An Intro to Blogging

Only because time is limited, I will limit myself to describing the title of this blog. "Sweep the dust, push the dirt" was a quote from a Buddha story I heard a few years back (while I attended school in New Jersey) concerning a group of monks and the Buddha.

The two older monks were very skilled in the Dharma and well on their way up the enlightened path and conferred with the Buddha concerning how they could finally attain enlightenment. While I don't recall exactly what the nature of the advise was, I do recall that eventually one of the older monks commented on one of their younger brethren who was, basically, dumb. Not very quick on the uptake and all the other monks could think of having him do was sweep.

Now, while all this was going on the sweeping monk was listening, probably hoping to pick up asome piece of knowledge from the conversation going on that would aid in his spirititual quest. However, not being very smart, he could not follow most of it, but was very aware of the fact that attention was suddenly upon him and his eavesdropping.

The Buddha came over and talked with the younger monk for a while and when asked for advise, he simply stated "Sweep the Dust, Push the Dirt". The monk took the advise and continued with his assigned task and soon attained enlightenment. Well before any of his more intelligent and witty fellow monks.

So...I assume the story has something to do with mindfullness and the attention that has to be paid to a task (very Zen, this viewpoint is...). The other is that Skillfull Means will vary from person to person dependant upon their own abilities and that enlightenment will depend mostly upon what an individual can do.

Anyway, I got a "D" in my Buddhism class. So, who knows what this story means but I like it and if anyone is able to pinpoint from whence it came, I would apreciate it.

Cheers,

]_/\_[