Choosing to do nothing-is it an action?

[StarMountainKid]

Your opinion vs my fact.

I think my fact wins..

I think we are defining two different things. In meditation, for instance, there is no overt action, yet the mind is sharp and alert, aware of its surroundings. In this state one can jump into immediate action if the circumstance arises. I would also say in the martial arts, before one's offensive or defensive action, one is in a state of alert non-action.

Inaction is something completely different.

[shrooma]

Doing nothing is inaction, and however wrong it might be at times for us to NOT act, we cannot sit here and say that not acting is acting, that is an oxymoron.

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I guess you failed to notice the name of the thread 'choosing inaction' then huh felix?

or would you like me to copy & paste something showing that choosing is an act....?

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Your opinion vs my fact.

I think my fact wins..

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or maybe not, as the case may be....?

[Beany]

I wasn't referring to not acting in an emergency, but to not immediately react to problems or stressors in my daily life. As it turns out, since I've adopted this practice, most things have worked out quite nicely without my intervention. How or why that is, I'm not sure, but it is working.

[Tata Rompe Pecho]

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I guess you failed to notice the name of the thread 'choosing inaction' then huh felix?

or would you like me to copy & paste something showing that choosing is an act....?

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or maybe not, as the case may be....?

Choosing is an action, I stand corrected when it comes to the title.

[4dplane]

When I read the title of this thread I immediately thought of a Ted Talks that describes how inaction results in an action because:

Start it at 5:00 - about 4 min

http://www.ted.com/t..._decisions.html

In summary of Dan Ariely’s video, Are we in control of our own decisions? He shows many countries, with a similar cultural, have vastly different organ donation percentages and it has to do with how a countries DMV form is worded. If the form looks like this:

“Check the box below if you want to participate in the organ donor program”

There is a low percentage of people who sign up, because the act of doing nothing defaults to a result of no organ donation. If the DMV from looks like this:

“Check the box below if you don’t want to participate in the organ donor program”

There is a high percentage of people who sign up, because the act of doing nothing defaults to a result of many organ donations.

In all cases the greatest action taken was the act of doing noting. Ariely proposes this is not a result of people just being lazy to lift a pen and check the box, but rather the question they are being asked is too difficult to answer, so they just leave it alone; “do nothing”.

“So I decided to back off, be still, and pay attention.”

All three of these are decisions and continued actions for as so long as you continue them. Action has been had, so I think the point is, if you want to live life with a backseat approach, don’t surround your creed with vows of mindlessness and apathy, but rather use your mind to make the decision, to do nothing when that is the best option. If there is a better option then a rational person would take that route vs doing noting when someone’s be attacked or a house is on fire etc ... The big idea to me is doing nothing should absolutely be an option on the table when approached with a problem, but you need to take action first to decide whether you want to take action or not. So, in the end, I’m for using your head and not meandering off to an endless sea of ..... ... .. .. .. .. .. .. ...