Magnificence of Stillness

How to Do Nothing and Love It!


Sounds easy? It is one of the toughest things to do. Imagine, sitting by yourself, with a clear mind, doing nothing, and not feeling lost or inadequate.

Think about some of the problems of our daily lives, and how many of them would be eased if we could learn to sit alone, in a quiet empty room, with contentment.

If you’re content to sit alone quietly, you don’t need to munch, to shop on impulse, to buy the latest gadget, to be on social media to see what everyone else is talking about or doing, to compare yourself to others, to make more money to keep up with the Kumars etc, to achieve glory or power, to be constantly busy or productive.

You are content, and need nothing else. It solves a lot of problems.

Can you sit alone in an empty room? Can you enjoy the joy of quiet?

Most of us have trouble sitting alone, quietly, doing nothing. We have the need to do something, to check our inboxes and social media, to talk to someone, to be productive. Sitting still can be difficult if you haven’t cultivated the habit. You have to learn to be content with stillness.

You have to learn to savor the quiet. It’s something most of us don’t have, quiet, and it takes some getting used to. When we’re driving our cars or out exercising or eating or working, we have music playing or we talk with people or we have the television on. Quiet can be amazing, though, because it helps us calm down, contemplate, slow down to savor the emptiness, heal our over worked bodies and minds.

Start by doing nothing while you are waiting in line, at the doctor’s office, on a bus, or for a plane. Wait, without reading a newspaper or magazine, without talking on the phone, without checking your email, without writing out your to-do list, without doing any work, without worrying about what you need to do later. Wait, and do nothing. 

It's more palatable to clean a closet than clean our brains. Why? We're a culture of "doers." All of life's problems are resolved in a 2-hour movie (or in Ashutosh Gowariker's case, 3 1/2 hrs!!) or a 1-hour sitcom. So, doing nothing in our mind equals to wasting time. Who has set the parameters of what should be done when, in what duration? Its us. We have decided that we should complete our studies by mid-20s, get married by late 20s, have a child asap, have so-many promotions in so-many years, buy a home by x age, 2 cars by y age...so on and so forth...think, how important is it, really? What'll happen if you are able to complete your studies a couple of years later because you decided to do something else like travel and see the world or learn a hobby, or just take a break...not much will change. Yes, you might get a few queer questions, but if you don't let it bother you, it won't. Same goes for the rest of the list too. If you retire as a mid-management employee instead of the top, because you took some time out to spend with your family/hobbies and in the process missed the escalator a couple of times, is it a disaster? Don't you have the rich memories of enjoyable times keeping you warm rather than the cold steel of your work station? Do you really need 3G? Do you need the 80" LED TV or the blu-ray disc? Is your 32" LCD not giving you a clear telecast? Get your essentials list in perspective to your life, not Mrs.Reddy or Mr.Patel's in the club. Are you having enough finances to be independent and all your needs (not greed maybe!) are met? Then you are lucky. 

In today's world doing nothing is tantamount to death, but ancient Japanese culture dictated that everyone had to learn the "magnificence of stillness" - i.e., to sit in contemplation and reflection, sitting still, so that the person learns to be at peace with him/herself, quiet and contained. This is lost today. Ancient cultures like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism all advocated self reflection and understanding oneself. But, we have abandoned these age-old teachings, for instant gratification, quick-fix methods for every aspect of life and spiritualism for a busy executive on-the-go is "power-yoga", the irony is complete. Management gurus doctrines of "can do" "must do" have replaced the old "will do if I want to". Man today is more mechanical than a thinking free-spirit. He/she is bound by too many "musts" and "shoulds". If this is discarded to embrace serenity and contentment, then one has truly mastered the art of doing nothing.

Stop giving so much importance about what more you can achieve in the time available, but calm yourself, pat yourself on the back for having achieved what you have, learn to truly let go the daily compulsions of life, to live as everyone else does or the lovely lady on TV tells you to. 

Unclasp from the world, declutter your desk and mind, savour life and be happy you are lucky to be in a position to do nothing, life has given you the biggest gift, the choice of doing nothing and taking deep pleasure in just being...so do that, JUST BE!