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How do you do it—in layman’s terms? Is it like meditation, or is there a more active method?
by tmountain 3y ago
How do you do it—in layman’s terms? Is it like meditation, or is there a more active method?
- tripdout 3y agoThis whole article says nothing about what it actually is.
- Gys 3y agoTo me it is intensionally doing nothing and enjoying it. It can still include something active like walking around a bit, but without much thinking and without a goal. Enjoying whatever you see. Its being in the moment. Disclaimer: did not read the article but am Dutch
- POiNTx 3y agoI'm a native Dutch (Flemish) speaker. For me 'Niksen' means you're doing something without intent/purpose and with low importance. You can watch a movie, just because you don't know what to do and you're filling the time, maybe your mind is wandering to other things while watching. Or you can watch a movie because you want to see it, like going to the movies instead of watching at home. Only the former is 'Niksen'. 'Puttering' is an English term which I feel is closely related to 'Niksen' but not exactly the same. With 'Puttering' there's always an action. But with 'Niksen' you can be sitting in a chair, looking around, 'doing nothing'. I would even argue that meditation is not 'Niksen', because with meditation there's intent. It's actively calming yourself down.
- groby_b 3y agoMatches the German concept of "Nichtstun" (doing nothing) fairly well :) (It's not surprising, what with us being neighbors) And just like 'Niksen', that too is without deeper intent. You just hang. Closest I can come in English is probably 'idling about'. You do or don't do stuff. Your brain is meandering about. You don't really care about time passing. It's definitely an art form, most people get bored after a while - true masters can do days on end ;)
- kranner 3y agoIt sounds like what we call "timepass" in Indian English, and also loan in other Indian languages. It's a very popular word and has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary as well.
- OJFord 3y agoI was thinking 'timepass'. Or more laboriously in other English dialects 'just passing the time'.
- juanani 3y ago[dead]
- ben_bai 3y agoI would add that it's "doing nothing important". Like when someone asks: What did you do today? And the german answer is just "Nix" ("Nichts", aka. nothing important)
- russelldjimmy 3y ago> because with meditation there's intent. It's actively calming yourself down. This really is the Silicon Valley definition of “meditation”. Not what it’s meant to be. True meditation seems to fit the definition of “niksen” perfectly. “Calming oneself down” is a side-effect of it, not the primary goal. As Alan Watts said (I paraphrase) - meditation has no purpose. You just do it because you’re grooving with the eternal now.
- rramadass 3y agoRight. People claim to be studying Yoga/Buddhism and treat "Meditation" as an "activity" to be done with goals/schedules. That is quite the wrong viewpoint. To paraphrase the Bhagavad Gita; "practice motiveless action".
- kranner 3y agoFor one, it depends which definition of "true meditation" you're thinking of. Adyashanti has a method he calls "True Meditation", which is in the "do nothing" class of techniques but it has a not-doing kind of focus to it (or "non-interference with the present moment" as he calls it). It's not a low-importance kind of non-doing though, and though it tends to become restful as one progresses, the path to getting there is not necessarily restful. It seems to be similar for other do-nothing methods, such as the Zen practice of Shikantaza. GP cites watching a movie while one's mind is wandering as an example of Niksen. That doesn't seem to fit any definition of meditation I'm aware of.
- tuan 3y agoThere seems to be many ways to interpret what meditation means across cultures. To me, born and raised in SE Asia, niksen as described in the article is not the same as meditation. There are significant overlaps however. For example: sitting in a train station and __observing__ the train go by - this is a form of meditation and could be a form of niksen. However, as I wash dishes, I can meditate by focusing on every little details of what I'm doing: this is a spoon, I'm cleaning the handle, next is the tip, now I'm cleaning the bowl, etc.. This is not doing nothing. I'm doing something. I'm just very present.
- gonzus 3y agoIf pressed, I would use "loafing" in English. Defined as "spend one's time in an aimless, idle way".
- Scarblac 3y agoIt's just "hanging around" or so. This kind of article is strange, they take some extremely mundane word and make it seem like it's some mystical foreign concept.
- booleandilemma 3y agohttps://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2018648-thing-japan https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2018648-thing-japan
- piva00 3y agoHappens to Scandinavian languages as well, I've read Americans articles mystically talking about fika, hygge, lagom, and probably a couple of others.
- yourusername 3y agoFrom Dutch we've had uitwaaien, gezellig and now niksen.
- codelobe 3y ago[dead]
- anigbrowl 3y agoHow did you do it when you were a kid? Just stop trying to convert your time into something else.
- rramadass 3y agoIt is related to what is called "no-mind" in Hinduism/Yoga/Buddhism. Also see "Mushin" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushin_(mental_state) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushin_(mental_state) The idea is that when something "takes" your mind you just focus on it to the exclusion of everything else i.e. no judgements, past, future etc. When your mind "moves" to the next thing it drops everything (with no residue) and gets "fully filled" with the new thing. This happens instant to instant leading to a state of "enjoyable peacefulness".
- namaria 3y agoAre you asking how to do nothing?
- brnt 3y agoFor me it's about clearing my schedule. Completely. Not even chores or hobbies. It helps to start with a walk, something to take you out of the daily grind. I often end up doing something hobby-like, like reading a book, some gardening, maybe even some woodworking. It's all about creating a moment where you can be in the moment.