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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