I’ve noticed that people who accomplish a lot in life — both people I’ve known, and people I’ve read about — put a lot of thought into their downtime, into their vacations. This is particularly true of people engaged in some sort of creative work that relies on imagination.
I recently came across an essay by a renowned physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson in which he described Oppenheimer whom he studied under as a young man.
...we can see the nature of the flaw which made his life ultimately tragic. His flaw was restlessness, an inborn inability to be idle. Intervals of idleness are probably essential to creative work on the highest level. Shakespeare, we are told, was habitually idle between plays. Oppenheimer was hardly ever idle.
- Freeman Dyson in the essay “Oppenheimer” in the book From Eros to Gaia.
Perhaps my favorite quote on the subject of downtime, and one I’ve used many times in Heron Dance over the years, is the following excerpt from the memoir of David Ogilvy, founder of the advertising firm Ogilvy and Mather.
I am almost incapable of logical thought, but I have developed techniques for keeping open the telephone line to my unconscious, in case that disorderly repository has anything to tell me. I hear a great deal of music. I am on friendly terms with John Barleycorn. I take long hot baths. I garden. I go into retreat among the Amish. I watch birds. I go for long walks in the country. And I take frequent vacations so that my brain can lie fallow -- no golf, no cocktail parties, no tennis, no bridge, no concentration, only a bicycle.
- Confessions of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy
P
Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance,
And there is only the dance.
- T.S. Eliot, from “Burnt Norton”, the first of the Four Quartets, republished in Eliot’s Collected Poems.
The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.
- Amos Tversky
No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation.
- Walter Bagehot, founder of The National Review, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist
Work without contemplation is never enough.
- Quaker writer Douglas Steere.
If we cannot wait,
we cannot know the
right time to move.
If we cannot be still,
our actions will have
gathered no power.
- Friends of Silence
I can do a year's work in nine months, but not in twelve.
- J.P. Morgan
“This is very important – to take leisure time. Pace is the essence. Without stopping entirely and doing nothing at all for great periods, you’re gonna lose everything. . . just to do nothing at all, very, very important. And how many people do this in modern society? Very few. That’s why they’re all totally mad, frustrated, angry and hateful.”
- Charles Bukowski
A: I have to have it. Every day. I stare into space probably two hours a day. Doing nothing. I get up have coffee. Think. Don’t do anything. Sit around. Then I’ll take a walk. I’m quite lazy. Gardening for me is a meditation. I love to work. Physical work. But that is kind of also downtime. Pure muscle.
- Heron Dance interview of author John Hanson Mitchell
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
- Sir J. Lubbock
Don’t always work overtime. Take vacations. Ask for help. Delegate tasks. The overall work of social justice is the creation of a humane and just society, where, among other things, work and leisure are balanced. If the culture of your workplace does not encourage balance, it is unlikely that your organization can have a positive role in creating social change.
- Kim Klein, Fundraising for Social Change
Some days in working, despite all apparent favorable conditions, the work incurs one disaster after another. Those are the days when, as my wife and I say, “The aspects are not with us.” At such times, it is better to accept that state of affairs and withdraw from the workshop.
- Oppi A. Untracht, enamellist, craftsman.
Lorenzo de'Medici, to a friend who chided him for sleeping late: "What I have dreamed in one hour is worth more than what you have done in four."
- Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier
Robertson Davies, the Canadian author, said one of the most important things in his life was being able to take a nap every day after lunch for twenty minutes. That's for two reasons. One is that by developing a schedule that's under your control, you are not being flogged around by life, as he puts it; you are not always jumping to someone else’s tune. You develop your own rhythm of work and rest. The other thing is that it's during idle time that ideas have a chance to recombine in new ways, because if we think consciously about solving a problem or writing a book, then we are sitting there forcing our ideas to move in a lockstep, in a straight line, and probably what comes out is not very new or original.
For original ideas to come about, you have to let them percolate under the level of consciousness in a place where we have no way to make them obey our own desires or our own direction. So they find their way, their random combinations that are driven by forces we don’t know about. It’s through this recombination that something new may come up, not when we try to push them directly.
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi interviewed by Michael Toms in the New Dimensions newsletter.
An artist must have downtime, time to do nothing. Defending our right to such time takes courage, conviction, and resiliency....An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude. An artist requires the time of healing alone. Without this period of recharging, our artist becomes depleted.... When we can't get others to leave us alone, we eventually abandon ourselves. To others, we may look like we're there. We may act like we're there. But our true self has gone to ground.
- The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
(RWM: What appears as laziness is really healing. It’s extremely important.)
We are the ones making unreasonable demands. We expect our artist to be able to function without giving it what it needs to do so. An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude. An artist requires the time of healing alone. Without this period of recharging, our artist becomes depleted. Over time, it becomes something worse than out of sorts. Death threats are issued.
We strive to be good, to be nice, to be helpful, to be unselfish. We want to be generous, of service, of the world. But what we really want is to be left alone. When we can't get others to leave us alone, we eventually abandon ourselves. To others, we may look like we're there. We may act like we're there. But our true self has gone to ground.
- Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way
I spent many hours alone in my own quiet corner in Topeka. I recalled the many hours I spent in the psycho-physiology laboratory, electrodes attached to my scalp, working to consciously sustain those states of deep relaxation and reverie that are associated with theta brain-wave patterns on an electroencephalogram, and I decided to take advantage of my ideal situation in this motel room. I decided to spend two days and two nights working on myself, hoping this would be a meaningful preparation for my meeting with Rolling Thunder.
I never repeated that situation, but I've never lost the memory of it. I used those forty-eight hours of solitude for total relaxation practice, breathing exercises, concentration and meditation. I left my room only a few times, either to eat or to stroll for a few minutes in the fresh air. I slept only a few hours. Most of the time I spent in what I thought of as a "silent alert." I wanted to establish a clear sense of direction; to align myself with my own identity and with the will and energy of my present task within a larger picture; and to become aware of those with whom I was associated and of those who were a part of my life and work. I did not experience a great degree of success in becoming directly aware of all that I had hoped to, but I did achieve a change in my thoughts and feelings. I became totally free. All apprehension and anxiety were gone. I lost my sense of importance. I no longer really cared what happened between Rolling Thunder and me. I had nothing to care about, nothing to succeed in, nothing to do.
Now that I have associated with Rolling Thunder for over two years I am convinced that those forty-eight hours of preparation allowed me to tune myself to a relevant key. I believe it was because of that preparation that I have been able to learn from Rolling Thunder, from then until now, without feeling obliged to know or to interject my own needs or questions. Had I tried actively to pursue Rolling Thunder I would have failed. As it was, I neither succeeded nor failed at anything.
- Rolling Thunder by Doug Boyd.
"I always get up and make a cup of coffee while it is still dark -- it must be dark -- and then I drink the coffee and watch the light come. …Writers all devise ways to approach that place where they expect to make the contact, where they become the conduit, or where they engage in this mysterious process. For me, light is the signal in the transition. It's not being in the light, it's being there before it arrives. It enables me, in some sense."
- Toni Morrison
If you can do your work, come back out and rest, and notice how you have changed, and then go on back in to do the work and come out again -- over and over and over -- you come to see that we are all in one big graduate school of life. . .
Also, your practice must increase your capacity for concentration. As we become tired in the face of life's wounds, one of the first things that will be taken from us is our capacity to discriminate and deliberate and focus. It's absolutely vital that you increase your capacity for concentration so you can tell when things are not going well, so that you can tell the difference between your stuff and someone else's stuff, and so you know whether or not you're dealing with an actual crisis or just fear.
Every year I take a month when I am not helping people. I lay down my work. The real challenge is to give your best for a long time. . .
- John Calvi, Heron Dance interview, “Quaker Healer,” (Issue 4, August 1995)
Abraham Heschel, THE POWER OF THE SABBATH
Six days we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the need of eternity planted in the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else. Six days we live under the tyrrany of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time, to turn from the results to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world. Labor is a craft, but perfect rest is an art -- the result of accord in body, mind, and imagination.
- Abraham Heschel, THE POWER OF THE SABBATH
...To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone with everything is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful."
There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist fighting for peace by nonviolent methods most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes one’s work for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of one’s work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.
- Thomas Merton, Conjectures Of A Guilty Bystander
RWM: Building and protecting your reserve -- respecting, honoring and striving to understand your reserve -- that you keep in reserve. My energy is often like a raging river, often out of control, racing, searching for the path to the sea. It needs to be channeled. Its strength needs to be carefully built. Controlled. Monitored.
Be as I am -- a reluctant enthusiast, a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it.
- Edward Abbey
Let's talk a little bit about making a commitment to joy. All of us have things that make us glad to be here, make us glad to be in the world. The music that we listen to, the people that we surround ourselves with, the colors that we wear, all of these things are messages that we send to ourselves about how we feel about being in the world. If we are sending ourselves good messages that honor us, we can get much further down the road. If we are giving ourselves messages that do not honor us, that do not show our joy of being in the world, then the work will be much, much harder.
It is absolutely vital that each and every one of us, in trying to make a beautiful gift of feeling to ourselves or to someone else, finds those things that make us glad to be in the world, and increases them.
One of the things I like to do first thing in the morning, before I even open my eyes is to say to myself, "Well, John Calvi, congratulations; you have another day in your life. What's your gut response to that?" I know that I'm at the top of my spiritual health and emotional well-being if my response to that is "Thank you." And if my response is not "thank you", I know I have some homework to do before I offer anybody anything. It's a good barometer; it lets me know how I'm doing. It gives me some words to let other people know how I'm doing, whether or not they want to know.
Each of us has things that keep us strong. It's very important that we know what they are and that we use them; that we make a daily practice of using them. People use all kinds of different things to keep themselves strong. Some people use running and swimming. Some people use playing bridge or playing chess. Some people use particular friendships or gong to movies, going for walks. There are all different kinds of things we can use to stay strong.
But it's vital that you know what it is that works for you, and that you employ it, everyday, with a quality of reverence. This quality of reverence is so lacking in our culture. We need to add this quality to the things that are keeping us strong.
You can use just about anything you want to give you joy and strength, but it should have two qualities to it. The first quality is that it should be cleansing. Whatever it is you are using as a regular practice to stay strong must clear out from you the burdens of that day; that you are not taking in new information about your work and you are not processing information about the work that day. You are empty. You are letting things go, setting them aside. This is absolutely vital. One of the nice things about swimming laps is that you cannot be called to the telephone to get called back to work! Sometimes this is very important!
The other quality that it should have is that it must increase your capacity for concentration. As we become tired in the face of life wounds, one of the first things that will be taken from us is our capacity to discriminate and deliberate and focus. It's absolutely vital that you increase your capacity for concentration: so you can tell when it is not going well, so that you can tell the difference between your stuff and someone else's stuff, and so you know whether or not you're dealing with an actual crisis or mere terror. This is absolutely vital, now.
- John Calvi, The Dance Between Hope and Fear
Once, for example, when Gandhi's supporters were stymied as to what action to take next, Gandhi went off to listen. He listened for three months, much to the impatience of his supporters, and then he set off on the Salt March.
- How Can I Help?, By Ram Dass & Paul Gorman
If waters are placid, the moon will be mirrored perfectly. If we still ourselves, we can mirror the divine perfectly. But if we engage solely in the frenetic activities of our daily involvements, if we seek to impose our own schemes on the natural order, and if we allow ourselves to become absorbed in self-centered views, the surface of our waters becomes turbulent. Then we cannot be receptive to Tao.
There is no effort that we can make to still ourselves. True stillness comes naturally from moments of solitude where we allow our minds to settle. Just as water seeks its own level, the mind will gravitate toward the holy. Muddy water will become clear if allowed to stand undisturbed, and so too will the mind become clear if it is allowed to be still.
- Deng Ming-Dao, from 365 Tao, Daily Meditations
I did not read books the first summer; I hoed beans. Nay, I often did better than this. There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the brain or the hands. I love a broad margin to my life. Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a reverie, amidst the pines and hickories and sumacs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveler's wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance. I realized what the Orientals mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works. For the most part, I minded not how the hours went. The day advanced as if to light some work of mine; it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished. Instead of singing like the birds, I silently smiled at my incessantly good fortune. As the sparrow had its trill, sitting on the hickory before my door, so had I chuckle or suppressed warble which he might hear out of my nest. My days were not days of the week, bearing the stamp of any heathen deity, nor were they minced into hours and fretted by the ticking of a clock; for I lived like the Puri Indians, of whom it is said that “for yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow they have only one word, and they express the variety of meaning by pointing backward for yesterday, forward for tomorrow, and overhead for the passing day.” This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting. A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly improve his indolence.
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden, “Sounds,” 1845