Zen values the simple life

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Zen also values the simple life: Do your daily work without making a big deal of it, dreading it or disliking it. Let your daily work bring you joy. Don't overconsume, but use only what you need. Overconsumption fuels desires, which cause suffering. Live close to the earth and marvel in its beauty. The simplicity movement and the enviromental movement in this country are nicely compatible with these values.

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

What is Zen?

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Zen is the Japanese word for "meditation", not in the sense of the contemplation of something, but as a mode of existing (whether sitting, walking, or otherwise going about your day) without any goal or ulterior motive in what Alan Watts, in his The Way of Zen, calls "unified or one-pointed awareness". Dhyana in Sanskirt and Ch'an in Chinese, the term Zen originated in India (with Buddhhism).

(Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Zen means doing anything perfectly, perfectly

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What is Zen? Zen means doing anything perfectly, making mistakes perfectly, being defeated perfectly, hesitating perfectly, doing anything perfectly or imperfectly, perfectly. What is the meaning of perfectly? How does it differ from perfectly?

Perfectly is in the will; perfectly is in the activity.

Perfectly means that at each moment of the activity there is no egoism in it….Our pain is not only our own pain; it is the pain of the universe. The joy of the universe is also our joy. Our failure and misjudgement is that of nature, which never hopes or despairs, but keeps on trying. ~R.H. Blyth

(from: Gary R. McClain & Eve Adamson, "Complete Idiots Guide to Zen Living")

Zen -- Freedom Of The Mind

What is Zen? One might as well ask: What is life?

And life is to be lived, if possible, at the fullest level -- not made into a matter of theories of living and what not.
Zen shuns abstract explanations, idle philosophical speculations and all kinds of pretensions, for they are far removed from the throb of life.
The bulk of Zen literature, in all of its astonishing variety of forms, deals with nothing but misconceptions about the essence of Zen. The apparent complexity of Zen teaching and function is due to the complexity of human mentality, and Zen is an illustration of "skill in means" in dealing with complex mind.
Its only concern is to help one, through awareness and enlightenment, to realize one's human potential completely -- to flower in goodness as a human being.
Zen masters stressed that the buddhas began as a human beings, that enlightenment is within reach in a single lifetime for those dedicated and diligent enough. "A complete human being is a buddha, a complete buddha is a human being."
Zen lends itself very well to illustration in cartoon form, for Zen has a natural simplicity and a direct and down-to-earth approach to living that is at once refreshing and illuminating.
Zen means to be free -- absolutely -- to be human being, and this is possible only when self-interest has ended and a person is one with the immensity of life.
The mind of modern people may be very advanced technologically, but it remains heavily thought-laden and thus lacking in clarity. To give an illustration of the limitation of living by thought, we feel miserable and have no heart for anything else while grappling with some kind of personal problem which we feel helpless about -- frustration arising from an unfulfilled desire, a relationship gone awry, etc. The Zen way of living would be "no ego, no problem"

(Tsai Chih Chung, "The Book Of Zen Freedom of the Mind", Asiapac Books and Educational Aids (s) Pte Ltd, 1991)

Zen Beyond The Intellect

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A rose may be torn in pieces, and each particle analysed in the laboratory; no scientist will find therein the beauty of the rose.
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It is useless to attempt to drag Zen down to the intellectual plane. The intellect may argue and debate; it may learn and teach a vast amount about almost anything; it can never KNOW.

(Christmas Humphreys, "Zen Buddhism")

What Is Zen?

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A Hindu story tells of a fish who asked of another fish: "I have always heard about the sea, but what is it? Where is it?"

The other fish replied:  "You live, move and have your being the sea. The sea is within you and without you, and you are made of sea, and you will end in sea. The sea surrounds you as your own being."

(From: http://goto.bilkent.edu.tr/gunes/ZEN/zenstories.htm)

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quote:

Zhuang Zi said: "Fishes live in rivers and lakes and are not aware of it. Humans live in the realm of Tao and are oblivious of it". People live in the sea of Zen, yet do not know the nature of Zen.

(Tsai Chih Chung, "The Book of Zen Freedom of The Mind", Asiapac, 1990)