Busy doing nothing

Imagine a line stretching from ‘very busy’ at one end through to ‘not at all busy’ at the other. The feeling in most ‘modern’ cultures is that a strong dose of productive busy-ness is a good thing.

The serious and ascetic tone of this line of thought has its historical roots in the ‘Protestant work ethic’. This is a concept in theology, sociology, economics and history; it celebrates constant hard work, frugality and diligence as a display of a person's salvation in the Christian faith.

This of course is not an absolute truth. The recent roots of the concept are in the work of Max Weber (1864-1920) who is best known for his thesis combining economic sociology and the sociology of religion. This is elaborated in his book ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’, in which he proposed that ascetic Protestantism was associated with the rise in the Western world of market-driven capitalism and the rational-legal nation-state.

The Protestant Reformation (1517-1648) included the establishment of Reformed Churches in Scotland under the command of John Knox (1513-1572). I hold him in large part accountable for the dreech and mean spirited tone of the Scottish enculturation process which is still alive today. He was in mind in 1970 when I wrote these lyrics:

“There's a voice inside you, It's the voice of other men
It's the voice of people dead and gone
Whose preaching makes the world go on -
Or off”

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In the following table I have listed some ideas from both ends of the spectrum. Many of the ideas have roots in 16th century religion but they have now transformed into secular truisms, eternal verities, and the undisputed facts of life.

Most of my friends and acquaintances are busy people. Some verge on workaholism. This is how they have been conditioned. I used to be the same. But I had five bursts of early retirement along the way. I made time to stand and stare and came to experience the joys of not doing. There is neuroplasticity – it is never too late to change your mind.

I took time out from the rat race that is education development. The early retreats involved reading about philosophy, history and sociology such that I might be more useful operating in multidisciplinary teams. The middling retreats were characterized by postmodernism, existentialism and cultural relativism. The later retreats turned away from sterile intellectualism and I began to practice mindfulness meditation with a view to experiencing altered states of consciousness that would cause a paradigm shift in my thinking about, and experience of, mind and ‘reality’.

It is delightfully serendipitous that I should be operating in an age that is brimming with neuroscience and evolutionary psychology. There is still fun to be had in generating points of view to guide policy formation and social action. But, in what seems like another dimension of spacetime, there is an other transcendent, non-egoic mode of renunciant Being whose key feature is compassionate and non contentious bliss. It is said, “Drop off body and mind” and you will know that “No self, no problems.”

We already have all that is needed to transform. The task is to get rid of those features of enculturation that close you down and make you possessive and violent. The world might soon become a better place. All that is required is that most people and their leaders get busy doing no-thing.