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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 awa
by namanyayg 7mo 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.
- pandatigox 7mo agoI think I would say a better variant would be "the importance of being still"
- 10729287 7mo agoAs a french I like the term "idle", as the state my computer switch to when i'm not asking it anything.
- strken 7mo agoI 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.
- rewgs 7mo agoIs there a right kind of anthill to sit on?
- smackeyacky 7mo agoIf you’re an ant, sure!
- nullhole 7mo agoThere's a Far Side cartoon in that "Oh boy, look at that all that melting ice cream.. I hope he sits on our anthill!"
- strken 7mo agoIn my area, the wrong kind of anthill contains anything in the genus Myrmecia, and the right kind contains almost anything else.
- DarkUranium 7mo agoI used to play on top of a giant (for a kid me, anyway) anthill in a nearby forest. That's how I learned that forest ants, at least the local ones, are incredibly docile. I never got bothered by them.
- bovermyer 7mo agoBullet ants, on the other hand, are not fun. Not even a little bit.
- stronglikedan 7mo agoblack ants, cuz they tickle the nethers instead of biting them
- glitchc 7mo agoI would love to do this except I'm a magnet for bugs. My bliss only lasts 5 minutes or so.
- RickHull 7mo agoThe jargon term, slack, comes to mind, in the concept-cluster of the old Google 20%-time, Slackware Linux, and Church of the SubGenius.
- ghaff 7mo agoIn general use though slack has an even stronger connotation of e.g. slacking off and not doing anything useful with the time.
- bigiain 7mo agoAlternatively, ensuring you have enough slack in the schedule is, at least for some tech leads and project managers, an essential tool to enable meeting deadlines. (So, I suppose using "slack" in a positive sense by project management, while probably still being considered a pejorative thing by non technical management or beancounters...)
- fendy3002 7mo agoyep, having some slack is the only way for someone / something to able to respond to uncertainty. technically having firefighter on standby and policemen on patrol are a form of slacking, and we (should) have no problem with that.
- mesrik 7mo agoand Bob with his Billard pipe, now as you brought these up! My father did not smoke, but many of his colleagues did which some did look 60's bit like Bob. For some odd reason I still kind of remember what tobacco and pipe smell felt in room when I begin to think of it, like now in this occasion.
- bregma 7mo agoSlackers! You're all slackers! [0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEsNiV8e4ko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEsNiV8e4ko
- temp0826 7mo ago
- zozbot234 7mo agoYou're a lot more likely to be aware in the present moment when you're deep in a 'flow' state doing something productive than when you're just sitting around doing nothing. Why do people assume that idleness is something to aim for, and enjoying real productive work is not?
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 7mo agoWhy do people(you, in this case, but this is a very common fallacy) assume that advocating for one thing(idleness) is implicitly advocating against its opposite(work)? We can do both, just not simultaneously.
- zozbot234 7mo agoBecause the article's title is "The Importance of Being Idle" not The Importance of doing something that you enjoy"? It's all-too-easy to enjoy being idle, but ultimately it's also a bit mindless, and this deprives us of deeper forms of enjoyment and engagement.
- nicbou 7mo agoTwo things can be important
- fl4regun 7mo agoit seems like you are interpreting this as an argument for "not doing work" - but it's not the case. It is more so saying that rest is important too. You ever have the experience that you are bashing your head against something, take a break to stop working on it, and come back refreshed and solve it quickly? Just because something is important, doesn't mean you should do that thing, single-mindedly, at the expense of other things.
- lamasery 7mo ago[dead]
- nicbou 7mo ago
- nickvec 7mo agoAgreed. Meditation and mindfulness have confirmed the importance of “being idle,” at least for me. Making an active effort to not be distracted by thought is quite the challenge, but it has brought me great peace.
- graemep 7mo ago> It feels like there is no correct translation for it in English Mindfulness, contemplation, mediation, being at leisure, stillness, serenity, tranquility, repose... How strong the connotations of laziness are with the word idle probably vary with context and culture, and I wonder how much ti has varied historically.
- mr_overalls 7mo ago[dead]
- stronglikedan 7mo ago> idleness carries connotations of laziness I actually like that it does. I'm lazy, and that's not a bad thing. I show up to work every day and get the job done with bare minimal effort, and then I go home an laze around with the lazy dogs, lazy family, and lazy friends. There's nothing wrong with that, but some people think there is. That connotation is useful in identifying those people, because they aren't people that I want to associate with further.