Subject #21: On action without idea

We rarely do anything without an idea, without a reason. All the time we react to situations by using models or picking up a certain role. Instead of being, we try to use knowledge how to be. People look for that type of knowledge, pick up new roles and create new models thinking that it will help their life. Not only that, but people also become attached to those things. It seems to me that just the opposite is needed: to drop that knowledge, roles and models and start reacting spontaneously in a flow of life. Only that way there can be freedom.

One of those most beautiful moments in life is when there is an action without an idea. When there’s no ”you”, no ego, no mind that is full of ideas – things just happen, reality flows like a huge ocean. I have already mentioned before that this can happen rather easily in dancing and in sex. Both could be considered as practices in ”flowing” and that flowing should not be tied into practices – every moment should be faced like that. Another example is love. Love is not an idea. Loving can be seen as an action without idea. It should not be mixed with that what people usually think as love. So what stops humans for entering the flow? Fear of losing idea of control. Fear that others would not accept us. Fear of losing concept of ”me”. All these fears should be seen as what they really are.

Here are few nice quotes related to subject:

Goethe:

Quite often, as life goes on, when we feel completely secure as we go on our way, we suddenly notice that we are trapped in error, that we have allowed ourselves to be taken in by individuals, by objects, have dreamt up an affinity with them which immediately vanishes before our waking eye; and yet we cannot tear ourselves away, held fast by some power that seems incomprehensible to us. Sometimes, however, we become fully aware and realize that error as well as truth can move and spur us on to action. Now because action is always a decisive factor, something really good can result from an active error, because the effect of all that has been done reaches out into infinity. So although creative action is certainly always best, destroying what has been done is also not without happy consequence.

Hugh Prather:

To live for results would be to sentence myself to continuous frustration. My only sure reward is in my actions and not from them.

Leo Tolstoy:

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.