At one of our recent men’s group weekly gatherings with the Abbot, Buzzy, one of our monks, was complaining about his overloaded “To Do” list.
“At work, at home, everywhere I go,” he said, “I look around and see more things I need to do. I have a smorgasbord of chores I need to do—or should do— that are not even on my to-do list. I’m going to “to-do” myself into the grave. I worry that I’ll look down from heaven and see a mountain of chores that never got done.”
We laughed, of course, and could identify.
“Actually,” the Abbot said, after things died down, “I can appreciate your feeling. Your plight is the plight of modern man. But if we are to bring the monastic tradition into the lifestyle of the modern man —which is the most practical and loving and generous thing we can do for the modern man—we should remember that in essence we need only two actions on our to do list.”
“Two actions?” Buzzy asked.
“Just two,” The Abbot said. “If we do just these two things, all the rest of the things on our to-do list will take care of themselves, each in their right time, at their right pace, in their right order. “
“Okay, okay,” Buzzy said. “I think I know where you’re going, but tell me anyway. That’s the kind of to-do list I need—something I can write on the palm of my hand.”
“Yes, you know where I’m going, ” the Abbot said. “The only two actions you fundamentally need to do is: one, pray. And two, meditate.”
“Yea, yea, yea, “ Frank, another monk chimed in. ” We knew you’d say that. Easier said than done.”
The Abbot grinned. “Actually, you have it backwards. Praying and meditating is not easier said than done. Once you pray and meditate, then things get easier done!”
We knew he was right, but naturally we resisted, and a hubbub went up amongst the group.
“Okay, okay,” The Abbot said, raising his hand for quiet. “So maybe we need to add a third item.”
“Oh, oh, “Buzzy said, “It’s already getting more complicated. So what’s the third item?
The Abbot counted on his fingers. ‘One, pray. Two, meditate. And then, after you do these two, then… “ and here he paused, looked around with a grin at the bunch of us, “three, do whatever the hell the Lord inspires you to do”.
We laughed, but Billy, one of our local atheists, grumbled “Oh God, you and the fuckin’ Lord.”
“Yes,” the Abbot laughed. “I’ll stick with the term, and with the Lord. Pray, meditate and then do what the Lord inspires.”
“So what if I’m inspired to go take a nap?” Willy asked.
“Perfect,” the Abbot responded. “The Lord is big on naps. But let’s look a little closer at the word, the term, Lord. For some here, the term Lord means Jesus”
“Amen, said Carl, one of our more traditional monks.
“For others,” The Abbot went on, ”the term Lord means Allah. For still others it’s Jehovah or Brahman or Tao or Unconditioned Awareness or Intuition, or What Is Going On. (WIGO) or God or, simply love…”
“So… “Randolph asked, a bit perplexed…
“Pray, meditate and then do what Love inspires you to do,” the Abbot said. “What WIGO inspires, do what your intuition inspires… Whatever it is you are praying to, whatever it is that you meditate to or align yourself with, that is what will inspire you to do the next right thing.
“So again, the emphasis here is on the first two—just pray and meditate, in whatever way you find most easy, most natural. As you do that, you will find yourself simply doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done, with very little effort, and great peace of mind.”
“Is that what you do?” Johnny asked the Abbot
The Abbot just smiled. I think in that moment he might have been praying, and meditating on the question. He knows it is easier to talk the talk than walk the walk, but he is a pretty fair walker of his talk.
“This is our job, here on earth, as monks and nuns, ” he said. “To pray and meditate, to the best of our abilities, to the extent of our understanding, and then do whatever love inspires us to do.”
The room grew quiet. The Abbot continued.
“We must be brave enough to abandon our stiff allegiance to all our other ‘to do’s,’ when we are inspired in the moment in a different direction. We must be brave enough to abandon all our other jobs and responsibilities in order to take up these two “to do’s.” We must give up our clinging to titles and social proprieties—we are, after all, monks and nuns. So first and foremost, we pray and meditate.”
“I don’t think you’ll make a very popular self-help speaker,” Arnold said. We laughed, as did the Abbot.
“Obviously, most people in the world would not agree about the practicality of our simple two part To-Do list. So be it. We don’t have to be most people. We just have to be ourselves, understanding what we are here to do, here on earth. Pray. Meditate. Then simply do what the Lord, Love, inspires us to do.”
It did seem quite simple.
“And when we finish with these two,” he went on, grinning. “we repeat and rinse.”
“Again, so easily said,” Franky poked up. “Such a challenge to do.”
“Yes, indeed, but a delicious challenge, you must agree,” the Abbot said, having spent many hours with us, and Frankie, talking about the nature and practice of prayer and meditation, not only formal meditation and prayer but more importantly the informal, spontaneous kind—that we do while doing the dishes or working in the garage, visiting with relatives.
“Of course it’s okay to make your secondary to-do lists,” the Abbot said. “Sometimes, often times, that’s exactly what Love inspires us to do—make a secondary list, Go to Walmart, pick up the dry-cleaning, meet with accountant, etc. These secondary lists can be very practical, and aid us in our daily routines. But this second to-do list is indeed secondary.
“It takes a particular maturity,” he went on, “to recognize and give allegiance to the power of the primary, simplified to-do list. It might be simplified even more to, 1. Enjoy, 2. Be at peace, 3. Do next what seems right.
“Young people can resonate with this simple to-do list, and seniors— more mature folks. But those in the middle of their careers, those in mid-life, almost always insist on making it more complex than that. They make their secondary to-do list their primary to-do list. When in their 30’s and 40’s, most people have a to do list that includes. 1. Get Rich. 2. Get famous 3. Impress my friends and neighbors 4. Get stuff 5. Get more stuff. 6. Do good in the world 7. Take care of family (which 1-6 is designed to do) etc. etc.
“With maturity, the simple two part to do list of pray, and meditate, in large and small ways, and then do what love inspires in that moment guides the individual in his or her daily tasks.
“Such is the life of a monk or a nun. And what a delicious, full-throated life it is.”
The Abbot is good at helping us simplify our lives in the way we want to simplify them. Most of us keep making to-do lists—the secondary type—but now we do so with more context for what is really important.
Learning to pray better, and learning to meditate better, is now on my to-do list. Life seems to blossom.
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