There is a short verse of mine which I'd like to discuss.
Do work of all kinds with a mind that is void
Some people are unable to understand this verse and they keep
saying that the author is crazy. Nonetheless, it isn't so difficult to explain.
And to the voidness surrender all of the fruits;
Eat the food of voidness as the holy ones do,
You'll have died to yourself from the very start.
That we should do every kind of work with a void mind
is a warning that the busy and agitated mind which jumps into
things with attachment always becomes dark and clouded
with delusion, is full of worries and fears, and becomes
gloomy and insecure. If people insist on keeping this up,
before long they are sure to suffer a nervouss breakdown or
some other kind of illness. If they let these mental diseases
and related physical ailments accumulate, they end up
confined to a sick bed. Even though they may be intelligent,
talented, and sophisticated people who do important work and
earn a great deal of money, they will still end up being
confined to bed with nervous breakdowns, ulcers, and other
disorders caused by insecurity and anxiety. All of these
illnesses begin with attaching and clinging to such things as
fame and money, profit and loss, happiness and unhappiness,
and praise and blame.
So, don't get involved with these things. Get free of all
such attachments and the mind will be void. The mind will be
brilliantly intelligent, as clear and sharp as possible. Then, do
your work with just such a void mind as this. All your needs
will be satisfied without the least bit of frustration or suffering.
Sometimes, it will even seem to be a Dhammic sort of fun.
Best of all, working like this is the kind of Dhamma practice
which frees us from the false distinction between practicing
Dhamma at the temple and working at home. Such a dichotomy
is rather foolish; it's what happens when people think only in
people language.
According to Dhamma language, we must practice
Dhamma in this body and mind at the same time that we do our
work with this same body and mind. Both work and Dhamma
practice are done in the same place or the same thing. The
practice of Dhamma is there in the work; the work in itself is
Dhamma practice. In other words, to do work of any kind
without grasping or clinging is a way to practice Dhamma.
Wherever and whenever we practice non-attachment, there
and then is Dhamma practice.
Accordingly, whether we are engaged in training the
mind to be unattached and calm, or whether we are working
to earn a living in some occupation or another, if we do so with
a void mind that forms no attachments, right there is the
practice of Dhamma. It doesn't matter if we are in an office,
a factory, a cave, or whatever. To work like this without
getting involved in attachments, obsession, and ego is what
is meant by " Do work of all kinds with a mind that is void. "
The result of working this way is that we enjoy ourselves
while working, and that the work is done well because our
minds are very clear and sharp then, and there are no worries
about things like money. The things we need are acquired in
the usual ways and all this without the attachment forged by
grasping and straining.
This brings us in the second line of the verse which is
" And to the voidness surrender all of the fruits. " When our
work bears fruit in the form of money, fame, influence, status,
and so forth, we must give it all to voidness. Don't be so stupid
as to cling to these things as "belonging to me" - "my money,"
"my success," "my talent," or "my" anything. This is what is
meant by not attaching to the results of our work.
Most of us blindly cling to our successes and so our
experiences of success increase our selfish desires and
defilements (kilesa). Let ourselves be careless for only a
moment and we will fall into pain immediately due to the weight
of attachments and anxieties. In truth, this kind of mental or
spiritual pain is always happening. Before long, if we aren't
careful, the pain manifest itself physically in the body as
well. Some people have nervous breakdowns or go insane,
while others develop one of the numeruous varieties of neuroses
so prevalent in the world today, even though they may be
famous, knowledgable, and wealthy. All this pain results
from the fact that people the world over have misunderstood,
abused, and ignored their own religious.
We shouldn't think that the teaching of non-attachment
is found only in Buddhism. In fact, it can be found in every
religion, although many people don't notice because it's
expressed in Dhamma language. Its meaning is profound,
difficult to see, and usually misunderstood.
Please forgive me, I don't mean to be insulting, but I feel
that many religious people don't yet understand their own
religion. For instance, in the Christian Bible, St. Paul advises
us to "Let those who have wives live as though they had none,
and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and
those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those
that buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with
the world as though they had no dealings with it" (Cor.7:29-31).
This passage is found in the New Testament of the
Christian Bible; anyone can look it up. It should be understood
in the same way as our basic Buddhist theme of non-attachment.
That is, if you have a wife, don't attach to having
her; if you have a husband, don't cling to having him. If you
have painful or sorrowful experiences, don't cling to them as
"I" or "mine" and it will be as if they never happened. That is,
don't be sad about them. Don't attach to joy, goods, and
worldly dealings, either.
Unfortunately, the fact is that most people - whatever
their religion - are dominated by these things. They let
themselves suffer intolerably over such matters until finally
they go insane or commit suicidc. But those of us who follow
St. Paul's advice can go on as if nothing had happened. That
kind of suffering doesn't happen to us, we remain fine. We
buy things without taking anything home, which means we
never get attached to what we buy and take home. We bought
it, we brought it home, but it's like we didn't buy anything,
because we don't give birth to the thought that we possess something.
This is how to buy and live as though having no goods,
but if you discuss this passage with some Christians, you will
find that they don't understand it at all. Even some of the
clergy, the teachers of their religion, couldn't explain to me
correctly how to practice in accordance with St. Paul's
instructions. Their explanations were vague and obscure. They
beat around the bush and didn't give any practical interpretation
of the passage. In fact, this passage has the same meaning
as "Do work of all kinds with a mind that is void and to the
voidness surrender all of the fruits," which, of course, many
Buddhism don't understand either.
The third line of the verse is "Eat the food of voidness
as the holy ones do." Here, some people might ask, "Then,
what do we eat?" If everything is void or given away to the
voidness, what will there be to eat? The answer is to eat food
that belongs to voidness, the same way that the Noble Ones
do. We work with a void mind and turn all the rewards over
to voidness. Voidness then stockpiles it all and preserves it
safely. When it's time to eat, we can eat from the stock of
voidness too.
If you earn a million dollars from your work and store
it in a safe or the bank, offer it to voidness and don't think "it's
mine, it belongs to me!" When you spend the money, do so
with the same void mind. Simply use the money to buy some
food to eat, or whatever we need to consume. This is what is
meant by "Eat the food of voidness as the holy ones do."
In this line, "holy ones" means those who understand
deeply and have no attachments. We ourselves ought to eat
in the same way that these liberated ones eat. The Buddha ate
food and all the enlightened disciples ate foods. So, we aren't
saying that a Buddha doesn't have to eat food anymore, but
from whomever he gets his food, it's always the food of
voidness, for it's received and eaten without any feelings of
possession or attachment. And yet, a Buddha always has
more than enough to eat. This is the meaning of "Eat the food
of voidness as the holy ones do."
We can do the same. When we give all the rewards of
our work to voidness, they don't disappear. Nothing is lost.
Physically, in worldly terms, everything is still there. It's
stored and protected in the usual ways and the law still
recognizes that it belongs to us. If someone tries to snatch it
away, we can battle to protect our rights in court, but always
with the same void mind. That is, we needn't get angry or
upset, we needn't suffer, we needn't feel personally involved,
we needn't attach. In fact, with complete non-attachment we
will be able to argue our case even better. We needn't create
any problems for ourselves, things won't become complicated
and difficult, and we will be able to protect our rights most
effectively.
To pursue this point a little further: even when caught
in an argument or involved in a lawsuit we should be
restrained and mindful at all times so that the mind is free of
attachment. Take care not to be attached or emotionally
involved. In other words, first make sure the mind is void,
then argue and fight out the case to the finish. In this way, we
will have the advantage. Our side will debate more cleverly,
will argue more skilfully, and will experience a higher level
of victory.
Even in cases when we are forced to be insulting, use the
usual words but do so with a void mind. This may sound
funny and hopelessly impractical, but it really is possible. The
word "void" includes such strange aspects; they are all
implications of working with a void mind, willingly giving all that
we get to voidness, and always eating food from the pantry of
voidness.
The fourth, final, and most important line of the verse
is "You'll have died to yourself from the very start." We
already have died to ourselves - that precious inner "me" is
gone - from the very first moment. This means that when we
re-examine the past and reflect upon it with clarity, mindfulness,
and wisdom, we will know for a fact that there never
was a "person" or "individual." We will see that there are only
the basic processes of life (khandha), the sensory media
(ayatana), the elements (dhatu), and natural phenomena
(dhammas). Even the things we had previously clung to as
existing no longer exist. They died in that moment.
Everything has died at the moment of its birth. There
never was an "I" and there never was a "mine." In the past, we
were stupid enough to lug "I"and "mine" around all the time.
Now, however, we know the truth that even in retrospect they
never were what we took them to be. They're not-me, they're
not-mine, the me-ing and my-ing died from the very start right
up to this moment. They're finished, even in the future. Don't
ever again fall for any "I" and "mine" in your experiences.
Simply stop thinking in terms of "I" and "mine." So you see,
we needn't interpret this verse to mean that we must physically
kill ourselves. One has to be trapped in ones ego to understand
it in such a way; such an interpretation is too physical,
too superficial, and too childish.
This"I," this ego, is just a mental concept, a product of
thought. There's nothing substantial or permanent upon
which it's based. There's only an ever-changing process
flowing according to causes and conditions, but ignorance
misconstrues this process to be a permanent entity, a "self,"
and an "ego." So don't let attached thoughts and feelings
based on "I" and "mine" arise. All pains and problems will
end right there and then, so that the body becomes insignificant,
no longer a cause of worry. It's merely a collection of the
five aggregates (khandha), functioning according to causes
and conditions, pure in its own nature. These five aggregates
or component processes of life are naturally free of attachment
and selfishness. As for the inner aspect, those habits of
desire and selfishness, try to do without them. Keep striving
to prevent them from being born until the defilements and
selfishness have no more opportunities to pollute the heart. In
this way, we force ourselves to die, that is, we die through the
elimination of polluting selfishness and defilements (kilesa).