Skip to content

“It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.” ―Jerome K. Jerome

Tap image for browser view

Idling settles the fluttering of the mind, inviting enlightenment.
Here is a koanic assist for beginners:

Three student idlers and their teacher are observing a flag in a breeze.
Each student is asked to describe his or her observation. “…And please
do not observe like a nincompoop,” the teacher warns, giving each
student a rap on the head with a stout rod as their cue to speak.

Student 1 goes, “Ow! I observe the breeze fluttering the flag.
Only a nincompoop would observe otherwise.”

“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.”

Deepak Chopra

Student 2 goes, “Ow! I observe the flag fluttering the breeze.
Only a nincompoop would observe otherwise.”

“Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Student 3 goes, “Ow! I observe my mind fluttering.
Only a nincompoop would observe otherwise.”

“Thought is the labor of the intellect, reverie is its pleasure.”

Victor Hugo

The teacher says, “I observe the breeze breezing,
the flag flagging, and the idle mind idling.
Only! A nincompoop! Flutters!”
“Ow!” “Ow!” “Ow!”

 “To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.”

―Lao-Tzu



No comments yet

Reply with your comment

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: