If you like this article, you’ll love my new book,
Half Asleep in the Buddha Hall,
a guide to using Zen principles to re-create your life.
1. one thing at a time
Multitasking is impossible. Watch yourself when you attempt it. What you are actually doing is turning your attention from one thing to another, to another, rapidly. And, because changing your focus takes energy, nothing gets your full attention.
Experiment: watch your favourite tv show and have a conversation at the same time.
Zen living: Do one thing at a time. Full focus, to a pre-determined point of completion. Big projects require that you break them into bite-sized pieces, and finish a segment. Then shift attention. For most things, ‘chop wood, carry water.’ Do the task at hand with full attention.
2. speak for yourself
The only authentic pronoun is ‘I.’ All I can reliably talk about is what I am thinking, feeling, and doing.
Example: think about something you might consider a ‘we’ thing. “We’re going to play ball.” Well, maybe a bunch of people are each, individually, playing ball, but there is no ‘we,’ period. Nor can you say anything reliably about another person. “I know what you are thinking,” is impossible. I only, at best, am aware that I think I know what you are thinking.
Zen living: Speak only for yourself, by using “I think…”, “I imagine…”, “The story I’m telling myself…”, etc. Own your experience, and share it, as it’s all you can ever know.
For more hints on how to have an excellent relationship, read this article!
3. choose
You may be able to play around in your head, and come up with millions of options, but (see point 1) you can never enact more than one thing at once. Thus, creating a million options is enacting a single thing - the act of imagining many options. Therefore, choosing to think of options as opposed to picking one and doing it is a choice.
Experiment: See if you can find anything you do (think, feel, interpret, etc.) that you are not freely choosing. Once you get this, you’ll quickly stop messing with yourself, and ‘simply choose.’
Zen living: choose one thing, commit to it, and see it through. If you do not like the result (this is important!) choose something else, and try that. Stop doing what does not work!
4. Be grateful
Everything is One, and everything is connected. Nothing exists as a singularity, on its own, apart from something else, and everything comes from something else.
Experiment: Think about the stuff around you, and see connections. For example, I’m presently eating a salad with tuna fish. Apart from Dar, who made the salad for me, imagine the countless people involved in making that salad possible — farmers, fishers, packers, pickers, etc.
Zen living: Be grateful. You wouldn’t last long if not for the people and ‘stuff’ that surrounds you — the air, water, land, etc. Call this to mind as you engage with the stuff of life, say ‘thanks,’ and really mean it.
This article is exclusive, use Cleeng to view it in full.
Like this article so far?? Read the rest for 99 cents, and gain some karma points!
Incoming search terms:
- zen living
- living zen
- Zen examples
- zen simple living
- zen coding examples
- zen living now
- zenliving
- living in the moment zen
- what is zen living
- simple zen living
- living in zen
- examples of zen
- examples of living in the moment
- zen living in the now
- living by zen
- simple living zen
- how to live in the now zen
- zen coding example
- intitle:zen living
- zenliving com
- zen daily living
- zen living simply
- zen living in the moment
- zen living blog
- zen living in the present
- living with zen
- zen is about living in the present
- zen coding sample
- zen in everyday living
- quick zen meditation
Related posts:
- Celebrate Your Life
- Non-Habitual Living and Being
- Learning and Living Zen
- 5 Key Concepts for Zen Living
- Dalai Lama’s 18 rules for living
Tagged with: Buddhism • enlightenment • showing-up-for-your-life • Zen Approaches
wayne,
Great article. In my Spiritual search I have come across many people and TejGuru Tej parkhiji has made it simple and all that is necessary is to listen to the truth and it has the ability to transform. He gets the people to experience the state and gives the understanding through that experience. All spiritual trainings are imparted free of Charge in Pune, India. He has wriiten quite a few books and some have been translated into English. Please see http://www.tejgyan.com and based on the lectures I have heard and the experience I had Tejparkhiji lives in that space where there is no ego. His lectures are also full of Humor and he makes people laugh along with him while giving this great understanding.
–Ganesh
Hi Ganesh,
Glad you liked the article, and thanks for the link. I had a look at the site and found much of interest. I’ll be returning to have another look.
I appreciate your willingness to share this with us!
Warmly, Wayne
[…] C. Allen presents 10 Quick Examples of Zen Living posted at The Phoenix Centre Blog, saying, “10 simple ideas for active Zen Living. Being […]
[…] Zen is an ancient term that has become commonplace in Western society these days — it’s something we all strive for in our busy lives but few actually find. But have you ever wondered how you can incorporate Zen principles into your everyday life? The Phoenix Center Blog has some suggestions: […]
I am focusing on doing one thing at a time for the new year. Mindfulness is also something that I am working on continually.
Yes, one thing and one thing. Makes one appreciative of the moment and the “other.“
Mindfulness is what happens when we stop working and simply be!
[…] Today’s article seemed to ‘want’ a few concrete examples. I decided to publish them separately. Introduction:The Principal Paradox […]
[…] If you liked this article, here’s another on Zen Living! […]
Thank you so much. I was a big time christian mostly because i was brought up these way and I had been feeling hollow. Lying to my family that I truly in my soul did not want to be a christian. Recently I told my family my secret and as I feared I was and am being treated differently. I was hopeless and lost till I read what you have written. Reading this I understood that I am truthfully the only one that can make myself happy. Thank you so much you have given me a light to look at in my deepest sorrow. Thank you so much, Diana M.
Hi Diana,
Yes, there are times when being honest can hurt, and the key is to know when being honest hurts less than telling the truth as you know it.
Ultimately, as you’ve discovered, the only way to find ourselves is to be willing to look deeply, and accept ourselves as we are. From there, anything is possible. But the raw material we work with is always “us.“
Keep going, keep exploring. And as questions arise, feel free to drop me an e-mail.
Simplicity, I love it!
Yeah, me too — and I’m amazed at how often I forget!
[…] Now I need to figure out truly embracing the moment. How many of you are in the moment? Men are able to pull out a “nothing box” so I have heard and go into their “man cave.” Is that similar to clearing the mind and being in the moment? 10 Quick Examples of Zen Living […]
Great list. I like the inclusion of “speak for yourself.” So often, in meditation practice, I feel I need to detach from the self, the I, all my stories (which is good too), but that means I forget to own and live my own experience. Thanks.
There’s something empowering about speaking from where you are, without the “Background stories / chatter.” Good for all of us to remember!