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From "How to do" to "What to do" and from doing to being

Modern science is based on the philosophy of "How to do". Scientists do not question what to do but just how to do something. This philosophy also influences the people in industrialized countries and they stop asking the question what should they do but just ask how to do what they want. This philosophy is not very good for life nor for the world because then people do stupid things and create more problems in their lives and also in the world.

However when you really start thinking what you should do, you often do not find what you should do except for daily necessities. You do not find anything extraordinary. That is why you change to thinking about how to do what you want. Here you are again using material logic. In material logic you must find a goal as big and as far in the future as possible in order to make an effort to achieve it. In life it is not like this. You just have to know what you should do today. It is not necessary to know what to do tomorrow. However, if you do what you should do every day, you will achieve a great life in the end. This is the logic of life.

Knowing what to do today does not mean you should forget about tomorrow. You must imagine what will happen tomorrow. It is good to imagine what will happen after you die. You should have a lot of imagination about the future and yet you do not have to know what to do tomorrow. You just have to know what to do at this moment.

It is necessary to remember that the majority of people in the world are just busy doing what they should do in order to live their daily lives. Even in industrialized countries it was like that until one hundred years ago. These days we can live quite comfortably without working but it is only because we use petrol and gas. Without petrol and gas, every one must work much harder just to live their daily lives. Even poor people in Europe are living with more comfort than kings and queens in 18th century.

It is true that we do not have to work so much in order to live our daily lives because we have gas and electricity which do most of the work. We have a lot of spare time. So when you have nothing to do, you must start Being. You must keep a physically good posture with calm breathing and do meditation. Keep this meditation while you do what is necessary to live your daily life. Then you start to find what you should do in your life.

The important point is Being creates Doing. This is how life is made. In material science doing creates being. You do something to create a material accomplishment. In life being in a good posture creates what you should do in life.

    Doshu (2009)