Labor

The use of the word "work" is varied. Most people associate it with the exchange of time for wage. I have always associated the word "labor" with demanding physical effort.

Labor is a part of my practice. I labor at staying physically fit. I labor at maintaining my small garden. I labor at maintaining my house. Turning labor into practice is a conscious decision to approach physical toil with acute attention and appreciation of the task as having value of its own.

This is a Zen concept as well. Zen practitioners rake gravel, sweep floors, bake bread, polish wood with meticulous attentiveness and daily repetition as part of their meditative practice. Focusing on simply being while laboring yields peace, balance, communing with the Universe.

I have found that choosing a new task, one with an inherent challenge to your skills, yields growth and a tremendous sense of liberation. This is a paradox. By becoming focused in the most material and mundane task routinely and entirely can lead to an openness to the wide Universe. This accounts for the utter bliss found in some craftsmen who master their medium (wood, paint, stone) and continue to strive routinely to achieve a great sense of perfection. The liberation they experience is found in the absolute dedication to the labor.

We are currently in a dark time. Physical labor is currently seen negatively by a vast segment of the population in wealthy societies. Even those with poor education or intellectual capacity look down on physical labor as an inferior occupation. Should we wonder why the infrastructure of these wealthy societies is threatened by increasing use and inadequate maintenance? Should we wonder why obesity is epidemic in these societies?

Practice itself is difficult. Incorporating physical labor into practice adds a great deal to it. For some, physical labor may be the path to practice and human evolution.

Politics

We are on the verge of a political season of promises, dirty tricks, celebrity worship and unrealistic expectations. The party conventions will be held later this month in the US.

Politicians, like religious leaders, often present their own compulsion for fame and power as selfless compassion in order to win votes. I am sure that some of them believe their own myths. However, someone committed to practice understands that power corrupts. It distracts from the focus on personal responsibility and personal evolution toward compassion, humility, acceptance, and liberation from need and desire.

Administration of the basic infrastructure of society is necessary. Politicians are failures at this. One needs only look at the nearest bridge or highway. One needs only to walk along the shore of the nearest public beach of lake or ocean. One needs only to ride through the poorest neighborhood in any city.

Politicians ignore the one largest threat to planetary peace and well being. Totally. That is overpopulation, of course.

So, as part of my own practice, I stay informed about politics. However, I focus my energy upon my own responsibility and development. No matter who becomes president, senator, representative or selectman, I must live my life with open consciousness in order to evolve. To do otherwise is reactionary and delusional. If every adult simply lived in practice, based in responsible action and just cause, politics, as they now exist, would be unnecessary and obsolete.