Do nothing…

I watched a programme on TV a few weeks ago - ‘Around the world in Eighty Faiths’. I was just channel flicking (well not really flicking, we can only get four channels in Wales and one of them is in Welsh - so flicking is too grand a word for it) and it caught my attention. Some vicar chap was travelling the world, checking out different religions as he went, this particular episode was about the Far East. He was in China, up in the mountains, visiting a Daoist monastery. The scenery was breathtaking , immense pointed peaks, stunted pine trees, ornate wooden bridges – it looked like he’d stepped into a willow pattern plate. By the way, he looked more like a cross between a hairy biker and Indiana Jones than a vicar – I don’t know what the world is coming to.

The monastery is very high up and the monks have lived there for hundreds of years. They are seeking the ‘Chi’ – the universal order that underlies chaos – they believe that if they can reach perfect harmony with the Chi then they will achieve increased longevity, maybe even immortality. One very young monk spoke about the Ying/Yang balance – light and dark, male and female, good and evil – at least I think he was young - he may have been much older than he looked, who knows.

One of the Masters of the order, Zhizhen He, had spent twenty years of his life building a temple inside the mountain where the monastery stood, his disciples spent another forty years completing it - sixty years in total. It is only accessible by walking along a narrow, open to the elements, path, thousands of feet up the side of the mountain, a sheer drop on one side, and only a rope rail to save you from a long, lonely fall to – well, wherever you believe you go when that sort of thing happens. Indiana Vicar-Biker looked terrified as he trod the path to the temple, I don’t blame him - I felt sick with vertigo just watching from my armchair.

The gateway to the temple is shaped like a squared-off upside down ‘U’ and carved into the rock face. It is covered in Chinese symbols, I have no idea what they say but imagine they mean things like ‘live long and prosper’ or ‘ each journey begins with a single step’, you know the type of thing, like the mottoes you get in fortune cookies in Chinese restaurants. The temple behind the gate is a huge round cavern carved out of the solid, red, rock deep inside the mountain - its crammed full with massive, smiling, painted statues representing some of the many gods that Daoism recognises.

I.V.B asked one of the master monks, a farmer in a previous existence, what the essence of Daoism was, what it really means – ‘Quietness and Effortlessness’ he replied. He defined quietness as ‘no thinking’ and effortless as ‘doing nothing’. He said that to achieve the Chi you must never let the outside world affect you.

‘Think nothing, do nothing’. An interesting concept to live your life by.

‘Think nothing, do nothing’ seems to be a concept a lot of people live their lives by. ‘Think nothing, do nothing’ – I recognise that mantra, I seem to know an awful lot of Daoist’s, although I’m not sure that any of them know that they are on the road to enlightenment, or that they may be going to live for a thousand years. They are all around me, these people who look for reasons to do nothing, and shy away from doing something, preferring to spend their time and energy looking for reasons why something can’t be done, instead of overcoming the ‘can’t’. They actually seem to prefer to do nothing, and spend an awful lot of time talking about why it is best to do nothing - surely thy can’t be all be chasing the Chi?

The problem with doing something is that it can be risky, you might fail, and worst still someone might see you fail – and if they see you fail then they might label you a failure - and failures get to wear the ‘F’ hat (which looks like a dunce’s cap only with a large capital ‘F’ instead of a ‘D’). Better to do nothing, don’t get noticed - the ‘nothing’ label is relatively safe, you won’t get into too much trouble wearing the nothing label, and its so much easier to do nothing, you don’t have to put any effort in. What is it they used to say in IT? – ‘Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM’s’ – and best of all you don’t get to wear that hat – phew!

Remember that farmer monk? What did he say? Oh yes, whatever you do ‘don’t let the outside word affect you’, whatever’s going on out there has absolutely nothing to do with you - it’s their problem, not yours. If they think differently to you – well, hey, let them. Better not to think about what they are thinking, don’t them in, don’t let them affect you. Better to stay in your comfort zone, inside the temple, stay with the things that you know - better not to step away from the fire and into the shadows, the shadows are dangerous - behind them is the dark - and the dark is unknown and could be full of danger, maybe even adventure. No adventures thanks – too risky – might get the hat.

Think nothing, do nothing - safer and easier.

If you have absolutely no choice other than to to do something, then make sure that you only do what you have done before. Don’t try something new, you might fail, and who wants to end up wearing the hat? Doing the ‘same thing’ is clever, its pretty much the same as ‘doing nothing’- but it fools an awful lot of people into thinking that you are doing something.

And, who knows? It might turn out differently this time – you never know (not).

People who say ‘it won’t work’ are usually right because they are, more often than not, in a position to make it ‘won’t work’. After all, why would you be going to them if they weren’t in that position? I wonder what would happen if they said ‘it might work’, or even ‘it will work’?

Benjamin Franklin once said ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.’ In which case I know an awful lot of seemingly sane people who need locking up in an asylum. The same people that usually tell me ‘it won’t work’. They’d rather find reasons to do nothing rather than do something, they don’t want to think about trying something, least of all anything new - that would be too risky – and they’d have to come out of the temple, they might even end up wearing that ‘F’ hat - and that would never do, what would people think of them?

Do the same thing – safer, easier, and you know how it will turn out.

I’d love to spend some time in that temple, high on that mountain in China – thinking nothing, doing nothing, pretending that the world wasn’t out there and that one room was the whole world. Some time – a few hours, perhaps a couple of days, a month, a year - my life? It would feel safe in there, I wouldn’t have to try anything new or different – just stick to the rituals – that would be so nice, so easy – maybe - I can see the attraction, and if I were a monk living a life focused on meditation…well yes, I understand. But that isn’t my life.

Think nothing, do nothing, and when really pushed - do the same thing.

Want some advice guys? We are not Daoist monks. Start living. Get out of the temple. Start thinking, do something - try another way.

Put the hat on - Who knows, you might look good in it.

20 Things You Didnt Know About Nothing

By the way – if you’re quick you can still see that episode of ‘Around the World in Eighty Faiths’ on the BBC iplayer – Episode 2. The Far East. I commend it to you.