Channeling Into Good Work

     I believe that it's possible to take any energy and channel it into what you are presently doing. How is it possible, though? It seems that even in the most tranquil work environments, there is the push and pull of desires: wanting things to be accomplished in a certain fixed period of time, wanting to complete a project so that I can move onto another one, wanting to go into a pleasant thought, etc. So what is the trick to being present with everything one is doing?
    If I reflect on how my mind works even in the context of this writing, I realize that it starts by knowing every action is part of the true mind. If it is true that everything is true mind, there is no point in jumping over to do something more desirable. I think the first insight is to realize that no matter what I write, it comes from the true mind, which already has everything, and is everything. Of course, in daily life, one still needs to converse and narrow focus to specific things, to accomplish certain goals. However, the point is to see that the goal is already contained in the doing, and therefore to rest the mind and heart in the doing itself. This is quite different from the attitude of having a certain goal in mind and then moving toward that goal. In the latter case the motivation is to actually finish or end a process as quickly as possible. It's no wonder that people find certain kinds of work intolerable, because they are always working to 'end' work. It's as though the real value of work is that one does not ever have to see the work again after it's 'done'. I recall one co-worker who used to joke, "I wish I could just finish this work in the wave of a magic wand". But again, the very fact that we refer to work as 'finished' and 'unfinished' reflects how far the culture values ends over means, often at the cost of present engagement in work.
     I think that once a person can realize that mind is in every moment, a kind of trust arises from that, which assures continuity. I may not know when a job is thoroughly finished or be able to quantify how much attention I should put to it, but I trust my integral connection with the work itself, at least enough to know that it will get done using the best of my resources. Trust also comes from a growing confidence that the present moment already contains the seeds of totality. One can find interest in any book on any subject, as long as one sees the book not as an external object, but as an engagement with mind. Think about it this way: if I am only looking to finish a book without involving my mind in it's language, the book only becomes a kind of physical enjoyment, like the enjoyment of 'finishing' putting the book away on a shelf. But when I know that this book is already mind, I can mine it for the treasures that I already possess.
    Finally, I think that good work consists of being able to embrace what we would normally think to be negative states of work, such as 'being stuck' or 'being bored'. Any state of being is already mind, so one works with those states just as she or he would travel on a road. While the path might vary between bumpy and smooth, the driver must learn to trust that each part of the road is part of the same overall path. In this way, there is no need to rush, to say anything particularly profound or even to differentiate different parts of the road. Even the negative states are part of mind, so we needn't shy away from what is already ours. In this sense, any kind of work, no matter how seemingly mundane, can be seen as part of the mind's miraculous working.