The Zen of kitchen maintenance
Posted by Ben on | May 15, 2006
My workplace has been having a little trouble keeping the kitchen as clean as it should be.
First an email goes round asking people to keep the place tidy, then a sign goes up and if all else fails a roster is implemented. It is an all too common thread.
However today I noticed one of my workmates taking a more spiritual and philosophical approach to the situation by sticking the passage below above the sink.
…If while washing the dishes we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not…alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future – and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.
Zen master Tich Nhat Hahn
I got quite a lot from that passage. It is not often you become enlightened on a domestic and philosophical level simultaneously.
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