Over on the Jukai Precepts et al several folks have mentioned stealing time. This led me to thinking about what people mean when they talk about things being a waste of their time, etc.
I spent Saturdays helping one of the teachers I trained with garden. It was a very large yard--front and back. At one point he made a huge koi pond in the back yard. I learned how to use a lawnmower! Over the years I got to see the round of seasons several times. Not only were there tasks to be done (as well as move things from the little room used as a zendo during the week to the bigger room used as a zendo on Sundays), but there were breaks to be taken. There was a lunch/snack to be eaten, cigarettes to be smoked, coffee/tea/beer to offer to people who would sometimes come by to visit him, chat. It was excellent training: to be able to leave a task and come back to it--to be able to stop anything at any point.
There was no push.
I remember once there was a time crunch, he had to leave suddenly or people were coming for an event or some such, anyway he asked me 'Can you do (whatever it was) quickly without hurrying? I understood what he meant.
People coming to visit were not an interruption. Going back to tasks was not drudgery,
Whatever you are doing with it, it is impossible to waste time.
This may be the one most important personal experience I can in all sincerity share with you. It is the truth.
I spent Saturdays helping one of the teachers I trained with garden. It was a very large yard--front and back. At one point he made a huge koi pond in the back yard. I learned how to use a lawnmower! Over the years I got to see the round of seasons several times. Not only were there tasks to be done (as well as move things from the little room used as a zendo during the week to the bigger room used as a zendo on Sundays), but there were breaks to be taken. There was a lunch/snack to be eaten, cigarettes to be smoked, coffee/tea/beer to offer to people who would sometimes come by to visit him, chat. It was excellent training: to be able to leave a task and come back to it--to be able to stop anything at any point.
There was no push.
I remember once there was a time crunch, he had to leave suddenly or people were coming for an event or some such, anyway he asked me 'Can you do (whatever it was) quickly without hurrying? I understood what he meant.
People coming to visit were not an interruption. Going back to tasks was not drudgery,
Whatever you are doing with it, it is impossible to waste time.
This may be the one most important personal experience I can in all sincerity share with you. It is the truth.
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