Chop Wood, Carry Water, Move the PV Panels

It’s likely the theme of chop wood, carry water will continue to surface on a regular, ongoing basis here on our EM blog, for the simple fact that our way of living revolves around these super basic and super necessary activities. It’s also handy that chop wood, carry water happens to be an old Zen saying, and here at Empty Mountain, we just happen to be rooted in a Zen-based tradition. 

We rely on wood to heat our cabin, and since we are sans running water, we do a lot of water carrying. Also on the daily docket is rotating our PV (aka solar) panels, which we have situated on a wooden rack with wheels, to track the sun throughout the day so they catch the most amount of light, in order to charge the batteries we run our electricity off of.

For some - likely many; maybe most - folks, chopping wood, carrying water, and moving the PV panels feels and seems like a pretty hefty slide backwards in the realm of progress, given that we had a little thing called the Industrial Revolution and all. I mean, we don’t even technically have a physical address where we live. Translation: Amazon can’t deliver us packages! (Worry not, we have a workaround.)

But alas and yet again, there are a million different ways to live a good life. Also, there are different types of progress to consider. Progress for some means monetary gain, where for others it means spiritual development. For some progress means updating & adding physical infrastructure; for some it means technological advances; for some it means intellectual pursuits; for some it means getting individually and collectively more skilled in such things as communication, emotional intelligence, understanding others, and feeling genuine care and concern for one another as kin in one big human family; for some it means finding ways to prolong life, rid the world of disease, and establish better health for people near and far; for some it means fighting for a better future, and so on and so on.

I thoroughly enjoy the poetics that are built in to the practice traditions of Zen Buddhism. Even chop wood, carry water has a rustic romantic feel to it. Or maybe it’s just because I myself am a poet, and so I search for poetry and see it everywhere I am and go. But I don’t think it’s just that. Many Zen masters and teachers were poets. Practice and poetry open up the same doorways and pathways in the heart. Chop water, carry water means: tend to whatever it is you’re doing in the present moment with presence and attention and care. 

The practice is not about transcending the ins and outs of our daily life; it’s about becoming fully engaged, as an active participant, in the here and now. As practitioners, when we sit on the cushion, our practice is to sit on the cushion with our full presence and attention, body & mind united together. When we chop wood; carry water; wash the dishes; cook dinner; drive the kids to soccer practice; walk from our front door to the car, our practice is to show up all the way, 100%.