There are many things that I think will come true if I read this site carefully, and one more question has arisen, so I would like to ask you a question.
Can monks suddenly find their daily work empty? It may be a bit of a complicated question, but if you ever feel like that, I'm curious about how you get away with it.
You won't feel empty.
I'm always focused on what I can do and what I'm doing now.
Right now, for example, I'm concentrating on answering Hasunoha's questions, and I have no chance of feeling empty.
Why don't you focus on what you can do now and what you're doing now?
“Can your daily work suddenly become empty?”
It's there (laughs)
You can do as much as you want to give exemplary answers about the significance and meaning of the daily life of a temple, starting with kigyo. However, there are still moments where it feels like the Gestalt is collapsing, and suddenly we lose sight of its wholeness. It's kinda cool to say, but I'm totally bored with it being normal.
“How are you getting away with it?”
It's just a normal change of pace, like anyone else is doing.
As a matter of responsibility, I don't abruptly cancel a funeral or memorial service prematurely due to my own feelings alone, but if not, I can rest my hands, rest my head, and prepare my mind and body. Other than that, please encourage yourself by renewing small items such as glasses, bags, and rosaries.
No matter how good things they do, no matter how much necessary things they do, it's normal for people to eventually cool down, whatever sense of mission, sense of accomplishment, or excitement. It is because of [annoyance] that you can't rejoice when you should be happy. However, it's quite difficult to get rid of worries, so I'm thinking about getting along as well as possible.
Ni-ni ni -sama
This is Kawaguchi Hidetoshi. This is my humble answer to the question.
There are many ways to work at a temple, but it's fine to handle Buddhism, such as daily work, memorial services, legal affairs, etc., but even among them, if you do cleaning, it sometimes becomes empty...
In particular, there is an infinite loop of fallen leaf cleaning, weeding, grass cutting... this continues to loop without changing until you actually die, so sometimes I get disgusted.
Recently, however, when cleaning up fallen leaves, weeding, and mowing, I use Bluetooth earphones to help me learn Buddhism, such as listening to the Dalai Lama's puja and Potala College courses where I am currently taking correspondence courses, etc., and when I do that, I get distracted, and I am able to maintain it somehow.
Even if it's something you don't like, I recommend devising ways to change it to a meaningful time.
Kawaguchi Hidetoshi Gassho
I wonder if it's going to be futile... there aren't many.
After work, it seems that emptiness is reduced even if you just say “I did my best today” without saying “oh, I'm tired.”
I'll introduce you to about two words.
・ “I wonder what I'm doing, I don't have to blame myself or feel pathetic by saying things like who I am now (me). That's because 90% of life is a waste. I'm just covering it with the remaining 10%. So you can waste a lot.” (Naoki Prize-winning writer Shimoda Kageki)
・ “Life is a spiral staircase. Even though I think they're going around the same place, they're climbing to the top.”