Ordinary Mind Zen School The Non Doing of Love
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Feb 22, 2026 A talk about applying the Daoist idea of non-doing to loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. It contrasts Zen approaches with other traditions and questions deliberate trying to manufacture feeling. It explores how grasping, aversion, overthinking, and identity-formation block natural kindness. It invites letting neutrality and ease be the ground where caring qualities arise.
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Apply Wu Wei To The Brahma Viharas
- Wu Wei reframes cultivating the Brahma Viharas as non-doing rather than deliberate emotional manufacture.
- Geoff Dawson explains Zen trusts natural emergence of loving kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity instead of forcing feelings.
Intend Without Forcing Emotions
- Do hold an intention to be kind or compassionate but avoid deliberately trying to manufacture a feeling inside yourself.
- Geoff Dawson recommends using Zen's indirect method: remove blocks like grasping and overthinking so natural kindness emerges.
Equanimity As The Ground For Spontaneous Kindness
- Most practice yields pleasant neutrality from which kindness and joy naturally arise in response to situations.
- Geoff Dawson uses the example of someone smiling at you on the street producing spontaneous smiling and shared kindness.