As Within, so Without pt 2

As with­in, so with­out — Think­ing and act­ing need to match. We are what we think. Our work pro­ceeds from inner to outer.

So, “as with­in, so with­out” is an old saw, an expres­sion we all know and give lip ser­vice to. It is a cousin to the idea that “the world is exact­ly as you per­ceive it to be.”

One of the first usages of expression was in the famous book by James Allen, As a Man Thinketh.

Allen wrote,

As a man thin­keth in his heart, so is he.
All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.
James Allen

This idea is a “lift” from the Buddha, who said, 

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy fol­lows like a shad­ow that nev­er leaves.”

This knowing has to do with all of the levels of our “within.”

In Body­work cir­cles, it’s quite the debate as to whether the way we think and then act leads to bod­i­ly con­di­tions, or whether the way we car­ry our­selves leads to the way we act and think. 

It’s like­ly both.

Often, for exam­ple, get­ting some­one to stand in neu­tral pos­ture, as opposed to curl­ing their shoul­ders or slouch­ing will result in an imme­di­ate change, for the bet­ter, in their mood.

Equally as important is the recognition of the power of the way we choose to view our reality and our life stories.

For many, there is no choice at all. The ego project, that great effort at civ­i­liz­ing us and giv­ing us an addi­tion­al frame­work to under­stand our real­i­ty, builds deep-seat­ed beliefs into us.

For the major­i­ty, the beliefs of “soci­ety” are the only beliefs they consider. 

Or, as is the case with a few of my friends, hold­ing anti-soci­ety beliefs is the norm. (You say black, I say white. Every time. No choice.)

People saying, “That’s just the way it is,” is a good indication of this belief-set.

It’s when we start to resist the games we’ve for­mer­ly played — when we start find­ing them con­strict­ing and over­whelm­ing, that the dra­ma (and the growth) starts.

Many, many peo­ple, how­ev­er, nev­er get to the point of active­ly chal­leng­ing their belief sys­tems. Com­plain­ing about being stuck, attend­ing sem­i­nars and work­shops, read­ing books… none of this is indica­tive of any­thing resem­bling a shift­ing of per­spec­tive and behaviour.

As in the quote from James Allen, (where out­side action match­es inside intent) the process requires actu­al­ly doing some­thing about how we are stuck. 

To say it again, it’s an inside job that turns into a change in external behaviour.

A yoga instruc­tor friend described this the oth­er day: 

“I used to wor­ry about how my stu­dents would see me and my class. Today, I calmed myself, exam­ined my body, and decid­ed upon what kind of prac­tice I need­ed. I taught that prac­tice, and I was ful­ly present for it. My stu­dents real­ly liked the prac­tice, but that isn’t as impor­tant to me as being ful­ly into my prac­tice. From there, I am a much more ground­ed and ele­gant teacher.”

I’m reminded of a quote from Anaïs Nin, one of my favourite writers and people.

She went off to France in the 20s to find her­self, and one of her routes to find­ing her­self was to write erot­ic tales, which an anony­mous bene­fac­tor paid her for. (see Delta of Venus.)

Her bene­fac­tor was quite crit­i­cal of her ear­ly writ­ing; he thought it was stilt­ed and not very erotic.

So, Nin made a clever leap. She real­ized that she could not write about some­thing she had­n’t expe­ri­enced direct­ly and intimately. 

So, she went out and began to have erot­ic and sex­u­al experiences. 

She wrote:

“And the day came when the risk it took to remain
tight­ly closed in a bud was more painful
than the risk it took to bloom.“
Anais Nin

In this quote, Nin describes an arc of self-knowing that starts where the start belongs.

Imag­ine the silli­ness and futil­i­ty of Nin run­ning around hav­ing expe­ri­ences that flew total­ly in the face of her inter­nal belief sys­tem. If she had made that choice, every action would have set off alarm bells and whis­tles, and she’d have been so caught in the judge­ments and the recrim­i­na­tions that her life would have come to a standstill.

Instead, she exam­ined her­self, to deter­mine what she was capa­ble of. She dis­cov­ered and threw out her out­mod­ed beliefs, decid­ed to see what she could learn by being open to new expe­ri­ences, and began a life-time of actu­al­ly walk­ing her new­ly chose path.

As within, so without.

The key to this approach is the com­mit­ment to mak­ing a choice and see­ing it through. Some peo­ple just think and nev­er act. Oth­er peo­ple “just act,” with­out much thought or com­mit­ment. And the guilt starts.

To me, acting and then simply observing the result(s) — without pre or post judgement — seems the better choice.

Often, as the process deep­ens, new mate­r­i­al emerges. It can run the gamut from deep-seat­ed fear and grief to “orgasmic“overwhelming” pas­sion and feeling. 

The inter­nal com­mit­ment nec­es­sary is this: “No mat­ter what comes up, I’m going to expe­ri­ence it fully.”

This will require “liv­ing with” while sus­pend­ing judge­ment. And guess what? It’s an inside job. Because that’s where the game pri­mar­i­ly plays out. It man­i­fests out­side in the actu­al “hav­ing” of the inter­nal experience.

This week, look at your inter­nal the­atre and descrip­tions. Look for stick­ing points in the sto­ry you tell your­self. Notice how those stick­ing points keep your exter­nal real­i­ty from being what you want it to be.

Then, go inside and begin to change your inter­nal descrip­tions. But be pro-active. Not, “I’ll have to think about this for a while.” Rather, “Here is what I will think, and here is what I will do.”

As with­in, so without.

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