This is the explanation the Master gave his disciples: “There are two ways to wash dishes: One is to wash them in order to make them clean; the other is to wash them in order to wash them.”
That was still far from clear, so he added, “The first action is dead, because while your body does the dishes, your mind is fixed on the goal of cleaning them; the second is alive, because you mind is where your body is.”
Anthony De Mello, SJ
nice …thx 
Welcome
I guess it is impossible for anyone to have a goal and still be in the moment. That’s why enlightened people are always homeless. 
Sorry dear Ether… But can you elaborate more, I think I sort of misunderstood you. I am no enlightened being but concerning my personal experience with being aware in the here now is that a lot of things are done in a great way and life is much better and at ease. I might end up homeless who knows yes 
Just quit my job a week back because the job conditions where unfair plus I needed change big time and I am back on the market looking now…
Peace <3
I was being sarcastic; I believe the quote is relating two extremes. While it carries a point, there is a middle ground where you are able to make goals and follow them, and also have your mind and body at one.
It’s what we are all trying to do if we want to live in this world and be enlightened too. It’s not easy, and requires a delicate balance. It is using the mind as a tool to live in this world, and know what jobs it is good for, and how to put it to rest in between, rather than obliterating it altogether.
PS Good luck in your job search- I was totally kidding about enlightenment and homelessness.
My boss treats me like crap too; but I love the work they give me, hours are normal and the paychecks are good so I put up with it. So don’t expect everything to be good with your new job, just important things.
Don’t worry I have no expectations… Just want change… If it’s another shitty job as the old one… I’ll quit again and end up homeless I guess but hopefully enlightened
You can find a good job! They are out there.
I wouldn’t mind… Thx for the encouragement
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.
–Robert Frost
It seems you can do the dishes because you really enjoy cooking, and cleaning the dishes is just part of it.
Very best of luck with your job search!
clean the floor
You can clean the floor like a robot, a mechanical thing; you have to clean it, so you clean it. Then you miss something beautiful. Then you waste those moments in only cleaning the floor. Cleaning the floor could have been a great experience; you missed it. The floor is cleaned but something that could have happened within you has not happened. If you were aware, not only the floor but YOU would have felt a deep cleansing. Clean the floor full of awareness, luminous with awareness(Osho)
Awareness is a funny word. It can have very different meanings depending on what stage you are at. When identified with the body and external objects it is of certain nature. When merged with the self it ‘is’ and has no expression or meaning.
Same with bliss, a difference in experiencing a feeling of bliss, to being bliss. Realising that you are bliss makes the word redundant. It belongs to the world of illusion where it stands for an idea and concept, another fleeting thought, a ghost.
So there is a third way to wash the dishes which involves no dishes and no one to wash them
I am open to that, when it happens it happens…
Right now I am enjoying the first as best as I can, just being with whatever is. Living it to the fullest
namaste
cool
Just as the heart requires no attention to keep beating, it is the same with the dishes.
Sometimes the idea of living each moment in awareness is taken to mean awareness of the task, this does begin inward introversion. Easier to be centred in the self, aware of the self only. Stay at the point before you wake from deep sleep, just before awareness begins. It’s hard at first but gets easier with repetition.
Just being Aware leads to that dear, it’s full awareness of the self and everything around it… Or at least so does the Buddha along with many others say. In my personal case, it has lead to a lot of clarity and inner silence in my personal life.
I have nothing against advaitic talk, which you seem to be sharing here. But from personal experience with it myself and a lot of the people whom I see talking advaita in these forums and outside. I’ve found a lot of it non relational.
If in your case it is relational, good for you.
Salam
One minute wisdom - Presence
“Where shall I look for Enlightenment?”
“Here.”
“When will it happen?”
“It is happening right now.”
“Then why don’t I experience it?”
“Because you do not look.”
“What should I look for?”
“Nothing. Just look.”
“At what?”
“Anything your eyes alight upon.”
“Must I look in a special kind of way?”
“No. The ordinary way will do.”
“But don’t I always look the ordinary way?”
“No.”
“Whyever not?”
“Because to look you must be here. You’re mostly somewhere else.”
Anthony De Mello, SJ
Hi Ananda,
I think my Inner Guru found it necessary for you to pose the question of relational vs none relational inquiry so thank you for that.
I re-read Yoganis lesson on this and found the missing piece of the puzzle. It is not only related to inquiry but also to every form of spiritual practice.
Jesus wove tha key into the phrase “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God”
The ‘witness’ can also be relational and none relational, so even gaining a measure of stillness does not guarantee that self inquiry will be anything more than an intellectual exercise. Like any dry run, it is none the less a move in the right direction.
Maharishi calls it devotion. However I see It is a purity of heart, selfless love, desire less desire.
Without that humble desire born of selfless love, there is always the need to live a richer life. It is that desire for gain which has to be let go. That, I think, is what is meant by being ripe.
The tiniest drop of that pure devotion is the match which lignites the infinite love of pure self. Without it, it is like pebbles thrown against a dam to release the water.
That’s the best I can do. De Mello calls it ordinary. To look in an ordinary way is far more difficult than it seems. I remember a quote in some book or other that has stayed with me. You love the beauty of the birds song, but you do not see the bird.