Why are parents so worried that their kids do nothing all day? It’s
interesting to hear the various comments about homeschooling or unschooling,
like, “Oh no, we can never do that because we cannot stand our kids doing
nothing everyday!” or “You mean, you let your kids do nothing! Are you out
of your mind? Why would you want to do that and destroy their whole entire
future!”

Let’s try to put this into perspective here. First of all, we have to
understand what “doing nothing” entails. It does not really mean doing
nothing at all. Try asking a kid what he or she has been doing in his or her
room after several hours locked inside, and you’d get the same answer every
time: “Nothing”. While you’re at it, try these out too:

“What did you do at school today?”
“Nothing”

“What did you do at Sally’s house?”
“Nothing”

“What did you do the whole day today?”
“Nothing”

Get the drift? So to kids, “nothing” means “interesting things that adults
are not supposed to know”. So if you really want to find out, join them in
doing “nothing” and you may find yourself liking it too!

Then there’s the other spectrum of doing nothing, that is highly spiritual
and has been propounded by great teachers like Krishnamurthi and more
recently, Ekhart Tolle, and is the closest thing to true liberation for
humans to experience – the state of “nothingness”. When one attempts to
meditate, to clear one’s mind of cluttered thoughts and needless fears, one
would come face to face with one’s real state of mind – a state of chaos and
self doubt! So one continues to sit and “do nothing” and eventually one’s
mind settles down and one is able to experience some degree of clarity of
mind. This clarity is essential to nurture the skill of seeing things as
they are – their true nature. Some people dedicate their entire lives to the
attainment of such a state of mind, so this is definitely no child’s play!

So, as you can see now, there is more to doing nothing that meets the eye,
and there is really nothing to fear but fear itself!

Anyone up to doing nothing now?