I see the term nondoing being used in different ways.

Personally, I prefer to not use the word since it can so easily be misunderstood and lead to unnecessary confusion.

But what does it really refer to? I don’t know enough about Taoist or Buddhist philosophy or practice to say for sure what is traditionally meant by the term, but I can say something about what comes up for me.

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Haha..you can not do undoing.

This is from a recent comment on the old version of this blog. Since it is not active anymore, I thought I would respond here.

What does it really mean - undoing or nondoing?

In my experience, it seems to refer to simply noticing that there already is no doer here. Or more precisely, that there may be an image or even a sense of a doer floating around, and it is content of experience just as any other content of experience. There is no “I” in that doer, no more or less than anywhere else. It all happens within and as what I am.

Talking about it in a more conventional way, I find three ways where I actually can “do” nondoing. I can approximate it, through for instance shikantaza and choiceless awareness practice. I can invite  a shift into (noticing) nondoing through those and other practices. And I can notice that there is no “I” in the sense of doer. In each case, it may start out with a sense of a doer intentionally doing something, engaging in a particular practice or activity. And then shift into noticing that there isn’t an “I” in that sense of a doer or anything else, and never was.

So there may be lots of doing - thoughts, intention, choices, action, the wind blowing in the leaves, cars going by. There may be an image of a doer floating around, and even a sense of a doer. And there may be identification with, or as, that doer, it may be what I take myself to be. Or that doer, and any other content of experience, may be noticed as content of experience, as happening within and as what really is.

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“Nondoing” is one of those words that easily confuse more than clarify.

When I look at it for myself, from own experience, I find two ways it shows up and these are closely related yet also clearly distinct.

First, when what I am notices itself in a relatively clear and stable way, I find myself as that which just is. The timeless now that any activity happens within and as. So here, there is nondoing. A nondoing which allows whatever is happening, including any activity of this human self. And whatever is happening is revealed as nothing other than this timeless now, taking always different forms.

Also, there is no doer here. So in this way, rather than calling it nondoing, it is more accurately nondoer. There is all the usual activities of my human self, but now clearly - as it always has been - happening on its own, living its own life, on its own schedule. Anything happening lives its own life, and that includes the activities of this human self. There is chosing, but no choser. Thinking without thinker. Doing without doer. a human self without an I with an Other associated with it, without being a center.

A human self happening wihtin the sense fields, living its own life, on its own schedule, like anything else.

Then, the taste of nondoing that can come even within a sense of I-Other.

This taste can come in different ways, such as a sense of ease, effortlessness, allowing experience as it is, a lack of drama, and working with - rather than against - situations. All of these are tastes of what happens when the sense of I-Other falls away, and can happen within a - often reduced - sense of I-Other.

It happens when I am in the flow, however that happens - often through some physical activity. When I guide myself to more fully allow experience, as it is, as if it would never change. (Can I be with what I am experiencing right now?) As a result of inquiry into beliefs. When I do the headless experiments or the Big Mind process. Or many other ways. 

In each case, there is a shift into a sense of ease, a reduced sense of I-Other, and a sense of nondoing. Of whatever happening just happening. Of this human self acting on its own. Yet within and from more clarity than usual.