The soteriology of cleaning

Yes, give the disturbances some patience so that defilements don’t arise. The key is to deal with defilements from within and not hang over things beyond control from the external environment.

This jumped out at me now, from the account of the first council:
https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-kd21/en/brahmali?layout=plain&reference=main&notes=none&highlight=false&script=latin#1.5.1

The senior monks then went to Rājagaha to recite the Teaching and the Monastic Law. They thought, “The Buddha has praised repairing what’s defective and broken. Well then, let’s spend the first month doing repairs, and then gather for the middle month to recite the Teaching and the Monastic Law.”

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I’m not sure that this is the same thing is it? It’s pretty much universally painful not to breath in, but it’s not necessarily painful not to clean ones surroundings (unless one has an obsession about it I guess). Maybe??

Anyway, I do have some sympathy with the “If everything is impermanent, then what’s the point of X?” concept. One of the great things about impermanence is that if you wait patiently enough everything you want either comes to you or it becomes irrelevant - you don’t need to be a “go getter” and “get things done” because that’s not how the world works. The way I see it is that things happen due to various causes and conditions and then we humans claim responsibility (or blame) for them happening, be that breathing or cleaning.

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More appropriately, if we see impermanence in the five clinging aggregates that caused dukkha, what is the point of craving for it?

The teaching is about dukkha and cessation of dukkha.

Things that are impermanent and caused dukkha, work on it. Things that are impermanent but wouldn’t caused dukkha, don’t worry about it.

Focus on the circle that is within your influence.

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