Really doing nothing

Bodhidharma said that the Buddha was a lazy man. And this, by and large, is true because ambition never wins the genius prize. To quote Gertrude Stein:

“It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.”

This might raise some eyebrows among those who are addicted to the frenzy of the modern world; who believe, almost as a matter of faith, that our greatest saints were neurotic workaholics, unable to sit still for even a minute; feeling guilty that they’re wasting their lives. The shock then of discovering that the greatest of all prizes, viz., awakening (buddha), goes to a lazy genius who sat at the base of a tree.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I am not advocating laziness for its own sake. But when we begin to sit around—really doing nothing—in a matter of time we will be able to ponder the depth of our own being.

This depth lies below the surface of our mental images and our emotions. While we ponder it, we have to disengage from action—external action, that is. In this respect, our life is a kind intersection that exists between the horizontal surface of the everyday reality that we take for granted and its true vertical nature which is hidden from us. It is precisely at this intersection that we decide to take action: to either tarry in the horizontal, fictitious world, or be still and ascend vertically to the true nature of reality.