We were recently having dinner with friends when a (highly intelligent) friend said, “All I want to do is chop wood in the forest.”
It immediately reminded me of the simpleâyet profoundâquote below.
So, I did some homework on it. Here’s everything I learned.
The Chop Wood, Carry Water Quote
The Chop Wood, Carry Water Origin
It doesn’t appear that there’s a consensus about the origin of this quote. Here are three possible sources that I found while researching.
1. Layman Pang, a Buddhist in the Zen tradition who lived from 740â808, wrote the followingš:
“My daily activities are not unusual,
Iâm just naturally in harmony with them.
Grasping nothing, discarding nothing.
In every place thereâs no hindrance, no conflict.
My supernatural power and marvelous activity:
Drawing water and chopping wood.”
Those last two lines are well-known and have been translated many different ways over the years, including²:
“How miraculous and wondrous,
Hauling water and carrying firewood!”
2. The quote has been adapted and expanded to add a little more contextÂł:
“The novice says to the master, ‘What does one do before enlightenment?’
‘Chop wood. Carry water,’ replies the master.
The novice asks, ‘What, then, does one do after enlightenment?’
‘Chop wood. Carry water.'”
3. There’s also a completely different variation that offers more storytelling and explanation4:
“A young boy became a monk. He dreamed of enlightenment and of learning great things. When he got to the monastery he was told that each morning he had to chop wood for the monks fires and then carry water up to the monastery for ablutions and the kitchen. He attended prayers and meditation, but the teaching he was given was rather sparse.
One day he was told to take some tea to the Abbot in his chambers. He did so and the Abbot saw he looked sad and asked him why.
He replied every day all I do is chop wood and carry water. I want to learn. I want to understand things. I want to be great one day, like you.
The Abbot gestured to the scrolls on shelves lining the walls. He said, ‘When I started I was like you. Every day I would chop wood and carry water. Like you I understood that someone had to do these things, but like you I wanted to move forward. Eventually I did. I read all of the scrolls, I met with Kings and and gave council. I became the Abbot. Now, I understand that the key to everything is that everything is chopping wood and carrying water, and that if one does everything mindfully then it is all the same.'”
3 Meanings from the Chop Wood, Carry Water KĹan
A Zen kĹan is “a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the ‘great doubt’ and to practice or test a student’s progress in Zen.”5
One of the great aspects of ancient quotes and stories is that they are subject to interpretation. Here’s my own personal take along with some of my favorite explanations of the meaning.
On the surface, the visible, external actions of chopping wood and carrying water are the same before and after enlightenment. So, what’s changed?
The deeper invisible and internalâyour presence, awareness, perception, mindset. Your body may be busy, but your mind is still. You are present instead of preoccupied:
- “In simple terms we can say that before I developed the true nature of Wisdom I could chop wood and carry water but my mind was everywhereâit was heavily polluted with mental obstructions and worldly thoughtsâit was not present. After I found the Essence of my Mind and found true Wisdom then I experience Enlightenment. To the external eye nothing is differentâI still appear to chop wood and carry water but in fact within the internal eye everything is different. Everything has changed. It teaches us to be aware of the transience of visual forms. Nothing is what it appears to be and No thing is what it appears to be.”4
Growing up (and still to this day), I can hear my Dad saying:
- “Do what you’re doing while you’re doing it. Don’t do what you’re not doing while you’re not doing it.”
The being is more important than the doing. As Eckhart Tolle says in his book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose:
- “Doing is never enough if you neglect Being. The ego knows nothing of being but believes you will eventually be saved by doing. If you are in the grip of the ego, you believe that by doing more and more you will eventually accumulate enough ‘doings’ to make yourself feel complete at some point in the future. You wonât. You will only lose yourself in doing. The entire civilization is losing itself in doing that is not rooted in Being and thus becomes futile.”
Chopping wood and carrying water are not glamorous activities, especially during the time these stories/quotes were written. If you are able to master your mind, you will find the extraordinary in the ordinaryâthe magic in the mundane (a tip from how to get started with slow living). Do you choose to see burden or beauty? Are you focused on presence or productivity?
- “Before Enlightenment…You chop wood and carry water, but secretly wish to get out of it all. You bear with these activities through habit and out of hopelessness, but you really wish you could do something else. In a way, you are a victim, a slave â the wood chops you and the water carries you, and there is no way to escape…After Enlightenment, you are in harmony with the universe…so you see that there is nothing more important than chopping wood and carrying water. All activities are equalized, there is no preference, no discrimination. Because there is no ‘you’, no ego, no personality, no being, no separate individuality â there is no conflict. No need to escape…because you have mastered your mind, you are not chopped by the wood and carried by the water anymore. You can flip your perspective at will. It is your choice to chop wood and carry water, and you live it in complete suchness and spontaneity.”4
If you refer back to Layman Pang, he said, “My daily activities are not unusual, Iâm just naturally in harmony with them.” Enlightenment isn’t concerned with amazing external activitiesâit’s available to everyone.
Instead of resisting and loathing the repetitive, daily routines and chores you don’t want to do, you can choose gratitude for the small thingsâthat you have hands, strength, and health to perform these actions. Try something as simple as being mindful at mealtime.
- “NonÂ-resistance, nonÂ-judgment, and nonÂ-attachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.” â Eckhart Tolle
Mastering your mind is your own responsibility:
- “The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there.” â Robert M. Pirsig
- “If you are not taking responsibility for your state of consciousness, you are not taking responsibility for life.” â Eckhart Tolle
Everything in life is impermanentâeven enlightenment is transient. If/when you achieve enlightenment, it’s not like you can say, “Whew! Thank goodness I’m finally enlightened. That was a long journey, but I’m glad I’ve made it to the end.”
Remember, the longer story version of Chop Wood, Carry Water at the beginning of this post says:
- “The key to everything is that everything is chopping wood and carrying water, and that if one does everything mindfully then it is all the same.”
If you view everything as chopping wood and carrying water, you realize you constantly have to maintain present awareness:
- “It does little good to attain clarity of mind on your meditation cushion if you lose it as soon as you become active.”6
We all know this isn’t easy. Overcoming the unconscious default setting of your mind is a key point in David Foster Wallace’s iconic speech, This is Water:
- “The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.”
Since enlightenment is a state and not a destination, that means we all still have to go on living even after attaining enlightenment. The goal then is to have your doing rooted in being to create awakened doing:
- “Awakened doing is the alignment of your outer purpose what you do â with your inner purpose â awakening and staying awake. Through awakened doing, you become one with the outgoing purpose of the universe. Consciousness flows through you into this world. It flows into your thoughts and inspires them. It flows into what you do and guides and empowers it.” â Eckhart Tolle
Is the wood chopping you and the water carrying you? Or, are you chopping the wood and carrying the water? The responsibility is yours.
You May Also Enjoy:
Sources:
- https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/green-koans-case-36-pang-splits-wood/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layman_Pang
- https://writingdownthestory.com/2016/11/12/chop-wood-carry-water/
- https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/15921/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-zen-quote-before-enlightenment-chop-wood-carry-wat
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dan
- http://www.interluderetreat.com/meditate/chop.htm
What a beautiful phrase! I had never heard of it before. I am currently reading Book On Silence by Maitland, where the author describes the spiritual sloth that can come from long periods of silence, introspection and meditation. Many spiritual disciplines, therefore, advocate physical labour as a remedy for this accidie. Reading the book (and now this article) has definitely given me some more food for thought. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for your comment, Lizzy! Is the book “A Book of Silence” by Sara Maitland? I’ll have to check it out.
Heyy,
I have been reading This Is Water, and remembered Paterson(the movie) as I read. One of the coming days I found a video essay in YouTube, which was suggested to me. It is an essay of Paterson in the lights of This is water , and right under that, in the comment section I saw this- “before enlightenment, cup wood and carry water. After the enlightenment, chop the wood and carry the water”. I had never seen this quote before and decided to search for it in Google, and I found this- this is where I am now, on a stempede of serendipity.
Gotta love the synchronicity and serendipity!
Yes, silence & meditation are the key to spiritual growth. Since we are born and brought up in the society so the momentum of thought process does not let us become silent suddenly. I practiced awareness meditation during brushing my teeth, that helped me in experiencing thoughtless moment for first time.
Wonderful, Sandeep!
Lovely…
I agree. It’s a quote I come back to quite often.
The Taoist influence is so apparent in anything Zen. Sayings such as these are not nearly as common in more mainstream Buddhist schools.
Appreciate the additional context, Peter. Thanks for sharing.
Very well put. What do you think the modern equivalent would be to chop wood and carry water ? (Since modern people don’t do that anymore)
It is timeless.
Good question, Dudin. It would be an interesting exercise to create a modern equivalent that’s specific to yourself. That way you could always reference it in your own daily life, and it would have personal meaning.
Wash dishes, fold laundry.
This is one of my favourite sayings, but some people get it confused with being out in nature, or doing heavy manual labour, or living a simpler life. The point of the quote (in my opinion) is to be present even during the most mundane tasks – which, for most of us, is the endless domestic grind that comes with modern living. Pick the tasks you like the least, and yet have to get done, and change the saying to reflect that.
Yes, Angela, exactly!
Make the coffee and drink it.
Each opening of day.
It is still same. Wood is our ego, and water is our ability to adopt any role in the moment as existence throw on us, to perform it to our best being totally involved in it.
Before enlightenment, wash dishes and do laundry. After enlightenment, wash dishes and do laundry.
I have always understood this saying to be; Before enlightenment I chopped wood and I carried water, after enlightenment wood was chopped and water was carried. MY understanding was that this indicates that after enlightenment the belief that I am the doer is removed and the witnessing consciousness prevails.
I very much like that interpretation, Gopala: “Before enlightenment I chopped wood and I carried water, after enlightenment wood was chopped and water was carried.”
Reminds me of the author’s notes in Tao Te Ching:
âNothing is done because the doer has wholeheartedly vanished into the deed; the fuel has been completely transformed into flame. This ânothingâ is, in fact, everything. It happens when we trust in the intelligence of the universe in the same way that an athlete or a dancer trusts the superior intelligence of the body.â
âThis is a paradigm for non-action: the purest and most effective form of action. The game plays the game; the poem writes the poem; we canât tell the dancer from the dance.â
Wood is our ego, and water is (become more and more like water) our ability to adopt any role in the moment as existence throw on us, to perform it to our best being totally involved in it. After enlightenment a new birth happens and again a journey to learn each day begins and it never ends. If enlightenment makes you a great master or Yogi then further growth stops. Enlightenment is moving from âdwaitâ to âvishishthadwaitâ and till âadwaitâ the journey is long and after adwait it goes further ahead like a ripple created by dropping of a frog.
Loved your interpretations, Kyle, particularly this one: “Mastering your mind allows you to appreciate the extraordinary miracles in ordinary daily life.”
Yes, happiness is doing ordinary things with presence and quality.
Also, from my point of view, this quote is great since it lets the reader interpret it as he wishes. I also think people “ready” for it will get it, otherwise we must just read it again and again, over a period of years, to understand it. (It was my case).
“The noble-minded are calm and steady. Little people are forever fussing and fretting.” -Confucius
Thanks as always for the continued support, Maxime. I think you’re right about readiness. The same thing happened to me when reading Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth. It took me multiple attempts before I finally made it all the way through and understood it.
Beautiful sharing
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I interpret the quote as “finding pleasure in the mundane,” but its refreshing to hear your opinions.
Nice interpretation, Kimberly! I’d say that falls in line with #2: mastering your mind allows you to appreciate the extraordinary miracles in ordinary daily life.
THanks for the different versions of the Chop Wood and Carry water
I have used it too for inspiration and motivation.
As a difference between a short sighted worker and a far sighted worker or a man with a narrow outlook and a man with a universal outlook, or a non integrated person and an integrated person. Meaning the former looks at the immediate consequence of his action, it is hard, troublesome to sweat and slog under the scorching sun to chop and water, not easy activities, whereas the latter sees beyond to the fruit of his actions benefitting so many people and in so many places, that he may not see it personally but feels the joy of serving larger interest and nobler objectives. So, carry on chopping wood and drawing water to the benefit of all, including oneself.
Great addition, Jeyaraj. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Excellent.
Beautiful and insightful to read as a young parent. Reminded me of: âWe are human beings, not human doings.â
Printing this out to keep! Thank you, Kyle!
Sure thing, MaĂŻa!
Hi, Kyle. The saying “chop wood carry water” popped into my head today, and I made a mental note to dig into the roots of that saying. I wanted to share with you my delight in finding your explanation! For me, you nailed it! Plus, it was fun to find your work. I completely relate to your being an “interdisciplinary dot connector,” and it looks like you are doing a marvelous job at that. I honor the hours you’ve spent chopping wood and carrying water to create such a beautiful tapestry, weaving together strands from so many of the Wise Ones. If you haven’t read Richard Rohr’s book, “Falling Upward,” you really must add it to your list. Keep connecting the dots!
Thanks so much for the kind words, Cheryl! I have “The Wisdom Pattern” on my reading list but will add “Falling Upward” as well. All the best!
Hello, Kyle,
Such an Amazing share..! These are really great and motivative Phrases. Your article really encouraged me. I would like to thanks to you because of this excellent content you have shared with us. Nice Interpretations. I hope to hear more interesting topics from you. Keep updating. Thanks again.
Appreciate it, Adam!
I would love to see a summary of the quote “if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him”…I never understood what that means.
Nice article thanks!
Thanks, Mike! My understanding is that âif you meet the Buddha on the road, kill himâ means if anyone says they are Buddha that’s a surefire way to know that they are not Buddha (because a real Buddha wouldn’t have to tell you). It could also be a watch-out for “gurus” on your journeyâwhich can only be guides (or “fingers” pointing at the moon). It could also be interpreted as ego rearing its headâmeaning if you meet the Buddha on your journey assume it’s ego and keep going further. This was a keyword in Jed McKenna’s Spiritual Enlightenment: “further.”
I salute your learning attitude.
It is said by Buddha to his disciples âIf you meet me on your path, kill meâ.
On the path of enlightenment, at last stage only the one who has taken birth can go further but if the disciple is too much attached with his master, here Buddha, then his love, respect and gratitude towards him will not make him alone and the same Buddha who helped him reach here becomes hurdle in progressing the journey further. So Buddha said âchop my headâ in that moment because my job is over now and be selfish because further journey is your alone only. No scriptures, no master is allowed there.
Wood is our ego, and water is our ability to adopt any role (be morelike water) in the moment as existence throw on us, to perform it to our best being totally involved in it.
Thanks Kyle! That was such a beautiful read and collection of various enlightenment statements connected to the carry water, chop wood phrase đ LOVED IT!
Dominik
Fantastic, Dominik!
My wife said to me one day “Life happens in the ho hum” and I immediately thought of chop wood carry water. Or Gurdjieff’s “work” in the garden or how Sufi’s are trying to always be rooted in the awareness of the beloved. Growth doesn’t happen in the fun, or the excitement. It is easy to be present rushing down a river on Class 5 rapids. The growth only occurs in the ho hum.
Great perspective, Mark. The extraordinary is found in the ordinary.