.
Some people ask me the question
“Can meditation
help us while working,
with the quality of our work or job?”
Normally, I would say yes.
Why? Because
when our mind becomes tight,
stressed, and narrow,
it will affect our
body,
our creativity,
our new ideas,
our capacity to work with other people,
and our listening capacity.
All of these may be affected.
But, I think that meditation
will help our mind become more calm
and peaceful,
and then creativity
and new ideas will come,
and communication and listening skills
will be improved.
But
the question is how to practice
meditation while working?
In general,
you can practice any meditation
“short times, many times.”
This would be for informal meditation.
You do not have to sit on a cushion.
You do not need to have a particular posture.
You do not need to be silent, of course.
Whatever you do in your life, carry on,
and there will be glimpses of meditation.
Maybe you can rest in awareness of the breath —
for one breath or half of a breath.
Or you can rest your mind with sounds.
Or you can rest in awareness itself —
awareness being with itself.
Whatever practice you do,
with feelings or the body, for instance,
do it for a few seconds,
then you can do your thinking.
Maybe you have a project and need to think about it.
You can think, and then rest.
You can type something
or do whatever,
but then rest for a few seconds.
Or in between talking with others,
you can meditate for a few seconds.
What will happen is that
you will allow your mind to rest.
At the same time,
your brain will be less stressed
and more peaceful.
So it is good
if your mind becomes peaceful and calm.
It will develop and enhance your creativity
and your capacities.
Then, it will be good for your work,
whatever you do,
whatever your life job is.
It will be good for your meditation, also.
Normally,
“short times, many times meditation”
really improves our meditation.
The traditional example is
having an empty container
and drops of water falling into this container —
just one by one.
In the end, the big empty container
will be full of water.
That will develop your spiritual practice
and your work in mundane life,
and it will be good for your relationships
and your physical body also.
There is one saying
that goes,
“We can do a 30-day job
in 20 days,
instead of doing it in 30 days.”
If you cannot rest,
if your mind is stressed or too tight,
then even if you work for 30 days,
you cannot do much.
You need to pause sometimes.
You have to take breaks.
You have to rest sometimes.
Maybe 10 days of resting per 20 days of working
is like 30 days of working.
Maybe even better.
It is the same thing with our minds.
We need to rest.
Resting will help us
to improve our work and our lives.