True rest

Restlessness is one of the hindrances. We need to rest.

It’s interesting that an always-on culture has interpreted restlessness as being purely a mental agitation, a habit to be corrected instead of being an actual need to rest, physically and mentally. This is a cultural blind spot for us. If we hear the dhamma filtered through our cultural conditioning, we will hear something like, "Keep striving. Keep inhaling dhamma. Keep working. Keep practising. Be more productive. Can you fit in more meditation here? What about if you got up earlier? You could listen to a dhamma talk while doing that. If you are more efficient your practice would go further." With such a mindset, we don’t prioritise rest. Rest should be the default state.

Rest supports virtue. We are most likely to be irritable, short-tempered when lacking rest. Rest gives us the energy to do good works. Rest supports the ability to focus the mind. If you want to focus, you will need periods of rest and relaxed attention. It has been shown that periods of open, uncontrolled attention and mind-wandering support the mind to focus. It's very natural for the mind to switch between these two modes. And we might think of the jhānas as progressively deeper states of rest.

Rest is itself an act of wisdom, of letting go, of recognising our limits. We can reflect that rest is free from craving. This goes to the heart of the four noble truths. We put down our ambitions and obligations. We come back to the moment and just be. We're not using objects to produce pleasure. I think this is key. We often get caught in the trap, in this entertainment age, of constantly looking for stimulation, using our digital tools to sequence continual hits of dopamine until we forget what true rest is. We forget how to rest in unperturbed awareness, how awareness can rest in itself. We are always doing, always seeking, always craving.

What does it mean to truly rest?