Monday, August 4, we will meet online.
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Dear friends,
This week, we will meet Monday evening, August 4th, from 7-8:30PM EDT online; Wednesday morning, August 6th, from 7-8AM EDT in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW); Thursday, August 7th, from 7-8AM EDT in person/online (hybrid) and Friday, August 8th, 12-1PM EDT online.
On Monday night, Marie will facilitate, and we will continue to reflect on Thay’s book The Art of Power. If you have time, please read and reflect on Chapter 7 (Taking Care of Nonbusiness, pages 137-157).
Marie shares:
I have a strong habit energy of prioritizing work over other aspects of life that are important to me.This chapter was a bell of mindfulness. Early on, Thay shares a story from the time of the Buddha:
One day, a farmer who had lost his cows came running up to the Buddha and asked if he had seen them. The farmer was very upset and said, “I think I am going to die. How can I survive without my cows?” The Buddha told him, compassionately, that he had not seen them and suggested he look for them in another direction. After the farmer had left, the Buddha turned to his monks, smiled to them and said, “Dear friends, do you know that you are lucky people? You don’t have any cows to lose.”
Until today, I’d always taken this story literally and, if I must be honest, discounted it a bit as I thought to myself, “Well, the Buddha was right. It is easier for monastics because they don’t have cows.”
I’m chuckling because, after all these years of “knowing” this story, I finally saw that cows are mine to make. Anything can be a cow, and in my life, I’ve made a LOT! When I turn work (or anything else) into a cow, I prioritize it above other things that are important to me, be they people, the environment, my own well being... And, I legitimize my actions in the name of productivity - that sacred cow!
Thay encourages us to “learn to look at our work as a noncow.” I am going to write that on a post-it note and put it on my mirror.
Thay shares another story, common in Zen circles. “A man is riding very fast on a horse. His friend standing at the side of the road hollers, “Where are you going?” The rider turns around and says, “I don’t know, ask the horse!”
Thay writes, “The horse, not the man, is in control. The horse takes him wherever he wants. This is the situation for many of us. Our (work) is the horse, and the rider of the horse doesn’t have any power to stop. Many of us work as if we were on that horse…no matter how intelligent, how determined you are, you can’t succeed in taming the horse by yourself. The habit energy is stronger than you.
How does one “resist the dictatorship of your business” or “busyness”? Thay tells us the answer: our practice and our sangha.
Thay writes, “It takes training to master the art of living mindfully in the present moment. Everything has its own time — this is universal wisdom, not just Buddhist wisdom.You invest in yourself one hundred percent in whatever you are doing in the moment. There are times when you have to discuss your work and business strategies. At that time, you invest one hundred percent of yourself into that practice of looking into the nature and difficulties of your business. If you are able to eat mindfully with concentration and spend time with your child mindfully with concentration, then, when the time for doing business comes, you will be able to look deeply into matters at hand and that time will be productive.
I am a writer. I write stories, essays, books, and poems.There are times when I don’t write. But that doesn’t mean that writing isn’t continuing inside me. When I water the vegetables, I just practice watering the vegetables. I enjoy watering my vegetables. I don’t think about the poem or the short story, but I know that somewhere inside me the short story is being made. If I don’t grow the lettuce, I can’t write poems.”
This sentence both moves and inspires me. No wonder! As the Buddha said: “This is because that is.” And it is! I’m feeling some excitement as I type these words, feeling the rightness of this teaching in the whole of my body and of practicing with it.
I look forward to learning how this chapter might have influenced you and your practice. On Monday night, we’ll have an opportunity to share about this and about other aspects of our practice and lives.
I look forward to being together.
With love and a bow,
Marie