Dear friends,
This week, we will meet Monday evening, November 3, from 7-8:30PM ET in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW); Wednesday morning, November 5, from 7-8AM ET online; Thursday morning, November 6, from 7-8AM ET online; and Friday, November 7, from 12-1PM ET in person/online (hybrid).
On Monday, our evening meditation will be co-facilitated by Rachel H and Camille. They share:
Thich Nhat Hanh introduced the Lazy Day practice to Plum Village in 1984. In a dharma talk from 2002, Thay explains:
“A lazy day is a day when you refrain from doing anything; you resist doing things, because you are used to doing things. It can be a bad habit: if you are not doing anything, you have to die. You cannot bear the thought of doing nothing. It has become a habit. That is why, when you do not do anything, you suffer. The lazy day is a kind of drastic measure against that kind of habit energy. On lazy days, you refrain! You do your best in order to refrain from trying to do something. You try to do nothing. It’s hard. It’s hard, but we have to learn.…. We think that when we are not doing anything, we are wasting our time. That is not true. Our time is first of all, is for us to be. To be what? To be alive, to be peace, to be joy, to be loving. And that is what the world needs the most – so, we train ourself in order to be.”
When I visited Deer Park Monastery a few summers ago, I felt the effort it took to be and not do. There was all this time! Think of what I could accomplish! It took me a few days to settle my mind and begin to practice being without doing. While I initially resisted the slowness of life there – and certainly on the Lazy Day – by the end of the week, my body had gotten a delicious taste of a new way of experiencing time. There was a spaciousness and unfolding to the days there that felt transformative.
