The essence of Zen is to “be” what you are doing right now. If your awareness is totally on the present moment, then you will just know what needs to be done next. Without feeling overwhelmed, the right moves will instinctively emerge. The thoughts that create anxiety will always pop up in out of our mischievous minds. This is just another part of human nature. If you practice being mindfully aware, however, you will learn to recognize them as merely thoughts - a Zen practice called “labeling”– and let them go, releasing them while remaining calmly focused on the moment. Lama Surya Das, in his wonderful book “Awaking the Buddha Within” explains it like this, “Pure mindfulness is relaxed, open, lucid, moment-to-moment awareness. It is clear seeing. Do not live in the past or the future, but be conscious and wake up to the present moment. In the simplest definition: Things are just as they are.” Everyone has heard the saying, “Stop and smell the roses.” After reading a few Zen books, the meaning of this age-old quote became larger than life to me. For all of us, if we practiced feeling gratitude for our present moments through Mindful Awareness instead of creating unimportant chaos, our lives would slowly begin to change. Although meditation is the ultimate way to train your mind to be consistent in this manner, we certainly do not have to start with that. In fact, we can start right now from wherever we are.
Okay, I am ready now to connect all this to my dishes. This chore, even this very morning as I sit at this computer, is trying, through my thoughts, to cause me feelings of guilt. I certainly feel like I can't leave the house and go about my day without first cleaning that mess but, in reality, it is not important. If I practice mindful awareness, as I am trying so hard to do in this moment, then I will focus only on this keyboard until I am finished, then, ever-so-calmly, move to the kitchen, rinse my dishes, place them in the dishwasher, turn the little knob to “on” and continue out the door to work..
In “Awakening The Buddha Within”, Lama Suurya Das refers to a beautiful quote by meditator master Thich Nhat Hahn. It goes something like this:
“I must confess it takes a little longer to do the dishes in mindfulness, but I live fully in every moment, and I am happy. Each second of life is a miracle; the dishes themselves and the fact that I am here washing them are miracles! Every conscious step we make, a flower blooms under our feet. We can do this only if we linger not in the past or future, but know that life can be found only in the present moment.”
Finding peace in even the smallest daily chores can change our lives. I know first-hand that this is so hard to do but well worth the effort. If you have read this article, I hope I have sent a little sparkle to your day, a little food for your thought. Trying our best is all we can do. And that is okay.
