I'm starting to get really fond of tea. A dear friend of mine gave me a pound of premium Ahmad as a gift last year, and a candle-heated pot of tea is fast becoming a bright spot of my day.
I much prefer tea over coffee now, just because of the notion attached to it - these days coffee carries the implication of an overwhelming hurry and a rush to push through things.
Think about it - when was the last time you drank coffee? No really, think about it. You got it? Okay. Now during that coffee you enjoyed, what else were you doing? Reading a book, perhaps? Finishing up your quick lunch break? Chatting with a friend?
If your answer is 'nothing', good. You win this round. But here is where it gets tricky: during that coffee, what else were you thinking about?
The correct answer should be 'nothing', and I'm almost 100% certain nobody passed that little test. And why should you - you are a citizen of a busy society with much to accomplish, you have a multitude of things to do, issues to worry about. Chances are you were grabbing a cup of coffee for that little extra boost to get on with your busy schedule or wrap up the last of your work. And your multitasking skills have been good enough to keep you up with all the things you need to do.
I have never been a fan of that word, 'multitasking'. I wonder if anyone has ever charted the productivity of multitasking versus focusing on one task at a time, within the same stretch of time. Maybe it is more efficient if someone has gotten very adept at juggling a few things at once, like my friend who brainstorms for a Physics problem while doing the dishes or my uncle having a beer watching a late ball game. Or you, drinking your coffee while writing the last paragraph of your paper.
But either way, productive or not, I am still against it. When you multitask, you are splitting your attention several ways. And while that may sound like a desirable (and sometimes even regarded as necessary) skill for the fast-paced world we live in, I don't believe it has done any good to our daily individual lives, as you were not putting your mind into what you were doing. You were not mindful.
Now, I'm not saying you were mindless, but you sure were not mindful. You didn't pay full attention to the task at hand, and thus missed many of its details and most importantly, missed out on the chance to enjoy it.
You are probably thinking: what could possibly be so enjoyable about writing that nonsensical political paper, or doing a mountain of dirty dishes? And the correct answer is another question: Why not?
Who laid down the rules that doing the dishes cannot be the most enjoyable thing of your day? Who governed how much joy you get from writing the paper? Who dictates what brings us happiness and what doesn't?
Don't say human instincts, because there are literally hundreds of millions of counterexamples out there. For instance, the people on Vanuatu island were named the happiest people on earth, and I guarantee you they don't have most of the things we attach with 'fun' and 'joy': They don't have TVs, computers, internet, video games, bars, night clubs. I'm eating a delicious doughnut right now and I doubt they have any 'comfort food' like this.
BBC says Vanuatu is a third-world country, a notion I assume to mean a less developed nation. People may say they are so happy only because they 'don't know anything' or are slightly 'ignorant'. In Vietnamese, we have a saying that many use to describe the residents of Vanuatu, and it roughly translates to "happy idiots" (with a demeaning tone).
I find it quite funny that these island citizens are regarded as 'less developed', in any way possible. Let me ask you this: what is the goal of your life?
Many will answer with the recent cliche "be happy". I'm not going to delve into why being happy is suddenly becoming people's life goals - there have been enough explanation already.
Now, if the ultimate goal of your life is to be happy, and the Vanuatu people are already happy, wouldn't that make them light years ahead of you? They've accomplished what the rest of us 'civilized people' set out to do our entire lives!
Okay, so my point is: there is no rule as to what you can and cannot enjoy. It's all up to you; just make the decision to enjoy something, and you will, it just takes practice. The reason why I like my pot of tea so much is because once I've finished all the preparation and poured out my first cup of steaming hot Earl Grey, dropped in a large thin slice of lemon and a spoonful of honey, all I do is sit down and drink my tea. I don't read, I don't talk, I don't write my paper, I don't think. I am mindful of my tea, and my drinking of the tea.
And that's Zen, in a nutshell. If you can do that for 15 minutes, you have 15 minutes of Zen. If you can do it for 30 seconds, you have 30 seconds of Zen. It is that simple.
So be Zen, now. Why not?
And next time, your coffee just may taste differently.
-K
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