The Virtue of Laziness
The art of doing nothing is listening in presence
Our culture tells us to produce, do something, work, make things happen, buy things, work more, and in our free time, be active, do things, do chores, and be busy with our time. Many of us work in jobs we hate in order to pay our bills or keep a roof over our heads, or keep up with the Joneses. We move fast and become comfortable in our discomfort. We strive in anxiety and move faster and find more addictions to keep our minds occupied.
All the while, as we produce more, we grow more, growing more food, producing more people, wanting more things, and consequently, destroying the planet faster and faster. We blind ourselves to the harm we create, to all the species that we annihilate, and to the factory farming that is a horrific holocaust for cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens, minks, goats, and sheep. We never stop, for if we did and we listened in, we would actually be changing the world.
If we were to actually be lazy, to stop doing, and to be still and not do anything, we might give ourselves a chance to heal, to breathe, and begin to see in a very different way.
If we were lazy, we might learn how to listen, to have empathy for the earth and all species.
If we were lazy, we might begin to be present and listen to what is really going on within ourselves.
If we were lazy, we might be able to let go of our beliefs and our enculturated thinking and begin to see that living is so much more beautiful and alive when we can listen than when we are stuck like zombies rushing around with our hearts and minds cut off.
If we were lazy, we may question the Judaic / Christian model that there is something wrong in being human and may see that we are part of the very fabric of the Universe.
If we were lazy, we might see that there is no need to produce more things, that we already have everything we need, that we can come together in community and share with each other, trade things we already have, and help each other out when that is needed.
If we were lazy, we may stop cutting down more forests in order to produce more food because we would see the insanity of that cancerous idea that is so built into our system. The more food we have, the more people there will be. We would actually begin to think of being with the land in ways that listen to the whole of the land and begin to think of the carrying capacity of the bioregion in which we live. We would stop killing other species that we have been taught to see as a threat, for we would see that makes no sense in the world ecologically speaking.
If we were lazy, we could come together and rediscover that rather than separate; we are whole.
If we were lazy, we would see that diversity is life and that oppression is fear, and that community is taking care of everyone. If we were lazy, we would see that capitalism and hierarchy take away our humanity and makes us numb to being alive. If we were lazy, we would see that there is no need to have power over anyone, for we would see a far greater power in oneself which is wholeness.
Come with me and be lazy and question the cultural matrix that is cancer upon the world.
We need not live that way. We can live in love, and community, with nature, and in this laziness would be a communal revolt that has the potential to stop our cultural train from going over the cliff of our destruction. Wholeness is reality. Let’s be lazy and connect back to reality rather than rushing completely ignorant in the dream state that culture wants you to be in. Wake up and be lazy; the world depends on you.
