“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.