“A day without working is a day without eating.” In Zen practice, we believe in the importance of not thinking about work as labor, and for this reason we call it samu. When Buddhism first originated in India, monks did not engage in any form of productive activity—they lived solely on whatever alms they received. These offerings of food or money became known as samu. However, when Buddhism spread to China, the temples were all built deep in the mountains. The monks were unable to descend from the mountains in order to beg for their keep, and so they began cultivating their own fields and
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