Work can be a form of deep meditation. In the winter I paint the inside of beautiful houses with my friend and boss Neil. We board the ferry from Portland to Great Diamond Island as the sun rises; other painters, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, contractors, and landscapers all shuffling down into the belly of the great boat to be carried across the bay and work in the homes of the islanders and wealthy snowbirds.
I am a slow painter but I can paint all day. I thoroughly enjoy the paint and the brush and the methodical plodding of the work day. Occasionally the idea of painting for a 24 hour stretch has crossed my mind, just to see if I could do it. A marathon. I would need coffee and food and maybe some music, but, I could do it. In fact, I kind of want to do it (do not tell Neil).
The reason, so I have read, is something the Brains call “task positive behavior”. When we are engaged in something productive that requires concentration for long periods of time our brainwaves look like those of a Buddhist monk sitting in deep, cross legged meditation. The bulk of the task positive behavior studies are focused on children, specifically those with attention deficit disorders, anxiety, and depression. Quite unanimously these studies show that when children can engage in a task with their hands and brains they exhibit less of the warning signs associated with mental disease. The success of Vocational and STEM programs in school can be attributed to the development of task positive behavior. Idle hands and all that.
Farming is like this too; long days performing somewhat repetitive tasks. Planting seedlings, hoeing weeds, washing vegetables, chewing languidly on long stalks of hay; these are all the kind of mundane and rote tasks that allow us to enter into a flow state. A state close to autopilot, where skill and concentration are entwined and where time slips.
Painting and farming, those are my meditations, but also every day stuff like chopping wood, making dinner, and washing the dishes. I imagine that in your work you have a similar zone, a similar respite. A place where you are competent. A place you can go where you seem to work without thinking but with acute concentration; how does this differ from meditation in the classical sense?
I don’t think it is different at all. Work can be a form of deep meditation, whether you are pulling carrots, cutting out window sashes, running Romex through a wall, or editing papers. Because we will spend our lives working I think it is upon us to find this zone and embrace this place, to say yes to work. The Buddha put it nicely - “Work, and all action, is a means to refine consciousness, smooth the rough edges of the ego, and loosen the root of suffering.” My old neighbor Edwin put it even more succinctly:
“Get a friggin job.”
Stowell P Watters
This week you get:
Onions, Leeks, Bok Choi OR Collards depending on where you pickup, Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Carrots, Garlic, Winter Squash, Potatoes, and Spinach. Hope you enjoy it all.
I am a slow painter but I can paint all day. I thoroughly enjoy the paint and the brush and the methodical plodding of the work day. Occasionally the idea of painting for a 24 hour stretch has crossed my mind, just to see if I could do it. A marathon. I would need coffee and food and maybe some music, but, I could do it. In fact, I kind of want to do it (do not tell Neil).
The reason, so I have read, is something the Brains call “task positive behavior”. When we are engaged in something productive that requires concentration for long periods of time our brainwaves look like those of a Buddhist monk sitting in deep, cross legged meditation. The bulk of the task positive behavior studies are focused on children, specifically those with attention deficit disorders, anxiety, and depression. Quite unanimously these studies show that when children can engage in a task with their hands and brains they exhibit less of the warning signs associated with mental disease. The success of Vocational and STEM programs in school can be attributed to the development of task positive behavior. Idle hands and all that.
Farming is like this too; long days performing somewhat repetitive tasks. Planting seedlings, hoeing weeds, washing vegetables, chewing languidly on long stalks of hay; these are all the kind of mundane and rote tasks that allow us to enter into a flow state. A state close to autopilot, where skill and concentration are entwined and where time slips.
Painting and farming, those are my meditations, but also every day stuff like chopping wood, making dinner, and washing the dishes. I imagine that in your work you have a similar zone, a similar respite. A place where you are competent. A place you can go where you seem to work without thinking but with acute concentration; how does this differ from meditation in the classical sense?
I don’t think it is different at all. Work can be a form of deep meditation, whether you are pulling carrots, cutting out window sashes, running Romex through a wall, or editing papers. Because we will spend our lives working I think it is upon us to find this zone and embrace this place, to say yes to work. The Buddha put it nicely - “Work, and all action, is a means to refine consciousness, smooth the rough edges of the ego, and loosen the root of suffering.” My old neighbor Edwin put it even more succinctly:
“Get a friggin job.”
Stowell P Watters
This week you get:
Onions, Leeks, Bok Choi OR Collards depending on where you pickup, Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Carrots, Garlic, Winter Squash, Potatoes, and Spinach. Hope you enjoy it all.
