Niksen

Writing in Wooly Magazine, Olga Mecking discusses the Dutch concept of niksen.  Niksen means doing nothing or, more specifically, doing something without a purpose, like staring out a window, hanging out, or listening to music.  Niksen is being touted in the Netherlands as the new, better mindfulness.  

As Mecking points out, "the central tenet of mindfulness — staying in the moment — strikes me as a daunting task. I’m just not sure every moment is worth being present for. But, as I see it, moments of nothing are almost always worthwhile. It’s during these moments, for instance, that I come up with my best story ideas."  Trying to stay in the moment, I think, is the very thing most likely to interfere with actually appreciating the present moment. Trying to practice "mindfulness" is the biggest impediment to mindfulness. 

The niksen concept is not the same thing as laziness. As Mecking puts it, it’s a “thorough enjoyment of life’s pauses.”  Consider wild animals: most animals spend two-thirds of their time doing nothing.  They yawn, look around, sit and wait until a little snack comes by. By comparison, niksen seems a natural state of being.

The analogy I draw is to the Zen concept of shikantaza, or "just sitting." Not sitting in meditation with the intention of gaining enlightenment, or developing concentration and mindfulness, or any other form of self improvement.  Not sitting because someone told you to or because someone told you not to.  Just sitting without anything added.  As soon as something is added, a purpose, a goal, a motivation, anything, it is no longer shikantaza.  And yet shikantaza it is said is more than just the most direct path to enlightenment - it is enlightenment itself. 

The world can use some more niksen.  As one contemporary Zen teacher stated, "Just don't do something, sit there!"