It feels like there is no correct translation for it in English -- idleness carries connotations of laziness whereas a better way to think about it is being aware and present of the moment.

I have been practicing Buddhism for a while and it often is indescribably blissful to just sit in nature, feeling the wind in my hair and sun on my back.

Anyone can experience this door with just a little bit of practice and I encourage everyone to try.

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strken 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I have never practiced Buddhism and it is still indescribably blissful to sit in a clearing in a forest, provided you aren't sitting on the wrong kind of anthill.

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rewgs 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Is there a right kind of anthill to sit on?

	▲	strken 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		In my area, the wrong kind of anthill contains anything in the genus Myrmecia, and the right kind contains almost anything else.
	▲	smackeyacky 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		If you’re an ant, sure!

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RickHull 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The jargon term, slack, comes to mind, in the concept-cluster of the old Google 20%-time, Slackware Linux, and Church of the SubGenius.

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mesrik 41 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

and Bob with his Billard pipe, now as you brought these up!

My father did not smoke, but many of his colleagues did which some did look 60's bit like Bob. For some odd reason I still kind of remember what tobacco and pipe smell felt in room when I begin to think of it, like now in this occasion.

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ghaff 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

In general use though slack has an even stronger connotation of e.g. slacking off and not doing anything useful with the time.

	▲	bigiain 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Alternatively, ensuring you have enough slack in the schedule is, at least for some tech leads and project managers, an essential tool to enable meeting deadlines. (So, I suppose using "slack" in a positive sense by project management, while probably still being considered a pejorative thing by non technical management or beancounters...)

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nickvec 24 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Agreed. Meditation and mindfulness have confirmed the importance of “being idle,” at least for me. Making an active effort to not be distracted by thought is quite the challenge, but it has brought me great peace.

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zozbot234 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You're a lot more likely to be aware in the present moment when you're deep in a 'flow' state doing something productive than when you're just sitting around doing nothing. Why do people assume that idleness is something to aim for, and enjoying real productive work is not?

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mtlmtlmtlmtl an hour ago | parent [-]

Why do people(you, in this case, but this is a very common fallacy) assume that advocating for one thing(idleness) is implicitly advocating against its opposite(work)? We can do both, just not simultaneously.

	▲	zozbot234 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Because the article's title is "The Importance of Being Idle" not The Importance of doing something that you enjoy"? It's all-too-easy to enjoy being idle, but ultimately it's also a bit mindless, and this deprives us of deeper forms of enjoyment and engagement.

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pandatigox 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think I would say a better variant would be "the importance of being still"

	▲	10729287 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		As a french I like the term "idle", as the state my computer switch to when i'm not asking it anything.