The Spectrum of Existence | "Being" vs. "Doing"
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- To "be" or to "do"? That is the question! In a life with as many means of existing as there are people, I have found this spiritual quandary one of the most interesting. I would love to know any and all thoughts you may have on this matter 😄 Sending well wishes to you all 💚
My Email (for any and all inquiries): james@lemniscatelogic.com
My Instagram (keep up with me daily): @lemniscate_logic_
#existence
#spirituality
#poetry
A few years ago I began the conversation with myself about what the word success meant?
This led me to separating the idea of doing from success, which opened me to the idea of being for fulfillment.
What I have found is that it's not about doing vs being but about presence. I have found that presence can make acts of doing into simultaneous moments of being.
When I move away from presence, life becomes robotic, void of true meaning for me and with little value.
Reframing my language has helped with shifting belief and therefore adding value to a more cohesive state of doing my be, and being my do for lack of better words.
It's like skirting the edge of duality in order to press it out and get closer to oneness.
Hope this makes a little bit of sense.
Yes, I really enjoy these types of thought trains!
I love the sound of your journey and philosophy! Presence is a wonderful, and entirely undervalued state of being 😆 Many thanks for the words of wisdom 💚
Yes! How are you being? A far better question.
We are human beings after all…not human doings!
I’m being very well, thank you!😸✨💜
Haha, I love it! Definitely a good way to shake up an introduction 😆💖
@@jamesfeeney623 Let’s start a trend!😉😉 The new shake and wake. 😹💚💜
so great... so on point. 🥰 Its amazing how attempting to use specific language can show us the blindspots in broader culture! There is a thing my mother often says: "I wish I was the sort of person who [fill in the blank]" (usually slower activites...baking, gardening, cooking from scratch etc.) I never know what that really means... are we *born* into categories of action? I would think the difference between one 'sort' and the other is actually just baking some bread on any given day. There! you're the 'kind of person who' bakes! ...and yet you're the same 'sort of being' you were the day before you baked.
There's a great moment in the Farthest Shore by Ursula K Le Guin where Arren is learning about how actions affect the nature of existence and he gets distressed about this new notion of integrity and responsibility...and Ged says something like 'don't worry, humans aren't very good at *not* doing'. To me, the point of that is to dwell purposefully where the tension between being and doing are felt. Which is very similar to what you said about balance.
I love how you have expanded the idea and importance of language in this conversation! 😆 Suddenly the Farthest Shore is on my reading list, what a lovely example, many thanks 💖💖💖
Love the excerpts you read. I think doing is a product of thinking about an aim. Also though, animals in the wild do while being. They don't plan, they just are and follow their next natural instinct.
Now I'm considering the world of doing vs the world of being. Both simultaneously exist, and thinking and feeling allow us to navigate both ends of the spectrum. Feeling is the feedback of doing and not doing (not the same as being). And thinking is navigating the sensory input, associated feelings, and, spiritually, the perspective of being in it all. The perspective of the infinite Self being within the doing of the small self.
Beingness I associate with Oneness, and doing I associate with the indivual self participating in Oneness.
I'm left reflecting on internalized productivity culture.
Edit to add: I think there is more to feeling, but kept it short and in the context of doing.
I love your association with oneness and being! I can't help but think of your travels and what wonderful experiences you have had and learned from. So beautiful, many thanks friend ☺️💕
I really liked how you linked the capitalism to this conversation. I have been trying to imagine a world without capitalism lately and having hard time to imagine that utopia. But I truly believe that being in that world would be alot easier. I have been able to be only few times in my life. I am a hyper doer and have a really hard time to find the state of just being.
Very good point, what would the world really be like without capitalism? What would we all do if we stopped "doing" so much! 🤪
I loved this James - I think about this a lot as well actually - I consider myself doing so much and being in my 'masculine' creative energy and trying so hard to come back to receptivity and to step back into my divine feminine energy. I do feel that there is creativity in being as well though, because I feel that every moment (however few and far between) that I'm able to drop down into being again, it nurtures something so innate and intrinsically me - it's like divine love or oneness - that Piscean energy and so I feel that the receptive or passive nature of being inadvertently is able to create more potently/ beautifully/ divinely as a result of that surrender. It's something I don't think I've fully wrapped my head around yet but I consider it a lot. I think there is something essentially in that surrender to being that basically - when you boil it down - improves upon what is there - whether that is connection, purpose, wellbeing, love etc. Love this topic - could chat about it for hours! Thank you for speaking to it here 💜 so many blessings as always Xxxx
Oooh, I like your idea of personifying these qualities through the masculine and feminine lens! Likewise, that pisces analogy is amazing 💖 Many thanks for watching and for your thoughtful words friend! ☺️✨
A wonderful topic, I enjoyed thinking about this and how my life envelopes the different aspects of doing & being💜
Great for reflection, thank you friend! 💖
Doing is a very American ideal, there are many western societies that are more Centred on Balancing the Do and Be equally, New Zealand, Australia, France.
Great point!! 💖
Thank you
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I loved this video. Lots of things to think about! I was nodding along to basically everything you said! You have great points about the way our culture (yours and mine, in general) privileges "doing" at the expense of everything else, including the doers. But as I listen to that poem at the end, it almost seems like "being" is necessary in order for us to be able to know the true nature of something else, or the true self of others (or ourselves). In my experiencing, that sort of knowing (or communing?) is a very "being" state. And it's one that my Gods have invested a lot of time teaching me to embody. It's definitely hard when you're not used to just being, or when you're taught to have guild about resting or taking time for yourself--but a necessary skill for wellbeing (haha, well-"being," fittingly!).
I like the way you think! 😆
Holy shit. James! You always inspire me so. This dichotomy plagues us doesn't it? A conscious awareness is necessary.
I would love to go through the tarot and maybe see which cards I believe are passive vs active... idk just an exercise to help decipher the difference. 🧐
Damn, is that a "DO"? 😆
UMMMM PLEASE that would be such an amazing video, and I think only you could do it justice! 💖💖💖
Hey, James! Thank you for this video! I have been thinking about this topic a lot lately, especially in the light of capitalism. I was wondering what Enneagram type are you? I'm guessing 5 :) I am 4w5.
Thank you so much, and I am actually not sure, but I can get back to you on that! 😄 Many thanks ✨
Another video contributing to my idea that you were secretly a philosophy major. ❤😊
There is a lot interesting here, + I am glad you shared your musings. I was glad you brought up capitalism as well as the idea of human rights + 'being' as itself valuable (as opposed to capitalist ideas of having to 'prove one's worth' or 'generate value' as if one's existence has no value in and of itself). There is so much that can relate to this distinction -- certainly it's a gendered distinction, and I would suggest the elevation of doing and devaluation of being is not just capitalist but patriarchal also. I think it could also be related to the destruction of the natural environment -- the idea of a dichotomy between humans (who 'do') and the earth and other species (which just 'are,' sitting there, resources to be used): I do think the idea that agency and the ability 'to do, with purpose' applies only to humans might be at the heart of pollution, extraction, exploitation of the earth.
As always I read your comment and wish I could do my video over with your amazing thoughts in mind! I think your perspective on the gendered aspect as it pertains to societal values is genius. You never fail to blow me away with your insights ✨ Much love your way friend, from one philosophical soul to another 💚