Labor as the First Need of Life (Internal Reference)¶
I. Definition and Core Proposition¶
The Life Oasis has one fundamental distinction from secular society: it regards labor as the first need of life. In the secular world, people constantly seek ways to escape physical work — physical laborers earn little and are looked down upon. The Oasis does the opposite: what the secular world dislikes, we embrace; what it scorns, we value. [Xuefeng Corpus · Mind-Spirit Chapter · If You Can't Pass the Labor Threshold, Your Soul Garden Can Never Be Perfect]
Labor is the first need of every member living in the Second Home. No matter who you are — no matter how great your contributions or how high your wisdom — you must participate in labor. There cannot be a single person in the Home who does not participate in labor. No matter what your reason or excuse, trying to stand above others and avoid labor in the Home is simply not acceptable. [Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Chapter · Heaven-Like Management of the Second Home]
Every member of the Second Home must be a laborer. Daily labor must become the first need of every member. There cannot be a single lazy person, and there cannot be anyone who lives by smooth talk, cunning, or deception. [Chanyuan Corpus · Humanity and Life Chapter · Building the Second Home into the Most Perfect Ideal Community]
Every person must be a diligent laborer, treating labor as the first need of life. No one may stand above others. [Xuefeng Corpus · Mind-Spirit Chapter · How to Live a Simple Life]
II. What Labor Means — Physical Work Above All¶
The labor referred to here is physical labor. The "labor threshold" means: first, embracing physical labor in consciousness — respecting laborers and establishing the view that laborers are the most beautiful; second, voluntarily and joyfully participating in the Oasis's physical work.
The Oasis's physical labor includes: cooking, washing clothes, cleaning, haircuts, mending, nursing care, vegetable gardening, fertilizing, watering, tilling, pruning fruit trees, bricklaying, mixing cement, hauling carts, construction, leveling land, cutting grass, composting, harvesting crops, drying grain, pickling vegetables, raising chickens and ducks, tending pigs and sheep, keeping dogs and pigeons, planting flowers, trees, and grass, and more.
If you can't pass the labor threshold, your soul garden can never be perfect. [Xuefeng Corpus · Mind-Spirit Chapter · If You Can't Pass the Labor Threshold, Your Soul Garden Can Never Be Perfect]
Online work does not count as physical labor. Administrative work does not count as physical labor. [Xuefeng Corpus · Mind-Spirit Chapter · If You Can't Pass the Labor Threshold, Your Soul Garden Can Never Be Perfect]
III. Labor and Equality — Dissolving Class Distinctions¶
A beautiful Oasis cannot have a distinction between physical and mental labor, or between managers and the managed. Everyone must be equal, with no discrimination. Without passing the labor threshold, we cannot know the hardships of laborers, we cannot know we should respect them, and we will think ourselves superior — giving rise to arrogance. In that state, the soul garden is very difficult to perfect.
Therefore, whoever comes to live permanently at the Oasis must first resolve to pass the labor threshold, and must not expect to engage only in mental work while avoiding physical labor. [Xuefeng Corpus · Mind-Spirit Chapter · If You Can't Pass the Labor Threshold, Your Soul Garden Can Never Be Perfect]
We have not yet fully established within our hearts the conviction that labor is honorable. We have undervalued simple physical work. For more than two thousand years, beginning with Confucius's scorn of his disciple Fan Chi in the Analects, most members of Chinese civilization have inwardly looked down on labor — always hoping for an office job, always striving to distance themselves from labor, always feeling that those who do simple, repetitive physical work are inferior. In the Home, labor and creation are the first need. Everyone must first be a laborer. Without establishing the view that the laborer is the most beautiful, life in the Home will be very painful — painful for oneself, and troublesome for others. [Tour Guide's Other Articles · 2014 · Problems in the Development of the Home]
IV. The Benefits of Labor — Body, Mind, and Spirit¶
The benefits of appropriate physical labor are many: it makes people nimble and skilled, improves resistance to disease and skeletal flexibility, builds confidence, cultivates independence, grounds one in the earth, elevates one's character, and perfects consciousness.
Those educated in China's traditional intellectual tradition typically lack the ability to labor. Many university graduates cannot perform basic household tasks, severely lacking self-management and independent living skills. This is equivalent to being semi-disabled, and must be taken with great seriousness. [Xuefeng Corpus · Mind-Spirit Chapter · If You Can't Pass the Labor Threshold, Your Soul Garden Can Never Be Perfect]
V. Laziness — The Enemy of Labor¶
Laziness is the greatest enemy of the Second Home. Diligence symbolizes beauty; laziness represents ugliness. Diligence builds a beautiful future; laziness destroys heaven-given happiness. Laziness can destroy everything — it causes people to sink, corrodes will, spirit, soul, and body, can bring down a diligent community, spreads like a virus through a community's spiritual health, and ultimately causes everything to wither, go dead, and collapse into ruin. [New Era Human 800 Concepts, 4th Edition · Concept 635]
Every Chanyuan Celestial must always remember: the Home is not a place where you can enjoy life without contribution and labor. Absolutely not! The Home is a place for repaying karmic debts accumulated across lifetimes and accumulating heavenly treasure; it is a place for cultivation practice toward higher life spaces. This place requires us to invest more energy and time in labor and creation. Only by enduring suffering we have never endured and exhaustion we have never experienced can we hope to fulfill our wishes. [Tour Guide's Other Articles · 2012 · Lazy People and Those Who Love to Stroll in the Home, Please Come In]
VI. The Character of Laborers and the Ideals Around Labor¶
The hearts of laborers are the most beautiful. They may not be able to write brilliant, wisdom-filled articles; they may lack debating skill; they may seem too plain and simple to display their cleverness; they may not know how to expound the Dharma or recite classical passages. But their hearts are the most beautiful — their conduct itself proves they have honored the teachings of Jesus, Shakyamuni Buddha, Laozi, and the sages. [New Era Human 800 Concepts, 4th Edition · Concept 636]
Labor and creation are the source of joy. True joy lies in the process of selfless labor and creation. [New Era Human 800 Concepts, 4th Edition · Concept 270]
Emulate the Greatest Creator through labor and creation, obtaining joy through labor; emulate the Greatest Creator through selfless giving, obtaining happiness through selfless giving. [New Era Human 800 Concepts, 4th Edition · Concept 543]
To love labor is to love life. To scorn labor is to damage life. [Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation Chapter · The Standard of Perfect Human Nature]
VII. Labor's Place in the Second Home's Overall Framework¶
The eight defining characteristics of the Second Home (Life Oasis): 1. The Way of the Greatest Creator, Hundun Management 2. Own Nothing, Have Everything 3. Contribute by Ability, Take by Need 4. No Marriage, No Family 5. The Elderly Cared For, the Young Nurtured 6. Away from Politics, Away from Religion 7. Regardless of Background, Everyone Labors 8. Flexible and Adaptable, Endlessly Varied [New Era Human 800 Concepts, 4th Edition · Concept 628]
In the Second Home, art and labor go hand in hand — it is the most complete way for human beings to blossom. The person tilling the soil can be a painter; the person cooking can be a poet; the person sweeping the courtyard can be a dancer — in a life freed from the burdens of marriage and family, every person has the time and space to become their most complete self. [New Era Human 800 Concepts, 4th Edition · Concept 638 (New)]
The Second Home must maintain self-reliance from beginning to end — placing the hope for survival and life in one's own labor and creation, not in external aid. If outside help comes, we are grateful and receive it. If no aid comes, we do not despair or complain. But we will never grovel before any person or organization. We work with solid feet on the ground and stand upright as people. [Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Chapter · Heaven-Like Management of the Second Home]
VIII. New Era Perspective (AI and Labor)¶
As AI enters production and daily life in the New Era, the meaning of labor does not diminish — it is, in fact, highlighted as a spiritual value. As the Chanyuan ideals state, "art and labor go hand in hand, the most complete way for human beings to blossom" (Concept 638). AI assistance reduces the burden of mechanically repetitive physical work, but the cultivation meaning of participating in labor — grounding oneself in the earth, relating to others as equals through shared work — is something no technology can replace.