Only lazy people are busy

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"Western people are running from themselves and they use the busy-ness of their lives as an excuse to avoid having to actually live their own life."

from Buddhism vs. Speed: Busyness is Laziness, by Dr. Reggie Ray.

I'm wouldn't necessarily use the word "lazy", but I do notice how much influence you are subjected to by those you work for. Your mind is constantly working in conformance of the processes they enforce. You become less of an individual when your job demands so much time, effort, and commitment.
 
o_q said:
"Western people are running from themselves and they use the busy-ness of their lives as an excuse to avoid having to actually live their own life."

from Buddhism vs. Speed: Busyness is Laziness, by Dr. Reggie Ray.

I'm wouldn't necessarily use the word "lazy", but I do notice how much influence you are subjected to by those you work for. Your mind is constantly working in conformance of the processes they enforce. You become less of an individual when your job demands so much time, effort, and commitment.
Click to expand...

Likes inertia does make it hard to stop and be still, and take time to find yourself.

But I'm not sure it's laziness. I think the way the world is now, you have to run at that speed.
 
I think I can see the "lazy" angle on this, though I think it is a slightly altered understanding of the term. It's not that someone is lazy on a moment-by-moment basis, but because it takes a lot of energy to get out of a rut. I think that's what Dr. Ray is saying. There is a certain comfort in routine, even if it means that you blink and ten years have gone by and you look back and wonder what you actually accomplished. You may have been extremely busy for ten years, but at the end you may also see that you accomplished about as much as if you had slept the entire time.

For me, the biggest weapon in the battle of any problem that works incrementally like laziness (or weight gain, for that matter) is the thought that I will look back and have regret over the choice I'm making now. Then, even if I don't want to get up and clean, or resist the urge to eat something bad for me, or make a decision that would force me out of my rut, I will take a deep breath and get moving just to avoid the regret later. It isn't 100% effective, but it's how I combat "laziness".
 
say what said:
Likes inertia does make it hard to stop and be still, and take time to find yourself.

But I'm not sure it's laziness. I think the way the world is now, you have to run at that speed.
Click to expand...

I think this falls back to the saying that we make time (or have to make time) for what we find to be important or of value personally.
I wouldn’t equate this to “being lazy” if you understand what you are doing (work, school, etc.) and understand what is being given up (time…time with family friends etc.) in order to reach a goal you have in mind…or are reaching the goal of someone else in exchange for money (work) in order to maintain or reach your own goal eventually.
What I feel the problem he touched on in the article was missing out on those things that you find personally important because you are so busy building the steps to reach your goal…(time with children, personal time, etc.). He basically said…”take time to stop and smell the roses, or in reality you are not only missing out on it but by using your busyness as an excuse to not stop and smell the roses, you are in fact being lazy by not making sure you found time for that activity.”
At least that is what I gleaned.
Our world is fast now…but that doesn’t mean we have to exhaust ourselves trying to keep up with the break-neck speed of the world. Unless you are one of those super-energetic, constantly moving, type of people (I find it doubtful there are many who are that way and an INFJ), then you will find yourself in a constant state of disappointment because you will eventually feel like you could not keep pace, and many equate that with a personal flaw within themselves instead of a flaw in our society not tolerating the human condition.
Our society in this day and age is a constant reminder to people of what they don’t have…they don’t have a big house, or this car, or these looks, or the perfect kids, or the best job, the most money, the glamour, the recognition, the body…and that is all a very effective way to get people to consume more of whatever they are selling, but the issue regarding this constant bombardment are feelings of inadequacy when people do not have all these things that our society tell us are “valuable”.
So we have people in this day and age IMO who are less happy, less satisfied, more depressed, more self-loathing, and for some I think that this has been drilled so far into their minds that nothing in fact gives them a lasting sense of satisfaction or happiness.
When you realize the games that our society and other people try to force on us via the media, work, regulations, etc. then it gives you a whole new perspective on what is “valuable” to you personally, and allows you to find the things that are “valuable” to YOU, without someone else telling you why you should value it.
You will begin to live your life in a more genuine way.
 
Perhaps laziness can be estimated in terms of how long it takes one to do something. Some systems are very busy, but achieve very little. The normal term for this is inefficiency. Although, if you are going to compare two equal net outcomes, it would seem preferable to expend little resources and achieve little, than to expend large resources and achieve little.
 
Many people are just going through the motions

They are following protocols of behaviour that have been given to them by experts in mass behavioural psychology

They are constantly presented with new templates of how they should live their life, how they should style their hair, what clothes they should wear, what pop culture is cool at that moment, what gadget they should have and so on and so on

...and many people are running very hard all the time to fit into the latest template

phew....chill out, sit among the flowers for a while and watch the bees

But then....when you get back up again and start interacting with the other template morphing neurotics you stand out if you're not playing the game

It needs more and more people to chill out, sit among the flowers for a while and watch the bees

Turn off the television, turn off the computer games, throw the glossy magazines in the bin, stop absorbing their programming and sit among the flowers for while

Your behaviour patterns are being dictated to you all the time and you are their dancing monkey!
 
I think the title and the concept of lazy people being busy is just a turn of phrase to get people talking about if lazy people are indeed busy. The concept is so grand and generalized that it is not exactly accurate - but it doesnt need to be. It's not even supposed to be. I think it is just trying to get people to evaluate thier purpose, dreams, and goals in order to get those people to follow them. I think the author is pushing people to be not worried about getting a white collar job and doing the 9 - 5 and just be happy with picking daisys and smelling roses. However I think that since all of society is not on the same page, and the environment being as it is, it is difficult if not impossible to just follow your dreams while killing a buffalo or gathering enough berries to sustain yourself as you follow your dreams.
 
This is 110% true of so many people. Happiness and fulfillment are urgent, desperate, and everpresent concerns, and they often require radical change and difficult decisions. These end goals sometimes require unhappiness or discontent for a period of time. Many of my friends who think they want to be lawyers, accountants, etc. are totally kidding themselves, and I tell them as much in the gentlest way that I can. In a way, these guys are very busy and productive. In a more important way, they are lazily ignoring their inner ambitions that would lead them on a difficult path that is not often well remunerated.
 
Dave Fallon said:
I think I can see the "lazy" angle on this, though I think it is a slightly altered understanding of the term. It's not that someone is lazy on a moment-by-moment basis, but because it takes a lot of energy to get out of a rut. I think that's what Dr. Ray is saying. There is a certain comfort in routine, even if it means that you blink and ten years have gone by and you look back and wonder what you actually accomplished. You may have been extremely busy for ten years, but at the end you may also see that you accomplished about as much as if you had slept the entire time.

For me, the biggest weapon in the battle of any problem that works incrementally like laziness (or weight gain, for that matter) is the thought that I will look back and have regret over the choice I'm making now. Then, even if I don't want to get up and clean, or resist the urge to eat something bad for me, or make a decision that would force me out of my rut, I will take a deep breath and get moving just to avoid the regret later. It isn't 100% effective, but it's how I combat "laziness".
Click to expand...

It is perhaps an intellectual or integral laziness.

Like a lack of awareness or reflectiveness or critical thinking.
 
o_q said:
"Western people are running from themselves and they use the busy-ness of their lives as an excuse to avoid having to actually live their own life."

from Buddhism vs. Speed: Busyness is Laziness, by Dr. Reggie Ray.

I'm wouldn't necessarily use the word "lazy", but I do notice how much influence you are subjected to by those you work for. Your mind is constantly working in conformance of the processes they enforce. You become less of an individual when your job demands so much time, effort, and commitment.
Click to expand...

People do use and abuse a lot of things as a means of psychological avoidance, or, to put it another way, humans are more rationalising than they are rational.

Work is just one of the means, it could be alcohol, drugs, fantasies, it could even be, properly understood, getting busy with buddhism ;)

Maybe Marx wasnt familiar with buddhism when he described religion as the opium of the people (and with the entire quotation in mind and not simply that abbreviation he was validating religion in some ways, ie "heart of a heartless world") but it could be considered in some respects to perform that role as readily as any western religion people usually change up from only to return to.
 
o_q said:
Quotable
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Stole it from Heinlein, I think, although I dont like him or his politics, he probably stole it from someone else and a cursory knowledge of Freud sort of amounts to it in anycase.
 
I think that one of the main points of this quote in the OP, is that believing that we are busy is just that, a belief--it's a state of mind or attitude that we put ourselves in. How busy we are in our lives can be more a matter of our own opinion, a glass half full or empty thing, than a reflection of our duties in reality. If we choose to downplay our obligations or even to be more realistic about them, then that is when we are finally thinking about ourselves and being ourselves, and living for ourselves. Thus "busy" is the convenient excuse that we *allow* society to give us because we are lazy, rather than being the people who are turning things around and living our own lives.
 
As a Buddhist, you know how much freakin' energy it takes just to sit?! No, really. Sit. Park your butt down in one place and stay there. Don't get up to take the trash out. Don't make that phone call you've been putting off. Don't fall asleep. Just sit.

It's scary how many people aren't capable of doing what should be a simple action (or lack of) with our bodies. Most people would prefer to do something... anything else.

There's some creepy stuff that starts to take place in your mind when you let it focus on what it wants to, once you break the habit of always "doing something". That's something a lot of people fear and it's something that a lot of people go through great lengths to avoid. I know several people in real life that, for instance, simply can't meditate for that reason.

So, yeah. I do see how people use busyness to escape living their lives. It's easy to always be busy. Right now... as an example, I'm busy typing this instead of sitting in a reflective, meditative state. I think most people really don't even realize this, but a few of us do. But due to the nature of being lazy, knowing you're lazy and actually doing something about it are two very different things!
 
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