Worldly Work for Zen Priests?

First off, the above isn’t me … my refrigerator has a lot more in it and I’ve got fifteen years on the dude.

The Question Trevor put forward on his comment to my post about monastic practice for Zen priests has been dinging around for a couple days. “Is this enough? And how would one tell if it is enough?”

Trevor has been a monastic and resident in various Zen shops for about 6.5 years and is now looking for gainful employment so that he can move out. His blog is over at The Big Oak Tree.

And although I can’t speak for him or anyone, like everybody else who’s done time, I know the issue. One way of resolving the “how long can I stick it out” nagging question is to relieve the anxiety by skipping out – now.

Another is to distract oneself somehow, anyhow. Or then there’s always bucking up and doing the practice.

Well, how much is enough? How about when you’ve resolved the matter of birth and death in whatever way led you to jump into monastic living in the first place?

Then the going up the mountain turns and going down the mountain is effortless.

It’s not just in the story books … but real life tends to be much less clear.

The Question is a tough one particularly in systems that don’t offer clear verification. You gotta be really confident yourself to head out down the mountain. And it is lonely out there, even if you’re running off with your sweetheart.

There are many good reasons to leave monastic living. First off, worldly work is really important for Zen priests and for several reasons, just as important as monastic training.

Zen systems are unreliable and it’s wise to have a safety net – a career and a retirement plan for starters. The national net might well be gone soon and even the larger Zen institutions don’t seem so well posed to take care of a lot of old priests.

Second, speaking from personal experience, it can be very powerful to step into the body of a normal person and live that life. Like the guy in Razor’s Edge who winds up driving cab. 

In my chosen line of work, to see the biting suffering of those in the underclasses has been really sobering. I thought I grew up on the other side of the tracks but there’s a lot tougher upbringings than mine. 

Turns out there’s several wrong sides of the tracks. Lots of people go day to day with an intensity of suffering – just relieved they didn’t get shot today, for example – that you don’t often run into in the upper middle way. No offense intended, dear reader.

Thirdly, when we surround ourselves with like-minded “spiritual” people day and night, we can get even more pampered and self-absorbed. Most people are not into the overt spiritual trip in the way that many folks in Zen centers are so forget about nicey nice when working out there. Your degree of enlightenment may not impress so get over it already.  

Finally, it is really difficult to be free when one is institutionalized for long periods, just about as difficult as raising kids, paying the mortgage, health insurance, and repairing the dang Craftsman Rotary Lawn Mower with a whacky carburetor (and an owner’s manual that cautions, “Your carburetor is not adjustable”). 

Just reading the owner’s manual gives me a little shiver of monastic yearning….