Samu

 

March 18, 2026

                This morning I will be working as best I can in my backyard garden and bird sanctuary.  There is much to do: planting flowers and a couple vegetables, feeding the birds, watering, fertilizing the rose bushes, and spraying to prevent bugs. I don’t know whether I will finish everything or not, but it really doesn’t matter. What matters is doing, not getting done.  This is how we approach “samu,” or how we understand work as meditation.

                Everything should be done with mindful attention. I will prepare the soil for planting, tilling it, adding a bit of fertilizer, adding water, etc. I will carefully fill the bird feeders, add water to the bird bath, and re-positioning them on their hangers.  Resting between each task and not attending too much to the time, but rather fully enjoying being with each task as it arises.  This is what is meant by being Zen, rather than doing Zen, an important distinction.

                Practicing Zen is practicing in life itself. It is not separate. When we live with attention to the life we are living as we actually live it we are practicing Zen.  A cumbersome sentence, I know, yet too often we forget that Zen is much larger than that practiced in a Zendo.  People often say they are practicing “Buddhism” and don’t understand there is no such thing as “Buddhism.”  There is, however, the “Buddha Way.”  The Buddha Way is life itself, which is why Kennet Roshi referred to her book as “Zen is Eternal Life.”  True Zen is not a philosophy, it is not a religion, it is not a way of life, but rather,  a way of being.

                Now it is time for me to go outdoors. Be well, be alive, be present.

Daiho