Buddhist Teaching -- So Much Chicken Shit?

Something to meditate on: a Glacial erratic rock is perched tentatively on a lakeside slope at Inyo National Forest. Photo by Barbara Newhall — Inyo National Forest. A nice spot to meditate, if I were the meditating type. *Photo by Barbara Newhall*

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Buddhist writers Sylvia Boorstein and Jack Kornfield have taught me a lot about how to be a better me. But I have to confess, I’m a lot keener on reading about Buddhism than I am on actually sitting down to meditate.

Buddhist meditation author Sylvia Boorstein. Photo by Christine Alicino — Sylvia Boorstein. Photo by Christine Alicino

I can’t help thinking (as I’ve mentioned in earlier posts) why meditate when I could be sweeping the garage? Or emailing my son in Minnesota? Or thinning the camellia buds in the front yard? Or writing this post to you?

Or, better yet, curling up with a good book about Buddhism?

That’s why I was startled and amused when I came across a passage devoted to this very issue in Kornfield’s book, Bringing Home the Dharma. There it was, righteous and incisive, in a chapter about a Thai monk named Ajahn Chah.

Ajahn Chah was Kornfield’s teacher years ago at the Wat Ba Pong forest monastery in Thailand. In his book, Kornfield describes a trip that Ajahn Chah once took to England. There, the monk had an encounter with a staid English lady who was part of the British Buddhist Society.

The woman pummeled the teacher with complex philosophical questions. When asked, however, whether she did much meditating, the woman said no, she didn’t have time; she was too busy studying the texts.

“Madam,” Ajahn Chah said to her. “You are like a woman who keeps chickens in her yard and goes around picking up the chicken shit instead of the eggs.”

Buddhist meditation writer and teacher Jack Kornfield. Photo by Robert Vente — Jack Kornfield. *Photo by Robert Vente*

That’s me!

It’s true — in reading about Buddhism instead of taking the time to actually practice it, I’m probably missing out on some nice eggs.

But I don’t think I’m picking up chicken shit. Not as long as Sylvia Boorstein and Jack Kornfield are writing books.

“Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are,” Jack Kornfield, Shambhala.

“Happiness Is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life,” Sylvia Boorstein, Ballantine.

Don’t miss my comments on Kornfield’s book, Bringing Home the Dharma. Or, you might want to read my post about the human potential movement’s George Leonard at “The Tao of Writing.”

Learn more about my book, Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith, from Patheos Press, at WrestlingWithGodBook.com.