Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘After I’d been with him for several months, Suzuki asked if I would help him start a sitting group in my hometown of Palo Alto. I was happy to do it. I found some grad students willing to let us use their house. Then I began spreading the word that a Zen master would come weekly to instruct us in meditation.

The first morning, there were about three or four of us when Suzuki arrived before dawn. After meditation he gave a short talk, and then he leaped up, rolled up his sleeves, and started cleaning the house. We cleaned while the guys who lived there slept—and for the first time, I actually enjoyed washing dishes.

Suzuki emphasized no gap between sitting meditation and working. So this became the routine. Every week we would do zazen and then clean the house.

After a while, cleaning the house became a chore. One morning I ventured a complaint: “We can’t clean the house; we re students. We have classes to get to.”

Suzuki replied, “Then we’ll have to start earlier.” Shortly thereafter, I mentioned that I’d like to become a priest. Suzuki said, “Okay… but you seem to favor zazen over cleaning the floor. You’ll never be a priest as long as you favor zazen over cleaning.”

His point was that if you wholeheartedly clean the floor, it is zazen. There is no difference. Everyday life is Zen. Giving ourselves to something concrete, like physical labor, joins us to the world. Zen is about completely giving ourselves, and then theres no difference between work and zazen, or between work and play.’ (Nothing Holy About It)