Action Without Idea

Action On Its Own

Normally action and idea goes together. An action is in support of an idea. But we are surrounded by ideas. Not just creative ideas, but concepts. Ideas are everywhere. Just about every thought you have is an idea, a crystalized form, if you linger on it long enough. Thoughts gain gravity, and they weigh on you more and more.

We are suffocated with ideas.

- Jiddu Krishnamurti (JK)

Ideas are thought, which is memory. Memory is the past. We must let go of the past to have freedom. This is clear. We move from the past into the present moment. We have experienced the past, and we let it go. It shaped us, and now we can be free in it. Not free from it, yet there is freedom. That’s an important distinction.

We are ever trying to build a bridge between action and idea.

- JK

Can action happen without an idea? Yes. Idea is thought. Thinking and action go together, yes. But not always. Action can happen on its own. That is choiceless action.

Form

Ideas are forms. Thoughts are forms. The self is a concept, a form. The “me” is also a concept, and a very powerful one. Extraordinarily powerful. Do not underestimate the power of form.

Some forms you can see, others you don’t. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have power. This is the most obvious thing in the world to us. Like time - you can’t see it. You see the sun and the moon, you see the hands of the clock, you see your hair grow in a few weeks.

But that’s not time. Those are facts. The fact of the sun, the fact of your hair. Time is a concept developed in the mind of man.

Form is an illusion. You are in the body, yet the self", the “me” is a concept. That form is not real. You are real, there is a you, a “self” that is real. Of course. But this you that you think is you, at least some of the time, is a concept and is not real. Therefore form is an illusion. You can find this out for yourself.

Learn to be free in form rather than free from form. Freedom is the freedom to be in form without railing against it.

- Ram Dass

If you can let go of form, if you can shift from one self to another, then you are shifting form. But you are still in form. Therefore you are in form, and not free from it. You are in the body, in the form, and yet you can be formless.

Love is action

When there is love there is action, and the action is liberating. Where there is freedom, there is action. When action is driven by an idea, the action can never liberate you. This is an extremely important point.

Love is not the thinking about the person that one loves, for then it is merely thought. You cannot think of love. You can think of the person you love or are devoted to - your guru, your image, your wife, your husband; but the thought, the symbol, is not the real which is love. Therefore love is not an experience.

- JK

Ideas control action, which also means they limit action. Love isn’t like that. When we cling to ideas we cannot experience life. Then we are living in thought. In time. We are trapped. Love is liberating in that way. Love is action. It’s a single process.

Truth does not come from ideas. Only when you go beyond ideas can you find truth. As Dave Whyte says, in his poem “Just Beyond Yourself”, half a step into self-forgetting and the rest restored by what we’ll meet. Truth arises, and brings us what we’re missing when we’re out of balance.

Intuition

The Hawai’ians call the still voice inside, na’au. Au means light, and the message that it brings is na’au’au, or the spiritual light. Na’ua means guts, or a gut feeling. We have 3 brains, the one in our skull, the one in our heart, and the one in our gut. All three locations have neurons, brain cells.

If you follow the brain, you’ll get in trouble. If you follow the heart, you’ll get hurt. If you follow your guy, you’ll always follow the truth because God is speaking to you, that’s what they believe. Your na’au speaks directly, quietly, only once, and firmly. You have to listen for it, but first you need to quiet down the noise.

When you bring attention to whatever it is you’re doing, to whatever situation you’re in, and if you have space for that attention, awareness will rise, and out of that awareness you may find truth. If you feel like you have a decision to make, then you won’t once the truth has been revealed, because the truth is, there is only one direction you need to go, and you may be a little confused right now.

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Do you have the patience to sit and wait until the mud settle, and the water is clear enough for you to see what’s really happening around you, to see the truth?