In defense of leisure (trigger warning: buddhist propaganda)

[Lettow77]

   One of the pitfalls of effort and productivity is that, while frequently cloaked in the banner of various high-minded intentions such as bettering of the self, it is in many ways a vice, and a function of man's vanity. The individual, so affected by his own significance, attributes to himself notions that he cannot be spared, that what he does is in some way irreplaceable or important, to the point that even if his effort is spent entirely in a manner that will self-evidently come to nothing, to not exert himself is a waste and a criminal misuse of innate talent.

While we are free to determine what is significant to us, and productivity can have many rewarding results if properly directed, it is important to understand the cost of such a lifestyle, which cannot help but to promote competitiveness, feelings of superiority, and a drive to succeed. Moreover, so much effort goes into this drive that little time is afforded for self-reflection or the ingestion of culture, such that self-improvement is frequently actually stifled and sacrificed on the altar of better performance in various fields.

"Success" is by necessity a nebulous concept, as the terms of it are not universally recognized, and there is no clear external goal. It is entirely possible to set a goal only achievable through great expenditure of effort, but this seems an unfortunate thing to do to one's self. Edmund Hillary could have lived just as happily had he not felt a drive to scale Mt. Everest- and more to the point, so could the people who froze to death in its inhospitable heights. Mr. Hillary succeeded, but it is important to understand that external achievements are doomed to failure.

The human is flawed and finite, with a comparatively short time to live. Before dying, he will see his friends die; frequently, he will see his strength flee him and face the indignity of his own infirmity and dependence. Although he may have the ambition to see his works outlast himself, there is nothing permanent, and the world is a never0ending ascent upon crumbling stairs that destroy and forget what came previously in the race to an unseen, unattainable  goal at the top. The earnest and ambitious man who pushes himself constantly to new interests, new goals and new hobbies will find, invariably, that as he seemingly fulfills his ambitions the goalposts have moved to a previously unimagined horizon. So it is that his id drives him ever onward, and his slaves on in pursuit of something he might until very recently never thought to desire.

To do nothing offers us a withdrawal from this world; Rather than the vanity of wishing your own name exalted to many people, it whispers instead that you can depart with minimal fuss, reducing the suffering and gap that forms around your existence in your inevitable absence.  While the world is a place of suffering in which an ocean of effort at various cross-purposes is expended, the gospel is that we need take no part in it. To do nothing is to not just reduce our suffering, but also reduce our involvement in the suffering of others.

Set free from needless labor, the idle man is free to pursue ennobling endeavors such as the path of the aesthete, identifying what brings him happiness, seeking to understand why he enjoys it, and how his own optimal happiness could be achieved. The celebration of small and deliberately humble pleasures has much to its credit; in analyzing more closely and elevating the seemingly insignificant little positives that make up human existence, we have an opportunity to chain our fortunes (ever a hostage to capricious fate) to comparatively immutable constants in an innately mutable world. 

Just as the man in his vanity thinks his labor can't be spared, so too his sense of self has led him to regard the simplest of pleasures as beneath his attention. The appreciation and presentation of a single subset of flowers would be a fine (and by all accounts, pleasing) basis for one's life; if that is so, what other abundant and lowborn blessings are at man's feet that he refuses to acknowledge?

[The Brain]

I usually sit around the house watching TV.

[Lettow77]

 
You were already known to be among the elect 

[Malthus]

First *have* some succes ...  *then* decry success as vanity. 

[Lettow77]

 I've found success! Yesterday I boiled up a rotten banana with some very poor old tea leaves; I was delighted by how two things, comparatively undesirable, were so pleasant used together. I wrote a sonnet about it, and the day passed like a pleasant dream. I am ensconced within the confines of yukkuri, and wrote this essay to set my roommate at liberty- he has a drive for recognition, and constantly is in pursuit of something new.

Having written it though, nothing was particular just to him, and I thought some people of Languish could benefit, or might be idly amused.

[derspiess]

Le Mew.

[Malthus]

I've found success! Yesterday I boiled up a rotten banana with some very poor old tea leaves; I was delighted by how two things, comparatively undesirable, were so pleasant used together. I wrote a sonnet about it, and the day passed like a pleasant dream. I am ensconced within the confines of yukkuri, and wrote this essay to set my roommate at liberty- he has a drive for recognition, and constantly is in pursuit of something new.

Having written it though, nothing was particular just to him, and I thought some people of Languish could benefit, or might be idly amused.

I'm not sure a day spent ruminating on boiling up rotting compost counts as the sort of "success" likely to engender soul-lessening vanity. 

[11B4V]

I usually sit around the house watching TV.

same, but I stretch while watching.

[MadImmortalMan]

Trigger warning? 

[Valmy]

Trigger warning? 

Hey man some of us have deep seated issues about Buddism.  Viking was happy he was warned away before his emotions overwhelmed him.

[Malthus]

Trigger warning? 

Hey man some of us have deep seated issues about Buddism.  Viking was happy he was warned away before his emotions overwhelmed him.

Buddhism? Don't talk to me about Buddhism, man. Makes me so angry, I hear a man talking about Buddhism, I hit him so hard his dog shits a turd in the shape of a prayin' Jesus.

[Camerus]

Two words:  golden mean.