![]() ~ i don’t remember the origin of that quote, but Zen mind is before thinking if already you’re thinking, it’s too late (a quote that I think comes from the book, Zen Training)ĭo every act of your life as though it is the last act of your life. If you understand Zen, all work is the same. To base our lives on Zen means to emphasize our effort and not worry about attaining satisfaction. When we have Zen practice, every activity is satisfying because all activities are beyond discrimination. The results come and go, but our effort is always here. Our main emphasis should be on our effort, not its results. ~ probably from Shunryu Suzuki or Thich Nhat Hanh (My note: The universe is in a constant state of transformation.) ![]() We can be fully satisfied in our work only when we understand that it is the continuation of something that does not end. ![]() ~ I don’t remember the source of this quote, but it sounds like something Shunryu Suzuki would say This is how our activity fills the universe, and how we express complete understanding in our work. In that way, all activities are included in one, and all activities are unified. When we choose to perform an activity, we make it a gift by dedicating our entire body-mind to it, by making it the only task we do in that moment. ~ note that in the book Zen Training, Katsuki Sekida refers to samadhi when intentionally sitting on a cushion as absolute samadhi, and samadhi in normal daily life as positive samadhi ~ an abridged version of some text from Shinzen Young in The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works Everything shifted: “How deep can I get this morning as I wash these dishes? How deep can I stay as I rake the sand?” I stopped thinking of my jobs in the temple as a meaningless waste of time and began to see them as fascinating challenges. Whether washing dishes or cleaning toilets, my job was to try to stay in samadhi. He then said something even more mind-boggling: “As a general principle, any positive state that you experience within the context of silent sitting practice, you must try to attain in the midst of ordinary life.”įinally, I got it! The menial tasks I had been assigned to around the temple were meant to be an exercise in meditation. How can I possibly be in this state in day to day life?” He told me that this experience would become deeper and deeper as I continued my practice, but then he said something that really blew my mind: “You must try to be in this state at all times, even as you go about ordinary activity.” I thought to myself, “I can barely get a taste of it after an hour of busting my buns, trying to count my breath. He (my teacher) said that I was beginning to experience the first stages of samadhi. If you’re interested in how to combine Zen and work, I hope you’ll find them helpful. Please note that I don’t wrap each quote in double quotes, and I also try to attribute each quote to the correct author/speaker. This article contains a collection of quotes that have been helpful to me in understanding the relationship between Zen and work. And then over time I came to understand phrases like, when working, just work. ![]() I have read that the Zen mind is the mind before thinking, so it seems like Zen and work must be totally unrelated you need your mind to work. For many years I struggled with how to combine two of my main interests, Zen and work.
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