The Importance of Being Idle

(theamericanscholar.org)

92 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.

    • strken 35 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 1 hour ago
      I think I would say a better variant would be "the importance of being still"
    • RickHull 33 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.
      • ghaff 21 minutes ago
        In general use though slack has an even stronger connotation of e.g. slacking off and not doing anything useful with the time.
  • 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 49 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.
    • hackable_sand 22 minutes ago
      The ability to be at peace

      Everyone struggles with it. Would be nice to have some societal hooks so that more people could be confidently serene

      And then go about their day

  • mitchbob 7 hours ago
    Earlier discussion of Lafarge's The Right to Be Lazy (217 comments):

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

  • pestatije 25 minutes ago
    problem with being idle is you end up with nothing to show for it
    • placebo 14 minutes ago
      and the problem with always needing something to show is that you can never find peace...
  • suradethchaipin 1 hour ago
    [dead]
  • supliminal 1 hour ago
    [dead]
  • ibeckermayer 2 hours ago
    [flagged]