[POiNTx]

I'm a native Dutch (Flemish) speaker. For me 'Niksen' means you're doing something without intent/purpose and with low importance. You can watch a movie, just because you don't know what to do and you're filling the time, maybe your mind is wandering to other things while watching. Or you can watch a movie because you want to see it, like going to the movies instead of watching at home. Only the former is 'Niksen'.

'Puttering' is an English term which I feel is closely related to 'Niksen' but not exactly the same. With 'Puttering' there's always an action. But with 'Niksen' you can be sitting in a chair, looking around, 'doing nothing'.

I would even argue that meditation is not 'Niksen', because with meditation there's intent. It's actively calming yourself down.

[groby_b]

Matches the German concept of "Nichtstun" (doing nothing) fairly well :) (It's not surprising, what with us being neighbors)

And just like 'Niksen', that too is without deeper intent. You just hang. Closest I can come in English is probably 'idling about'.

You do or don't do stuff. Your brain is meandering about. You don't really care about time passing.

It's definitely an art form, most people get bored after a while - true masters can do days on end ;)

[ben_bai]

I would add that it's "doing nothing important". Like when someone asks: What did you do today? And the german answer is just "Nix" ("Nichts", aka. nothing important)

[kranner]

It sounds like what we call "timepass" in Indian English, and also loan in other Indian languages. It's a very popular word and has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary as well.

[OJFord]

I was thinking 'timepass'. Or more laboriously in other English dialects 'just passing the time'.

[russelldjimmy]

> because with meditation there's intent. It's actively calming yourself down.

This really is the Silicon Valley definition of “meditation”. Not what it’s meant to be.

True meditation seems to fit the definition of “niksen” perfectly. “Calming oneself down” is a side-effect of it, not the primary goal. As Alan Watts said (I paraphrase) - meditation has no purpose. You just do it because you’re grooving with the eternal now.

[kranner]

For one, it depends which definition of "true meditation" you're thinking of. Adyashanti has a method he calls "True Meditation", which is in the "do nothing" class of techniques but it has a not-doing kind of focus to it (or "non-interference with the present moment" as he calls it). It's not a low-importance kind of non-doing though, and though it tends to become restful as one progresses, the path to getting there is not necessarily restful. It seems to be similar for other do-nothing methods, such as the Zen practice of Shikantaza.

GP cites watching a movie while one's mind is wandering as an example of Niksen. That doesn't seem to fit any definition of meditation I'm aware of.

[rramadass]

Right. People claim to be studying Yoga/Buddhism and treat "Meditation" as an "activity" to be done with goals/schedules. That is quite the wrong viewpoint. To paraphrase the Bhagavad Gita; "practice motiveless action".

[tuan]

There seems to be many ways to interpret what meditation means across cultures. To me, born and raised in SE Asia, niksen as described in the article is not the same as meditation. There are significant overlaps however. For example: sitting in a train station and __observing__ the train go by - this is a form of meditation and could be a form of niksen. However, as I wash dishes, I can meditate by focusing on every little details of what I'm doing: this is a spoon, I'm cleaning the handle, next is the tip, now I'm cleaning the bowl, etc.. This is not doing nothing. I'm doing something. I'm just very present.

[russelldjimmy]

Yes, I think we are agreeing in different words. Words are a funny thing, no?

[gonzus]

If pressed, I would use "loafing" in English. Defined as "spend one's time in an aimless, idle way".