I pulled out a story I remembered that reminded me of my "thinking dilema called "THINKING ABOUT WASHING". It goes something like this...
One night each month the monks had to forgo sleep for a whole night to meditate all night. They didn't mind becasue they know they could nap next day. One morning after one of these all-nighters the abbot callled to one of the junior monk and ordered him to wash a huge pile of robes. This was an enormous task because in the traditional way of washing these robes he had to haul the water from the well, make a fire, machete the chips for the water so the color wouldn't fade, then pour water over the robe slowly, and pound the robe until it was clean - this had to be done one-by-one. To do one was a big task, but to wash such a large number of robes would take hours!
Seeing this young monk's dismay, one of the older monks went over to help. The young monk said, "couldn't he have waited until tommorrow? Didin't he realize I haven't slept all night? I didn't sign up for this, this is unfair, isn't there an easier way, why isn't anyone helping me, why me?"
The elder monk looked at him and said "thinking about it is much harder than doing it"
The young monk fell silent and just stared at him. After a few moments of silence he quietly went back to work. Later that day the young monk came up to the elder monk and thanked him for "helping him with the washing". It was true, he discovered, thinking WAS the hardest part.
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MM
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