{"id":3439,"date":"2012-04-23T15:43:18","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T19:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=3439"},"modified":"2012-04-23T15:43:18","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T19:43:18","slug":"every-day-the-laundry-a-tale-of-buddha-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/04\/every-day-the-laundry-a-tale-of-buddha-nature.html","title":{"rendered":"every day, the laundry: a tale of Buddha nature ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I hate laundry. Really — I mean it. I once told my sons, in a fit of I’ve had it!<\/em> that I would remember their childhood years as great mountains of laundry. And while I also remember games and hugs and shared confidences and the smell of baby hair, I still remember laundry, too.<\/p>\n

It’s just that laundry NEVER GOES AWAY. It’s always there, multiplying in secret corners — a closet, a bathroom, a floor, the top of a washer… And as soon as you do it, you find stuff you missed. What can we say about that except ARGH!?<\/p>\n

So it’s kind of like Sisyphus<\/a>, rolling the rock upwards eternally. Which even Camus casts as a kind of\u00a0 Buddhist meditation: as Sisyphus accepts the inevitability of his fate, he ultimately achieves contentment, Camus says.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And that’s what happened this morning. Not that I had some moment of happiness doing the laundry, but that these past months of working consciously, in an ongoing fashion, at accepting what I can’t change, led me to see laundry as a gift. Obviously if you have a lot of laundry, you have a lot of stuff. Not so good, on one level. But on another? We’re not hurting for clothes.<\/p>\n

Or hot water. \ud83d\ude42 Having lived in places where hot water — or any water! — may run only 2-3 times weekly, I never take it for granted. And clean sheets — what transient bliss is better than sinking into a bed made w\/ freshly laundered sheets?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If I take time, laundry becomes a meditation. Not a joy, ever — I’m not trying to change my nature! But I can rest in the actions of folding, filling washer compartments, burying my face in a warm sheet. If I work at it, I can see laundry as a fight against entropy, even. Creating order from the chaos that seems to be just one day away at our house. I remember that the Buddha said everything<\/em> has Buddha nature — including actions. So the laundry has… Buddha nature?<\/p>\n

Once I read that happiness is making peace with (even learning to enjoy) the necessary tasks of life. Laundry’s that for me. And I’m making my peace with it. At least today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hate laundry. Really — I mean it. I once told my sons, in a fit of I’ve had it! that I would remember their childhood years as great mountains of laundry. And while I also remember games and hugs and shared confidences and the smell of baby hair, I still remember laundry, too. It’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[11,1181,1187,324,262,1198],"class_list":["post-3439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-age","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhism-and-laundry","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-mindfulness"],"yoast_head":"\nevery day, the laundry: a tale of Buddha nature ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I hate laundry. Really -- I mean it. 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