Doing and Being: A Second Look

A few weeks ago I suggested that I have felt the need to move from doing to being. The implication was that having spent most of my adult years engaged in a considerable list of concerns and issues in the outside world, the time had come when I needed to turn my attention inward. I offered this transition without having a clear grasp on what “being” might mean.While I am still searching for entrees to this inner world, it has occurred to me that the division between doing and being is obscure. Clearly it means far less involvement for me in politics, or my need to engage in one more campaign or personal project, and to spend more time and effort nourishing my inner life. As I have thought about what this implies, I have wondered if the division between doing and being is not as sharp as I had assumed. I am one person with one set of gifts. Perhaps the difference is really a matter of emphasis.

My modest venture into watercolor painting may now only partly involve proving something or creating something for others to admire—or even to purchase, but may also open the door leading to a greater appreciation of nature, colors and shapes. I think of Buddhist monks who spend days creating intricate sand mandalas, and the moment these marvelous works of art are finished, every grain of sand is carefully swept away. Perhaps for me art may have little public value, but may be a way for me to explore my inner world.

The same may be said of the books I have been reading. Formerly reading was largely research I found useable for some project in which I had become involved. Perhaps I now read mainly to enrich my inner life.Perhaps my encounter with the true, the good and the beautiful is for their wisdom and not that they hold any utilitarian value or data to be of use in some future column.

Moving from doing to being may mean more attention will be paid paid to grand children, friends and neighbors for their own sakes, and will no longer be about my need to convince someone of my wisdom, or my wish that they share one of my projects or political concerns.Paying attention to my inner world may strangely enough offer a way to pay more attention to others. Perhaps this transition will offer me the opportunity to listen to what someone else has to say instead on reflecting on what or how I plan to reply.

None of this is a way to deny who I am or quiet my deepest concerns. I will continue to explore the commitments that lie at the center of who I am. Capital punishment, health care, the environment, the poor, the left out will stay in focus. The exploration of my inner world and my commitment to “being” will not be used as an escape to some isolated, private hermit’s cell where I will live unconcerned about those issues at the heart of who I am. ”Being” may in fact be another avenue to that outer world.

If for many others “being” involves meditation, prayer and other spiritual practices, it occurs to me that my exploration of “being” will enrich my understanding of the “doing” that has shaped most of my life.