Do You Do It Or Does It Do You, By Alan Watts

Do You Do It Or Does It Do You

Every outcome is the result of an action, and every action is the result of an outcome. We need good and bad, we need black and white. When you look at a newspaper and see a person, is that what it looks like? Now if we look at it under 10 times magnification and see some dots, is that the real newspaper? How about 20 times magnification? Obviously they are all right, they are just different perspectives.

If you take a look at your cells under a microscope, it appears that there’s a hell of a battle going on. Cells are colliding, absorbing other cells, it’s a perpetual battle. Now what happens if that battle ends? Well we wouldn’t be around too much longer after that. At one level of magnification it’s war, and another level of magnification it’s harmony. So in a way of looking at it you could say all of the battles and wars and horrible things that happen in the world, and to you, is all part of a perpetual cycle that needs to continue in order for this universe to exist. When you free yourself to think that maybe everything isn’t meant to work out for the best for you, then you can just enjoy everything as it comes.

What do you regard as you? When we open and close our hand, that’s us doing it. Our legs are us. But when we get the hiccups we don’t take that to be us, that’s something that happens to us. The same way when there’s lightning outside, that’s something that’s happening and not something that we are. When we look at who we are we often have a very narrow vision of what that is. Either consciously or unconsciously we decided long ago what is and what is not us. So who are we? Do we belong as a part of this universe or are we just in it.

Well if you look at an environment, say a forest. All of the insects and all the animals in it are going to die one day and be replaced but the forest will continue to exist. So the animals and plants need the environment to exist and the environment is the constant. But what we fail to take into consideration is that the environment is made of everything in it. Otherwise there would be nothing. The plants and animals and wildlife are the environment. So while the animals and insects could not exist without the environment, likewise the environment could not exist without all of the trees and birds and plants.

So while we would not be able to exist without the planet, likewise the planet would not be able to exist without us. Well that makes us an integral part where all of the universe depends on us existing, what are we meant to do with all of that responsibility?

Well what do you want to do? Do what you love. What do you love? You love yourself.

If we love ourselves then what does ourselves want? We can say we love wine. But we only love wine in relationship with the feeling it gives us. We don’t love the wine for the wine itself but for how it makes us feel. How we interact with it. The same goes for people in our lives. We love them for who they are, and how they make US feel, so once again we are in the center. And we can go on like this with everything. So in a way of looking at it we are everything and everything is us. It’s a perpetual circle.

Many say they want power. But what is power? Power to control everything, now that would be boring. Imagine being able to say a command to anyone and they would do it. That would get old really quick. The degree to which you love others and enjoy life is found in things you can’t control about them. If you know what the outcome of anything is going to be that means it’s in the past and you’re tired of it. What makes this world fun is that we want to be surprised. We want to be pleasantly surprised, but we want to be surprised. But we couldn’t have pleasant surprises without unpleasant surprises. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to recognize what a pleasant surprise is. Our need for power and control is because we want to control the outcome of everything to make sure we only get pleasant surprises.

But if you try to delegate and control everything you would have a very rough life. Imagine if Obama had to micromanage everyone who he had under his command, there would be no sleeping for him. So try this now, take all of the cells multiplying in your body, transferring red blood cells throughout the body, air going in to your lungs, and stop controlling it. Just let it do what it does. What happened? Everything, and nothing. Your body does everything it’s supposed to do without being controlled. You stopped trying to control it and everything turned out good. The same is true for the universe. The universe does whatever it is supposed to do, regardless of your egoic hopes and dreams. So there’s nothing for you to do, you have no power to change what happens. And when you let go of the need to control and trust that everything will happen correctly without you having to do anything, you now have power.

Sometimes when people realize that there’s nothing they have to do, they try to do nothing. But that’s not right either. Because karma means action and we have to do. But do it for the sake of doing it, and not to get something.

This bring us back to what we want, and what we want is what we do. So what do we do, now that we don’t have the burden of having to control the outcome of our lives. Well, what do you like to do, what do you love doing? Do that.

There is nothing to be won and nothing to be lost in the end. There’s nothing we can get that will make us whole, make us complete, because we are already complete. We are already perfect. All of our imperfections are perfect. So what do we do? Well we do what human beings do. We are people. Whatever you’re doing is the right thing to do. If you have something you love to do, that you can treat as a duty, you can do that for a living. Forget about the money and just do whatever it is that you love.

There’s nothing wrong with meditating and praying. But if you’re only meditating to attain enlightenment or praying to get power, then you aren’t truly doing either properly. And you’re giving your power away by hunting for it. If you want to pray or meditate as something to do, as an art form, just for the sake of it without trying to get anything, then that’s meditating. That’s praying. And how nice it is.

The good news is that we cannot screw up our lives. So whatever you do, just do it without aiming for an outcome and your life is successful no matter what it looks like.

Do you do it or does it do you goes around in circles to show that there is no beginning or end to anything. This is an incredibly complex conceptual seminar and I highly recommend you listen to it yourself and get what you can out of it.