It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. I’ve often noticed that laziness is another good stimulus for creativity. In other words, if something has to be done why use more energy or effort than necessary to accomplish it?
Working a summer office job in high school I can remember people commenting on something I was doing with a bit of surprise. I can’t remember the details now (except that it involved the office copier and 200 page reports), but I remember responding that the creativity had come from being lazy. Contrary to popular views, this sort of laziness promotes efficiency, something like inventing the washing machine when you are tired of doing the clothes by hand.
A few years later I started practicing Tai Chi. As one early teacher used to say, the whole point is to learn to relax. When asked how you did this he would say, “practice, practice, practice”. As in most things in life, being relaxed, rather than tense or nervous, yields better results. It is also physically easier and less tiring. One day I was playing pool with a friend of mine and I thought of my tai chi, dropped my center, relaxed into my legs, and found that my playing flowed effortlessly.
Many years later I had occasion to spend several months digging out the lower level of a house to allow new windows and doors to go in. For a number of reasons I choose to do this by hand. Working again from tai chi I focused on relaxing as much as possible and found that I could release the tension and soreness from my body this way. I also taught myself the easiest and most efficient way to work with a pick and shovel. Over the years I have learned that if you want to learn the most efficient (easiest) way to do something: focus on staying as relaxed as possible while doing it. Your being will naturally find the desired result.
Think about all great athletes, artists, or practitioners of any art. When we wish to express the mastery we see in them, we say that they made it look effortless.
In the energy work that I do the concept of effortlessness is emphasized, though it is really more an attitude or state of being. Anything can be done with, or without effort. It is both easier and usually more efficient to do it without effort. Lack of effort is not at all the same as not paying attention, it is about relaxing while you do something. Find the tension in your body or being and relax it and everything will improve.
I once had a chance to help with a rice harvest in rural Japan, some of which was done by hand. This is indeed tiring work. Harvest time is also the time of year when there are festivals in the villages, including dancing. Watching the dancing one evening I realized that the movements in the dance where the same as in the harvesting and that they also both movements seen in martial arts. Over the millenia people have found the easiest, most efficient motions of the body. This is natural at the end of a day of harvesting, or a long practice session, you have no energy for anything else.
So if you are interested in efficiency, in the optimal way to do something, it will also be the easiest and the most relaxed. Remember to factor in emotional and mental energy as well, then it can be fun as well as efficient. Learning to relax may sound like being lazy, but as long as there is presence, awareness and attention (no limp noodles), there is life and ease and grace.
(© 9/2010)
