Home › Magazine › Fall 2002 › The Dust Beyond the Cushion
Filed in Work, Zen (Chan)

The Dust Beyond the Cushion

From dishes to dusting, from window-washing to bed-making, housekeeping provides an everyday opportunity for practice.

Gary Thorp

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© Don Farber
If you sit long enough, your cushion will become an island amid a sea of dust. Thistles will overtake the yard. Things will begin to fall apart. At some point, you’ve got to clean house. The idea of ritual chores is intriguing to some, but for many of us, housekeeping has become work as rut. The thought of picking up a mop or a scrub brush is met with apprehension. This is where work-practice comes in: with the right approach, these daily chores can be done ably, even artfully. As with sitting, the important thing is to begin.

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