Inner Practice: Don't Be Busy

By dictionary definition, busy is defined as engaged in action, occupied, being in use, full of activity, bustling, foolishly or intrusively active, meddling, full of distracting detail.

The word ‘busy’ in Chinese character is written as 忙. And I believe it’s a much better and maybe the best depiction that brings out the essence of the word. The left hand side of the character represents the heart while the right hand side of the character represents death.

In other words, busy is the death of the heart.

We get ourselves swarmed with work and errands daily, most of the time not even knowing where all these lead to. But we still do it anyways, like a robot without a soul, on autopilot, dawn to dusk. Day after day, month after month, year after year.

We lost ourselves in thoughts every moment, in the past, in the future, seldom in the present.

We allow emotions to pull us along, fuelling our actions and thoughts, no matter how unserving they are for our highest good.

We think the more we do, the more productive are our lives.

We think the busier we are with activities, to-do list, thoughts, emotions, we are squeezing everything out of life and we are the winners.

We think by being busy, we are much needed by this world and our ego and perception of self worth are skyrocketed by how packed our schedule is.

We use the word ‘busy’ as an excuse.

We use the word ‘busy’ as an escape.

We use the word ‘busy’ as a deception.

We use the word ‘busy’ as a cover-up,

To a heart that is dead

That turns away from our deepest shadows and darkness.

That looks away from our emptiness.