Monday, January 14, 2008

Work Meditation

Good Morning Everyone,
 
In the West we often think of the sacred as something special residing in a special place or created through a special activity. In fact, we often think of the universe as divided and separated, categorized, tagged and bagged: me ~ not me.
 
In Zen, East or West, we strive to see through this delusion, this veil of ignorance, and see that everything is one.  In such a world, there is no sacred, no profane, nothing special, there is just the world we experience as we experience it.  We could say this is mundane.  Hardly.  It is, in fact, extraordinary.
 
The universe is all us, everything.  Our breath and our very existence both depends on it and it depends on us.  Nothing means anything without our making it mean something.  We are partners with the Infinite.
 
In Zen, we approach all activity in this way: meditation, walking, eating.  Today I will suggest that even our work is such an activity.  We call work meditation, samu. It is typically done as a meditative practice in monasteries, but also at Zen Centers during retreats.  The reason I indicated both is that during retreats at Zen Centers, samu is taught as a contemplative practice, whereas in a monastic context, all work activity is samu, all work activity then is contemplative. 
 
In our "secular" lives, I suggest we live as if we are monastics, in the sense that we make all life activity a source of contemplation.
 
When we approach work as a spiritual activity what do we mean?  First, I think, we approach it openly. Work is not opposed to us.  It is not an exchange value, it is in itself.
 
Second, we appreciate all of the activity.  We reside in the activity as if there were no other activity to be done in that moment because, in truth, there is nothing other than what we are doing just now.  Multitasking is at best a fiction, at worst, a house dividing itself.
 
As we approach our work with an open heart and willingness to be completely present during it something really wonderful happens.  It becomes our own regardless of who we are doing it for or what we might receive in return.  This is the value of living in the moment.  There are no degrees of separation.
 
Be well.
 
 
 
 


 
Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi 


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