Class 5 · Practice 5

Intentional Purposelessness

The wisdom of nowhere to go, nothing to fix

✦Opening Quote

The going river and the evanescence of life — ingraspable things — is itself medicine. Sometimes it looks like poison, but actually those are only medicine.

— Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki, 1968

Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely. Open your hands and walk, innocent.

— "Stone Head" Shitou, Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage

💬 Sharing Your Wonder

  1. 1

    What Wonder did you encounter?

  2. 2

    What did you experience Living in the Question?

  3. 3

    What did you learn that might encourage others?

🔍 Deeper Inquiry

  1. 1

    What obstacles or barriers did you encounter?

  2. 2

    What changed when you were Living in Question?

⚖️What Intentional Purposelessness Is and Isn't

Is NOT

  • unintentional
  • unconscious
  • aimless
  • indeliberate

IS

  • Purposeful Purposelessness
  • Activity for its own sake
  • No gaining idea
  • Wide awake

🌙Practice 5 — Intentional Purposelessness

Core IntentionActivity for its own sake with no gaining idea.

  1. 1

    For at least 10 full minutes each day, pick up an activity and do it for no reason at all. Take a walk with no destination in mind. Sit in a warm bath with no goal of washing or cleaning. Wash your dishes with a focus on the activity of your hands instead of the goal of finishing.

  2. 2

    Notice your body right now as you "do" — what are you sensing? Allow it. Just now, take in what you sense completely, with your whole body-mind.

  3. 3

    Let yourself connect with the activity itself, your body doing. Nothing to explain or understand. No words needed. Just this.

📓 Reflection Journal

What activity did you choose? What did you notice when you dropped the goal?

← Living in QuestionNext: Connection →