<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><base>Lovely. <div><br></div><div>Adam.<br><div><br>Source: <a href="https://www.presencing.com/engage/story/modern-bhutanese-practice-uselessness">https://www.presencing.com/engage/story/modern-bhutanese-practice-uselessness</a><br><br><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><img alt="sangay.jpg" apple-inline="yes" id="B5E54DED-4C52-4BBC-9C4A-501A705ED5E3" height="401" width="454" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:5BCE46E1-932D-4070-97A9-54D5DDA8B02C@fritz.box"></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></div>The Modern-Bhutanese Practice of Uselessness<br><br>Of course, if you were to read his resume, you would never believe it. Farmer Sangay, as he prefers to be called, is a leader of Bhutan’s movement to be 100% organic by 2020. He is also the founder of Happy Green Cooperative, where he leads programs for hundreds of young people. During the Global Wellbeing and GNH Lab in Bhutan, which he was helping to co-host, he was called away to meet with the Prime Minister. In other words, nobody calls Sangay Rinchen a useless guy.<br><br>Nobody, that is, except Sangay himself.<br><br>When you meet Sangay, you first notice his infectious smile and belly-laughter. Soon, you realize this charismatic guy is also a genuine philosopher – a deep thinker with disarmingly powerful ideas.<br><br>When the Global Wellbeing and GNH Lab reconvened in Bhutan in late April 2013, Sangay told fellow participants, in earnest but with his characteristic grin, that he had spent the past few months practicing “uselessness.”<br><br>He certainly enjoyed the momentary laughter and puzzled looks this announcement garnered. And yet, it soon became clear that Sangay was quite serious. To Sangay, “uselessness” is a form of right action. Or better: right non-action.<br><br>Sangay explains that in moments when he wants to intervene and fix something on his farm, he first steps back, does nothing, and reminds himself that he is just a humble, useless guy. Sometimes, it turns out nothing needs fixing – nature has its own solutions.<br><br>If doing nothing sounds, well, like a useless tool for change-makers, consider this: later in the week, Otto explained a method he has refined, over many years (and before meeting Sangay), to take a conversation to deeper levels. Simply put, he said, “Do nothing. Sit there. Smile. Do nothing. Just listen.”<br><br>With his practice of “uselessness”, Sangay calls our attention to a tendency, as change makers, to want to be in control. The humility inherent in the practice of uselessness (even the term itself is threatening to the ego!) is actually an important step in the cultivation of a positive mental attitude. And the cultivation of a positive mental attitude, our Lab participants learned in Bhutan, is the essence of Gross National Happiness (GNH).<br><br>As economists, policy makers, religious leaders, and many others look to Bhutan for clues about how to create an economy that serves the wellbeing of people and nature, let’s not forget Farmer Sangay, high up in the Himalayas, inspiring country-level changes through a paradoxical, but deeply purposeful, practice of uselessness. <br><br><br></div></div></body></html>