Non-action

Hard to remember that non-action is a mental rather than a physical practice.

It does not necessarily equal sitting still or relaxing all of the time

Instead I see it as a warning against
1. Mental multitasking
2. Doing things for more than a single reason (ie. having second agendas)
3. (Ideally) Forcing myself not to think about things/ driving thoughts into my subconscious (which I see as a form of dishonesty)
4. Excessive self-monitoring

All of these are very difficult. The third might be too much to ask. I multitask in my head because I worry and want to be ready for changes in the volatile world around me. I do things for multiple reasons for efficiencies sake. Getting past these habits requires a degree of honesty and the ability to operate without the daily worry (fear?) that makes my life hectic.

So it is difficult to get past this sort of thing. Cavenah (in prayer) probably requires that you are past this. Zen sitting practice I see as trying to get past this. Sitting, which I don't do, is probably very helpful. I see it as active, rather than passive. You are doing something very regular and boring but at the same time, you are struggling against a framework that tells you that this will result in some improvement (which leads to doing things for a multitude of reasons, and also excessive self monitoring). You are also struggling to stay focused in a difficult situation. Most things we should do with one reason or purpose in mind. Zen practice is more difficult because it probably only succeeds when it is done for no reason. More boring, less reason. You really need to be free of worry and multitasking to do this for any length of time.

The computer and mobile are the biggest modern challenges to non-action. I would be interesting to try to work out principles for computer use around