The Hindu Business Line : Work is sacred

A Zen monastery’s focus on a natural aesthetic and on fundamental activities like sitting, breathing, walking, eating, and doing elementary chores may seem simple, but can in fact be difficult, writes Jack Maguire in Waking Up: A week inside a Zen monastery (www.landmarkonthenet.com).

He cautions that, given the intensity of Zen practice in a communal setting, you will inevitably come up against your own discomforts, fears, inadequacies, and resistances, even when doing apparently simple things.

One example of such activity is ‘sitting absolutely still, physically and mentally, for a thirty-five minute stretch.’ The author vividly describes the possible consequences, thus: “Your knees, toes, and nose can take turns screaming in pain, as your brain simultaneously broadcasts an equally maddening chorus made up of every bogeyperson from your grade-school years to your present job.”

You can benefit enormously from shoshin (Japanese for ‘beginner’s mind’) advises Maguire. “It’s the form of consciousness that allows us to enter into each experience with a fresh enthusiasm and a freedom from preconceptions, thereby keeping ourselves open to all positive outcomes possible.”

In such a state of mind, “every weed you pull is the first weed you’ve ever pulled, the final weed you’ll ever pull, the only weed you’re going to pull in your life,” counsels a quote in the book. This intentness on staying in the present, to the exclusion of everything else, renders each moment that occurs a new opportunity for full aliveness, undiminished by shadows of the past or the future, the author elaborates.

To those of us who chronically complain about the burden of work, it may come as a surprise, in a chapter titled ‘Gates and barriers on the training path,’ that work is sacred in monasteries. “Zen is unique among all schools of Buddhism in placing a strong emphasis on work,” Maguire observes.

He traces this tradition to the eighth-century Ch’an master Pai-chang. “Rejecting the already age-old monastic custom of simply begging for a living, he taught his monks to combine a zazen (the practice of enlightenment) mentality with daily labour in the monastery and its surrounding fields. As a result, the monks and their master made themselves self-sufficient and better able to appreciate the universal applicability of their practice.”

That should explain why every aspect of life in the monastery is “geared toward vocation — the calling to embrace one’s responsibilities — rather than vacation, the act of leaving them behind.”

Working in a Zen environment with the type of wholehearted commitment it inspires can be an incredible learning experience, assures Maguire. “It helps one to see work anywhere as a spiritual activity rather than an all-too-worldly scourge, grind, or shtick.”

A rejuvenating read.

D. Murali

BookPeek.blogspot.com

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