Sounds like song? Do Be Do, Be Do Do… It also points to a principle. In order to be, we must do.
This may sound wrong. In meditation, we’re taught to leave the field of doing and visit the field of being. To settle the busyness of the mind and shift into silent peace. But really, this is about balance, about wholeness, about bringing the other side of the coin on board. Opps – mixed metaphors.
Reality is about both – silent being and active doing. We need both aspects to be whole. Much of western culture is focused on the doing part, to the detriment of being. But some ‘spiritual’ people get so focused on being, they forget to do. Without doing, being is unexpressed. Unexpressed, we cease to be. Even being itself is an expression of awareness. Without the movement of awareness, there is no doing, but there also is no being, no existence. Anything that is, is because of doing. All knowledge is structured in existence, so there is no knowing without doing.
This may not be what your guru taught you, but its the rhythm of your being.
The doing of which I speak here is not the Type-A manic doing, it is the allowed flow. It is the movement of awareness within Itself. This is the art of doing, allowing what is. Allowing being, everything is done. And the beat goes on. Be do be, yeah!
Davidya
Reminds me of a t-shirt I once saw, and later wish I had acquired. It lives long in memory, though:
“To do is to be.”- Descartes “To be is to do.”- Voltaire “Do be do be do.”- Sinatra
Funnily enough (but not surprisingly) I’ve also seen it this way:
To be is to do….Socrates
To do is to be….Sartre
Do Be Do Be Do… Sinatra
Shall we play “Which philosopher said what?” Sinatra seems consistent, anyway. 🙂
I particularly resonated with “Without doing, being is unexpressed”, here. Indeed. I like the concept of “inspired action”. If one acts from there, the doing will be informed by the being.
Descartes is “I think therefore I am” which as I comment elsewhere is a little off. Thinking does cause existence. Sometimes you have to dig a little to find the real voice. Sheesh – this is a good example.
To be is to do = Kant, or Plato
To do is to be = Socrates (as a response to {Plato?)
And you got Sinatra. I got you is Cher.
Related quotes:
Do be a Do Bee!
— Miss Connie, of Romper Room
Yabba-Dabba-Doo!
— Fred Flintstone
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