Practice to Work with All

We can see that many staff monastics are occupied by a lot of tasks. They have to give training and other duties. Being your master, I am worried that whether you've applied Dharma practice in daily life.

Live your life to the fullest. Do not waste it. No matter how busy you are, never separate yourself from practice. Everything in life is a practice that is inseparable from living. Besides regular duties, monastics are also responsible to do chores and serve the general public. That’s why the first assignment after one becomes a monastic is to clean the washroom. I didn’t know how to clean the washroom at first until someone taught me. I cleaned his bathroom for six months and acquired the skill to make it squeaky clean.

Cleaning washroom helps to tame our “arrogance” and self-centeredness. Take cleaning chores as the foundational training so we wouldn’t look down on anyone. When we go through such training, there’d be no jobs as “inferior” anymore. Besides cleaning washrooms, cooking would be another good training. When I was in Yilan, some university students spent some time with me. They didn’t know how to cook, so I’d make the meal. Later on, they assumed monasticism and learned to cook and other skills to serve.

Truthfully, life can be very simple and happy. Whatever job we take, we’re learning another style of living. Learn to cultivate a Dharmic mindset in daily life and tame our arrogance. This is how a practitioner should practice to approach and work with the crowd. Conversely, while a practitioner is working with beings, his or her mind is inseparable from Dharma practice at all times.