Physical Doing Vs. Mental Doing!

Doing has two facets to it - physical doing and mental doing. What tires and drains us is the mental doing which leads to procrastination or to stress and anxiety. Inaction is a type of mental action leading to lethargy!

Flow state is the state where physical action happens effortlessly while the mind is at rest and peace! Once we see this place of non-doing as the background of all physical actions, we can find the peace while exerting efforts.

Mental action is only a tool to be used!

Transcript

I was listening to a podcast yesterday and one of the things being talked about there was in order to get people to trust you,

You need to provide concrete actionable steps for them to execute.

And it made me think about the approach we have and the approach society has towards life in general.

Maybe some of our approaches are not defined properly or maybe they are hidden and need to be brought out and just talked about to see if it makes sense or not.

For example,

The thing that I mentioned that you need to give actionable steps in order to get someone to trust you.

It applies everywhere,

Being a father,

Being an employee,

Being a friend,

Being a manager,

Being a coach,

Mentor.

Anything we tend to buy as a service,

The way we evaluate it is based on,

Is it going to improve my life?

And by it,

I mean following it,

Using it,

Doing something about it,

With it.

Any TED talk,

TED talk we listen to,

Any course we complete,

Seminar,

Workshop,

Conference we go to.

The underlying theme is,

Okay,

What are the actionable items?

Any meetings we conduct at work,

There's an agenda and then there is next steps,

Actionable items.

And again,

We don't think of people who don't decide,

Don't provide with direction as good leaders anyways.

We look up to people as leaders when they tell us what to do,

How to act,

Which direction to go in.

So all around you will see this immense emphasis,

Consciously,

Unconsciously on doing,

On action,

Giving actionable steps,

Following actionable steps.

If I have to work hard to understand and tease out the actionable steps from what you are saying,

I would rather go to someone else.

That's the attitude we have.

But what is the underlying theme of this attitude?

As in,

Why do we have this attitude?

What needs to be true for this attitude to be prevalent?

Because we think doing is the only approach,

Only true approach in life.

We haven't really defined what doing is,

But that's what I feel would be a prerequisite for this attitude of obsession about action and actionable items.

If we were to take a detour and think about what is an action and not a dictionary definition of action,

But a very functional practical definition of action,

I think action has two pieces to it,

Two distinct pieces that are almost always mistaken to be the same.

The first and the obvious piece is the physical action.

That's what the dictionary definition is.

To act is to do something physically.

And the second piece which is implied but cannot be ignored is the mental piece of this action.

And by mental,

I mean doing the same action as you would physically,

But instead of doing it actually physically,

You would do it in your mind.

That's the mental action.

So think about it.

Let's say you promise yourself that I'm going to do a workout tomorrow morning.

And you imagine,

You visualize yourself waking up,

Getting ready and doing this workout,

Going to the gym and doing this workout and coming back.

And a lot of neuroscience talks about that,

Not that I'm an educated neuroscientist of any sorts,

But based on whatever I've heard and verified in my own experience.

The moment we perform this action mentally,

It registers in our brain as if we have actually accomplished it.

And there is a dopamine released.

Now it doesn't matter whether we have done it actually physically or not.

But the gratification for that has already been accomplished.

This is when it gets gratified.

But another example of this mental action would be to keep thinking about doing something,

Doing something,

Doing something,

Doing something as if it's a dread.

Like going to work on Mondays.

As a culture we dread it.

So even before we go to work on Monday,

We have started suffering mentally,

Psychologically.

Both qualify as actions.

Physical and mental both qualify as actions.

Now coming back to the original point,

This obsession about acting,

Action,

Doing.

One thing I do agree that this world that we live in,

There is nothing static here.

Everything is in flux,

Constantly moving.

So in that sense,

Yes,

We are moving,

Doing creatures.

So part of this obsession does make sense.

That yes,

Doing is the remedy or the core function of life,

To move.

And not just move in any direction,

To move in a better direction.

Life is evolving to a better solution of itself,

Not a backward direction.

So anything that doesn't add value in terms of this core function,

We tend to disregard it.

Take a session like this.

There is absolutely no physical movement,

At least consciously,

That we are engaging in.

Although there is a lot of physical activity happening.

Your heart is beating,

Your blood is flowing.

Your breathing is going on.

So all these are,

Like there's no stillness physically,

Even in this session.

But something is happening where there is no doing.

Like there is no effort involved in listening to my words.

It's not as,

It's not like we can close our ears and we have to open them only when we have to listen to something.

No.

Listening has no on and off switch,

If you may.

And just like it doesn't have an on and off switch,

Which means it's effortless.

We're not expending any effort listening to something.

Understanding what we have just listened to is also happening on its own,

Unless I'm giving you a complicated math problem to solve,

Or straining your memory to think about something that has happened way past in the history and you have to pull it up.

No.

Whatever I'm telling you right now is very experiential,

With very little to no effort involved in understanding what I'm saying.

But this non doing is still very powerful.

It's the same non doing that we go through at night,

When we are deeply asleep.

As people will tell you that there is immense activity going on in the brain,

You might be moving around in your bed,

But everything is at rest.

And the flip side of this is true,

The converse that you might be physically inactive.

And mentally,

You could be very active doing all sorts of mental actions.

And that's what we call being restless mentally,

Anxiety.

It's immense activity in our minds.

And we'll think that you know what,

I'm not acting.

But this inaction is actually an action,

Just because of how we have defined the word action.

It's not just the physical action,

It's the mental action as well.

What tires us,

What drains us is not the physical action.

It's quite easy to recover from physical fatigue,

Physical drain.

What we actually don't want is this mental draining.

Because we have not sat down and actually asked ourselves what is action.

And based on this new understanding,

We can go back and see that a lot of our energy is just spent in this mental action,

Doing things,

Redoing things,

Undoing things.

It's like a abstraction of the reality into some sort of a replay,

Undo,

Redo,

Edit,

A digital abstraction,

If you may.

That's what some people call a matrix.

And there is no difference that we can spot as long as we are enamored by this abstraction between the actual reality and this abstracted reality.

If we just paused for a few seconds,

We will see that the abstracted reality is just abstracted,

Untrue.

So we are constantly engaged in this digital video game,

If you may,

In actions,

True non doing,

True non doing,

Is the true experience of meditation.

No physical action,

No mental action.

And once we have tasted this,

What we'll realize that a true meditation would then be evolved to lack of mental action.

But it doesn't matter whether we are engaged in strenuous physical action or not.

That's what some scientists call low state.

We lose sense of ourselves,

While the action continues.

So I understand this attitude that we and society have on acting,

Doing.

But that is not the first step.

The first step would be to define and explore where action happens.

Where action happens?

For practical applications,

Yes.

If you attend a course and there is nothing that you can act on,

Then it's probably a waste of your time.

But not all courses are designed for action.

Some are designed for understanding the non doing part.

What we care about in life is not the busyness.

Busyness is a function of life,

As I said.

But the mental action piece of the puzzle of this busyness,

Of this actions is an escape or is a pursuit of happiness as if acting is going to take us there.

Busyness is going to take us there.

Even better actions,

As if better actions is going to take us there.

But if we ask ourselves,

What is the nature of our experience of happiness that we have had in the past?

Is it something that you can go to the store and buy it,

Touch it,

Feel it?

Can you even think about happiness?

What would happiness be like in a thought?

Can you encapsulate happiness?

Can you encapsulate happiness?

Can you encapsulate happiness in thinking,

By thinking?

Or is it just something so subtle,

So formless that cannot be encapsulated in any kind of physical action or even mental action?

It's not a myth.

We have experienced it,

So it is there.

But does it lie in physical or mental realm or is it beyond it?

If you can't touch it,

If you can't feel it,

We have been happy,

Definitely.

But have you felt happiness?

Can you I feel happy,

That's what I feel.

Can you I feel happy,

That's what we have said.

But if we introduce the same sensations in your body,

Would you call it happiness?

Or is it a much deeper experience that leaves its trace in our bodies and minds but is actually much bigger than its trace that it's left?

For practical reasons,

We need to engage in mental doing,

Mental action,

For planning,

For thinking things through,

For designing,

For what not.

But that's not the mental action that we are talking about.

I am talking about the action that drains us,

That keeps us running mentally.

And sometimes makes our bodies be led in a tyrannical way to keep up with the demands of this ever-running mental action.

Our bodies can't keep up with it.

That's why we fall sick,

We hurt ourselves.

We are perennially underslept.

Fatigued.

Or we have so much inertia that we can't move our bodies.

Both are under the tyranny of this mind,

Of this mental action.

A true balance would be to use this physical activity in the service of nature,

In the service of this world where physical activity is its function.

But mentally,

We are at peace.

Once in a while,

We withdraw from mental and physical action and just sit and rest.

Then the trust is neither with the mental nor with the physical action or actionable steps.

The trust lies in the truth that is beyond the experience of happiness that is beyond both the physical and the mental activity which cannot be given.

I cannot give you something.

Nobody can give this happiness.

Or this peace to you.

It would betray the definition of being something beyond physical and mental activity.

So the trust is not with someone else.

The trust is within along with the experience of peace and happiness.

Thank you.