grains of paradise – foto by Smith
I read Zen in book.
Cat stares out open window,
scents Zen in the air.
Lady is getting stressed out — too much world for her to save, too little time for her to tune. Her stress frequently makes her heart hurt in psychic indigestion.
I tried to share my stress-reducing daily plan with her which works remarkably well.
Every day I get up from bed and resolve to do nothing that day. Then the next day I arise and plan to do nothing again. Day after day I do nothing, and day after day I accomplish my dreams and goals of doing nothing, and each night I go to bed satisfied I’ve met my goals.
And I’ve found my daily nothings eventually add up to a big something — less stress and unhappiness with far fewer disappointments.
I’m trying to refine my philosophy to daily expect nothing from others as well, because a great portion of my remaining stress arises from expecting the same courteousness and thoughtfulness from others that I extend to them.
Once I unite my own daily nothings with my daily expectations of nothing from others, I’ll be halfway home to happiness.
The remaining half that is the hardest to work on is not the nothings I receive from others but the aggressive somethings where they actually attack my nothingness by demanding I do their somethings, believe in their somethings, accept that their somethings are more important than my own nothing and that their somethings must be acted upon immediately by me no matter what negligible nothings I have lined up not to do at the time.
So I’m starting two new churches that are the obverse side of the same philosophical coin: The New Church of the Know No Way, and The New Church of the No Know Way. Together they are sometimes referred to as the New Knews or the Know Nos.
I’d explain their spiritual and philosophical precepts, but that’d be doing something and today is one of my seven weekly days where I have promised to do absolutely nothing. If I ever come across the Beatles’ famous Eight Days a Week, I’ll be able to use that 8th day to promulgate our precepts since I’ll have already satisfied the requirements of my seven days of nothingness.
But for helpful hints, you could always read Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, which I myself have read only the title of because it told me all I needed to know to know no and to no something and thus know nothing.
After all, God in six days created Something out of Nothing and the seventh day was so tired She had to rest. I figure She’s a lot stronger than I, so it seems only fair it takes me seven days of rest to accomplish my new nothings.
Remember, to know nothing you cannot no nothing — it’s just not done.
mad happy – foto by Smith
I like some of the Taoist precepts that relate to your ideas.. can’t find the quotes I’m looking for just now.
But the virtue of the Tao is it’s emptiness… ie.. nothingness. Also…. the Tao honors the usefulness and virtue of “small” ~ unobtrusive things. That a things value isn’t predicated by its size. So sometimes do a few small things well is as valuable as trying to do many.
I like those thoughts because they make me see the world in a different way. Make me value substance over quantity….
And the reason I mention that at all is I see it as related to your accomplishing nothing with gusto each and everyday. Doing nothing well is an art. Because if you did nothing badly it would be a travesty.