and not worry to much about what's actually said or try hard to "get it" or even remember any of it, because you're probably not going to anyways.

So the invitation is to treat the words like you would a good story. Remember story time when you were a kid?  What a relief it was when it came to story time because you didn't have to remember anything, there wasn't going to be a test or a quiz. You could just sit back and let the story carry you, let the words have whatever effect they had on you without worrying about holding onto what's said.

That's the invitation. That's really the path of knowledge. It's a path to take you beyond knowledge and beyond words. And yet the word I want to speak about tonight is a very specific word, which is Advaita. It's the name of  the tradition I come from. It's a Sanskrit word and it means "not two."  Advaita means not two. What that word is pointing to, what that word is meant to carry you to, is the experience of oneness. There are not two things. There's only one, one existence, one thing in this whole world, in this whole universe. It's all one thing. There's not two.

And often when we hear about this experience of oneness,  we think, "oh I wish I could have that, show me the way to oneness" as if it's somewhere else. As if this one thing, this oneness is somewhere other than right here. And so tonight I'd like to take a look at oneness from a different angle, from a different place to see what it really means if there's only one thing, if that was true of all your experiences.

There's this funny thing about all of the dualities in the world, all of the ways that we create contrast and difference and even opposites. If you actually look at these dualities of our experience, you find out that they actually are just one thing in different amounts. There is only one thing that you can experience more or less of.

For example we talk about light and dark as if they're two different things and even two opposite things. And yet if you just look a bit more simply, what you notice is there's really only one thing. The one thing is light. That's what exists. There are these photons, this energy called light. And there really isn't such a thing as dark. There are no "darkons". Darkness doesn't exist as a separate form of energy. "Dark" is just a word we use when there's less light. It's just a way of describing the experience of not much of the one thing that does exist which is light. It is always relative, but ultimately, there's no place in the universe where there's no light at all. There's always cosmic rays zipping through even in the darkest place.

Another example is hot and cold. It sounds like two different things, but there's actually just one thing, heat. Different amounts of heat. Different amounts of this energy, this motion that we call heat. And again there's actually no place in the universe where there's none. But when there's not much, we call that cold.

All these things that we think are two different things like deep and shallow. It's different amounts of just one thing -- depth. If there's a lot of it we call that deep, if there's not much we call that shallow. And that's a good example, because there's no nice neat boundarybetween deep and shallow. Because we're talking about different amounts of one thing, there's never a clear cut place where dark turns to light, or cold becomes hot. It's always relative. If you live in Canada then 79º is hot. If you live in Arizona where I'm from, 79º is kind of cool.

So it's always relative. Whether it is deep or shallow, it always depends. Usually when it comes to water it's somewhere where it gets above our head. We call that deep. But if you're a giraffe, that's not deep yet, that's still shallow. This is because it's really just one thing, although we experience different amounts of it. And there can't be a fixed boundary because it's just one thing. And yet the experience is very different. The experience of a lot of light is obviously different than the experience of not much light.

This starts to give a flavor of the oneness we are speaking about when we speak about Advita. We're not just talking about some big experience, some thing that you can only taste when there is a lot of oneness, and there's a lot of spiritual energy or spiritual experience happening. Instead it's all just different degrees of this oneness. That's how oneness creates contrast, it's how it creates differences. It's actually how it creates all of experience.

What we're really here tonight for, is the question of the oneness of your nature, the oneness of you. We can explore this by looking at another kind of apparent duality, and that's the duality of being and doing. If you actually explore it you'll find that those are very different experiences, but that they're actually just different amounts of the one thing that exists which is being, which is you. And so there are moments where you're very far into the experience of doing and it has very little of a sense of being to it, particularly when that doing is coming from a very shallow place of being which we call the ego. The doing that comes from the ego is very limited. It tends to have a lot of the qualities of doing, a lot of effort, a lot of activity. What it's about is the activity, the making something happen, getting something, getting somewhere. What seems to matter is the action, the activity that will then get you to a place where you can then be.

If you check in your own experience there also are moments where doing has less of that quality, less of that effortfulness, and more a sense of fullness that comes directly from being, like the things that you do for their own sake. Something you do like dancing or reading or skiing or reading a good novel, cooking an especially delicious meal, whatever it is that you do not for some other purpose, but for its own sake. Then there's more the sense of beingness to it. More of a  sense of fullness that is already full of what matters, already full of all the qualities of being, more peace and joy and love. There can be moments where there is such a fullness of being that doing becomes totally irrelevant. Doing is just no longer necessary. It all already is. Doing no longer computes; any doing would be extra.

What do you have do right now in order to have shoulders?  Any doing is irrelevant, is superfluous. Shoulders already are, they just are, so no doing required. So there's this spectrum of being and doing. But it turns out it's really just one thing, it's really just being. Doing is just being in action, being in contraction, being in expression. That's how this world of appearance gets created is when being does something. Being becomes less by doing, it experiences less of itself.

The point of looking at Being and oneness in this way is to possibly give you the sense that it's here right now. Yet when we hear about being and doing, we often start to  ask, How do I get more Being?  The words get turned into a prescription, a prescription for more doing, only doing something to get to more Being. Unfortunately, trying to get more Being takes us more into an experience of doing! Trying to get expanded contracts us.

Instead there's another possibility which is just get curious. What is it like right now?  If it's all being, it doesn't matter whether it has a real "doing" quality to it, which gives a direction to it, an objective to it or if it is more at rest as Being. Right now, we've had a nice quiet moment of just sitting together and it's the end of the week and I have a soft voice. So there might be more a sense of just Being with less doing, more of a sense of the the experience of your being kind of softening, opening, expanding.

But by stepping aside and seeing oh that's all just different amounts of one thing, it's all part of one thing, it might give you a sense that you can find oneness right here, right now. Whatever is happening or not happening. Whatever you're doing or not doing. Oneness is like shoulders. Oneness just is. It is in every moment, it is in every experience, it is in every thought. Thought is just a doing, it's just another expression of being. It is in every feeling. Feeling is just a particular kind of doing, particular movement or expression of being. Everything is 100% being, even if it's not the totality of being.

Because it's kind of fun to start to use these words to take you beyond your usual way of thinking or just let a story transport you to a whole other time and place, there is one thing that you can notice if you explore this apparent duality of being and doing (which is really just being). If you explore it, what you'll find is that you never find a doer. All you ever find is more doing. All of what seems like doers, all of the identities, all of the forms that your sense of self takes on, if you check what that actually is, it's another doing. It's a thought. Identification itself is another activity.

So at any point whether you're washing the dishes or cutting your toenails or driving across town, or listening to someone talk, or lost in thought, if you check, anything that you identify that's doing that, whatever you have conceived of as the doer turns out just to be another doing. The doer is another thought, another activity, or motion in your mind, another motion within this one field of being.

This idea that there's only doing, and there's no doer can bring it back to here and now. What's really going on here?  What does it mean if there isn't a doer, just a lot of doings. Even experiencing is a doing. There is no experiencer. There's just this doing of experiencing and so the oneness is not really something, it's not really an object of experience, it's what you are.

This isn't meant as a kind of spiritual Olympics where the question is who tonight is going to have the biggest experience of oneness. Who is going to have the bragging rights tomorrow when you compare notes about satsang. That's totally irrelevant. Even experiencing oneness turns out is just another doing of oneness. When you catch the flavor, the taste of this oneness, it doesn't matter any more what you experience. Because all of that is just doing. It's not bad, it's not wrong, it's always changing. The purpose of it is to give always changing qualities to the oneness. But it doesn't matter what you experience. What matters is what you are.

And that, you already are. Again it's like shoulders, no extra doing required to have shoulders. No "not doing" required. Doing doesn't ever separate you from oneness. You can do and do and do, and yet what you are is still the same. The doing happens but it's not that important. It's just a play, it's just a wonderful expression of what you are, but what you are doesn't depend on it or depend on it stopping. It's different when it stops. When it stops there's just a whole lot more of what you are. When doing and experience stops all that's left is what you are. But that doesn't mean it's absent right now if you're thinking, or it's absent right now if you happen to be doing something.

If you happen to be wiggling your fingers or adjusting your posture, scratching your nose, it doesn't go away. So the question is not how to stop doing, how to do the right thing, how to do less, do more, be more, be less. The question that's left is what's it like?  What's it like right now?  What is being like right here? Wherever it is, that's cool, that's wow! It's amazing actually that it can do so many things. I mean what is that anyway?  If you can't find a doer then where is this doing coming from?  What is it that remembers to breathe when you're asleep?  What does that?  What is a thought?  Where did it come from?  Who does thinking?  There you are just minding your own business, and then all of a sudden there's words inside your head! Where did they come from?  Who did that?  You can't find the doer. Anything you conclude about the doer, is just what you conclude. The conclusion is another doing. It's another thought.

So what's it like?  What's your being/doing like right now?  How deep, how shallow, how light, how dark, not how do I get more or less of any of that.