Doing Nothing as Skillful Practice

We use an old Zen story to look at Doing Nothing as skillful action.

Excerpt

"A young monk is struggling and he goes to his master, telling him he is really struggling. So he asks his Master Ganto. When the three worlds threaten me, what shall I do?" Ganto answered, "Sit down." "I do not understand," said the monk. Ganto said, "Pick up the mountain and bring it to me. Then I will tell you." ..

You can just see the poor monk, overwhelmed by the three worlds, which are the world of form, the world of thought and the world of desire… basically everything -  He is coming to the master for help – in my own translation, the young says again to Ganto,

I am at my wits end, what the hell am I supposed to do.  

Ganto looks him right in the face and says sit down. 

Can you imagine, I don’t think it was what he was expecting – he probably was even more confused because 

he was already sitting down....