“Even while I’m working, I’m always resting.”
Last week I was interviewed by Joy Maulitz of KWMR Radio: Homegrown Radio in West Marin. Joy told me a story that I hadn’t heard before about Suzuki Roshi, founding Abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center.
The story is about when Suzuki Roshi was moving lots of large rocks and boulders around Tassajara, Zen Mountain Center, to build walls and to create a rock garden. Suzuki Roshi was in his 50’s and is just over five-feet tall. He was working with a group of healthy, young, men mostly in their 20’s. Someone approached them and noticed that the young men were panting and sweaty, while Suzuki Roshi, who apparently had done as much or more work than the others, was breathing normally, and barely sweating at all. When asked about this contrast, Suzuki Roshi replied, “Even while I’m working, I’m always resting.”
This quote reminds me of a few lines from the Tao Te Ching:
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it last forever.
Or another passage:
The Master doesn’t talk, he acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, “Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!”
(Both quotes are from Stepehn Mitchell’s translations of the Tao Te Ching).
Great story, and beautiful passages, but how can we use this in our daily lives:
– Notice your breathing while working, at least from time to time.
– Pause a few times each day, to check in with your breath, your body, with appreciating being alive.
– Notice how and when work brings you energy and when your energy is depleted.
– Play with and explore – when am I resting? When am I working?