Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks [Paperback]

Gary Thorp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 11, 2001

Your home is an extension of yourself; therefore, when your home is in turmoil, your life is in turmoil. However, when you attend to your home, you begin to feel less hurried and more in tune with the world around you. There is delight and calm to be found in the midst of washing dishes or changing the water in a vase of flowers; there is pleasure to be experienced in the repetitions of daily life.

In Sweeping Changes, Gary Thorp shows how the principles of Zen can bring harmony and peace to your life at home. You don’t need special surroundings or to sit quietly in a formal posture to achieve the tranquillity of Zen; you can find it anywhere–in the action of dusting a shelf, organizing your closet, or feeding your cat. As Thorp conveys in sparkling prose, many everyday activities provide an opportunity for Zen practice, satisfaction, and spiritual growth. Whether you live in a small room, an apartment, or a palace, this delightful, insightful book will not only change your feelings toward housekeeping, it will help you see your home, and your place in it, in a new and nurturing light.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This delightful, offbeat book is at once a pragmatic primer on housekeeping and an aesthetic treatise on the mindfulness of Zen practice. Thorp, a lay monk and laid-back Californian who has studied Zen for 40 years, emphasizes the intent surrounding each housekeeping activity, not the end result of cleanliness. Lawns should be mindfully mowed "with every fiber of your being"; dishes should be washed with particular, single-minded care. "Your life and all that's in it are simply on loan to you and are clearly precarious," cautions Thorp, encouraging readers to use certain chores (raking dead leaves, recycling and mending clothes, for example) as occasions to reflect on the transience of life. He also notes that housekeeping can provide opportunities to feel gratitude for the interconnectedness of all things: the water flowing from the river through the treatment plant to the sink sustains life in the home; clean windows allow for greater openness to the outdoors. Thorp brilliantly uses the quotidian nature of oft-despised chores to teach important lessons about perpetual respectfulness and appreciation. This book can serve as an excellent introduction to an accessible, independent Zen practice, or simply as a gentle reminder of the innate spirituality buried in everyday acts. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Writer and research scientist Thorp!s lighthearted book has a curiously familiar feel, as though it must have existed in the collective imagination before he wrote it. Yet it is authentically his own, this series of thoughtful essays on the use of the ordinary tasks of pet care, dish cleaning, and other daily household chores to facilitate a Zen Buddhist approach to life. Thorp!s book is amusing, engaging, truly enlightened, and enlightening. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 159 pages
• Publisher: Broadway Books; 1st edition (September 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767907736
• ISBN-13: 978-0767907736
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,049,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Reminder of How Joyful Routine Tasks Can Be, March 28, 2000

By 

Stephanie Budros (Central California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks (Hardcover)

Mr. Thorp's deceptively small book is packed with wisdom, clarity, and humor. The book speaks to mundane tasks in every day living: Sweeping, washing dishes, and various other chores both in and outside of one's dwelling. Taking what would seem to make for a boring book topic (namely housework), Thorp explains and demonstrates what he refers to as the state of mindfulness. This zen-based approach to moving through the business of life's details is a challenging concept initially. Satisfaction in doing the many little things that are a part one's daily regimen seems foreign to most of us; it certainly was to me. The writer allows the reader to see things through a different lens, with a new perspective and a fresh perception. After reading Sweeping Changes, I felt an acute awareness and appreciation for the world literally at my fingertips, and a more positive feeling about myself and about the little things I do that mean a lot. I now feel mindful of the things I touch and of the things I do, and I feel a new appreciation for myself and how I am connected to all things. Finally, I do, at least for the time being, experience a real joy in doing things that I formerly would have considered dull. I look forward to Mr. Thorp's next work.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A joy to read and think about, December 6, 2000

By 

atmj (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks (Hardcover)

When I received this book the rougher edged pages made it intriguing to handle. In a way this prepares you for the message of the book. It is the little things that form us as well.

Upon reading the first section of the first chapter, a mere page or two, I knew this book was going to be a treat. It frames for you a single thought or consideration about the world around you. This I found well worth using the rest of the day to ponder.

I deliberately then read only one section each day. Sadly after 39 days of having this book as my daily companion, I have finished reading it.

It was shear joy, as this book illuminates your own life, your common everyday occurances and helps you see how each contributes to the whole. I plan to read this over and over again. This has given me an inside to Zen, that I would not have oridinarily had. With the bibliography in the back of the book I'm encouraged to read more.

Also, as not to miss the point of the name "Sweeping changes" it gives a much more satisfying view on housework. It brings it more into an overall perspective. You are caring for the things that help support you. It is a synergistic relationship.

Fantastic book

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of wisdom that is actually useful, May 21, 2003

By 

MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks (Paperback)

Maybe it is a California thing but as a native, I think the term Zen gets overused. The author notes on page 2 "Zen is the Japanese word for "meditation," and while this is usually understood as sitting quietly in a formal posture, it can also be applied to the everyday movements of daily activity."

I am neither Zen or Buddhist in the purest form of the word. But I bought the book because I have been involved in simple living for almost two decades and I am always interested in how different people approach simplicity and quietness in everyday life.

So what value did I find in this book? Well, for starters its nice to see the everyday tasks that must be done, elevated to a higher or revered level. I have always believed that preparing food or making a house a home and feeding the bodies as well as the mind of the ones around us is something very spiritual or even holy. That bring order from chaos is wonderful. And seeing smile and laughter and contentment from daily tasks is a sure sign of enlightenment.

There are so many gems in this books from pots and pans to where one sleeps, to the colours that surround us and how that effects us, to simple things like learning that in Japan that when a precious tea container is broken it is not only mended but gold leafed so that the repair is shown as a continuance of the life of the item. Whereas here in America when something is broken it usually gets tossed out and a new replacement is sought.