That afternoon, on his way to the village,
an old farmer — someone he knew — called out:

“Boy, my chair has a broken leg.
Can you help me fix it?
My eyes are weak now, and my hands shake too much.”

The young man gladly agreed.

The old man led him inside.

A worn wooden chair leaned in the corner, one leg loose.
It only needed to be fitted back and nailed in place.

The young man began working.

But the moment he picked up the hammer, his mind started running:

· “I need to get back up the mountain early…”
· “Maybe the teacher needs my help…”
· “I still have to boil herbs tonight…”
· “Tomorrow there’s so much to do…”

His mind ran ahead, ran behind, ran left, ran right —
not present for the moment.

And so:

The first nail went in crooked.
The second bent.
The third fell to the floor.

The old farmer chuckled kindly:

“No need to rush, son.
The chair isn’t going anywhere.”

The words struck him like a bell.

The young man stopped.
Put the hammer down.
Took a deep breath.

He realized:

The work wasn’t heavy —
his restless mind was.

He picked up the nail again, set the chair leg in place,
and this time, he did only one thing:

hammering.

Not thinking of this afternoon.
Not thinking of tonight.
Not thinking of tomorrow.

Only hammer, wood, nail, breath.

The chair was fixed so quickly that the old man was surprised:

“Just now you couldn’t get it right,
and now you’re done in a snap!”

The young man smiled.

“Because earlier… my mind wasn’t here.”

When he returned to the hermitage,
the teacher was drying herbs in the yard.

He looked at the young man, as if already knowing.

“What did you learn today?”

The young man replied:

“I saw that work is only heavy when the mind is absent.
When I simply do the task,
the work becomes light as breath.”

The teacher nodded.

“Good.
That is meditation — mindfulness in work.”

 

1. Work does not create stress — a scattered mind does

The teacher said:

“Work itself is not heavy, not stressful.

A scattered mind makes it heavy.
A scattered mind makes it stressful.

· When the mind thinks of the future → you become tense.
· When the mind thinks of the past → you become burdened.
· When the mind wants to finish quickly → you feel pressure.

But when the mind is quiet,
work becomes pure joy.”

The young man remembered the moment he hammered the nail —
indeed, when the mind was present, everything became light.

 

2. Jiddu: ‘When the mind is quiet, work becomes joy.’

The teacher continued:

“Jiddu once said:

‘When the mind is quiet, work becomes joy.’

It is not the work that changes.
It is the mind.

When the mind is still,
work becomes meditation.”

 

3. Meditation in work is doing each moment fully

The teacher said:

“Meditation in work is not doing slowly.
Not doing less.
Not doing perfectly.

Meditation in work is:

doing the present task completely.

When washing dishes — just wash dishes.
When writing — just write.
When fixing a chair — just fix the chair.

No multitasking.
No splitting the mind.”

 

4. The most beautiful work is work without a ‘worker’

The teacher said:

“When you truly merge with the work,
the ‘I’ disappears.

No more ‘I must finish.’
No more ‘I fear mistakes.’
No more ‘I want praise.’

Only the work doing itself
through your body and mind.”

The young man felt this clearly —
when he simply hammered the nail,
there was no “I” interfering.

 

5. Practice: work as if it were the first time

The teacher said:

“From today, whatever work you do, practice:

‘Do it as if it were the first time.’

No habit.
No rushing.
No expectation.
No resistance to the present.

Just do.

And let the work become meditation.”

The young man looked at his hands —
hands that had just fixed a chair,
but had also just fixed something inside himself.

Work is not heavy.
Only an absent mind is heavy.