Spring Cleaning

Vol 15. May 8, 2021

When asked if she did any household chores like spring cleaning, comedienne Phyllis Diller put it this way. 

“Housework can’t kill you, but why take a chance?”

Yes, my friends, it’s that pesky time of year when we throw open the windows, vacuum the carpets, dust the shelves and clean the sheets. Winter dross, make way for Spring freshness. 

With a wife, daughter and cat, I find that a good deal of garbage tends to accumulate around our humble abode. I also find myself taking out the garbage frequently. 

Some days, I curse the drudgery. Other days, I do my duty robotically. Occasionally, I have a breakthrough.  

One morning I took out the garbage during a gentle spring rain. Soft raindrops pitter-patted on the driveway and the outdoor cans. I opened the lid, tossed in the family refuse, then paused.  

I looked up at the iron clouds floating by.

The raindrops felt soothing on the skin, relaxing as they splashed in puddles on the pavement. No one was around. No chipmunks. Not even a bird chirped in the rainy stillness.

I soaked in the simplicity. 

Then a saying from Zen master Huang-po popped in my head.

“Everywhere your foot may fall is a sanctuary for enlightenment.” 

The raindrops, the puddles, the garage, the garbage, the backyard, the whole scene including myself was at one with eternal reality. 

Then it dawned on me. Take out the garbage in my head. 

In Zen, garbage was, is and ever shall be conceptual thoughts.

That other stuff in plastic bags is merely matter. 

That tuna can, those orange rinds, that cat poop, that rice bag, those shrimp shells — all that matter in its discarded “garbage” form isn’t me. But its essence is me. 

There is only One Universal Essence. Buddha-nature.

Nothing is me in its form. Everything is me in its essence, its suchness. 

Oh Suchness Ones, meditate and behold the beautiful Buddha world spread upon the earth. Stop meditating and behold the dream-crap of your mind. 

It’s the same stuff, the same matter, but how do you approach it?

If you look at garbage as “that dirty napkin,” “those old tennis shoes” — as concepts — you unleash a legion of demonic thoughts.

Observe them in their purity, and they are Buddha-nature.

Don’t let garbage fill your mind. 

Find freshness in the promise of right now. 

Spring freshness doesn’t exist in the moldy past or muddy future. 

Spring freshness exists in a mind free from conceptual thoughts. 

Adoration to the big, blank mind of the Buddha. 

Take out the garbage.

It won’t kill you, like housework.