For Westerners not wanting and not acting seems crazy, in fact, we live to do the opposite: we are active and we are willing, yet stillness and detachment are two keys to Eastern philosophies and, therefore, they make one of the main points of difference with Westerners.
For Zen and other schools of thought, not wanting and not acting is a source of power. On the contrary, the attachment and desire to influence everything or react first and foremosti is visibly weakened. These two keys of Eastern philosophies are sometimes misunderstood. They are confused with passivity or conformity.
- There are also those who think that life without desire is not life or.
- If so.
- That it is very annoying and boring.
- Intense emotions are a goal for many Westerners.
- To the point of inventing ways to put themselves in danger just for pleasure.
- In view of this.
- A question arises: what is the validity of these two keys of Eastern philosophies for a Westerner?.
? She gives birth, she feeds
take and not have,
act and not possess,
guide and not send
Is it a mysterious power?
-Tao Te Ching-
Detachment and contemplation are fundamental in Eastern philosophies, this is clearly seen in the Tao, a book that has been read and appreciated by all cultures in different historical eras. He says: “The soul without desire sees the hidden, the soul that always desires sees only what he desires. “This embodies the eastern perspective on attachment.
For Westerners, it is desire that drives action and, in turn, this is what leads to realization. And success equals happiness. So why is inaction one of the keys to Eastern philosophies?As Tao points out, the Orientals believe that desire distorts the perception of reality, leading to self-deception and enslaving the individual. One way or another, reality seems to be right. When you want, act and reach, then there is a void that calls into question your own desire.
Faced with inaction, another key to the Eastern philosophies contained in the Tao says: “Can water be kept still and clear, so that it is reflected without turbidity?” This means that not doing so allows reality to manifest more transparently. it’s visible. Action, on the other hand, interferes with the natural flow of things, so we quickly come to the truth when we contemplate reality and let it be as it really is.
For Eastern philosophies, the absence of desire brings great power. Anyone who wants something, one way or another, becomes a slave to that purpose or desire. Your life depends on having or achieving what you want. You’ll do everything you can, so you don’t lose or keep it.
This, in itself, is a situation that leads us to anguish. This lack of desire on the part of the Orientals is analogous to the Western phrase that says, “Rico is not the one with the most, but the one that needs the least. “.
The power to give up gives up gives great strength to the human being, neutralizes or nullifies all forms of conditioning based on the fear of losing something, much of our Western anxiety comes precisely from the fear that things will not go as we want, to do so. not to achieve what we want, or maybe the undesirable will happen. And the undesirable is undesirable because it involves the deprivation of something that we classify as important to us.
Don’t act? Oriental does not refer to the fact that we are frozen in all circumstances. On the contrary, is it one?, linked to letting each reality go its own way, this is based on the belief that every reality of the universe has its own dynamics and that we should not interfere in it.
Not acting is one of the keys to Eastern philosophies because what should happen is already established; what should happen will happen. We can intervene, but that will not change the essential course of events. We will waste energy unnecessarily, because we will not change reality in any significant way.
Not wanting and not acting are ways to come to the truth, it is a truth about ourselves and the universe that also lives in us, allowing us to capture everything more transparently and helping us to be freer, that is why these are keys cultivated by the Orientals, mainly to avoid suffering.