An invitation to apathy?

It’s Sunday, so let’s go full Zen, shall we?

😉

Here, have a look at this. What d’you think it means?

“Master, what are you doing today?”
“Nothing.”
“But you did that yesterday.”
“Yes. And I haven’t finished.”

Come on, it can only mean one thing, right?

That if we’re to nail this stuff—become enlightened!—then we need to stop doing everything.

And just BE.

‘Being’ is where it’s at, isn’t it?? Because Giles, you’re always saying stuff like that.

• “Slow down”
• “Stop trying”
• “There’s nothing to do”

That’s what you mean, isn’t it?

What you’re ultimately saying—what this picture is saying—is that if I want peace of mind, I have to STOP and DO NOTHING.

I’ll get to the punchline in a minute, but before I do, truly, I believe that this (👆🏻) is what stops most people from living a life of ease and flow and wellbeing and mental health.

This damned image and what it represent for people.

Because it looks like our choice in life boils down to one of two options:

1. Work hard, achieve success, live a ‘comfortable’ life but accept that it’s pretty stressful doing all that stuff and really when you think about it, these days it’s pretty difficult to even achieve success, and ‘comfortable’ is more like just making ends meet and oh dear I have so much to do just to keep my head above water and I’m definitely working too hard and I'm probably drinking too much and my sleep is terrible but I honestly don’t know what else to do…

OR

2. Renounce all that (although we’re not sure how; I mean… how are the bills gonna get paid?!) and go on this weird spiritual journey that means sitting around a lot, doing nothing, but, erm… feeling good?

AMIRITE??

It cropped up a while back, with a client. Their presenting complaint was sleeplessness (to the degree where they were “terrified of bed” 💔) and although things had improved greatly, there was still an awareness of not being able to switch off sometimes, when trying to sleep.

Which then led to a natural, understandable response of trying to somehow ‘techniquify’ the 3 Principles, by “reminding myself that it’s just thought,” or “remembering the snow globe thing.”

I gently enquired as to whether that ‘reminding’ and ‘remembering’ might actually all be part of the same thing: the mind trying to take control of the situation, and inadvertently perpetuating the sleeplessness as it did so… perhaps…?

🤔

…and was rewarded with:

“So, it’s back to DO NOTHING again?!” 😫

I shrugged. I mean, I don’t know what the answer is, but there are a load of things it doesn’t make sense to do, for sure.

And then the mind got whirring and a bit indignant and doing its hop-skip-jump to conclusions thing it does so well, and it asked,

“But if you continue to do nothing… don’t you just become a bit like a zombie or something?”

There it is! That fear we all have: Looking in this direction is an invitation to apathy.

Which means we decide not to look in this direction. Because it offers ‘nothing’. It’s right there in that damned Zen picture – NOTHING!

[Hits unsubscribe.]

😞

Of course there’s only one problem with all that: it’s total bollocks.

And it’s the main reason we’re all so stressed out, overwhelmed, anxious and depressed.

Because we believe it!

Here you go then, I'll put you out of your misery:

When the Zen Master says he is ‘doing nothing’, all he means is that whatever actions he’s taking; whatever is being created on his watch… ‘he’ (as in: that mind-created sense of self/ego that’s no more than a collection of ideas) is not doing it.

All ego ever does is observe life’s happenstance and blabber on all the time about all the awesome stuff it supposedly does to make your life a success. And then it blames ‘you’ (i.e. itself 🙄) when things don’t turn out how it wants.

So to clarify the image, it’s more like:

Master, what are “you” doing today?
“Me?” Oh, nothing. Having let go of this notion of a self, running the show, one observed all the amazing things that happened.

Or as I put it in the chapter of my book entitled Being and Doing:

📔 “Contrary to what many of us believe, having a quiet mind does not mean we will be physically inactive or unproductive. It’s quite the opposite. Being—being present to what is, free from the distraction of the mind’s incessant needs, judgements and worries—is the simple, overlooked key to high performance.”

So…

Why not be more Zen?

Because you’ll be more effortlessly productive to boot.

😘

Giles

p.s. The client? Oh, they have been known to sleep through their alarm these days. I guess they have some catching up to do! 😂

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