Dhamma Q&A with Students from Puget Sound University
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C00901
“Can Ajahn Buddhadasa explain his concept of insight worker or laborer, vipassana samrap kammakon, and where in the scriptures he finds justification for that?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
We can call this ‘vipassana for laborers’ or ‘vipassana in laboring.’ What this is about, is that when doing any kind of work, even the lowest kind of work, one can do it in a way where there is insight. Take something very low, like sweeping the ground. One can do a lowly activity like this in a way so that insight arises if one does it correctly so that there’s no liking and disliking arising while one works, no good and bad arising, where the mind isn’t getting tangled in duality while sweeping, but merely sweeping the ground. That’s the outer activity, but if it’s done correctly with the understanding that we’re doing it to benefit others, that the action is done unselfishly, then there is further or deeper insight. One recognizes that when one sweeps in this way, the heart is clean. So it’s not just that one is sweeping the earth at the same time one is sweeping the heart. The heart is being kept clean by practicing unselfishness. This is one example of vipassana for laborers. The meaning is that we can do any work in a way that leads to insight. Sometimes people have very exaggerated ideas about what insight is like, but if we have a natural understanding of what insight is, one can start to see how it can arise in any kind of work, even things like sweeping the ground.
This can be applied to any necessary kind of work – exercising the body, eating, taking a bath, even sitting on the toilet. Any of these necessary functions or activities can be done in this way. Please practice vipassana or insight in every activity, in every position.
(From Dhamma Questions & Answers with students from Puget Sound University, State of Washington, USA as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)
- - ❖ - -
Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.
Listen to this teaching on Soundcloud or Youtube Channel Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
Listen to other English retreat talks by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu
For more information and free ebooks, visit Suan Mokkh – The Garden of Liberation