Work samadhi

Photo credit: flicker user postbear.

Yesterday I did some physical work and it was wonderful. I love my job teaching high school, but there is something extraordinary about working with one's body. And I don't just mean in terms of exercise. Sure, it feels great to work out the physical and mental knots we accrue throughout the week, but that is only a small part of it.

When work is best, we feel completely connected to it. There is no more worker; thought drops away and we become the work. That's what happened yesterday.

I was carrying some heavy beams, and in a form of concentration that is not concentration there just was. No work, no worker, just thus. The mind and self drop away, leaving nothing, not even no mind or don't know mind. It's what emerges when we don't get in our own way, when we let ourselves be ourselves--free. It's our natural state.

I love moments like this. They are so rewarding, refreshing, and cleansing. I think this is why the old worthies valued work so much--as the highest form of practice. Life in action.

It is life samadhi. Nothing beats it. So the next time you have a chance at some hard physical labor, leap at the opportunity, for anything can be a great chance to practice, to find our true nature not only in the midst of life, but as life itself.

Have a wonderful week. Work work and love a lot.