But there’s an inherent flaw in this pervasive belief system as Watts points out: “It should be obvious that action without wisdom, without clear awareness of the world as it really is, can never improve anything.” And sitting still can lead to greater awareness and a heightened understanding of the nature of things.

Wisdom, arising from introspection and personal discovery, is difficult to attain in an age wired for speed and the accumulation of information. Wisdom, like sitting still, is elusive in the digital age. Corporations make decisions based on the short term, often overlooking long-term consequences. Individuals hold ideologies and take actions without first clearly evaluating and apprehending what’s in the common Good of all.

We’ve heard it said that wisdom comes with age. Without conscious intention and effort—without fostering the capacity for sitting still—we grow older but not wiser.

Make a practice of sitting still on a daily basis. Wisdom will ripen through this powerful practice.

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Every aspect of Zen culture like the tea ceremony, archery, calligraphy, or fencing is performed with a one-pointedness of mind on the task at hand. No wobbling allowed.

But could a saying constructed over a thousand years ago still be relevant today? After all, the Chinese didn’t have smart phones or the internet back then. They didn’t even have phones, computers or even light bulbs.

A society of multitaskers listen to NPR, check the weather forecast, sip a cup of coffee and make dinner reservations while driving to work. Some might say we’ve become a culture of wobblers.

The point of the proverb is not about multitasking, but about nonresistance. Resistance obstructs the natural flow of our thinking and acting throughout the day. Degrees of resistance vary, but any level of resistance depletes our energy and hinders our state of flow. In a state of nonresistance, we find a natural way of being in the world—at work and at home.

Alan Watts explains, “For the essential quality of naturalness is the sincerity of the undivided mind which does not dither between alternatives.”

Hesitation, confusion, frustration, lethargy, apathy, and anger are all forms of resistance. When we let them go, we are liberated, entering a state of effortlessness that makes life’s adventures infinitely more enjoyable.

So when emailing, just email. When texting, just text. When listening, just listen. When reading, just read. When writing, just write.

Focusing on the task at hand might not bring about satori (a moment of enlightenment), but it will profoundly increase your effectiveness at work, improve your relationships, and enhance your inner balance and alertness.

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The reptilian brain, still an intrinsic part of our nervous system, keeps us on constant patrol—hunting, running, eating, interacting—in an effort to survive. Our survival self, what Freud called the id, thrives on constant activity.

To reinforce this primitive drive, our social programming has linked our sense of significance to how busy we are. The ego gets its sense of worth not from the results it produces or the overall contributions it makes, but by how busy it continues to be. Executives, for example, may brag about the number of hours they log each week or how little sleep they’re getting.

Phone calls, emails, text messages, meetings, passing thoughts—these are all easy hooks for the ego. The question What do I need to do? is one of the ego’s primary programs for staying occupied, reinforcing its sense of importance and significance with an endless series of details. In fact, we often mistake busyness for business.

Plus, we now have Web 2.0: blogging, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Tweeter, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Slideshare, Squidoo, Ning, Pandora, Meebo, and thousands of other applications with new ones entering the fray every day.

I’m not suggesting that any of these applications are bad (I use a number of them). But they do provide endless fuel for perpetual busyness.

In ancient Hindu philosophy rajas is the term used to describe our constant drive for activity, one of the three in-born attributes of consciousness. The first attribute is called tamas or inertia, while the third and most evolved attribute is sattva, or beingness and harmony.

How do you find balance amidst an onslaught of never-ending activity?

Take a few moments each day to go “offline.” Sit still and just be. Let go trying to change anything. Notice your breath. Observe your surrounding without judgment. Feel a moment of gratitude for your existence.

Could these few daily moments of Zen transform your life? I don’t know, but they will help you keep perspective as you march forward through the adventures of life.

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An alchemical balance of time, energy, people, thinking and materials is needed to coalesce the “right amount” of resources for each action, project and meeting.

• How much time is spent sitting at your desk without a clear, specific objective in mind?
• How much time is wasted in meetings? In excess chatter and insufficient, constructive dialogue?
• How much energy is expended through uncontrolled emotions, feelings, and thinking throughout the day?

Living a Zen way of business requires a disciplined practice in order to harmonize the delicate blend of yang (actionable and direct) with yin (allowing and nonresisting) energy.

Again from Watts: “The uncontrolled mind uses up its energy over innumerable worries, distractions and wandering ideas instead of giving itself to one thing at a time, and for this reason it never achieves completely what it sets out to do, for the moment it begins on one thing it runs off to others, exhausting itself with a tremendous amount of wasted activity.”

We need not perfect this way of being; for that is not possible. But we can make progress each day with more inquisitive thinking, thoughtful speaking, careful listening, deep connecting, and effective executing. Mastery comes through the humility of consistent daily practice, year after year.

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