Have you ever noticed how easily things get tangled? Sometimes simple things. If you place a computer cord into a bag or a backpack, without being extra careful, when you retrieve it, the cord might mysteriously become quite tangled. In the world of horses and farming, there even an expression for this event — things have “gone haywire” when you cut the metal wires holding bales of hay and don’t carefully put them away, chaos ensues.
There is a talk in Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki, called No Trace, where he says, “when you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind…You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smokey fire.”
So often our work and relationships and many parts of our lives get filled with many complications. It can be quite common to go from activity to activity, leaving traces of conversations and activities done less than wholeheartedly. If we aren’t careful and sometimes even if we are, we can leave an emotional wake. This is particularly noticeable and problematic in the workplace where we are working with the pressure to get things, to meet deadlines, and we are almost always working in teams or at times across time zones and cultures.
What to do? This is one reason having a meditation practice is so important, especially for busy people. One way to look at meditation is as the practice of doing something completely, with your whole body and mind. It’s the practice of aspiring to be a good bonfire, not a smokey fire, and then to bring this feeling and this practice into your work and relationships.
With this practice and effort, see if your work, relationships, and life are any less tangled. And when they do get tangled (which they will) bring your whole body and mind to untangling the tangles.