Nothing

Most of the time we are always doing something. Working, sleeping, watching, reading, eating, talking, walking, et cetera. There’s always something to do, somewhere to go, somewhere to be, someone to meet, something of great or minor necessity to do. Imagine writing every single thing you did in a single week. By the weekend you might feel like you did absolutely nothing all week, or perhaps nothing of significance, of great importance, but nevertheless, it fills out.

Which is why lately, I’ve found the concept of meditation a bit curious.

Just sitting and doing absolutely nothing. Thinking of absolutely nothing.

I really don’t even know if it’s humanly possible to do that anymore.

Enlightenment is so bogged down by all this distortion, this white noise, this mental tendency to be constantly occupied with something, anything, that I wonder if it’s possible to achieve.

This preoccupation with doing things to the extent of being agitated when doing nothing.

All this is made even more ironic when you consider that often times people will ask if we’re doing anything or planning to do anything or if we’re up to anything, and often we respond with “nothing”.

For once, I’d like that to be true.

13 Comments

  • I’ve been doing a lot of nothing …people around me don’t like it. If i get the urge to do something i lay in bed staring at the ceiling until it goes away

  • 7aki Fadi i disagree sleeping is not doing nothing it’s a necessity that takes a quarter or even a third of everyone’s day.

  • if somebody asked me what I’m doing/planning to do, my typical answer would be nothing if i really don’t have plans to do a “thing”, I consider, of significance. So yeah, the difference between something and nothing to me is the importance of the “thing”.
    This single “thing” also might sometimes be “nothing” or “something” according to when, why, and how i do it. For example, if somebody asks me what i’ve been up to a day or two after final times, i’d say I did something great– and that is “sleeping”. Sleeping in this case is not “nothing” ya Nas, IT IS “SOMETHING,” ESPECIALLY WHEN I HAVE BARELY HAD 4 HOURS OF SLEEP FOR THE LAST 24 HOURS BEFORE FINALS WERE OVER. However, if I just had a very lazy weekend because i haven’t planned to do something big (this includes sleeping), my answer would be, “i’ve been sleeping all day long, “NOTHING” big, you know.” 🙂
    In this case, i disagree with 7aki.. sleeping can be doing something if it brings you back to earth after feeling wasted from lack of sleep.. and it can be doing nothing, if you do it because you have nothing else to do 🙂

  • I’m lately getting into the club of :Sleep early, get up early and don’t stress out. It’s not very healthy for a 24 young man to do “urgent” medical check ups because of life/work stress.

    Jordan just got the perfect places. I won’t be selfish and I’ll tell you about this one place, just think Dead Sea, in precise the mountains there. There are tons of other places, but,some things are meant to be kept untouched.
    Just try to shut your brain, if you go to the Dead Sea.It will start passing thoughts like, damn I see Jericho, are these Jerusalem’s lights?Palestine is just few paddle strokes away, who came up with the row row your boat song?

    Ignorance is bliss. Just yell at your brain: Shut up brain, I’m not listening, LaLa La La. row row your boat…or you could reach Nirvana the Jordanian way. Enroll at JU and spend your day sipping Gahweh, doing nothing in the SAqaweeers, observe nature (aka chicks) , plan Tarneeb tournaments. Then graduate moaning about what a crappy country Jordan is.

  • “Nirvana the Jordanian way. Enroll at JU and spend your day sipping Gahweh, doing nothing in the SAqaweeers, observe nature (aka chicks) , plan Tarneeb tournaments. Then graduate moaning about what a crappy country Jordan is.”
    Just when you think they were doing “something!”

  • I don’t it’s possible to think of nothing…

    This reminds me of something my cousin told me once. she said: When we ask each other, in a telephone call for example: What did you do today? Usually we say: nothing. But if you think about it, on Doom’s Day we are going to be asked about EVERYTHING we did in life, and how many things do we do everyday that we account for as “nothing” while it’s in fact soemthing we might regret or be thankful for one day!

  • isnt there a scene in seinfeld where they talk about if its possible to do nothing .. i think it was a conversation between jerry and elaine

  • “I am so busy doing nothing that the idea of doing anything — which as you know always leads to something — cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.”

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