In a Zen monastery, the hours of sitting and the hours of manual work carry the same weight.
Why this is hard
A visitor usually assumes the sitting is the practice and the chores keep the place running. Everyone who lives there will say otherwise, and the schedule backs them up.
1 of 4
Sitting has no goal.
Because once it has an aim, it becomes another task.
You get up after forty minutes with nothing to report, and nothing was wrong.
2 of 4
Work is the same activity.
Because attention on sweeping is attention on the breath, with a broom in it.
Halfway through the washing-up, you realise you've been practising.
3 of 4
Posture is not preparation.
Because in this line, how you sit is the practice entirely.
You correct your back, and something else corrects with it.
4 of 4
Some of it can't be done alone.
Because koans are passed only when a teacher sees it.
You begin with what is open, and know where the rest is.
The practice
Do one ordinary chore today at the pace you'd sit at. Just one. Notice what the pace does.
In Sōtō, the sitting is called shikantaza: just sitting.