Spacing Out

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I've quit meditating. Instead, I do nothing. The practice is basically the same but the framing is totally different. Meditation is somthing that highly driven people do to improve themselves; nothing is what lazy people do whenever they get the chance. Meditation is a chore; doing nothing is a relief. While meditating, you focus on your breath in order to still your thoughts; while doing nothing, you focus on your breath because breathing is the only thing you can't not do.

This is a common practice in Korea where you literally sit and do nothing. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the feeling of just staring into space and zoning out. Well, well in Korea, it is basically considered a past-time. I had a friend once tell me when he was teaching English class to some middle school students about 'hobbies' where this term came up. He said the first kid in class said their favorite hobby was playing video games, the second said going to the mall, and the third said 'zoning-out'.

When told this story I looked it up. They have a famous annual 'spacing-out' competitions in korea. The winner whoever can go the longest without falling asleep or moving. Sometimes these competitions get covered in Western media, and are often framed with terms like 'zen' and so on.