Just Do It

"In spiritual practice there are just two things; you sit and you sweep the garden - and it doesn't matter how big the garden is." Anonymous

Zen Master Seung Sahn who founded the Kwan Um School of Zen used to say "Just do it!" Said it long before Nike Corporation got ahold of that saying. I sometimes think that the Kwan Um School of Zen should have the "whoosh" logo as it's own :)! "Just do it" has helped me immeasurably throughout the years. As a midwife, I often get called out in the middle of the night. One can get mighty grouchy doing that. There were many times pulling into the parking lot at 3 am that I just didn't want to get out of the car. I'd daydream about calling the nurses and saying - "Call someone else - I'm going home and back to bed!" As I'd walk the basement hallway to labor and delivery, the phrase "just do it" would come to my consciousness - and the angst would fall away. Oh - ok - no griping, no complaining, just one foot in front of the other and then a new life enters the world.

Practice in the dharma room has also produced some of the same feelings. Why do I have to bow so many times? I don't want to chant this morning. It's too early to get up and practice - I'm tired. I want to get up off my cushion. I don't like that chant. I don't like this. I don't like that. Or - just as compelling - I like this. I like that. Isn't the chant beautiful this morning? Weren't those bows invigorating? Oh - how the universe opened up for me this morning!

We are so taken with our likes and our dislikes. That is how we define ourselves. However, by holding on to ourselves and what we want and don't want doesn't allow us to function fully in this world. It's doesn't allow us to help the suffering in this world. I have often wondered how Mother Teresa dealt with the smells of the sick and suffering she encountered. I'm sure that would have bothered me a great deal. And yet by ignoring the smell and the grossness of all she encountered, she made the world a better place.

It doesn't matter what our likes and dislikes are - we are told to become like clear mirrors -clearly reflecting this world. When someone is thirsty, give them something to drink. When someone is hungry, feed them. When someone is having a baby, go help them. The garden of this world is so big and yet it doesn't matter how big the garden is, you sit and then you sweep it. Just doing it, day after day after day - putting down your condition, your situation, your likes, your dislikes - only sweeping the garden.