Question

I have a teacher who tells us to rest and relax more and to be less busy. Does this conflict with your instructions to do more?

Answer

No, it really depends on what you are doing. Did your teacher actually say what to relax on and to be less busy about? One can be very busy or more relaxed, depending on one's intention behind what one is doing. If people had told us to do less then we wouldn't have retreats and we wouldn't have interviews. However within activity we can be more relaxed if we have the right intention, so perhaps it is not about doing less to be more relaxed but changing our intention. I have noticed a big difference in people's ability to relax during an activity or not relax during an activity, depending on what mind state they have at that time and what intention they have for doing the activity.

Sometimes the more people relax the more they may bring up a lot of boredom and dissatisfaction, but if they get more involved in generous actions it actually makes them feel better about themselves. This in turn helps them when they do relax to relax more easily because they haven't got a lot of desire, they have a lot of generosity and satisfaction. When Steve says, "Do more," I don't think he means to do things for the sake of doing them. I think he is asking you to do more beneficial actions, which are going to have a beneficial result.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.