Zen Wisdom for Daily Life
How practical is your philosophy of life? The Zen Master D.T. Suzuki wrote that there is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. When it comes to Zen — the whole point is to be practical.
In his Introduction to Zen Buddhism, Suzuki explained,
Being practical and directly to the point, Zen never wastes time or words in explanation. Its answers are always curt and pithy; there is nothing added in Zen.
Zen teachings are presented from the accessible, familiar, and approachable side. Life is practical by nature and the basis of all things; apart from it, nothing can stand. Despite Zen philosophy's grand and enhancing ideas, we cannot escape life as we live it. Suzuki observed,
“Star-gazers are still walking on the solid earth.”
Does your philosophy of life help you to see things as they really are? As Suzuki said, “Taking it all in all, Zen is emphatically a matter of personal experience; if anything can be called radically empirical — it is Zen.”
In the classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki wrote,
The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes… Zen practice is to open up our small mind.
No amount of reading, teaching, or contemplation will make one a Zen master. Practical wisdom leads us to experience the only time — the here and now. In the Way of Zen, Alan Watts put it this way: If we open our eyes and see clearly, we discover there is no other time than this instant and that the past and the future are abstractions without concrete reality.
What could be more practical than that?
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Thank you for listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. If you’re interested in learning more, sign up for Reading and the Good Life. It’s a free weekly meetup (Fridays at 12:00 pm EST) designed to offer space for connection, contemplation, and conversations on the art of living.
Zen Wisdom for Daily Life