BEing vs Doing

I’ve been doing a lot of contemplation on being versus doing. We all know how to do. Typically we do things when we are unhappy or we “want” something. This is almost always from a place of ego and it is from a place outside of us. It comes as a response to when we want to “fix” or change something that isn’t working or causing us perceived problems. It may also be when we want to change someone by fixing them.  We look outside ourselves and try and do, which means we analyze, plan, decide, judge, evaluate, and manipulate through our expressed fears, expectations and beliefs. When we are in this state, we are in a state of doing. And it is all ego – we are only concerned about ourselves and what we want. We are “doing” something to control a situation so that we can become happy by doing something else, presumably because what we are doing isn’t working. I am not referring to service to others, but rather, to when we are doing something to try and fix or control our situation.

We have been made to believe that using our minds, analyzing, planning, deciding, judging, evaluating and manipulating is a positive thing; even something reverend in our society as someone highly educated. However, it is still a form of controlling others if we are in a state of being that is fear based and we are only focused on how we can make ourselves happy,  then what we are doing is right and they need to be changed or a situation needs to be changed. Often this is caused from looking outside ourselves instead of within us, which means trying to change the outside to make us happy inside, instead of looking on the inside and letting our outer environment reflect our inner state of being.

When we try to do something from this state of ego and fear, we are only concerned with self, our self-image, self-worth, which is a dysfunctional response as we are still looking outside ourselves; we can’t make significant changes if we are only looking externally. We are taking care of and assessing the values of our self instead of serving others. We are only wanting from our perspective. This isn’t what “self-love” is about. It is an unhealthy response to our own wellbeing. Self-love is a surrendering to the Divine Self within us. It is diving into our hearts and being authentically us. We evolve from coming from a place of compassion and our desire to give to others from a place of service.

We seem to understand what doing is, however, the question is, what is being? Being does not stand from doing something to get us where we want to be, there are “right actions” that we will naturally do if we are in the correct space of being.  Being isn’t something that will make us happy; being comes from an authentic state that is within us. If we are centered, balanced, authentic and in the now moment, then the state we are in, is what we are “being”! Often we are stuck in the past or in the future and we will only be able to do something, because we are totally unaware of what state we are being! Or our state of being is from confusion, lack of presence and unconscious.