Sooner or later, the seeker is sure to come across this statement and he is bound to get confused. How do I 'just be' ? Do I sit in a corner doing nothing ? Do I eat ? Do I breathe ? These questions are certain to arise and a correct understanding of this statement is necessary.
If approached with the attitude, 'I am the body', this statement will certainly sound ridiculous and impossible. Even if one were to sit in a corner, doing nothing, the heart would continue to beat, cell division in the body will go on and blood would flow through the veins. This obviously can not be the meaning of 'Do nothing'.
Understand, that this statement is not meant for who we think we are, i.e. a body, a name etc. Before a Guru would have made this statement, he'd also have stressed 'You are not what you think you are. You are not the body, nor the mind'. It is clear that sitting in a particular posture or fasting is not the intent of this statement.
To understand what I am, I must know what I am not. What the mind has been led to believe all along, must be undone. I have to believe, understand that I'm not the body, nor the mind. I'm not a sensory perception, therefore I can not be the body or anything physical. I'm not a thought, therefore I can never think or imagine what I am. I can not be perceived since the perceived can not be the perceiver. I can not be known, since the known can not be knower. I must be changeless since all change is witnessed by me.
Knowing this, believing this, what then is left to do ? All that appears, appears to me. All that appears, appears because I am there to appear to. Sensations, desires and thoughts arise, they are known to me, but I'm not the known, but the knower of all there is.
Then, do nothing, just be. Always. In whatever that appears to be happening, in your so called daily life, you can do nothing, but just be.
