By Nikhil Tole Trivedi
(An essay that advocates accepting people as they are regardless of whether they have attributes considered undesirable)
It’s the 21st century and yet, there remains a community of people that are being unjustly ostracised from society for a part of their identity they can’t control. Laziness.
Some people are just inherently lazy (myself included). But instead of accepting this innocuous trait, society has deemed it a flaw in character causing nefarious effects such as diminished productivity. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Laziness is simply the pursuit of the path of least resistance.
The path of least resistance is a concept applied to all decision making. Consider this. You are in bed watching Netflix when you realize that you have to pee. Now, you would immediately go to the bathroom to do exactly that, but a lazy person? A lazy person would realize that at this point in time, enduring the need to pee would take less effort than that required to get up and go to the bathroom and so would stay put following the path of least resistance. At some point in the future though, the increasing effort required to endure the discomfort of a full bladder would outweigh that needed to go to the bathroom, the path would change. It is at this point, and only at this point, that a lazy person would relieve themselves.
But what are the benefits to laziness?
Well, first off, given the common occurrence of situations such as that described in my first example, you tend to develop an ungodly level of bladder control which has its obvious advantages!
Secondly, and more importantly, a lazy lifestyle is most suited to meditation and inner peace. Don’t take my word for it, take The Buddha’s. The guy spent most of his day chilling under a tree thinking about life and becoming enlightened so I think his thoughts are important most of all. Is it not in The Buddha’s teachings themselves, in his 4 noble truths that the lifestyle of lazy people is most perfectly reflected! You see, unlike the average human, lazy people recognize the fact that most things you want to achieve or acquire in life just aren’t worth the effort it takes to do so! This allows for a lifestyle of idle relaxation free from the bonds of desire and temptation – midnight snacks, not worth leaving the sofa for, that new rip off IPhone you want, not worth the time it takes to set up! Lazy people are ultimately at peace with themselves and the world – content with the fact that they expect nothing of it and so nothing is expected of them in return.
If you’re still not convinced, forget The Buddha, at least listen to Master Oogway! After all, didn’t Master Oogway appoint Po, possibly the laziest panda of all time, as dragon master despite the fact that he was the least skilled of all competitors and won the competition by accident? Oogway was the first to realize that in the fight to attain inner peace, lazy people reign supreme!
In conclusion, if society were to embrace laziness rather than attempting to eradicate it we would all live much happier lives.
Comments