From The Miracle of the Training. Translated from Thai by Luang Pu Baen's students from Wat Doi

From The Miracle of the Training. Translated from Thai by Luang Pu Baen's students from Wat Doi 

Why did we have to sweep until dark? 

If the sweeping doesn’t get finished, it’s not good. During walking meditation or sitting meditation, it will be the same - cluttered. Even while asleep, dreaming will have a characteristic of being messy and cluttered. 

....

The sweeping is a measuring tool which speaks about the monks and novices. It is an indicator for every monastery and every place. 

The sweeping is telling us things. 

Everything connected with our practice and training, even the foot wiping rags, is speaking to us. There is no need to closely scrutinize anything. Just look into things deeply and they speak as they are. 

A dead person can’t do anything, because there is no longer a consciousness to act as an animating force to do this or that. Such is the function of the heart. So I urge you all to give great importance to, and be very respectful of, the sweeping. 

Don’t cling to the idea, “I don’t know why we sweep. Having swept, it just gets dirty again.”

Yesterday there was a lot of wind, and I think there’ll be a lot of leaves. We will sweep for two hours, beginning at two p. m. and going until four p. m. 

Then it will be time to bathe.  

This gives rise to various reflections. 

I’ve been sweeping here for fifty years, so I sometimes ponder on that whole time. Since the age of twenty-five I’ve stayed here, sweeping and practicing. Half a century - that’s not a short period of time - and I am still doing this sweeping. 

The thought occurred to me, “Am I still doing this?” A sense of great spiritual sadness^1 arose within me. 

Indeed, I became overwhelmed with sadness. 

If I was one who cries easily, tears would be flowing right now. 

Why is that? The mind was weary of everything, seeing that there is no end within the world. There is no one who can escape birth and death. Even from the cycles of eating and excreting there is no escape. There’s no end to it. These things have no end point and repeat endlessly. They are very old.   

Think about the weariness that the Buddha experienced, then think about those monks  who renounced their very lives due to that same weariness. 

Seeing thus, there is nothing worth having. 

They were weary of things that happen again and again, weary of waste, weary of death. 

We are pleased only with things that die. It’s like this. Seeing thus, a dead person has no ability to do anything, just like a tree stump has no ability to do anything. Earth, water, air and fire have no ability to do anything in and of themselves. 

All action comes from the heart. The heart is just that way, so the time to act is now. As to sweeping, I’ve spoken clearly for you. Having completed the task, the fruits will appear. The heart will be the one who partakes of the fruit of its own actions.

~ Luang Pu Baen Dhanākaro

16 November, 2002

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^1. Spiritual sadness: The Thai word is “Salot-sang-wait” which means “Spiritual sadness” or a “Sense of spiritual urgency.” It comes from the Pali word samvega, which refers to an urgent need to practice.  

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