Chop Wood, Carry Water: The Yoga Of Work

In this guided meditation, we'll be looking closely at common, deeply held attitudes toward work. At the outset, we'll examine experiences that you've often overlooked: specifically, the felt sense that life is hard; the fantasy of being completely at ease; and the ancient fear of having, or being, or becoming enough. Finally, we'll experience what it's like for activity to unfold in the absence of these attachments and aversions. In this way, we'll come to a deeper, experiential appreciation of the Zen saying concerning chopping wood and carrying water.

Transcript

We're going to be inquiring into some very,

Very deep attitudes toward work understood in a very broad sense.

All that is required is a certain keen ability to observe and a certain honesty.

To begin with,

Start to note pretty much from the moment that you wake up until you go to bed various instances of work.

Anything that you are doing concertedly to maintain the physical body could be counted as work.

Try to go through these one by one.

Are you making food?

Are you brushing your teeth?

Are you cleaning up after a child or children?

Are you checking emails?

You see the point.

You're visualizing your morning and you're just taking note of various and sundry instances of work,

Whatever these may be.

And the day is continuing on and you're noticing more examples of work,

Meetings attended,

And emails or texts written,

Plans,

Projects,

Or work-related ideas,

Various kinds of admin started or finished,

Invoices written up and then sent,

Kids picked up from school,

Etc.

Continue to very vividly visualize and take note of not only the work you do in an office or remotely,

But also the various other ways of maintaining life.

It's afternoon or evening and you're noticing that you have to make more food or food for the following day,

Or you have cleaning up to do.

There are loose ends to take care of.

There is some sense of getting ready for bed,

And so on.

Now zoom out and try to grasp something in a single intuition.

I'm not asking you to tabulate up something,

I'm asking you to grasp it in a moment,

And that is,

Wow,

That's a lot of work.

Work is nearly ubiquitous throughout the course of the day.

Something like that is what I'm inviting you to intuit.

Now the next step in this meditation.

Go back over that laundry list,

So to speak,

Of work-related items that you were visualizing in the first step.

And I want you to ask yourself,

What kind of work was it?

What I mean is,

Was there something really grand and enterprising?

Did you have thoughts throughout the course of the day that chimed with Steve Jobs' idea of leaving a dent in the universe?

Or,

On the contrary,

Were most of these work-related items very ordinary,

Very commonplace,

Very mundane?

In this step,

I really want you to be honest.

I want you to take an honest reckoning,

Whereby you're using a label.

It's a labeling meditation.

And I want you to place that label properly on top of those various tasks.

Were you really dreaming up grand visions of how the world could be throughout the course of the day?

Or,

On the contrary,

Were you doing your taxes,

Filling out a spreadsheet,

Sending emails,

Communicating via Slack,

Delegating something to someone else,

Etc.

?

In this second step,

Then,

I'm inviting you to see clearly that,

So far as I can tell,

Most modern work is actually very mundane.

Confirm that.

Is that true in your actual experience?

Now we're turning inward more deeply as we come to the next,

Shall I say,

Juicier steps.

Go back over that list of work items that you performed or intended to complete over the course of your imagined day.

And select one or a couple that seem especially vivid,

Perhaps even fraught.

In any case,

There is some energy surrounding it.

Go back to the most vivid one,

Perhaps.

And notice what's happening.

First,

You perceive that there is something going on,

Like that there are dishes in the sink.

Notice that there's first some kind of perception.

But now go very slowly.

Are you actually seeing some form of resistance next?

Can you be honest with yourself?

Are you actually experiencing a dislike,

A revulsion,

A clamping up,

A desire to turn away,

An aversion?

And if this aversion or dislike could speak,

And this might be called the felt sense,

Is it possible that it would say something like this?

Right now,

That is to say in this very moment,

Life feels hard.

I just wanted to sit down and rest.

And I looked around me and saw all the things that needed to be done.

And what was my next thought,

My subtle thought or subtle feeling?

Was it something like,

Ah,

Life feels hard.

What is it like to experience that felt sense right now?

Can you simply witness that experience without changing it,

Manipulating it?

You're just investigating it,

Opening to it.

Now I have a koan for you.

How many times during the course of the day do you miss properly perceiving that felt sense life feels hard?

How many times do you seem to overlook that resistance?

How many times do you call it procrastination and then turn away?

Are you really looking at that very moment clearly?

Are you seeing that it is indeed of the form life feels hard?

Let's carry on.

Now,

There's a task of some kind.

Then there's a clenching up resistance or a contraction inside the body.

There's a felt sense this feels hard.

Life indeed feels very hard.

What comes next?

This is what you commonly find yourself engrossed in.

Can you see that what commonly comes next is the birth of desire?

Aren't you fantasizing?

Aren't you dreaming up something better?

Be it a place that you would live.

Be it some other work that you would perform.

Be it a life without any work whatsoever.

Are you envying somebody on social media whose life seems to be filled with ease?

And seems to be beautiful?

The felt sense here is something like this.

In this better imagined world,

I will finally be at ease.

I will finally be complete.

Is that the essence at which this desire is aiming?

When you turn away,

As often happens,

From this very strong,

Persistent,

But easily overlookable dislike.

Aren't you now daydreaming?

And isn't the felt sense akin to,

When things are thus and so,

When the world is thus and so,

I shall finally be at peace,

At ease.

Life will finally be easeful.

What is it like to witness this series of experiences?

You are feeling what's being pointed to,

To be sure,

But I'm also asking you to witness the desire,

The fantasy,

The one that comes up,

I presume,

Many,

Many times in one form or another during the course of any given day.

Now we're going to take one step further,

And this is going to be the most intense step,

Perhaps.

So,

Be relaxed,

Be open,

And follow this part of the line of inquiry.

It could be argued that this fantasy or dreamscape is actually masking a deeper emotion.

So if you set aside the fantasy or dreamscape,

Is it possible that you begin to discover a deeper fear or anxiety?

Let me try to voice it for you,

And you can see whether it matches your experience.

That deeper fear would say something like as follows.

Truly,

I will never have enough of whatever the good stuff of life is.

Or,

I will never make enough.

Or,

I will never be enough.

I will never have enough.

That is associated with muladhara chakra,

The root chakra.

The primal fear that I or my family will not survive.

Can you feel an ounce or two of this kind of fear?

I will never,

Says this primal or primitive voice,

Have enough.

Never will the work itself provide what is truly needed.

Or,

There is the felt sense of never making quite enough.

So that the good things of life will never be secured.

This,

If so,

Is associated with the second chakra or energy center,

Swadhisthana.

The pleasant things of life will never actually be secured.

Never actually be tied down.

Or,

Do you feel the following way?

I will never be somebody.

I will never be enough.

This is associated with manipura chakra,

Which has to do with power,

Status,

Standing,

Social recognition.

Do you feel that deep down,

You will never quite make it in the eyes of the world?

Is this what is haunting you?

For example,

When you look at that very simple,

Mundane task,

And when you first feel resistance,

And when you secondly fantasize,

And when you firstly,

Thirdly rather,

Experience a kind of astonishing fear,

Can you allow the experience to be felt,

To be welcomed,

While also taking your stand as the witness?

As the one to whom,

For example,

Any of these fears is appearing.

Try to see how far you've come before we turn to the final step.

Think about what kind of odyssey this is.

In one sense,

This is just an ordinary day.

You're like Leopold Bloom and James Joyce's Ulysses.

An ordinary day in the ordinary life of an ordinary human being.

And yet,

And yet,

What lurks beneath the surface of ordinary work endeavors?

So much.

So much aversion.

So much desire.

And perhaps so much anxiety.

Now,

Try to fill yourself into what is commonly regarded as the end of karma yoga.

The yoga of work.

And this will just be a glimpse.

Now,

Imagine any task,

Any endeavor,

Any action to be performed.

But this time,

Consider the very beautiful question.

When there is no dislike,

And when there is no desire,

And when there is no fear,

What is this experience like?

What are you like?

Again,

When there is no dislike,

No desire,

And no fear.

Let me offer some words that may point to your direct experience.

There is openness.

Gentle ease.

A sense of freedom.

An astonishing lack of any fuss.

Perhaps a sense that all this is merely flowing,

Or going on of its own accord.

Of course,

There is no sense of ego,

But we're trying to describe it more clearly.

Once more,

Is there a sense of ease?

But not because the task is gone,

But rather because your stand is clear.

Your understanding is lucid.

Is there a modicum of freedom?

Certain flexibility?

Is there a certain openness?

Is there an unverbalized sense that all is well and fine?

Perhaps,

Just perhaps,

Is there an intuition of love?

ARIYOM SAT