Dear friends.
Welcome to this talk and reflection.
Which is the first in a planned series looking at different philosophies and ways of living.
In this session,
We are going to reflect on Nixon.
Gift of doing nothing.
It's an idea which comes to us from the Netherlands.
Now,
Especially since we are going to talk about doing nothing.
It's important that we would begin this listening session by following that advice.
Doing nothing.
So relax.
And for the next little while.
.
.
Realize that there is nowhere else you need to be.
Leave aside the to-do list.
Right now there's nothing that needs to be achieved.
You have no problems to solve.
Turn off the beeps for the emails and the messages.
And become aware of your presence in this wonderful here and now,
This present moment.
Let's take a minute to come into this space of awareness.
Welcome back.
There is a Dutch word.
Which has become popular even outside the Netherlands.
The word is Nixon.
It comes from the word nix,
Which means nothing.
So,
Nixon invites you to take the rare step.
Of deliberately doing nothing.
You might ask,
Why should I do nothing?
What's to be gained by this?
It's an important question,
Because the answer also is important.
You are not doing nothing for a purpose.
You are just doing nothing.
The mistake people can make is the idea that we stop and we do nothing so that we can become more productive.
We stop and we do nothing,
So as to achieve a state of calm.
The wonderful thing about Nixon is this.
You are doing nothing simply for its own sake.
This is not a technique for improving yourself.
Your output,
Your work.
It's just what it says on the label.
Non-doing.
During noting.
You might imagine that there would be no problem in practicing Nixon.
It sounds so simple.
But just think of how our minds work.
Think of what we do when we find ourselves with a few unexpected minutes.
Here are some examples.
We are waiting for an appointment.
Or sitting on a bus.
The kettle is heating.
Or waiting for someone to arrive.
Perhaps we sit down in a chair,
Maybe not.
But almost immediately our hands reach for the phone.
And that little gadget which is always with us.
Offers us so many possibilities for avoiding Nixon.
We check our emails and our messages.
We check again the to-do list.
Take a look at the news and the weather.
We check our social media.
Recheck the time.
We find an article to read,
A podcast to listen to.
The list goes on.
This is all very un-Nixon like.
The next time you sit in public transport,
Just take a look around.
Most people are somewhere else.
Few people appear to be doing nothing.
Now I can't remember when this busyness began.
Maybe you can.
I know before mobile phones came along.
You would see people reading the newspaper in a bus or on a train.
But I imagine more of us would have been able to simply sit back and allow our minds to wander.
And of course our culture these days places a great value on being busy.
How often do we hear the question,
How are you?
And the standard response,
I'm very busy.
I can't ever remember asking that question and hearing the response.
I'm happily doing nothing just now.
Being busy seems to have become a badge of honor.
So we make lists.
We set priorities.
We read books on how to plan our lives better,
How to get more done.
We measure everything.
We count our steps,
Our calories.
We measure our sleep pattern.
So even relaxation and sleep.
Becomes another item on the never-ending list of to-dos.
Nixon offers us a break from all this.
It suggests leaving all this self-improvement effort to one side.
Nixon means doing nothing.
Full stop.
Just doing nothing.
This isn't meditation where generally We pay attention to the breath or we do a body scan.
We practice awareness of the present moment,
Just being in the moment.
In Nixon,
You don't have to pay attention to anything in particular.
You could let your mind wander.
You can look out the window.
You can watch the clouds if you feel like it.
You can watch people passing by.
Listen to the birds in the garden.
Sit in the garden.
Sit beside the sea.
Watch the waves.
Look absentmindedly at the pattern of light on a wall.
You might listen to music or you might not.
You might simply sit in a chair.
With Nixon,
There is no particular result you are trying to produce.
The mind is simply allowed to wander.
I'll get making.
Has written extensively on this subject,
And she describes it as doing nothing without a purpose.
This simply doing nothing without a purpose seems to go against the grain.
Because we can feel a pressure to make full use of our time,
To fill the unforgiving minute.
But what a pressurised life that would be.
We might be wise to look at time in a different way.
Yes,
There are accomplishments.
And there are plans to bring them about.
But we would be wise to pay attention to the spaces between these activities.
Just as music is enhanced by the gaps between the notes.
Imagine a piece of music in which there were no rests.
No silences.
A concert where every instrument played continuously.
We couldn't endure that for very long.
Neither should we endure a continuous state of doing.
Because as has been said,
We are human beings.
Not human doings.
Of course we need activity,
Otherwise nothing would be done.
But we also need stillness.
In the course of our conversations,
We have to allow time for the other person to respond.
We need to make time for doing,
But we also need to make time for non-doing.
Otherwise our lives will be lost,
Wasted in non-stop activity.
Nixon encourages us to put a little silence into the music of our lives.
To make space for doing nothing in the course of our frantic activities.
Doing nothing like this allows the mind to wander.
And that wandering can bring about huge benefits.
A recollection?
Of rededication.
Of imagination.
But we mustn't make the mistake of using nothing time.
As a device aimed at achievement.
That defeats the purpose.
It's the opposite of doing nothing simply for its own sake.
Nixon is not a productivity matter.
If something useful happens while we're doing nothing,
That's a bonus.
An outcome is not the purpose of non-doing.
And any benefits that do come.
The whole idea is this.
That the outcome is not the purpose of non-doing.
Any benefits that do come haven't been deliberately sought.
It's time now to put this into practice.
So make sure you're sitting comfortably.
You might be on a chair or on a cushion.
But you don't have to adopt any particular posture.
There's no rule as to whether your eyes be open or closed.
Just simply relax.
You don't have to concentrate on anything.
If ideas happen to pop into your mind,
That is okay.
If it hard pops in and pops out.
That's okay as well.
In this session,
There are no rules at all.
Just let everything be as it is.
Nowhere to go and nothing to do.
Just being.
Let's pause again for one minute.
60 seconds.
Welcome back.
Hopefully you will have found a little experience of Nixon in the course of this talk.
Remember to treat yourself to the gift of doing nothing from time to time.
And we won't even ask you to judge whether or not it worked.
There's no target except the practice itself.
In trying to give Nixon a space in your life,
You don't want to add it to your to-do list.
But then you might think.
If I don't add it to my to-do list,
When will I ever get to do it?
It's quite simple.
If you find yourself with a free minute.
You're just about to reach for your phone.
You find yourself feeling the need to feel the unforgiving minute.
In times like this,
Just take a moment to stop.
And remember to do absolutely nothing.
Practice Nixon.
Just for its own sake.
Namaste.
