I thought I’d try making a short trailer that briefly explains the symbols found on the cover of my recent book, The Will to Do Nothing. You can find the video above. Now I’ll try to explain the circles to you (though they initially arose intuitively without verbal description). The first symbol is a plain circle. This represents our original wholeness at the beginning of life. As a newborn, there’s nothing I need to do in order to be good enough, in order to be worthy of existence. And in reality, I am not separate from existence.

The second symbol with arrows pointing out represents the ways we become conditioned to forget our original wholeness and learn we are not good enough unless we do something to become good enough. We learn we are separate beings, with names and complicated stories, and that we must try very hard in order to win life. But when you were never not good enough, all effort to become good enough leads naturally to frustration.

The third symbol with arrows pointing back inward represents the possibility of remembering and returning to our original wholeness through some intentional practice. The term “yoga” fits here: to yoke our seemingly separate selves back to the original Self (you might also call this the Universe, or maybe God). This practice is what I refer to as doing nothing. What I really mean here is not forcing it. Notice the ways you are forcing life in order to control it, and learn the art of returning to your natural, unforced Self. It takes a certain will to genuinely let go of the sense of control that forcing offers us. But life cannot be controlled by you because you are not separate from life.

The final symbol with lines running through it represents the point of reunion with the powerful Current of life, that is only ever happening Now, that can be found nowhere other than Now, and Here. Through a return to your natural Self, you cling less to the outcome of your action because your worthiness does not depend on the outcome of your action, and so your action becomes supercharged, light, and free. In Taoism this is called wu wei - action by inaction. Exert the will to do nothing, and allow God to happen through you, out of your control and in a way you couldn’t predict. I believe it turns out to be more fun that way.

By the way, thank you for reading these words!

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