do nothing

Lately, my thoughts have been returning to the Zen koan: Not knowing is most intimate. Which, to me, implies that it is only when we are in states of deep un-knowing that we truly meet ourselves, that we can truly be intimate with all the parts of ourselves — and each other.

Recently, this quote from the musician and composer Brian Eno in Eric Tamm’s biography has been floating back into my mind:

“The difficulty in feeling that you ought to be doing something is that you tend to undervalue the times when you’re apparently doing nothing, and these are very important times. It’s the equivalent of dream time, in your dail... See more

“A lot of writing consists of waiting around for the aquarium to settle so you can see the fish. Walking around muttering seems to hasten the process. Taking public transportation nowhere helps. Looking out the bus window lets the back of your mind move forward. Don’t listen to anything but natural sound. Don’t look at anything you have to turn on.... See more

But busyness has a way of stealing creativity from you. Generative work, like art and writing, requires long periods of nothingness: it’s only in that wide empty space that ideas emerge. Long runs, hot showers, commutes that don’t involve harried Slack messages and listening to podcasts at 2x speed. Sitting at the edge of a dock, listening to the o... See more