Chop Wood, Draw Water
One of the first books that I read when I moved to California was an anthology on the New Agecalled “Chop Wood, Carry Water.”There were a lot of informing pieces, some direct, others metaphorical.
I remember one brief account of a Buddhist monk visiting the construction site of a nearly-finished temple. He asked the person in charge of the project how it was all coming together. “Everything is done,” she responded, “except for a few details.” Said the wise one, “Except for the details, what is there?”
The book was particularly valuable to me because I knew nothing of Eastern religion or the Tao. So having been raised in semi-Calvinist New England, for example, the notion of simplicity was adverse to what I had learned in my first thirty years. Nor had I heard about the ability to hold paradox.
Full stop. I recently came across a phrase from the Bible that was unfamiliar to me, hardly surprising since I was brought up in a non-religious household.
I forget the context but the words were “...hewers of wood and drawers of water.” I googled the line and learned it was from Joshua. The full quote is "Now therefore, you are cursed, and you shall never cease being slaves, both hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God."
Dunno if one author of one quote cribbed from another; it really doesn’t matter. What’s fascinating is that the words are so close in their definition, and still a half-a-world apart in meaning. One declares cursed human beings to have to serve as slaves to the church for the rest of their lives, without hope. The other speaks of a practice as a foundation for higher consciousness.
It reminds me of the Chinese calligraphy for the word crisis. It’s comprised of two symbols. One means danger; the other opportunity.
With no offense intended to those ardently Christian, I prefer opportunity to slavery.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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