keith’s new self

I am kidnapping the word laziness, to use it for my own ends. Partly I would like to see the word rehabilitated, but mostly I think the shock of the juxtaposition makes it more effective in getting my point across. The word lazy seems to nearly always be used pejoratively in our culture - when used it is meant to give the reader a little disapproving internal frown directed at the person or people described. The new sense I would like to give to laziness is, at the root, delighting in the beauty of reality. A cup of rational stoicism, half a cup of irrational faith, and a dash of ecstatic mysticism. Now that I’ve pointed at the essence, I’ll dance around the concept of laziness a bit to try to draw a more complete picture. Also I’m going to propose a new word, “unlaziness”, to express what laziness is not.

Laziness is a martial art that uses the opponent’s own strength against them.

The lazy person trusts the unfolding of reality, not out of blindness, but because they perceive its beauty.

The unlazy person sees themselves everywhere. The lazy person sees everything in themselves.

The unlazy person longs for or regrets what was, and pines for or worries about what could be. The lazy person delights in what is.

Laziness allows the emergent to emerge.

The guiding influence of a lazy person is invisible (although that doesn’t imply that they are). This influence can be seen in the way things just work.

Laziness, because it harnesses the inherent momentum of reality, is the ultimate efficiency.

The lazy person gets on a wild horse, subtly nudging it in the intended direction. The unlazy person beats the horse until, spiritless, it follows their orders without question.

Unlaziness is frustrated control. Laziness is mindful ordering.

Unlaziness is restless, tense-muscled, obsessive neurosis. Laziness is relaxed wisdom.

Laziness is a continuous descent into the subtle Being of things.

The mutual production of being and nonbeing,
The mutual completion of difficult and easy,
The mutual formation of long and short,
The mutual filling of high and low,
The mutual harmony of tone and voice,
The mutual following of front and back—
These are all constants.

Therefore the Sage dwells in nonactive affairs and practices the wordless teaching.
The ten thousand things arise, but he doesn’t begin them;
He acts on their behalf, but he doesn’t make them dependent;
He accomplishes his tasks, but he doesn’t dwell on them;
It is only because he doesn’t dwell on them, that they therefore do not leave him.

- Lao Tzu, the Tao Te Ching (Henricks trans.)

Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.

- Epictetus, Enchiridion (Carter trans.)

Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.

Be a conoisseur,
and taste with caution.

Any wine will get you high.
Judge like a king, and choose the purest,

the ones unadulterated with fear,
or some urgency about “what’s needed.”

Drink the wine that moves you
as a camel moves when it’s been untied,

and is just ambling about.

- Rumi, Mathnawi IV (Barks trans.)

LAZINESS: The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure…. the first great virtue of a programmer.

- Randal Schwartz, Programming Perl

posted: 9:13 am