Zen is a philosophy of life based on the value of small things. Knowing how to be in the present and listen to intuition are some of its essential values. The immediacy, the spontaneous, the simple… are aspects of life that often slip through our fingers. The scattered and accelerated mind loses us. To avoid this, Zen works in disciplined meditation. From meditative practice, we learn to focus on the essential and obvious.
Beyond the internal monologue and the chatter of the mind, there is a space of silence where reality can be perceived in a purer way. We neither project ourselves into the anxiety of the future, nor do we lose ourselves in the melancholy of the past. It’s about being in the most refined present, without adding anything. Do not interpret, conspire or fabricate. Pay attention to the essentials. As one of the most popular Zen aphorisms, attributed to D. T. Suzuki, one of its best disseminators, says, “this is what it is.” Nothing more, but it is so difficult for us to have that neutral look at reality.
Living in Zen is not easy. It involves discipline to meditate every day, in minimum thirty-minute sessions. It can be when you wake up, in the first hours of the day or at the end of the day. Meditate in silence, in a comfortable posture and with your gaze fixed on one point. There are two main schools in Zen: soto and rinzai. The first is more austere and meditates facing the wall. The second, the gaze is fixed on the ground. It is about entering silent learning to perceive reality as it is. Practice can give small moments of lucidity called satori. We do not seek enlightenment. Simply see what happens in a simpler and more direct way.
The way of Zen also takes into account the importance of the space we inhabit. All its aesthetics and architecture are based on minimalism. Just as we empty the mind of thoughts, we do it with the rooms. Minimal decoration in search of the diaphanous. Simplify and enjoy the void.
As a discipline linked to Buddhism, detachment is valued, getting away from the egomaniacal and narcissistic character so, in life, one can be happy with very little. We are not facing a philosophy of having but of being. As the beautiful film Perfect Days (W. Wenders, 2023) shows, one can dedicate one’s daily life and be happy. Bliss is not in money or the position one holds, but in living in peace. Small pleasures like contemplating the sunlight filtering through the leaves of the trees can be enough to fill our spirit. This practice, which the Japanese call komorebi, is one more example of how important nature is to Japanese culture.
Zen came to Japan from China, under a form of Buddhism that mixed elements with Taoism, a discipline based on perceiving the harmonies of nature. That is why in the path of Zen, the connection with the earth, horizontality and natural materials is sought. The seasons are celebrated and we live with sunlight. In addition to painting, the dry stone gardens or karesansui are one of its greatest artistic expressions. Clean and open spaces where gravel symbolizes the river of life or the universal sea.
Finally, one of the great pillars of Zen has to do with letting go of the mind, ambition, and material possessions. The fertile void is the learning space. From it, those sparks of intuition appear that reveal the deepest reality. That which is concentrated in the short haiku poems.
“Today the dew / will erase the writing / on my hat.” M. Basho, Paths of Oku (Atalanta, 2014)
The path of Zen serves to take us from everyday alienation to being lucid. The most incredible thing is that you don’t have to do anything. Just stop, listen and meditate. Zen is a special transmission outside the texts, independent of the word and the letter that directly shows the heart of the being. Thus we come to connect with our own nature, approaching Buddhahood.
1. Zazen meditation
Zazen consists of meditating sitting, in an easy posture. Usually in lotus or half lotus, but it can also be done in a chair with the back straight and legs at right angles. Absolute silence and the body in complete stillness. The focus is on breathing, placing emphasis on exhalation. Normally, the eyes are open, focusing on a point on the wall or floor. Nothing should distract us from this exercise of mindfulness.
2. Create a haiku poem
The space of creation and inspiration of these poems is nature. It is written about her and in the present. It commands immediacy or instantaneous perception of reality. The rhyme is free but the meter must be set in three verses of five, seven and five syllables each. Simplicity is valued, as is precision in detail. No artifice or pompous adjectives. I must be something intimate and real.
3. Koan dialogue
This is a form of dialogue where we challenge logic. It is about confusing the mind with riddles that are impossible to solve. It emerges as something spontaneous and direct, causing the blocking effect in the mind. Here are some good examples: What is the sound of a single hand clapping? What is your face like before you were born? What is the color of the wind?
1. Don’t cling to the ego. Let it go. It is necessary to distance ourselves from the main character who controls our lives. Identify it, transcend it and reach the position of the distant observer.
2. Live in the present. Here and now. The past is the wake of our ship. The future has not yet arrived. If we generate expectations we can become frustrated when we see that things are not fulfilled. Everything changes.
3. Eliminate concepts and stop labeling. This is this, nothing more. Don’t be fooled by the concepts. See the world without concepts. As Alan Watts says “Zen is suspending the rules we have placed on things and seeing the world as it really is.
4. Focusing on breathing and meditating on it makes us be in the moment. You inhale and exhale slowly and deeply, trying to balance the two phases. If the mind distracts you, return to the breath.
5. Knowledge is intuition. Beyond rational intelligence, there is immediate and intuitive knowledge. Developing it is a matter of practice and training.
6. Combine opposites. Do not live in dialectics and polarity. Things are not good or bad, black or white. Everything is part of the same essence or unit. You don’t have to spend all day choosing. As D. T. Suzuki says, the mind rests when dualism fades away.
“The perfect path knows no difficulties / except that it refuses to make preferences, / Only when the being is freed from love and hate / Reveals itself fully without any disguise… / When the mind rests serenely in the unity of things …/dualism vanishes by itself.” D.T Suzuki Essays on Zen Buddhism (Kier, 1995).
1. The cup of tea On one occasion a Zen master received a university professor who came to ask him about Zen. The teacher poured tea and when he had filled his cup he continued pouring until the contents were poured. The professor watched him for a while until he couldn’t keep quiet and said: “You are pouring the tea, please stop.” To which the teacher replied: “Just like this cup, you are full of your own beliefs and opinions. How can I teach him if he doesn’t empty his cup first.”
2. The Flag and the Wind
One beautiful spring afternoon, a Zen master returns from a walk. A light breeze is blowing and, arriving in front of the monastery portal, the teacher sees that the flag with the effigy of Buddha flutters gently in the wind. Two young novices are arguing in front of her.
-What moves is the flag!
-Not the wind!
-What matters according to doctrine is what we see. And it’s the flag that moves!
-No! The waving of the flag is only a consequence of the wind
-But the existence of the wind is a hypothesis!
-The flag does not move just because, its reality is constitutive of the wind
-Pure speculation!
The two monks get heated in the discussion and upon noticing the presence of the teacher they ask him:
-Master, what is moving, the flag or the wind?
-It is not the flag that moves, it is not the wind that moves, monks, what moves is your mind. Zen is a mystery. As soon as a thought touches it, it disappears.
3. The beautiful image of the bottom of the barrel that gives way
“When the moment of abdication of body, mind and spirit is reached, one is like a bottomless basket or like a leaky bowl. Whatever we put inside it, it cannot retain anything, whatever we pour into it, it cannot be filled. When this moment occurs, we say that the bottom of the barrel has given way.”
Master Keizan in Chronicles of the Transmission of Light (Kairós, 2006)
