087-The red-brown leaves - Buddhism in daily life

The red-brown leaves


In Buddhist temples, students and aspiring monks have to do a lot
of work; even in monasteries, apprenticeship years are not master
years.


One of the tasks every autumn is to clean the grounds from the
leaves. Since sweeping is very monotonous and boring, the young
men seldom take up this laborious task. The colorful autumn
leaves on the paths and buildings of the monastery look beautiful
and picturesque, and when the leaves rustle, a pleasant feeling
passes through the visitors, but when it rains or gets wet, the
leaves quickly become slippery and therefore dangerous.


So it happened that morning to a young man who had only been in
the temple for a short time. He wanted to become a monk, yes, but
he did not like sweeping leaves. In general, he had not yet
become accustomed to getting up early and going to bed early in
the evening, he swept the leaves quite listlessly.


He had hardly finished when a wind caught the last leaves of the
trees, and the courtyard of the temple was again full of new
foliage. Then he had to start all over again, his bad mood grew,
he felt colder and colder, he worked silently. He consoled
himself with the fact that the trees had almost no more leaves,
therefore tomorrow the work would surely go much faster from the
hand.


The next morning he came to the yard in a better mood, but found
that again the whole yard was full of leaves. Wherever the many
leaves came from, it looked like yesterday. The mood was quickly
darkened again, he began to sweep.


When the abbot of the monastery came to the morning prayer he saw
the young student, immediately he understood that the boy was
dissatisfied with his fate. He said to him, "yesterday's work has
passed, today's is waiting for you, tomorrow's work is still
developing".


"Every day holds new tasks for us, never is our mission the same,
always other demands are added. If you want to become a monk,
work in the here and now, enjoy your challenges, never be
deterred by the magnitude of the work."


"The work we have to do, it never ends, there are always new
things coming to be done. The day there are no more challenges,
that's when the perceived existence comes to an end. Always do
your work with mindfulness and with dedication."


"The work comes to you, not you come to the work", said the wise
master, going to prayer.





To restore silence is the task of objects


- Samuel Beckett - Irish writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for
Literature - 1906 to 1989





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