The Zen of ‘Do Without Doing’: What It Truly Means

Do without doing means exactly that. We get so attached to consciously, deliberately doing. We start trying to do this or that. For example, we focus on trying to be a generator or a projector, or any number of aspects in our chart – profile, channels, gates, lines, arrows. Then, in the next breath, we say don’t use your mind. But when we focus on doing something, it is the mind that decides what to focus on, how to focus on it, how to display the behavior, etc, ad nauseum.

For the mind, it all becomes a kind of game of chess in real-time. That kind of focus and logic is appropriate to some kinds of games, but it’s not necessarily appropriate to living as yourself. We are especially caught up in that theme during our first several years in Human Design when we identify what we are doing wrong, identify the problem and resolve to fix it. We decide to become “better” and resolve to take steps to do just that.

If you just be who you are, sincerely and honestly, then you’re going to live as you. That’s the freedom that Human Design promises. You get to be you. Of course, you will, over time, change – that is the driving force of being alive. You actually are your chart, your whole chart and your chart is a picture of how you are. The whole chart is acting all at once in real time and we can’t see that, we can’t apprehend it because it is happening way too fast.

Ra’s metaphor of vehicle, driver, and passenger is really a good one. YOUR body is moving YOU through space and time. It does that in a very specific way, exactly as pictured in your chart.

It’s your mind that interferes with that journey. You always be your type, you can’t help it. Your mind whispers in the ear of the passenger giving inaccurate info as to what’s really going on. Your mind redescribes the view of the movie and your role in it. You “think” you are doing something wrong so you “try” to do it right and your mind is happy to also describe what constitutes doing it right looks like – to the mind. And whoosh, there you go down the rabbit hole.

Non-doing has to do with spontaneity and acting without conscious plans, or at least without focusing too much on expectations or desires about the outcome. Trust and surrender to yourself. Either your chart is correct and your body knows what to do or not. Human Design is not about a destination it’s about a journey. YOUR journey.

The concept of “Doing Without Doing” has an ancient lineage. It arose in China and India at roughly the same time and its maturation in both countries proceeded along a similar timeline. Here follows a brief synopsis.

China – I Ching  Wikipedia

As far as my research has been able to determine, the art of “Doing Without Doing” first began with the I Ching (500-250 BCE) when the I Ching expounded a philosophical system about how to keep human behavior in accordance with the alternating cycles of nature. That thrust was likely the result of the chaos and violence that overtook China in the Warring States and early imperial periods (500–200 BC).

China – Taoism  Wikipedia

The roots of Taoism go back to around 400 BCE when it formally developed Wu Wei as a mindset that involves letting go and not overthinking; a mental state that facilitates flow-state experiences and a sense of effortlessness, which opens the door to peak performance.

“Non-doing: to refrain from doing as the basis for allowing the body to function naturally, and for learning to act in such a way that we do not get in the way of this natural element in performance.

The paradox of Wu-Wei is that striving less—not trying harder to win at all costs—often generates more success. A Wu-Wei mindset involves letting go and not overthinking; this mental state (also known as Mushin) facilitates flow-state experiences and a sense of effortlessness, which opens the door to peak performance.

India – Bhagavad Gita  Wikipedia

The Bhagavad Gita is the best-known and most influential of Hindu scriptures. While Hinduism is known for its diversity and its synthesis therefrom, the Bhagavad Gita has a unique pan-Hindu influence.

Gerald James Larson, an Indologist and scholar of classical Hindu philosophy, states that “if there is any one text that comes near to embodying the totality of what it is to be a Hindu, it would be the Bhagavad Gita.”

In Chapter 3, ”The Way of Action’, of the Bhagavad Gita, it is referred to in verse 18 as seeing ‘inaction in action and action in action’. In the following verses, it says that this means one’s actions are free from desires and self-will, giving up attachment to the fruit of action, and free from success or failure.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Rich @rhubbardstockfootage