Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks - Hardcover

Gary Thorp

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802713602 ISBN 13: 9780802713605

Publisher: Walker Books, 2000

Synopsis

Your home is an extension of yourself; therefore when your home is in turmoil, your life is in turmoil. However, when you attend to your home, you begin to feel less hurried and more in tune with your life. There is delight and calm to be found in the midst of washing dishes or changing the water in a vase of flowers; there is pleasure to be experienced in the repetitions of daily life.

Gary Thorp shows how the principles of Zen can bring harmony and peace to your life at home. You don't need special surroundings to achieve the tranquillity of Zen; you can find it anywhere, in the action of dusting a shelf, organizing your closet, or feeding your cat. "Zen" means, simply, meditation, and it does not require you to be seated quietly in a formalized posture. Thorp closely observes many everyday activities, evaluating their capacity to bring satisfaction and self-growth and provide an opportunity for Zen practice.

Sweeping Changes may not only change your feelings toward housekeeping, it is likely to help you see your home, and your place in it, in a new and nurturing light. Whether you live in a small room, an apartment, or on an estate, you will find something of spiritual and practical value in this engaging, insightful book.

About this title

About the Author

Gary Thorp began studying Zen in 1960 and was later lay-ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. A former bookseller and jazz pianist, he is a full-time writer, doing research in marine biology and the ecology of mountain lions. He lives with his wife, Lura, in Marin County.

Reviews

This delightful, offbeat book is at once a pragmatic primer on housekeeping and an aesthetic treatise on the mindfulness of Zen practice. Thorp, a lay monk and laid-back Californian who has studied Zen for 40 years, emphasizes the intent surrounding each housekeeping activity, not the end result of cleanliness. Lawns should be mindfully mowed "with every fiber of your being"; dishes should be washed with particular, single-minded care. "Your life and all that's in it are simply on loan to you and are clearly precarious," cautions Thorp, encouraging readers to use certain chores (raking dead leaves, recycling and mending clothes, for example) as occasions to reflect on the transience of life. He also notes that housekeeping can provide opportunities to feel gratitude for the interconnectedness of all things: the water flowing from the river through the treatment plant to the sink sustains life in the home; clean windows allow for greater openness to the outdoors. Thorp brilliantly uses the quotidian nature of oft-despised chores to teach important lessons about perpetual respectfulness and appreciation. This book can serve as an excellent introduction to an accessible, independent Zen practice, or simply as a gentle reminder of the innate spirituality buried in everyday acts. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Zen practice is not about preparing for an extraordinary future transformation but about the realization that "each moment of life is unique and extraordinary." To help clarify this perception, Zen teachings have always focused on the simplest of tasks, from sitting quietly to such routines of daily life as sweeping the floor or washing the dishes. Thorp, a longtime student of Zen, extrapolates on this wisdom by demonstrating how the home is an ideal place for Zen study. His lucid treatise approaches the home both concretely and metaphorically as he explains how to bring order to chaos and establish consistency in place of randomness, both in specific rooms in the house and within the inner realm. A chapter on dust, for instance, considers change and the cycle of birth and death. Attention to windows engenders thoughts about clarity and light and the connection between looking out at the world and into the mind. Thorp's seemingly simple teachings are classically elegant, enlightening, and true to the Zen spirit. Donna Seaman

Writer and research scientist Thorp!s lighthearted book has a curiously familiar feel, as though it must have existed in the collective imagination before he wrote it. Yet it is authentically his own, this series of thoughtful essays on the use of the ordinary tasks of pet care, dish cleaning, and other daily household chores to facilitate a Zen Buddhist approach to life. Thorp!s book is amusing, engaging, truly enlightened, and enlightening. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Walker Books
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802713602
• ISBN 13: 9780802713605
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176