When you finish, die.

My Zen Calendar for May 11th is too good to resist posting. It is by Soko Morinaga.

"When you go to the kitchen to prepare dinner, be born in the kitchen. When you finish there, die. Then be born at the dining table as you eat your dinner and, when you finish eating, die there. Be born in the garden, and sweep with your broom. When you get into bed at night, die there. And when you awaken at daylight, be born anew."

For us Budo-ka, how about, 'when you enter the dojo, be born in the dojo. When you finish, die.'  'When you begin a kata, be born into the kata...when you finish the kata, die.' 

When I do Sanchin Kata, the heavy intense breathwork takes me into the kata...here I am born. When I finish, I die....but also awaken to a new life.

For myself, this is entering deeply into what I am doing with gusto! Leave nothing behind, no trace. Give it your all.  A lesson I need, especially those moments when I find myself resisting parts of my job (like paperwork).  I must be born into it and then die when finished...then be born into the next and so on. Make no separation between you and the activity.

Good advice for all activities.

Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen