For the past couple of months, the monks have been busy with spring cleaning. That is, cleaning out old wood and other building materials that had been stored for projects and other property-related needs. In preparation for the eventuality of the Monastery being placed into the hands of new stewards, we wanted to leave the property as clean and tidy as possible. This has involved much moving, sorting, and cleaning.
As we have "stirred things up," we have inevitably disrupted many creatures, such as mice, beetles, spiders, scorpions, lizards, ants, and even an impressively large, gently-moving snail. As my fellow monks and I carefully relocate these creatures as they are encountered, I marvel, and even cherish, the way of life embodied here that incorporates such care for all living beings.
I first encountered this embodiment of "Everything Is the Buddha" decades ago when reading an episode about the final inspection of the Monastery. The scene describes the monks completing one final task while the inspector observed every one of them mindfully stepping over a line of ants each time they walked across the path, careful not to disrupt, let alone squash the little things. That scene was in my awareness each time we escorted a beetle to its new home or gingerly lifted, not scooted, a plank so as not to kill anything living underneath. Besides being an efficacious exercise in paying attention, it was also an extraordinarily heart-opening way to live. It facilitated the space that might have been abdicated to a conversation in conditioned mind being given to Presence. After all, harming an innocent little bug (yes, even scorpions are innocent!) would have been so unpleasant and so unnecessary that the practitioner just wouldn't indulge urgency or other ego distractions.
We monks have the incomparable privilege to be continuing the example set all those years ago by the practitioners who built this place. But even more wondrous are the thousands of practitioners who, being touched by this practice, are living Everything Is the Buddha in their own homes, offices, neighborhoods, and cities, and reaping the practice benefits in the process.
GasshÅ,
Rebecca