Of 'Nothingness Breaks' And Inaction In Action!

 

The other day I was watching a travel documentary on Bali. It is indeed a paradise tucked away into the folds of Indonesia. Beautiful beaches, mountains looming yonder and cute, picturesque locales – Bali has it all.

What caught my attention was the concept of Nyepi, also called as Balinese Day Of Silence. On this day, which is celebrated as the new year day in Bali, nothing is done, and by nothing, I mean NOTHING. There is no work, no travel or transportation, no internet, no lights and no entertainment. The entire island observes a day of lockdown where people do not leave their houses (until absolutely required) and only emergency services are available. Why, even the airport itself is closed on this day.

So how do people spend the day? They spend it at their homes in stillness, quietness, meditating, self-reflection and prayers. The lights, both inside and outside the homes are either kept at bare minimum or turned off completely.

What a fascinating tradition! Can you imagine the feeling of waking up the next morning with a well-rested mind that has thoroughly calmed down?

Two days a week I have to drop off my son to his football coaching center. While he trains there for an hour, I spend the same at a small park opposite to the coaching ground. I walk for around twenty minutes and the rest of the time, I spend reading. It is bliss, sitting on a park, enjoying the breeze and reading a good book. There is a guy who comes regularly to the park. He is probably in his early fifties. He sits on a bench (the same bench everyday) and does nothing. He has a phone, for I have seen him talking on the same sometimes but most of the times, he sits folding his hands and watching the world go by around him. He doesn’t check his mobile, he doesn’t talk to anyone, just sits in silent contemplation. Sometimes he nods off. But most of the times, he just stares around.

I envy him! For someone like me who needs one task or the other to keep the day moving, sitting and doing nothing for a while feels like a herculean task. And yet, how essential is this ritual in our days that are filled with chaos and turmoil!

I remember it was easier for me in my childhood to sit and do nothing. Sometimes I would find myself on my own in the evenings, all my friends busy in other work. On those days, I would sit on a bench facing the gate of the apartment where I lived, and I would do some ‘people-watching’. It was never boring – sitting and watching people return to their homes in the evening, the vegetable vendors strolling with their carts that would carry very less amounts of vegetables, thereby showing that the vendor had a good day, the autos dropping off people, children returning from their tuitions. Looking back, I feel that those were the moments when I lived fully in the present with no thought for the future.

Today of all days, we need the ritual of ‘nothingness’. Our days are chaotic, and our minds are even more in turmoil. There are issues in the outside world, there are issues within us, and we are trying our best to get through the days. But that is not how we were meant to live, right?

Every now and then, we need to get back to ourselves, to catch a breath, to sit for a while and to relax. This should have come naturally, except that when we get time to relax, we either doom-scroll away the time in the social media or do some other thing that doesn’t let the mind rest even for a few seconds.

In the Bhagwad Gita, Shri Krishna has revealed a profound fact of life. He who sees action in inaction, and inaction in action, has learnt the truth about life. Today, inaction has no meaning at all, since we are always working, if not physically then mentally. Even our physical work will amount to inaction when done in a robotic and mindless manner.

Perhaps we may not be able to spend one whole day doing nothing (or we might be able to; we will never know until we try!). But what we can do is take several little breaks of ‘nothingness’ in a day – small breaks from the usual chores where we just sit in silence and do absolutely nothing – not even doom-scroll. Maybe we can switch off the lights and sit in silent solitude to give a breather to the mind. I would not recommend setting any timers for these breaks. The tranquility that you have gained with so much effort (or effortlessness!) will vanish at the first harsh tone of the timer. There should be no hard and fast rules for these nothingness breaks. Just a few minutes of your day, as many times as possible in a day, should work wonders for your stressed mind.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. – Anne Lamont. How profound is this! Unplug yourselves several times in day – muted mobiles, no lights, no television, nothing for you to get distracted about. Just some comforting shades of darkness, silence and solitude wherein you can reconnect, rejuvenate and refresh yourself. And as Bali greets its New Year with a ‘nothingness’ day, maybe we will greet our new selves after every little ‘nothingness’ break!