Zen Read online

  ZEN

  The Art of Simple Living

  100 Daily Practices from a Japanese Zen Monk for a Lifetime of Calm and Joy

  SHUNMYŌ MASUNO

  Illustrated by Zanna and Harry Goldhawk

  Translated by Allison Markin Powell

  Contents

  FOREWORD

  Just Subtle Shifts in Your Habits and Perspective

  That’s all you need to live simply

  PART ONE

  30 Ways to Energize Your ‘Present Self’

  Try making a subtle shift in your habits 1. Make time for emptiness

  2. Wake up fifteen minutes earlier

  3. Savour the morning air

  4. Line up your shoes when you take them off

  5. Discard what you don’t need

  6. Organize your desk

  7. Make a delicious cup of coffee

  8. Put pen to paper with care

  9. Try using a loud voice

  10. Do not neglect your meals

  11. When eating, pause after every bite

  12. Discover the benefits of a vegetable-centric diet

  13. Seek out your favourite words

  14. Pare down your belongings

  15. Arrange your room simply

  16. Try going barefoot

  17. Exhale deeply

  18. Sit zazen

  19. Try a standing practice

  20. Seek out the sunset

  21. Don’t waste time worrying about things you cannot control

  22. Become adept at switching modes

  23. Breathe slowly

  24. Don’t think of unpleasant things right before bed

  25. Join your hands together

  26. Make time to be alone

  27. Create a small garden on your balcony

  28. Get in touch with nature

  29. Don’t put off what you can do today

  30. Try your best to do what you can now

  PART TWO

  30 Ways to Inspire Confidence and Courage for Living

  Try changing your perspective 31. Discover another you

  32. Don’t be troubled by things that have not yet happened

  33. Take pleasure in your work

  34. Do not feel put out by the tasks before you

  35. Don’t blame others

  36. Simply immerse yourself

  37. Don’t compare yourself to others

  38. Seek not what you lack

  39. Every so often, try to stop thinking

  40. Try attending a zazen sitting

  41. Plant a single flower

  42. Make distinctions

  43. Make a proper start

  44. Cherish your own self

  45. Think simple

  46. Do not fear change

  47. Feel instead of think

  48. Notice changes

  49. Don’t let things go to waste

  50. Think with your own head

  51. Don’t be bound by a single perspective

  52. Believe in yourself

  53. Instead of worrying, get moving

  54. Get active

  55. Maintain a supple mind

  56. Wait for the right opportunity

  57. Appreciate your connection with things

  58. Try just sitting quietly in nature

  59. Try clearing your head

  60. Enjoy a Zen garden

  PART THREE

  20 Ways to Alleviate Confusion and Worry

  Try changing how you interact with others 61. Serve people

  62. Cast away the ‘three poisons’

  63. Cultivate your sense of gratitude

  64. Demonstrate, rather than assert, how you feel

  65. Express your mind, but not in words

  66. Focus on others’ merits

  67. Deepen your connection with someone

  68. Fine-tune your timing

  69. Don’t fixate on right and wrong

  70. Give up the need to be liked by everyone

  71. See things for what they are

  72. Skilfully detach

  73. Do not get caught up with mere words

  74. Do not think in terms of loss and gain

  75. Do not be swayed by the opinions of others

  76. Have faith

  77. Have a conversation with a garden

  78. Find occasions to get together with family

  79. Make someone happy

  80. Appreciate all the people who came before you

  PART FOUR

  20 Ways to Make Any Day the Best Day

  Try shifting your attention to the present moment 81. Be here now

  82. Be grateful for every day, even the most ordinary

  83. Recognize that you are protected

  84. Be positive

  85. Do not covet

  86. Accept reality for what it is

  87. There is not just one answer

  88. There is not just one way, either

  89. Don’t be a show-off

  90. Do not divide things into good and bad

  91. Believe in yourself, especially when you feel anxious

  92. Notice the changes of the season

  93. Try taking care of something

  94. Free yourself from money

  95. Listen for the voice of your true self

  96. Cherish being alive, every single day

  97. Make every preparation

  98. Contemplate how to die

  99. Put your everything into the here and now

  100. Make the most of life

  About the Author

  Shunmyō Masuno is the head priest of a 450-year-old Zen Buddhist temple in Japan, an award-winning Zen garden designer for clients all over the world and a professor of environmental design at one of Japan's leading art schools. He has lectured widely around the world.

  foreword

  JUST SUBTLE SHIFTS IN YOUR HABITS AND PERSPECTIVE

  THAT’S ALL YOU NEED TO LIVE SIMPLY

  You visit a temple or shrine in an ancient city, and look out at the tranquil gardens.

  You break into a sweat climbing a mountain, and enjoy the sweeping vista from the summit.

  You stand before a crystal-blue sea, and just stare out at the horizon.

  Have you experienced this sense of being refreshed, in such extraordinary moments when you are removed from the hustle and bustle of everyday life?

  Your heart feels lighter, and a warm energy surges through your body. The worries and stresses of daily life vanish for an instant, and you can just feel yourself, alive in this moment.

  Nowadays, many people have lost their footing – they are worried and confused about how to live their lives. That is why they seek out the extraordinary, in an attempt to reset their mental balance.

  But. Still.

  Even once you have pushed reset, the extraordinary remains outside of the everyday.

  When you return to your regular life, stress accumulates and the mind frays. Feeling burdened, again you seek out the extraordinary. Does this never-ending cycle sound familiar?

  No matter how much you lament the complexities of life, changing the world is no simple task.

  If the world is not going the way you want it to, perhaps it is better to change yourself.

  Then, whatever world you encounter, you can move through it comfortably and with ease.

  Instead of going out of your way to seek the extraordinary, what if you could live in a more carefree way, just by subtly changing your regular everyday life?

  This book is about just that: simple living, Zen style.

  Changing your lifestyle doesn’t need to be difficult.

  Slight changes in your habits. A subtle shift in your perspective.

  You don’t need to go to the ancient Japanese capitals of Kyoto or Nara; you don
’t need to climb Mount Fuji; and you don’t need to live near the ocean. With really only minor effort, it is possible to savour the extraordinary.

  In this book, I will show you how to do so, with the help of Zen.

  Zen is based on teachings that are fundamentally about how humans can live in the world.

  In other words, Zen is about habits, ideas and hints for living a happy life. A treasure trove, if you will, of deep yet simple life wisdom.

  Zen teaching is represented by a series of four phrases, which mean, essentially: ‘Spiritual awakening is transmitted outside of the sutras, and cannot be experienced through words or letters; Zen points directly to the human mind, and enables you to perceive your true nature and attain Buddhahood.’ Rather than be fixated on the written or spoken word, we should encounter our essential selves as they exist in the here and now.

  Try not to be swayed by the values of others, not to be troubled by unnecessary concerns, but to live an infinitely simple life, stripped of wasteful things. That is ‘Zen style’.

  Once you adopt these habits – which I promise are simple – your worries will disappear.

  Once you develop this simple practice, life becomes so much more relaxed.

  It is precisely because of how complex the world is that Zen offers these hints for living.

  Nowadays, Zen is receiving more and more attention, not only in Japan but abroad as well.

  I serve as the head priest of a Zen temple, and I also work as a Zen garden designer – not just for Zen temples but also for hotels and foreign embassies and such. Zen gardens are not just for Japanese people – they transcend religion and nationality and can capture the hearts of Westerners as well.

  Rather than frowning at the idea of Zen, try simply standing before one of these gardens. It can refresh your mind and spirit. The chatter and ripples in your mind suddenly grow silent and still.

  I find that encountering a Zen garden can convey far more about Zen concepts than reading any number of texts explaining the philosophy.

  That is why I have chosen to make this book practical. Instead of merely understanding Zen intellectually, I hope you will adopt the book’s practices as your own sort of training.

  Keep this book by your side, and whenever anxiety or worries rear their head, turn to these pages.

  The answers you seek are within.

  Gasshō

  SHUNMYŌ MASUNO

  part one30 Ways to Energize Your ‘Present Self’

  Try making a subtle shift in your habits

  1. Make Time For Emptiness

  First, observe yourself

  Be with yourself as you are, but without haste, without impatience

  In our everyday lives, do any of us have time to think about nothing?

  I imagine most people would say, ‘I don’t have a moment to spare for that.’

  We’re pressed for time, pressured by work and everything else in our lives. Modern life is busier than ever. All day, every day, we try our best just to do what has to get done.

  If we immerse ourselves in this kind of routine, unconsciously but inevitably we lose sight of our true selves, and of true happiness.

  Any given day, a mere ten minutes is all you need. Try making time for emptiness, for not thinking about anything.

  Just try clearing your mind, and not being caught up in the things around you.

  Various thoughts will float up in your mind, but try to send them away, one by one. When you do so, you will begin to notice the present moment, the subtle shifts in nature that are keeping you alive. When you are not distracted by other things, your pure and honest self can be revealed.

  Making time for not thinking about anything – that is the first step towards creating a simple life.

  2. Wake Up Fifteen Minutes Earlier

  The prescription for when there is no room in your heart

  How being busy makes you lose heart

  When we are short on time, this scarcity extends to our heart as well. We automatically say, ‘I’m busy – I don’t have time.’ When we feel this way, our mind becomes even more hectic.

  But are we really so busy? Aren’t we the ones who are pushing ourselves to hurry?

  In Japanese, the character for ‘busy’ is written with the symbols for ‘lose’ and ‘heart’.

  It’s not that we are busy because there isn’t enough time.

  We are busy because there is no room in our heart.

  Especially when things are hectic, try waking up fifteen minutes earlier than usual. Lengthen your spine, and take slow breaths from the point below your navel – the spot we refer to as the tanden. Once your breathing is in order, your mind will naturally settle into stillness as well.

  Then, while you enjoy a cup of tea or coffee, look out the window at the sky. Try to listen for the warbling of little birds.

  How peculiar – just like that, you create space in your mind.

  Waking up fifteen minutes earlier magically liberates you from busyness.

  3. Savour The Morning Air

  The monk’s secret to a long life is found here

  Each day is not the same

  It is said that Buddhist monks who practise Zen live long lives.

  Of course, diet and breathing techniques are contributing factors, but I believe that a regular and orderly lifestyle exerts a positive influence, both spiritually and physically.

  I rise each morning at 5 a.m., and the first thing I do is fill my lungs with the morning air. As I walk around the temple’s main hall, reception hall and priests’ quarters, opening the rain shutters, my body experiences the changes of the seasons. At 6.30 a.m. I perform the Buddhist liturgy by chanting scripture, and then I have breakfast. What follows is whatever the business of that particular day is.

  The same process repeats itself every day, but each day is not the same. The taste of the morning air, the moment when the morning sunlight arrives, the touch of the breeze on your cheek, the colour of the sky and of the leaves on the trees – everything is constantly shifting. Morning is the time when you can thoroughly experience these changes.

  This is why monks perform zazen meditation before dawn, in order to physically experience these changes in nature.

  With the first zazen practice of the day, kyoten zazen – morning zazen – we nourish our mind and body by breathing in the beautiful morning air.

  4. Line Up Your Shoes When You Take Them Off

  This will beautify your life

  Disorder in your mind shows in your feet

  It has long been said that you can tell a lot about a household by looking at its entrance hall, especially in Japanese homes, where we remove our shoes upon entering. If the footwear is perfectly lined up, or if it is all in a jumble … you can know the state of mind of those who live there by just this one detail.

  In Zen Buddhism we have a saying that means ‘Look carefully at what is under your own feet.’ It has a literal meaning, but it also suggests that those who do not pay attention to their foot- steps cannot know themselves, and cannot know where their life is going. This may sound like an exaggeration, but such a small thing really can have a tremendous influence on the way you live.

  When you come home, take off your shoes and line them up neatly by the front door. Just this one thing. It takes only seconds.

  Yet by cultivating this habit, everything about your life will be inexplicably sharper and more orderly. It will beautify your life. This is human nature.

  First, try turning your attention to your feet.

  By lining up your shoes, you are taking the next step towards where you are going.

  5. Discard What You Don’t Need

  It will refresh your mind

  Part with old things before acquiring new ones

  When things aren’t going well, we tend to think we are lacking in something. But if we want to change our current situation, we should first part with something before we look to acquire something else. This is a fundamental tenet of simple liv
ing.

  Discard your attachments. Let go of your assumptions. Reduce your possessions. Living simply is also about discarding your physical and mental burdens.

  It’s amazing how refreshed we can feel after a good cry. Crying clears out whatever weight you were carrying in your heart. You feel energized to try again. I have always felt that the Buddhist concept of the ‘enlightened mind’ – the Japanese characters for which depict a ‘clean mind’ – refers to this ‘refreshment’ of the spirit.

  The act of discarding, of detaching from mental and physical burdens, from the baggage that weighs us down, is extremely difficult. Sometimes it can be accompanied by real pain, as when we part with someone who is dear to us.

  But if you want to improve the way things are, if you want to live with a light heart, you must start by discarding. The moment you detach, a new abundance will flow into your life.

  6. Organize Your Desk

  Cleaning hones the mind

  Your desk is a mirror that reflects your inner mind

  Take a look at the desks around you at the office. The people who always have tidy desks are most likely good at their jobs. In contrast, those whose desks are always cluttered may be unsettled and have trouble focusing on their work.

  When things get out of order, straighten them out. When things get messy, clean them up. Before you finish work for the day, tidy up and straighten out your desk. People who are in the habit of doing so feel more clear-headed. They are able to focus one hundred per cent, without distraction, on their work.

  In Zen temples, monks do cleaning every morning and every evening. We clean with all our heart, though not because the temple is dirty. The purpose is not only to make the temple sparkle, but also to polish our minds through the act of cleaning.