Using Variety to "Freshen Up" our Meditation by AJHAN BRAHM

Using Variety to "Freshen Up" our Meditation
by AJHAN BRAHM

“ I was with a teacher in Thailand for over nine years, quite a famous teacher in the world of Buddhism. An Australian man told one of his teachings to me many years after the teacher, Ajahn Chah, had stopped teaching. I never heard these instructions myself.

 The man had gone to visit Ajahn Chah in the north east of Thailand, which was a difficult place to get to. He made a special journey, and when he got to this place -- some seven hundred kilometres from Bangkok -- he found that Ajahn Chah was surrounded with people. The man was on the outskirts of these people trying to ask the questions which he wanted to ask of this wise old monk, but he found that there was no way he was going to be able to catch his attention. There were just too many people.

 The man had arranged for a taxi to come back and pick him up later to take him to the station to get the train back to Bangkok -- an all night journey. The taxi wasn't going to come back for another hour. He knew he wasn't going to see the teacher and ask his profound questions. He saw some monks sweeping the paths in the monastery and he thought, 'Well I've come all this way, I might as well do something useful'. He picked up a broom and started to sweep. He was sweeping the leaves from the path when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around, and to his surprise and delight it was the teacher, Ajahn Chah. Ajahn Chah had seen this westerner coming and not having a chance to ask any questions, but unfortunately Ajahn Chah had only left the big group around him because he had another appointment himself. A car was waiting for him. So he just gave this young Australian man a very simple teaching. He told him, 'If you are going to sweep, sweep with one hundred percent of what you've got'. Then he went away.

 This man remembered this teaching that if you're going to sweep, sweep with everything you've got. And he realised this was more than a teaching on how to keep the monastery clean. It was a teaching on how to live life. If you're going to meditate, meditate with everything you've got; if you're going to write a letter, write with everything you've got. If you're going to brush you're teeth, wash your car, take an exam, make that telephone call, speak with a person near you, give them everything you've got.

 This is the way of Buddhist meditation. It's not that hard! Try walking meditation; you'll find it's easy. Learn meditation on the breath, and you'll find that easy too. Whatever you do in life: instead of doing it half-heartedly, quarter-heartedly or one-eighth-heartedly, give it everything you've got, and you will find that life will start to come together.”

Source: Using Variety to "Freshen Up" our Meditation

by AJAHN BRAHM

http://www.dhammatalks.net/Books/Ajahn_Brahm_Using_variety_to_freshen_up_our_meditation.htm