Busyness: It Doesn't Work

People are talking about the article that ran in Sunday's NYT: "The Busy Trap," by Tim Kreider.  It's a fun piece, but Kreider misses an opportunity here: the obvious link to Daoism.  Obvious, at least, for those of us who think Daoist thoughts....

Here is Kreider's defense of idleness (which is something close to the heart of anyone willing to defend uselessness):

Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done...

He goes on to quote Pynchon, which is all well and good, but, come on... how about a little Daodejing here:

To work at learning brings more each day.  To work at Way (Dao) brings less each day,

less and less still until you're doing nothing yourself.  And when you're doing nothing yourself, there's nothing you don't do.

To grasp all beneath heaven, leave it alone.  Leave it alone, that's all, and nothing in all beneath heaven will elude you. (48) 

If you do nothing, there's nothing you don't do.  Or maybe a passive voice gets at it better here:  there's nothing that is not done.  That classic Daoist notion of wu wei - 無為 - "doing nothing," can suggest a certain activity: nothing is doing.  That is, something is happening - indeed we could say everything is happening - when you are doing nothing....  how's that for a defense of idleness!

Kreider also points out:

Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.

He points out the futility in this, but an even stronger refutation can be found in Zhuangzi:

Once we happen into the form of this body, we cannot forget it.  And so it is that we wait out the end.  Grappling and tangling with things, we rush headlong toward the end, and there's no stopping it.  it's sad, isn't it?  We slave our lives away and never get anywhere, work ourselves ragged and never find our way home.  How could it be anythings but sorrow?  People can talk about never dying, but what good is that?  This form we have soon becomes others, and the mind vanishes with it.  How could it be called anything but great sorrow?  Life is total confusion.  Or is ti that I'm the only one who's confused? (2.3)

It is important to remember here that Zhuangzi is not a morose Scandinavian existentialist. The apparent futility of our lives, to him, is not cause for depression and sadness and suicide.  Rather, it is simply a reminder not to get caught up "grappling and tangling with things."  Just chill, he might counsel.  Things will work out.  Amazing things will happen, along with the bad stuff. But it will all add up to a meaningful life on its own terms.  Just don't try to do too much or set overly grand expectations because, ultimately, busyness doesn't work....

Comments

[Carl]

I love the calligraphy wuwei.

[Benjamin]

Curious why the 無 is missing the stroke from the upper left corner...is it a variant I've not seen before? As a [very poor and inconsistent] student of calligraphy, I'm interested in these minutiae.

[Bill Haines]

something is happening - indeed we could say everything is happening - when you are doing nothing.... how's that for a defense of idleness!

Well, on its face it does no work; it is the idle spinning of wheels, the whirr of empty busyness!

We might try to be clear about some of the advantages of idleness:

1. The brain has a physical need for periods of idleness, as for sleep.
2. Periods of idleness allow us to keep an eye on the big picture.
3. For each of us there are things she is so incompetent to do or control properly (different things at different times, etc.) that it is better that she not try.
(4. What else?)

Reason (1) seems to argue mainly for occasional breaks during the day.
Reason (2) seems to argue mainly for weekly Sabbaths and annual vacations.
Reason (3) seems to argue against social action and other unusual projects.

Kreider seems to be talking about reasons (1) and (2).
If the Daoist texts you quote are talking about any of these, it seems to me, they’re talking about (3).

I’m not very familiar with early Daoist texts. Are there any that suggest points (1) or (2)?

The passage you quote from the Zhuangzi seems to aim to convince the reader that nothing she could accomplish has any importance, and that, as a more perspicuous philosopher once sang, “If that’s all there is, my friend, then let’s keep dancing. Let’s break out the booze, and have a ball—if that’s all there is.”

I think that isn’t your view!

[Sam Goldstein]

Wonderful. But is there any evidence that 无为 may represent a physical state of consciousness or meditation practice?

[Luke Lea]

Bill Haines isn't idle. Good for him!