Friendship 21, with Sarojini

There is a familiar story in some zen circles (I am paraphrasing it here).

A brand new member of a zen monastery was assigned his first job of washing the wooden floor of the room where the monks ate.

He eagerly embraced the task as a spiritual exercise, and put a lot of muscle into the task. After about an hour's work, he observed the floor to be spotlessly clean and proudly informed his mentor that the task was accomplished.

To which the mentor replied, "go wash the floor."

Disappointed, the novice got back on his knees and added more muscle to his scrubbing motions. An hour later, he observed the floor to be cleaner than it was before and proudly informed his mentor that the task had really been completed this time.

To which the mentor again replied, "go wash the floor."

This happened a couple of more times, with the novice becoming increasingly disappointed with his mentor's unappreciation of his sincere efforts.

Until it was time for the monks to return to their cells for the night.

After the nightly turn-in bell was sounded, the mentor approached the novice... who was on his knees scrubbing the floor... and asked him, "what are you doing?" To which the novice replied, "washing the floor."

At that, the mentor thanked the novice for his attentive work and beckoned him to return to his cell.

Why do I posit this story here?

The novice's initial intention of washing the floor towards the objective of reaching a certain degree of cleanliness... is a reflection of how many of us treat spirituality.

To which the novice's mentor would probably reply, "spirituality is washing the floor, when you are washing it."

Namaste,

It is great hearing this interview. Have the pleasure of knowing Sarojini, what a wonderful Sage.

May more such interviews with enlightened beings bring clarity to those watching

Hridayananda

Nature has indeed gifted you with the capacity of making these dialogues and interviews both interesting and entertaining.
This one is no exeption.Thank you.

By the way speaking of "nature":

"What is spirituality", you asked and Sarojini answered that it has to be something natural.
Now I can`t imagine something that isn`t natural in life but I agree that specially spirituality has to be demystified and simplified.

You said: "Something is here and we`d like to tell what it is".
I think that this could be spiritual enough, even concepts about such subjects are spiritual and also natural.Recognizing them as concepts without prejudices is simplicity.

And so is NNH with all its shows, discussions and fun.

Anna

Perhaps, Richard, you can elaborate on what you mean when you say "'Satsang-talk' is often a big can of worms" that sometimes contains "hooks" and concepts that may mislead someone.

Are you lumping all satsungs together when you say this?

TIA