Chop Wood, Carry Water

  • Author: Andrew Taggart
  • Full Title: Chop Wood, Carry Water
  • Tags: #Inbox #books

Highlights

  • All this sounds amazing until one has to do the dishes, or fill out tax forms, or wait in line for hours. Thus, at our peril do contemplatives overlook two very simple facts, which can readily become places of “spiritual nesting.” The first is that action in general and work in particular are–just like thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions–appearing over and over again. (Location 55)
  • The second fact is that one is to love all beings, yet how is this possible so long as one is living in solitude? Work is that ongoing endeavor that invites me, in my dealings with others, not to treat them as other but to love them verily “as myself.” How it’s possible to overcome one’s nasty little dislikes of other beings is the subject of Chapters 7-9. (Location 60)
  • So far from the world being a hindrance, it is–if, that is, the yoga of work is properly understood–to be a helpmate. (Location 63)
  • In short, the yoga of work corrects contemplatives by empowering them, through a deeper examination of their attachments and aversions, to turn outward, at the same time that it teaches doers, by virtue of their confrontation with their own dissatisfaction, to turn inward. Both, in fact, come to discover that the real work is, in the final analysis, the inner work. The real work is to work with work in order to go beyond work. (Location 92)
  • “Before Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” (Location 117)
  • A gentle breeze–or a stiff wind–of not just overwhelm but also, and more potently, futility may be setting in. How can you not hear a faint demonic thought whispering that your efforts may be futile or that life’s tasks could be–or at least seem to be–too much for you to bear? (Location 143)
  • Pointer 1: Observe: “Life feels hard.” (Location 168)
  • Who hasn’t felt that work–whether it involves caring for children or managing a small team–is “painful toil”? (Location 172)
  • Really feel that emotion: “Life feels hard.” In this emotion is contained a precious truth about an attitude you’ve adopted, probably at various moments during the course of your life, but have almost always overlooked. The essence of this attitude is that life is an ordeal. Can you really welcome this arising, “Life feels hard,” without any judgment and without turning away from it? (Location 183)
  • Pointer 2: Observe: “In some other world, I will be happy.” (Location 190)
  • Sometimes we envision a time without or beyond work as toil while at other times we call up dream jobs, dream projects, grand callings, beautiful collaborations, and epic workscapes. Either way, we’ve momentarily slipped away from the idea that life is an ordeal. (Location 196)
  • Just as we zeroed in on the “felt sense” of life being an ordeal by allowing an ancient voice to say, “Life feels so very hard,” so too we can fine-tune our experiential grasp of dreamscapes by inviting a second voice to speak. This one says, “In some other world, I will feel happy and shall finally be whole.” (Location 199)
  • Can you let go of this particular image and be open to the possibility that your current experience, here and now and without any thoughts, is happy, complete, or at peace? See for yourself. (Location 207)
  • Pointer 3: Probe: “I’m afraid I’ll never have or be enough.” (Location 218)
  • Quite often deep, possibly revolting fear–fear either of not having enough or (in the case of one for whom work is the means by which he achieves success or recognition) of not being or becoming enough. (Location 221)