When chores and cooking were done by hand rather than machine, it gave a woman the time to contemplate and meditate whilst doing them. By doing everything naturally and by hand, I have obtained the nickname "the nun who lives in a house" because doing so allows me the time to dwell in my inner zone and contemplate the matters which truly do matter.
Instead of a microwaved pre-packaged frozen meal, I cut up fresh vegetables, use herbs and spices, and boil up barley, beans or rice. This takes time; time that I can use to consider Buddhist theory, find my own view, consider questions, or just breathe deeply and relax. I can enter my inner places and not use my outer mind. I can let my sensing spirit guide me to the correct view and solution, instead of living amidst distortion and confusion within a mind that many people live with and use all day through, everyday.
Throwing seed out of my doorway to our tame pigeons, I can grow my compassion as I watch them feed. I can take this feeling and spread it outwards to cover people. Just because I take five minutes time out from life, in order to live.
In today's rat-race where women are supposed to rush through their chores and cooking and concentrate upon a career, one cannot do such things. There is no time for peaceful consideration of theory amongst the housework within the average home today. People want to have their chores done quickly, to save time - but the time that they actually need to use for contemplations is taken up by other matters and so the modern woman becomes easily stressed.
I cannot dwell in a man's world where a career takes over my mind and confuses my life. I need to live as a real woman should - taking time to do things properly and naturally - that time keeps me sane in an insane world. It enables me to be a Buddhist without going on retreat to learn and practice, without becoming a nun in order to find that precious time to learn and study in. I can live in a house and still get truly immersed, because I choose to live in a different, slower style. I don't need to cram my Buddhism into five to twenty minutes of rushed meditation, but can live and learn day-through.
This brings me to realize that the way life in this country is currently headed is wrong. Soon, all women will be forced into time-consuming careers; there will be no escape. One will either have to rush their thoughts within a limited and set period of time, or to break from life and become a nun under the barriers of a stricter regime and traditional routine. The option to learn, progress, and mature within ones own home will not be available for many more generations, it appears. It seems that recently introduced government pressure to return to work too soon after the birth of children, coupled with the society expectation that we all want to rush along at high speed, will soon banish the option of combining a life in a house with Buddhist studies. One will shortly either have to choose the home-life or to dwell in a nunnery, with no middle ground.
