Part of zen practice in my tradition is work practice. That is, bringing the meditative mind to work. Most often, this is part of a zen sesshin, what others call a “retreat,” (we are actually doing anything but retreating, but that’s another essay) where we gather as a group to devote as much of the day as possible to bringing the meditative mind to all parts of life.
Sesshin is conducted in silence, that is, we do not speak to each other or even socially engage with eye contact beyond operative communications like “hand me that, please.” We cooperate as a group this way, so we can sit, walk, eat, rest and work while cultivating the meditative mind.
There’s a special process of orchestrated eating that is the hardest skill to master, but it is an amazingly efficient way to feed a group of people and have everyone clean up for themselves afterwards with nary a word spoken. We use a number of hand signals, but again, that’s another essay.
Work practice generally involves cleaning and maintenance of the zendo, the mediation hall, and the rest of the building. Work is divided up among small groups of students, supplies are at hand, instructions are on paper, and everyone brings meditative contemplation to mopping floors, vacuuming hallways, dusting bookshelves, and cleaning the bathrooms.
There’s far more people than the work demands, so students are instructed to work mindfully without considering time spent or completion of a checklist. Just work with your whole mind. Don’t worry about getting finished, the cleaning actually isn’t the point, it is just a nice thing to also get done while practicing this form of meditation.
Things do get done, and it is enlivening to practice in a space that is maintained this way during the sesshin. It is also good to move the body and pump the blood after spending much of the day sitting still and staring at a wall.
But, I am in residency, not sesshin, so work practice is more about finding things that need to be done and doing them in a contemplative manner at a contemplative pace. My task on this visit has been to assist the caretaker of the property, whom owing to recent illness, finds it extraordinarily taxing to do things that require bending over or getting up off the ground.
Because of his recent infirmary, the weeds have taken foothold in the fertile gardens and along the pathways of the grounds of the property. They do give a nice lived-in tone to the grounds, but this is a zen center, and it is best to maintain grounds that reflect the orderliness and simplicity of the contemplative mind.
But, I can’t just take a weed whacker to everything because there are also wildflowers growing everywhere, they are particularly beautiful in the summer in Minnesota, so they must be spared the whirring revolving fishing-line weed-whacking scythe because the majesty of their beauty adds so much to the experience of walking the grounds.
Thus, the weeding has to be done by hand, on one’s hands and knees, getting up frequently to move and empty the yard waste container. Often you are jerking up the earth just next to some gorgeous flowers, so careful contemplative work is exactly what this task demands.
It seems too obvious to say, but these wildflowers grew wild, they weren’t planted in neat rows in tilled soil, they just landed somewhere and started growing without any regard to their proximity to other plants, paths, buildings and fixtures. They own the land they claimed, and as a zen gardener, I respect their choice, no matter what extra effort it means to me to get that bunch of weeds cleared in the areas nearby.
One quickly learns which of the weeds have shallow roots and give up their existence easily and which weeds are deeply rooted and stubbornly refuse every intervention at unearthing them. Some are rhizomes, which mean they are attached to a horizontal root-like structure that runs just underground for sometimes great distances, This root-rope supports random sprouts of growth above ground along it’s path, with roots digging in underneath.
One is tempted to just rip this entire thing up, but doing so can dislodge wildflowers nearby, so contemplative gardening demands that you cut it into manageable pieces and carefully follow it as it winds through and by the plants you want to keep in the garden bed or along the path. This is why doing a four by six foot bed, or manicuring the edge of a ten foot stone path can take the better part of an hour or two.
Work practice is two hours a day, respecting that limit is considered every bit as important as respecting the meditation bell in the zendo, so you quit when you quit, no matter how far you may have gotten or what might be left to do. This teaches you to let go of attainment and release your desire for personal recognition for this now almost gorgeous stretch of what was just a seriously overgrown path. It may look strange that there’s only 18 inches or so left to do to get it perfect, but letting go of perfection is no little thing. The point is practice, not the garden.
This work is really good training for life in general, so much of life is weeding gardens and cleaning paths.
Let the insects have their fun, though. It is their world, we just visit.