“To be more and more in action, and less and less in activity.”
Discuss.
~The follow notes on “ACTION VS ACTIVITY” were excerpted from a talk by Osho (and published in a book called, “CREATIVITY: Unleashing the Forces Within”).
[B]ACTION VS. ACTIVITY[/B]
Remember two words: one is action, another is activity. Action is not activity; activity is not action. Their natures are diametrically opposite. Action is when the situation demands it and you act, you respond. Activity is when the situation doesn’t matter, it is not a response; you are so restless within, that the situation becomes an excuse to be active. Try to see the delicate distinction. For example, you are hungry, then you eat – this is action. But you are not hungry, you don’t feel any hunger at all, and still you go on eating – this is activity.
Action is beautiful, action comes as a spontaneous response. Life needs response, every moment you have to act, but the action comes through the present moment. You are hungry and you seek food, you are thirsty and you go to the well. You are feeling sleepy and you go to sleep. It is out of the total situation that you act. Action is spontaneous and total.
Activity is never spontaneous, it comes from the past. You may have been accumulating it for years, and then it explodes into the present – and it is not relevant. But the mind is cunning and will find rationalizations for the activity.
The mind will always try to prove that this is not activity and will try and con (convince) you into believing it is action - that it was ‘needed’. But it was not needed, the situation never demanded it, it was simply irrelevant – only you cannot see. There was no need for it.
These rationalizations help you to remain unconscious about your madness. These are the things that Georges I. Gurdjieff used to call “buffers”. You create buffers of rationalization around you so you don’t come to realize what is the situation. Buffers are used in in trains, between two compartments; buffers are used so that if there is a sudden stopping there will not be too much shock to the passengers. The buffers will absorb the shock. Your activity is continuously irrelevant, but the buffers of rationalizations don’t allow you to see the situation. The buffers blind you, and this type of activity continues.
I see the relationship quite differently. Action takes place within activity. For example, golf is the activity and swinging the club to strike a ball is the action within that activity.
action has a goal and desired outcome… activity can be senseless or simply recreational
“To be more and more in action, and less and less in activity.”
It all depends on what you mean by these words. Words are absolutely meaningless in themselves, they will mean whatever one wants them to mean. And to mistake our words as capable of transmitting the reality itself is one of the greatest delusions of man.
There is nothing in the universe which is not in a state of action. Even a rock which appears to be a static object, if you look closer into it you will find that it is in a state of overwhelming activity - it’s atoms, electrons, protons, and subtler levels of energy - all are in a state of great activity. And that is how the whole existence is - from the source of existence to it’s thousand and one expressions -everything is in a constant state of vibration ranging from the gross to the subtle.
But there is a kind of activity which very rarely one ever comes to know in one’s experience. Because for most, the whole basis of one’s activity revolves around the clinging activity of the mind. Unless one has made a tremendous effort to integrate one’s awareness from moment to moment, one’s actions are bound to be mechanical, artificial, without a spirit of naturalness flowing throughout. Our system is not interested in anything else except working according to it’s programming. That is what unconsciousness is - to live in one’s programming without awareness. As long as one continues living out of unconsciousness, then there seems to be no other way of being.
If one is to come to know of a kind of action which arises out of one’s own innermost nature, which is as spontaneous and fresh as a flash of lightning, then one thing which is essential is not to become identified with whatever arises in one’s experience from moment to moment. If you can remain a witness without becoming identified with whatever arises in the mind, then you can be in the mind but not of the mind, in the world but not of the world. That is when a different kind of action starts revealing itself, you can act - and yet without attachment. The moment the clinging activity of the mind has been removed out of the equation - then there comes a certain spontaneity in your actions which the Taoists have called wu-wei, or what has been called in the yogic sciences nishkarmya karma, non-action. Not that you will not be acting in the world, not that you are in some kind of vegetating state, on the contrary one’s actions will be tremendously empowered. But it all comes down to one essential matter, awareness. Whatever action arises out of awareness is a direct expression of one’s freedom. Whatever action arises out of unawareness becomes the seed for one’s own sufferings. The same action which arises out of awareness is of an entirely different quality than that which arises out of unconsciousness. They appear to be the same outwardly, but they are dimensions apart. Just as there is no humbleness in bowing down, nor is there any stillness in sitting still - similarly actions have no quality of their own, it is one’s state of awareness which determines their quality.
[QUOTE=CityMonk;61109]action has a goal and desired outcome… activity can be senseless or simply recreational[/QUOTE]
That’s what I have been pondering on. Action entails having a goal and fixing your mind upon the goal without considering its result, but still bearing responsibility of your act. Activity rather refers to restlessness. A restless mind loves activity. Filling timetables, spare moments and such.
Of course, an activity necessarily takes place within an action that encapsulates the “having been” character of the activity. Say your goal is to play Chopin’s Polonaise. Thusly, the activity you undertake will be piano playing; practicing; repeating passages till they sound right on the beat. Though you do it as a disciplined practice. While the exercising part is activity, playing the entire track from beginning to end would be an all-encompassing action. You produce music, joy and happiness within action, through activity. In that way, the activity becomes a means to an end - the recital. However, if you ask to a pianist, you’ll find out that she’d be reflecting upon her own technical playing rather than the presentation of a piece. They are nonetheless complementary.
As Osho says, an “active” activity implies restlessness, whist action a “passive” activity. I suppose the context in “being less in activity and more in action” refers to this.
[QUOTE=AmirMourad;61130]The same action which arises out of awareness is of an entirely different quality than that which arises out of unconsciousness. They appear to be the same outwardly, but they are dimensions apart. Just as there is no humbleness in bowing down, nor is there any stillness in sitting still - similarly actions have no quality of their own, it is one’s state of awareness which determines their quality.[/QUOTE]
?We should seek the greatest value of our action? ~ Professor Stephen W. Hawking
He seems to agree with you
[QUOTE=High Wolf;61073]“To be more and more in action, and less and less in activity.”
Discuss.[/QUOTE]
It all depends on how we define the terms action and activity. If we go by official definitions from dictionary.com:
Action:
?noun
- the process or state of acting or of being active: The machine is not in action now.
- something done or performed; act; deed.
- an act that one consciously wills and that may be characterized by physical or mental activity: a crisis that demands action instead of debate; hoping for constructive action by the landlord.
Activity:
?noun, plural -ties.
- the state or quality of being active: There was not much activity in the stock market today. He doesn’t have enough physical activity in his life.
- a specific deed, action, function, or sphere of action: social activities.
- work, especially in elementary grades at school, that involves direct experience by the student rather than textbook study.
They seem very similar to tell them apart.
I think CityMonk jacked a grand slam on that pitch. Just cause thats what I was gonna put.
High Fivez.