To Do or Not To Do

To make sense of this Scene do one of three things:

1. Ignore it – wait for my blog tomorrow on Recruitment;
2. Read yesterday’s email (not available online as blog yet);
3. You’re an Alexander teacher/student – you understand it.

***

TO DO OR NOT TO DO

ACT I

A modern teaching room. Daytime.

A teacher is standing, waiting for his pupil. There is a knock at the door.

TEACHER:     Come on in. How can I help you today?

        [pupil walks in with a sparkle]

PUPIL:         I want to learn the Alexander technique. I studied the books and this is what I got from them.

[pupil demonstrates pushing up head]

Is this correct?

TEACHER:     No. You are doing the undoing. Undo the doing and let the undoing do itself.

PUPIL:         But if I undo the doing, isn’t that doing the undoing?

TEACHER:     Could be.

PUPIL:         Then how do I undo that doing?

TEACHER:     By non-doing.

PUPIL:         Non-doing?! What’s that?

TEACHER:     Non-doing is when you decide not to do the undoing, but let the undoing do itself. I just told you that.

PUPIL:         [confused] You asked me not to do something that I shouldn’t do?!

TEACHER:     [delighted] That’s it!

PUPIL:         [deflated] um… what do I do now?

TEACHER:     Nothing. If you do nothing, you will get it.

PUPIL:         Get what?

TEACHER:     All the undoing.

PUPIL:         The undoing of what?

TEACHER:     The doing of course! Are you listening to me? 

PUPIL:         Sorry – I am trying to.

TEACHER:     Ahhh—that’s the problem isn’t it?

PUPIL:         Is it?

TEACHER:     You are trying.

PUPIL:        I shouldn’t try?

TEACHER:     Trying is only emphasizing the thing we know already. 

PUPIL:         I shouldn’t do what I know?

TEACHER:     Heavens no – You can't do something you don't know, if you keep on doing what you do know.

PUPIL:         Don’t I need to know what I am doing in order to undo it?

TEACHER:     It isn’t necessary.

PUPIL:         It isn’t?

TEACHING:     No.

PUPIL:         [determined] Look – maybe you need to tell me what I want to get here?

TEACHER:     All you want is a little bit of nothing.

PUPIL:         [shocked] A little bit of nothing?

TEACHER:     Yes. But the trouble with you is that you want something and that something is your habit.

PUPIL:         My habit? [teacher nods] I see. And when I get ‘a little bit of nothing’ what will I have?

TEACHER:     The absence of what you had.

PUPIL:         [confused] Which was?

TEACHER:     All the bad habits of a lifetime.

PUPIL:         [excited] I can change that?!

TEACHER:     We can throw away the habit of a lifetime in a few minutes if we use our brains.

PUPIL:         [thinking] But if I make a decision, won’t I be doing?

TEACHER:     [impatient] Look, every non-doing is a kind of doing—but non-doing doesn’t do what doing did when you were doing it, don’t you see?

[pupil shakes her head, looks down]

Don’t be discouraged. To know when we are wrong is all that we shall ever know in this world.

PUPIL:         Thanks.

        [pupil walks out]

LIGHTS OUT

***

Tomorrow read about “Recruitment”