The Folly of Fun
The innate drive to have 'fun' is one of nature's most effective hoodwinks. This drive allows man to catch a fish as it bites down on the bait seeking a moment of 'fun'. Fun (pleasure) is also beneficial. If the fish didn't enjoy the fun of eating it wouldn't seek the food it needs to survive; the drive to have fun is balanced in nature. Not so in us! We carry with us thoughts of fun driving our many desires which tips the balance, and off we go after bait more than necessary. The result is suffering, as Buddha pointed out. Thus, be extremely wary of the desire to have fun if you wish to live to be a 'happy' wise old fish.

Good idea Carl. I'm all for short and sweet.

I've been suspect of fun for quite a while, probably just because I didn't like to do the things other people thought were fun. I started noticing how people's hobbies took over all their time...maintaining the water ski thingy, waxing the surfboard, fixing the boat or the motorcycle. Fun was work! I decided that simplicity was best and it's worked for me.

I may not impress anyone with my activities and I may not be interesting to some, but I can live with that. Give me a quiet day listening to the windchimes and watching the cats ignore each other and I'm happy as a clam.

Is that chasing fun? Sometimes I find myself wishing to be quietly on the deck instead of whatever I'm doing but then I come around to my senses.

Oops....messed up on the rules one more time (more than one paragraph). What you say is very true, but it's so easy for me to slip into that kind of thinking. When I think of fun I think of what I like to do but, of course, you are right. If I had nothing to do, would I enjoy doing nothing? Probably not; I would become lethargic and vegitate. But then....the golden mean...doing less and less until you do nothing at all....how appealing. Pulling the meditative state into activity until there's no self to do anything.

Yes, and when that happens -- no self -- there is no judgment that this is fun, this is not fun. Then you are in heaven. Or hell. What the hell. You don't care!

"My Flying Carpet"

...doing less and less until.."
indeed until words and thoughts disappear, but they dont stay disappear-ed do they!
so with as few as possible:

I observe my most prominent attitude to work is to avoid as much effort as possible. What creature would do otherwise unless it was getting something better in return?
To every single thing unfavourable "Can THIS be swept under that faithful carpet always floating behind me?"
The second being my strong desire never to stray from virtue, (or as the Bible puts it, to avoid even the appearance of evil) manifesting itself mostly in pompous huffiness when people say things that I dont think is 'groovy'
There under lies an awareness that these attitudes are hindering me thus 'Wrong', Ha! and it requires effort on 'my' part to 'intervene' to soften these tendencies.
There under lies a great biological hoodwink, that by 'choosing to intervene' this will 'change' this something for the 'better'.
As all this nonsense spirals down back to the un-wordy I observe myself noticing that I cant[/b] accept that I cant accept that its an illusion that its an illusion.
Doing less = more feet up time?
beginning to see it more like,
Activity simply riding events, favourable or un-, busy or otherwise, helplessly participating with a lessening appearance of free will’s twin 'intervention'

Here boy!.. cam on carpet.. there's another customer complaint.. now where's that delete button.