Three Kinds of Laziness
This excerpt is an adaptation from Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s new book Into the Heart of Life, which is the Tricycle Book Club selection for July, taken from Snow Lion: The Buddhist Magazine & Catalog, a quarterly effort from Snow Lion Publications. She will also be leading July’s Tricycle Retreat.
The Buddha described three kinds of laziness. First there is the kind of laziness we all know: we don’t want to do anything, and we’d rather stay in bed half an hour later than get up and meditate. Second, there is the laziness of feeling ourselves unworthy, the laziness of thinking, “I can’t do this. Other people can meditate, other people can be mindful, other people can be kind and generous in difficult situations, but I can’t, because I’m too stupid.” Or, alternatively, “I’m always an angry person;” “I’ve never been able to do anything in my life;” “I’ve always failed, and I’m bound to fail.” This is laziness.
The third kind of laziness is being busy with worldly things. We can always fill up the vacuum of our time by keeping ever so busy. Being occupied may even make us feel virtuous. But usually it’s just a way of escape. When I came out of the cave, some people said, “Don’t you think that solitude was an escape?” And I said, “An escape from what?” There I was—no radio, no newspapers, no one to talk to. Where was I going to escape to? When things came up, I couldn’t even telephone a friend. I was face-to-face with who I was and with who I was not. There was no escape.
Our ordinary lives are so busy, our days are so full, but we never have any space even to sit for a minute and just be. That’s escape. One of my aunts always kept the radio on, or the television. She didn’t like silence. Silence worried her. Background noise rang out at all times. And we’re all like that. We’re afraid of silence—outer silence, inner silence. When there’s no noise going on outside we talk to ourselves—opinions and ideas and judgments and rehashes of what happened yesterday or during our childhood; what he said to me; what I said to him. Our fantasies, our daydreams, our hopes, our worries, our fears. There is no silence. Our noisy outer world is but a reflection of the noise inside: our incessant need to be occupied, to be doing something.
Recently I was talking with a very nice Australian monk who was once occupied with doing so many wonderful Dharma activities that he became a workaholic. He would be up until two or three in the morning. Eventually he collapsed totally. His whole system fell apart and now he can’t do anything. He mind is also slightly impaired in that he doesn’t have very good concentration.
His problem was that his identity was connected with doing. As his work was for the Dharma it looked very virtuous. It looked like he was doing really good things. He was benefiting many people and carrying out the instructions of his teacher, but now that he can’t do anything, who is he? And so he is going through a tremendous crisis because he always identified himself with what he did and with being able to succeed. Now he is not able to do anything and is dependent on others. So I said to him, “But this is a wonderful opportunity. Now, you don’t have to do anything, you can just be.” He said he was trying to come to that, but he found it threatening not to do anything, to just sit there and be with who he is, not what he does.
This is the point—we fill our lives with activities. Many of them are really very good activities but if we are not careful, they can just be an escape. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do good and necessary things, but there has to be breathing in as well as breathing out. We need to have both the active and the contemplative. We need time to just be with ourselves, and to become genuinely centered, when the mind can just be quiet.
From: http://www.tricycle.com/blog/three-kinds-laziness
I am the lazy one. Can we please talk via e-mail?
Hi Gabriel. If you have questions, please write to the official email address mail@tsemladrang.com
Thank you, Beng
Gosh, I have all three laziness in me!! But, it’s ok, I’m working on them bit by bit.
I noticed I have these kinds of laziness. It just comes to show that I am too self indulgent. Thus, I should change. I must change from being the type of laziness that everyone knows about such as lying about and doing nothing to being hardworking but putting more effort into anything I do. I should also not waste time anymore. I should be pushing myself to do more. When asked to do one, do two.
The second thing I need to change is my attitude because sometimes I would rely on others to do what I am supposed to do. I should think more positively, I should think that I can do it as I would usually think to myself, “I can’t do this. It is too hard. I think others can do it better than me.” I should think the opposite, “I can do it. It is fine. I think I can do it just as others can.”
I am not really sure how I am connected to the third one as I do not just make myself busy with worldly things unless TV and computers would count. Because I thought that watching TV and playing computer games would be considered the first kind. Not wanting to do anything useful. So, I am not sure if it counts.
Thank You Rinpoche for sharing this post. As Rinpoche said before, we always find reasons not to do any dharma practice, simply said we are too busy or we are stupid, in fact it is our laziness or self-cherishing mind stops us from doing more.
Also, we always look busy, doing something, but are we really believe in what we are doing i.e. Dharma work, prayer, chanting or it is another escape? The point i got from here is to reflect on and aware of our motivation of doing dharma as Rinpoche always said to us.
This reminds me one of the Rinpoche’s youtube teaching :
“How we Meditate ???!!! Another FUNNY Dharma talk!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0csm6sXt920
When you look at lazy people, they aren’t actually “lazy” at all – they’re usually doing something. To do NOTHING, in the true sense of the word, is actually quite difficult, according to my own experience, anyway.
It’s amazing just how much people don’t know themselves. Even in Dharma, people are always reading, writing, studying, attending talks, pujas, making offerings…not that these things are bad, but there is always something going on – to sit and watch the breath or just be in the moment for a time…I wonder why it’s so difficult.
The Ven. Ajahn Chah, in his teachings, has a recurring theme along the lines of, “Put down the books and read your own heart. You won’t find yourself in a book, nor can anyone show you the content of your heart. Be still. Watch the breath and know yourself.”
When you think about it, it’s actually quite sad to know that some people don’t know themselves. I wonder what would happen if 10 people, say, were given a pen and some paper and asked to write down what their values are, what really matters to them – what they believe in. Would they know where to start? Perhaps if people slowed down a little sometimes and got to know themselves, they’d come to know what drives them on and what really inspires them and maybe, from that, they would be able to choose a path – whatever path – that suits them and bring themselves joy and happiness to their lives.
As John Lennon said, life is what happens while you’re making other plans…
Kind regards,
Sandy
It is true, that activities is sometimes escape!Thank you, beautifully written!
Very true! Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s precious advice is so awakening – there are so many seemingly harmless little actions we tend to engage in, that actually are escape routes! And, gosh! Even seemingly ‘good acts’ can be another facade! I am reminded of some friends who often complain that their Dharma centre is so rotten that they just can’t stay on anymore – so they decide to just ‘practice at home’ or join another ‘better’ centre. I guess the bottomline is simply to be really HONEST with ourselves, look right at our INTENTIONS. It is simply too tiring and a great waste of time to plan escape routes – better to face the ghosts/’hantu-hantu’ and clear them off. Thank you Rinpochela, for this wonderful sharing!
It true that we will using “busy” as excuse which in actual fact our laziness.Most of time after working, i would rather spent my time on lying on sofa , watching TV rather than read Dharma book..the topic let me think of we should have time to let our mind calm and quiet and really think what should i do for this moment…
The story of Australian monk is a very good reminder.I will remember that.
O i kind of think too much you know and take everything to heart.
Brings back bad memories of when I was trying to practice and ppl told me I was lazy to sit and face the wall 21 hours a day. But the mind is very interesting u know old man. And I live alone and I leave all the tv and the lights on, but I don’t think it’s because I’m scared of silence so much as i am scared of the registered sex offender next door… but maybe i am a little bit scared of idleness.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for this post as it gives us a lot of room for contemplation and self-reflection.
I can identify with the second kind of laziness too, as I always try to avoid work which requires some dexterity of fingers as I am all thumbs.
However, I’d like to focus on the third type of laziness. I’ve always thought that if I keep myself occupied one way or the other, then I wouldn’t indulge in my favorite pastime of worrying about this or that. But what Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo says about my type of ‘busy-ness’ being a form of escape from myself is true. I need to give myself space to find the center of calm and quiet that abides inside me.
Thank you rinpoche for such a powerful teaching. Like many others, I lived my life thinking I am doing something but I am merely distracting myself with my wants, needs, likes and dislikes. It is not easy to come to terms with the fact that the way I work, play and interact with people have been for mostly self-interest and self-gain.
Even the very little Dharma I do, it has been on the basis of limits and barriers. Such a powerful teaching really unravels my self-deception that I am doing something important when actually, I am buying time so I don’t have to face myself – that I am lazy to think of others or think on a broader scale. This is a humbling teaching and reminder.
I see these 3 kinds of laziness as avoidance and self-denial of the truth and escape. When we are forced to look at inner feeling of ourself, we see ugly behaviors, attitudes and mind and we don’t like it. Not many people have the guts to look inside really and face the ugly truths of themself. We find ways to “be distracted” including myself. BUt if I get to sit down ato think and put in effort to achieve a certain result, I find that not hard to do if we put ur mind into it. This is a very good reminder lesson, Rinpoche. Thank you for sharing.
Gosh… i have all 3 laziness in me!
This reminds me of an incident i recently faced last week… I was really unhappy and the minute i reached home i wanted to take off to gompa… it was then that it hit me, i’m going there with a ‘wrong’ motivation, which is to escape.
Unfortunately, lacking the wisdom to turn things around, and at the same time, didn’t want to go over with such an attitude… I ended up staying at home that day… I’ve been thinking about it and up till today, i don’t know if my reaction was right or wrong LOL!
Could the reasons why we are lazy caused by our fear to fail? Fear to make changes as we are too comfortable? Or could it be we are in denial stage where our mindset is not strong enough to make this change? I personally thank Tsem Tulku Rinpoche for giving the strengths to make this change…one step at a time….his sharing of thoughts did inspired me to make the first move in making the change. I guess, we are just human, who need to be told that things will be alright after all….and Rinpoche did that for us to move to the next step. Happy learning as we need to take the first step…
Laziness is a huge obstacle to practicing dharma. It feels like like an elephant print on my mindstream… like an addiction… so hard to stop and truly remember the preciousness of this life. How to put a bomb under my laziness???
Such a beautiful sharing about the 3 laziness, I have all three of them not that I am proud of it but I do recognize from this article I have them. The third type of laziness is something a little harder for most people to spot if they have not been pointed to it. As most people will just think they are keeping busy. I recall someone sharing with me about the the ‘Doing Mind’. We just want to keep our lives busy with activities so we do not need to reflect or check where we are. We are constantly distracted.
A distracted mind is good for many companies who have something to sell you, but it is no good for someone on the spiritual journey.