The Art of Doing Nothing..

Easier said than done.

For most people the idea of doing nothing never enters their awareness. It appears counter productive to all that they have been taught and currently believe.

Yet, look around, even our children are under a lot of pressure to perform, this puts the child under stress – a lot of stress equals a compromised immune system – a compromised immune system not only opens the door to various diseases and illnesses but colours the child’s perceptions.

The concept of doing less does not equate to failing, quite the opposite. Yet this only begins to become obvious to a small percentage of the population, most are still ‘doing’ in order to achieve more. The cost of doing more is stress. The cost of stress may be a volatile individual with a short fuse, meaning they are likely to explode at the slightest provocation. This is apart from the health risks associated with a stressed system .

As more and more people become aware of the busy mind, unable to turn thoughts off, the idea of doing nothing is more appealing.

In my limited experience a busy mind is the product of a polarised consciousness. A polarised consciousness is one that judges all of the time. Judgement may not be a conscious process, rather it arises from the subconscious. I heard someone recently say that there would be no subconscious (no shadow) if we were to move out of all fear. It is only fear that keeps the subconscious alive and running the show.

This makes sense. It is our fear of the dark, the unknown, that which we judge as shameful etc that keeps us a prisoner of our past. We fill our lives, mostly with non-sense, to avoid the darkness of the unknown. We spend most of our lives running away from that which we do not understand. Yet this mis-understanding is not based on facts, rather it is our imagination that has created a world built around experiences, experiences that we, rightly or wrongly, gave energy to.

We cannot see the benefits of slowing down from a fast paced, busy life. A life full of doing in order to create, supposedly, a better life for ourselves and our family. We spend most of our lives running here and there, all we succeed in doing is creating more chaos that requires we ‘do’ more to find that place of safety that we seek.

A well known Zen saying (?) “Do a Lot, Achieve a Little – Do a Little Achieve a Lot – Do Nothing, Achieve Everything”

Sounds good but how can that work? How can we achieve anything if we do nothing?

Much of what we think we need to ‘do’ is driven by some level of insecurity, whether this is obvious or not. The constant need to do in order to achieve takes a lot of energy. Try to remember that whatever it is we seem to want is a reflection of our own desires based on both the need to have more and the rush away from the darkness of the unknown.

Our desirers are based upon that which we think we need in order to be content and we have been ‘programmed’ to believe that the only way we get more is to do more.

With a lot of the information coming out of the U.S lately it becomes increasingly apparent that much of what we believed, were informed, directed, told to believe was so far from any truth as to be unbelievable. Yet even the new stories coming out, are they closer to any real truth or are they yet another story to keep us entertained?

I believe we need to be very careful where we direct our energy. We can either accept the Buddhist notion that everything is a product of one’s mind, or not. No exceptions. Repeat, No Exceptions.

Another reason to develop the ability to ‘do’ nothing. Life will still happen, but a different life will unfold. I suspect we need to be prepared to shift into another reality. We cannot do that comfortably if we are still addicted to a past.

If we reflect upon our journey, how we have reached this place in our lives. What we did, or thought we had to do, in order to survive amidst what sometimes seems like chaos.

Then take a breath. Pause for a moment, notice how life goes on, experiences still arise, we become more conscious of that which we are attracting, simply by sitting quietly.

Judgement, or lack of judgement. (!) is the key. Lack of judgment is reached through a different understanding of the nature of the reality within which we operate. A different understanding arises from acceptance, slowly noticing and not energising, giving energy to all those thoughts you have, the feelings that you notice.

Not so hard, no one is expected to do this overnight (although that is possible) you move at a pace you are comfortable with. A little here, a little there, and, before you know it this becomes a new, natural way of viewing the world and the past gradually fall away.

Et voila, you are practicing the art of ‘do-ing’ nothing.