Benessere Guest House, St Helena, and Starbucks Coffee, Napa
California, USA
September 16 and 28, 2023
"The only thing you are going to do today is:
what you do today.
Therefore, the only thing there is to do today is:
what you do today.
That's all there was to do when you started no matter what you
thought
or
think."
...
"To do nothing means to do exactly what you're doing. That's the way
to do nothing. If you do what you're not doing, that's doing
something. If you stop doing what you're doing, that's doing
something. But doing exactly what you're doing - that's doing
nothing."
"Happiness is almost not worth talking about because the instant you
turn happiness into a goal, it isn't attainable any more. In other
words happiness isn't something you can work toward. It isn't
something you can put someplace and
overcome barriers
to get to. It is something that happens in an instant. And
the truth
of the matter is that you can alter your state of happiness by simply
choosing to be willing to have it be the way it is."
...
"Don't worry, be happy."
... Merwan Sheriar Irani aka Avatar Meher Baba
"Do nothing, be happy."
... Laurence Platt riffing on Meher Baba
This essay,
Do Nothing, Be Happy,
is the companion piece to
It's
the old joke
that goes something like this: a pauper and an aspiring billionaire are
talking. "Why do you need so much money?" the pauper asks the aspiring
billionaire. "I don't want to worry about bills. My aspiration is to be
happy doing nothing.". "I'm already happy doing nothing" replies the
pauper.
I am intrigued by what it really is to do nothing - and then, if doing
nothing is a path to being happy. What is it exactly to "do nothing"?
While we refer to what it is colloquially as "doing
nothing", is it even possible to do nothing? Look: as long
as
I'm alive,
I'm always doing something, yes? even when I say I'm doing
nothing. For example, I'm always
breathing,
I'm always
thinking,
I'm always sensing something physical ie I'm always having tactile
sensations. That said, can I
be alive
and not do any of the above? No. They're what I do. Can I
stop doing them? No. So let's consider
the Zen way
of doing nothing.
When I began this essay, I noticed its title posed a divergent path
from one to being happy. "Do nothing, be happy.". Hmmm! ... it sounded
like "Be idle, be happy", yes? or "Be slothful, be happy" or "Be lazy,
be happy, veg out!". Doing nothing in any of those senses,
isn't a path to being happy. Moreover, doing nothing in any of those
senses, isn't doing nothing. A-Ha!Breathing
isn't doing nothing. It's
breathing.
Thinking
isn't doing nothing. It's
thinking.
Sensing isn't doing nothing. It's sensing. Idling isn't doing nothing.
It's idling. Slothing isn't doing nothing. It's slothing. Lazing isn't
doing nothing. It's lazing. Really.
Imagine
you are holding two identical golf balls, two Slazenger 1s
say, one in the palm of each hand. Now
imagine
you push each into the other so they both occupy the
same space. What happens to them in your
experience? (don't be logical or
rational about this - just experience it).
That's right: both of them
disappear.
When both golf balls occupy the same space,
they disappear.
When you are doing exactly what you are doing, you're doing nothing.
When you are doing exactly what you're doing, you're allowing what's so
to be what's so. And allowing what's so to be what's so?
That is a path
to being happy.
That's this twofold inquiry completed: one, what it is to do nothing,
is to do exactly what you're doing; and two, yes doing nothing is a
path to being happy. Just be careful (there is a pernicious
trap
here):
it's true
doing nothing is a path to being happy but only when doing
nothing is ideated in
the Zen way
of doing exactly what you're doing. Doing nothing isn't a path to being
happy when it's ideated as idling or slothing or lazing, and it's
especially not a path to being happy when it's ideated as stopping what
you're doing (idling, slothing, lazing, and stopping what you are
doing, are all variants of doing something).
