Washing the dishes

For the past few weeks I’ve been pondering the fact that the most fulfilling task I’ve been doing daily is a simple, mundane task: washing the dinner dishes.

For a little while now it hasn’t been a chore to get out of my seat and stand at the sink. I started noticing the pleasant sense of satisfaction I felt every evening, associated with the actual doing of the task. And the pleasure of completion after every plate and fork and cup and chopstick is put away. The task is so tangible – a pile of dirty dishes to be cleaned. Very finite – there’s a set number of things to wash and put away. The outcome is very clear – when it’s done, it’s done – clean dishes and utensils all put away.

This evening it occurred to me, I could also turn it into a meditation practice. Of course I haven’t had a unique revelation, I remembered that I’d read something similar somewhere, and managed to find the following quote:

There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes. …

If while washing the dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes.

In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future – and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.

From The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh (1975)

I might have to practice washing the dishes in order to wash the dishes.