Drop the Doer (Emphasis by Hindu Teachers on Dropping the Doer)
It is normal to feel that we have control of things and of ourselves. That is the usual feeling we walk around with. I recently had occasion to review my notes on some major teachers in the Hindu tradition, and it was striking to me how strongly they felt that we should give up this idea of being the doer.
`Ramana Maharshi, answering the question, “What is the end of the path of knowledge,” says, “It is . . . to be free from the feeling of being the doer.”[1] An experiment can assist a person to be at least momentarily free of the doer-feeling. A long time ago in Texas, I attended lectures by a certain Vijai Shankar.[2] (A rather ponderous biography of him can be found at academy-advaita.com/en/Shankar.) In my lecture notes, I found this illuminating statement: “A mental effort to move the body never precedes a movement. The mind always comes after the movement.” When walking, doing housework, or some other simple activity, a person can verify that often the movement of the body does precede any thought of doing it. Repeated observation of this can bring the sense of not being the doer of one’s own movements.
The idea that we are not the doer of our lives can be found in Zen, in Reb Anderson’s Being Upright, for example, and in Keizan’s Transmission of Light. The Hindu teachers give the idea an even broader application, saying that we do not control either ourselves or anything outside of ourselves. Vijai Shankar says, “Man is not the doer. You have no agency in the happenings that unfold in life. No one is to blame. No one is praiseworthy.” Dr. Shankar continues, “Peace comes to you when you realize that you are not the doer and just watch your life. Your life happens to you like the images that appear on the screen of your vision.” He adds strikingly, “Life is a vast ritual powered by Krishna.”
Allowing for differences in theistic nomenclature, Ramana Maharshi has the same view as Dr. Shankar, saying, “. . . The power of God makes all things move.”[3] Also Nisargadatta says much the same: “Why do you talk of action? Are you acting ever? Some unknown power acts and you imagine that you are acting. You are merely watching what happens without being able to influence it in any way.”[4]
The sense that you are not the doer can be cultivated. A method of cultivation might be the exercise I suggested above involving watching yourself doing some simple activity. Very often, intention can be seen to follow, not precede, a movement. Observing this, you may in time come to the conviction, expressed by Nisargadatta, “that whatever one is doing, one is not doing, but is made to do.”[5] In this eventuality, to continue with Vijai Shankar’s words, “When you see that you can do nothing, then you will stop doing, and God will come to you.” This is the hope that I have for myself.
Footnotes
- The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi, Boston and London, 1988, p. 17.
- There is a rather ponderous biography of him at academy-advaita.com/en/shankar.
- Ramana Maharshi, op. cit, p. 9.
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That, Durham, 1973, p. 238.
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, The Ultimate Medicine, Berkeley, 1994, p. 97.