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"After Enlightenment, the Laundry."

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
"After enlightenment, the laundry."

What in your opinion is the meaning of this Zen expression?

I'm going to go with balance. The search for higher truths doesn't preclude us from the simple tasks of life, but perhaps it changes how we view them. In any case, both the search for higher truths and the eternal quest for clean underpants have important parts to play in our existence.

The other angle I'd pondered on this was that mundane tasks can be put off until the search for higher truths is complete. In other words, priority. However, my wife has suggested repeatedly to me that this is simply my way of avoiding chores.
 

allfoak

Alchemist
There is no such thing as ....after enlightenment.
Doing the laundry and enlightenment cannot be separated, only better understood.
 

raph

Member
It means that nothing changes after enlightenment and you will continue you day to day life. I was into Zen for a few years and I understood that Zen enlightenment is basically about finding out that there is no enlightenment at all.

There is nothing to seek, nothing to find but a 360 degree turn.
 

Kirran

Premium Member
I think it means that you see things as they really are, and continue to live pragmatically just as you always did. Maybe all is simply an illusion, with reality itself being the void, but you've still gotta eat and do your laundry.
 

Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
I was into Zen for a few years and I understood that Zen enlightenment is basically about finding out that there is no enlightenment at all.

It makes you wonder why Zennies meditate for hours on end and get hit with sticks. ;)

th
 
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Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I think it means that you see things as they really are, and continue to live pragmatically just as you always did. Maybe all is simply an illusion, with reality itself being the void, but you've still gotta eat and do your laundry.
Plus, the enlightenment process is hot & sweaty work, hence needing clean laundry.
Whatever one's state of mind, the real world with its attendant obligations continues.
 

Unification

Well-Known Member
"After enlightenment, the laundry."

What in your opinion is the meaning of this Zen expression?

After someone becomes "aware/awake," and goes beyond the mind, they realize their dirty laundry, the guilty judgement seat in mind, things they've never seen before about themselves they become aware of.

It's actually pretty neat, comical, and ironic. Everything that was thought of to be true, thought of to be "good," thought to be intelligent, knowledgable, and correct.... One realizes and can't help but laugh how ignorant and wrong they were.
 

psychoslice

Veteran Member
When one is Enlightened, the realization of being One with all there is, is realized, that all we do is really done through Consciousness, or should I say Consciousness through us. When we realize this, we realize that we have no true will, and we may as well give into Consciousness and just live our life the way we want, because that is all we can do.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
I'm going to go with balance. The search for higher truths doesn't preclude us from the simple tasks of life, but perhaps it changes how we view them. In any case, both the search for higher truths and the eternal quest for clean underpants have important parts to play in our existence.

Interesting take on it. My hunch is that you're right in so far as some notion of "balance", as you put it, is meant to be implied by the quote. But I'm not sure if that's intended to be the main message of the quote.
 
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