Leave no trace, an exercise in mindfulness.
Choose a room in your home. For a week, try to leave no trace that you have used that space.
If you choose the kitchen – when cooking a meal, clean up in a way that means you leave no trace whatsoever that you have been there, other than the scent of your delicious meal in the air. Even this can be cleared, by opening a window.
If you need a reminder, post a note on the door, reminding you to “leave no trace.”
We often leave a room messier than when we went in, thinking “I'll tidy up later.” But later may never come. Perhaps eventually, as the mess builds up, we can no longer bear it, and have to tackle it with a cleaning session. Or we take issue at the growing mess another member of our household leaves behind. But if we tidied up after them as we moved through the house, it would be a small matter.
This exercise helps us to notice our tendency to avoid doing certain things, or look the other way. Even the smallest things, that we could easily attend to, but perhaps don't feel motivated to do.
We could pick up the odd bits and pieces of litter that we pass in the street, dropping them in the nearest bin. We could turn around as we get up from the sofa, and straighten and fluff up the cushions. We could wash our cup instead of leaving it in, or by the sink. We could put our work tools away, once done with them, even though we intend to use them again tomorrow.
This simple exercise shines a light on our tendency to be lazy. Unless we live life fully, centred in the moment, in mindful awareness, we often can leave a mess behind us for others to clear up. Even if we wash the dishes, we may not bother to put them away afterwards. Who will do it? When?
This can be reflected in other aspects of our life, skipping meditation, or keeping it brief, not giving our practice the value and time that it needs.
Through this laziness, we are shortchanging ourselves, and others. Let's bring the value back into our lives, through noticing the small things. Through being fully present.
Even after tidying our desk, or cleaning our room, we feel a space open up, inside, not just in the space around us. Clarity arises. Imagine if we could always live in this place of clarity and space? We can. We can do this wherever we go, indoors and outdoors, not just in our own home.
By bringing our attention to the small things in life, the cup, the spoon, the bowl, the pan, the kitchen, we begin to notice the bigger picture. We begin to recognise how these things provide food and shelter for us, how they nurture us. As we bring these small things into focus, we begin to live in gratitude for their presence.
Zen Master Dogen wrote clear ‘instructions for the cook’, for the rice cooks in his monastery:
“Clean the chopsticks, ladles, and all other utensils; handle them with equal care and awareness, putting everything back where it naturally belongs.”
Over time, this practice of leaving no trace will leave it's mark, in your surroundings and in your mind, leaving you feeling lighter, clearer, more spacious. It will benefit yourself and others.
Let the only traces you leave behind be improvements, gifts, and other positive leavings. Let others be blessed to notice your presence. If that is not possible, then let them be blessed to not notice you have been there at all.
Once you have learned the habit of leaving no trace, take it a step further, leave things better than you found them. Zen Master Daizan Roshi, my own Zen teacher, taught me this, and it remains one of his most powerful teachings, evident in his every action.
Be mindfulness. Don't just talk about it.