The Importance of Being Idle

(theamericanscholar.org)

86 points | by Caiero 2 days ago

9 comments

  • namanyayg 2 hours ago
    It feels like there is no correct translation for it in English -- idleness carries connotations of laziness whereas a better way to think about it is being aware and present of the moment.

    I have been practicing Buddhism for a while and it often is indescribably blissful to just sit in nature, feeling the wind in my hair and sun on my back.

    Anyone can experience this door with just a little bit of practice and I encourage everyone to try.

    • RickHull 9 minutes ago
      The jargon term, slack, comes to mind, in the concept-cluster of the old Google 20%-time, Slackware Linux, and Church of the SubGenius.
    • strken 12 minutes ago
      I have never practiced Buddhism and it is still indescribably blissful to sit in a clearing in a forest, provided you aren't sitting on the wrong kind of anthill.
    • pandatigox 46 minutes ago
      I think I would say a better variant would be "the importance of being still"
  • dripdry45 2 hours ago
    I started with “How to Be Idle” by Hodgkinson about 20 years ago. Found “The importance of living “ by Lin yutang. I now have a small collection of books about idleness… yet here i am working and then throwing myself into working on a century house in my spare time… feeling starved for idleness. Yet my most creative ideas for it come when I’m idle.

    Idleness led to Taoism, the pursuit of being useless. Led to Buddhism: just sit.

    As the quote sort of goes: The great preponderance of society’s problems come from people’s inability to sit quietly in a room by themselves.

    It’s a noble pursuit, idleness. Really. If you haven’t tried it, give it a real shake. A little more might fall out than you expect.

  • christoph123 25 minutes ago
    I don't know... I know a few people who inherited enough money to be idle and they don't seem particularly happy with their idleness. Could of course be the social pressure we live in, and that could change if we're all idle.
  • pestatije 2 minutes ago
    problem with being idle is you end up with nothing to show for it
  • mitchbob 7 hours ago
    Earlier discussion of Lafarge's The Right to Be Lazy (217 comments):

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33901623

  • suradethchaipin 38 minutes ago
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  • supliminal 1 hour ago
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  • ibeckermayer 1 hour ago
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