Cleaning more important than meditation

 

A Zen monk's daily schedule revealed

Uh what is the day in the life of a Zen

monk? Like our lives are very simple.

We're not doing anything too

complicated. Uh we eat, we clean, and we

meditate. That's about it really. Um but

the idea is that when we're doing

whatever we're doing, we are fully

engaged. We are bringing everything we

have, all of our concentration and

attention to that thing. We're not in

Why they never know tomorrow's plans

the past worrying about something that

we regret or thinking about what we need

to do in the future.

And for that purpose, too. Uh we're not

even told what we're supposed to do the

next day. We found we find out

everything we're doing the day of and we

get to it that way. we don't have un any

unnecessary information uh kind of

Morning starts with chanting and meditation

bogging our mind. It allows us to just

completely be with whatever test we are

engaged in.

So to put it though uh more logistically

we'll usually start with um sutra

chanting in the morning and some

meditation.

Then we'll move on to breakfast and do

cleaning. Uh the especially the place

where I trained cleaning is kind of our

main practice.

Cleaning as the main spiritual practice?!

Even the teacher Hawk Green Zenji said

that moving meditation is thousand times

more powerful than sitting meditation.

So we have a high concentration on uh

cleaning su work meditation and we

always start from the inside. So

cleaning the inside of our buildings uh

and then move outdoors cleaning the

grounds and picking up the leaves and so

on and so forth.

Inside-out approach to spiritual cleansing

You could say that this maybe correlates

a little bit to the work we need to do

spiritually too. You know, before we can

kind of clean up the mess of our lives

outwardly, we kind of got to look within

first and do the inner work. What does

inner work mean? This is a you always

hear people say do the work. Do the

What ""doing the work"" actually means

work. What is this work? work is getting

to know yourself

and know the parts that you really maybe

are uncomfortable with that you don't

want to look at and the parts you are

quite happy with knowing the full range.

Uh and a way to do that is through

meditation or deep spiritual

contemplation.

Um but also doing these kind of simple

tasks in the monastery like exhausting

yourself through a rigorous schedule uh

How exhaustion leads to spiritual clarity

cleaning and doing it in difficult ways

that makes your body ache and tired is

kind of like a cleansing of this G

that's been calcified around your

inner being uh through the years of your

life. And so slowly

by step by step, you know, sweeping away

or washing off this unnecessary

or not necessarily, but you know, this

accumulated G so that you can get to and

see clearly

who you are and what's going on inside

Finding your life purpose through self-knowledge

you. And then from that place you can

move outside and see well how does that

relate to everything else then how does

that relate to my place in the universe

uh my connection with my family and

friends my society and then you can see

clearly outwardly as well this place is

a better fit for me isn't it or oh this

is really what my calling was or if you

have some sort of life mission maybe

that will become more clear to you.

Uh but then getting back to our

schedule. So we'll do a lot of cleaning.

We'll have some lunch. We'll do more

cleaning. Uh maybe we'll have some more

sutras and we'll have a bath and sit

some more and then we go to bed. It's

The power of simple daily repetition

about it. And we just do these simple

things day in day out over and over.

It's a lot to remember. We do a lot of

simple things, but there is a lot of

simple things. So, just to remember how

to kind of do the rhythm takes quite a

bit. Uh especially you're always being

kind of yelled at or scolded at. And

Why getting scolded is part of the practice

this is also part of the practice is

just being okay with getting it wrong. A

lot of people have a big adversion to

getting yelled at or admonished

and maybe that will stop us in our

lives. Oh, I don't want to do that

because someone might be angry at me.

Uh, so there's just it's a kind of like

a play or being on stage. It's not the

real world, but it's real enough that

you can explore these relationships with

people with yourself and how you

interact in difficult situations

and uh if you have any hang-ups there.

And it's kind of a safe container to

explore all of those things and wear

down kind of the

prickly parts of you that might be

impeding on your relationships with

others or in your life or your path.