The 9 Zen Principles That Probably Saved My Life
I turned 26 last week, so decided to share some of my life philosophy. I talked about existential questions back in the days and that post still gets a lot of attention. Now, however, I’ll share the zen principles I practice.
I’m not religious or anything, but the rules, beauty and simplicity of Zen Buddhism have saved me in more than one way.
You’ve had zen moments in your life, but chances are you never analyzed them to see what caused them and how to get more of them.
You can get to know the Zen Buddhist philosophy and use it to end your suffering, find happiness and meaning without changing anything, improve your relationships, overcome the hardships of life, deal with loss, and much more.
That’s what I did back in the days and the simple but powerful realizations I came to helped me transform my thoughts, which then affected my actions. Once you do that, you can change your reality.
Truth is, I first worked on my spiritual development, before I moved onto personal growth, after which I pursued business growth.
It all begins on the inside – by getting to know yourself, letting go of the past and the regrets that go with it, handling stress and anxiety, dealing with unresolved issues that are blocking your clear thinking, and then setting other goals.
You’ve heard of most of the zen principles and practices I’ll share below. But with everything else going on in your life, you probably didn’t pay enough attention to any of them.
But these can’t be practiced without a deep understanding of their meaning. I believe it’s worth it and such a process of self-awareness can lead to inner fulfillment for the rest of your life.
So, here are the zen teachings that helped me live the life I now enjoy every day:
9 Zen Principles of Life
1. Suffering is inevitable, but you are the one who can end it.
According to Buddhism, there’s a lot of pain in life and there’s no way to avoid it. However, suffering is something we choose.
Buddha talks talked about getting hurt by an arrow and gave this as an example of real pain. What comes after it, though, which depends on whether or not you’re in harmony with yourself and the world, is suffering. And you do it to yourself.
That’s the overthinking, the blaming, getting angry, seeking revenge, reliving the experience in your mind, complaining about it, grieving about the wound, and more.
This really helps give a perspective and we can understand the difference between pain and suffering. And while it’s true that life goes together with death, illness and pain, there’s no need to bring mental suffering too by not letting go of the experience.
Life is amazing and much easier to handle once you understand this simple truth.
The zen life has no suffering in it simply because anyone following this philosophy found a way to end their suffering and free themselves from the emotional pain. One of the main causes for this is attachment, which brings us to the next one of the zen principles.
Read also: 6 Inevitable Things Life Throws at Us and How to Accept Them
2. Free yourself from attachment to fully experience life.
People get attached to their partner, belongings, career, hopes and dreams, the past, or else. That behavior is harmful as it brings more suffering to your life.
The moment you get too attached, you become more vulnerable and thus allow yourself to be hurt.
You also start having expectations and try to fill a void inside you with the object you’re attached to.
That’s because you seek happiness in external sources, when actually it’s already here, everywhere around you. I’ll talk about this in one of the next zen principles on the list. The life truths I’m sharing now are all connected, really.
The foundation of Buddhism is The 4 Noble Truths. These teachings talk about what suffering is, what causes it, and how attachment is the way out of this mental trap. That’s also the way to finding the path to enlightenment.
Attachment is wrong because everything in life is impermanent. That means we don’t own anything and won’t have anyone in our lives for long. Even our own time here is limited so we shouldn’t spend it by living with the burden of attachment.
Buddhism can help you accept pain but eliminate suffering.
Oftentimes, the hard question is when to attach and when to let go.
I thought about this a lot and the answer was almost always to let go. It helps you live the zen way and be not just your best version, but also make others happy by serving them, instead of affecting them negatively with your mental struggles.
The opposite of attachment is non-attachment and that itself is one of the zen principles that changed my life.
Detach yourself from everything you cling to in order to be able to see how it made you more miserable. The interesting thing is that once you free yourself from it, you will then experience it fully.
Just think about it. If you’re attached to a person, you probably look a bit desperate, need them around you all the time, crave their attention and try to please them. In the end, you change and aren’t the person they fell in love with anymore. No one would want to be part of a relationship like that.
Buddhism teaches that to have a meaningful relationship with another human being, you should be independent.
Being attached to the other person causes suffering, which prevents you from living freely and happily.
Once you leave it aside and instead simply appreciate that person, thank them for being in your life, enjoy the time you spend together and don’t expect anything from them, you can have a connection that will make you both fulfilled.
3. Letting go brings peace and freedom.
Back in the days I was living in the past or worrying about the future. These 2 behaviors are so wrong and make life so much more complicated, yet most people do it all the time.
The solution is simple and it lies in the next one of the zen principles that saved me: let go of the past and future because they don’t matter.
All we have is this moment and by not being mindful of it, we’re missing out on life.
These simple zen principles and practices helped me be happy with my life the way it is, even though that new mindset was the foundation of the transformation I later started.
4. Nothing is permanent.
The Zen way of thinking also encourages accepting the impermanence of life. Everything is transient, so even if we get attached, it’s sure that we will experience loss.
Giving this existential truth some time to sink in helped me look at things from another perspective.
There’s nothing I could do about the impermanent things in life and feeling bad about this or getting depressed is a waste of time.
When you allow your subconscious mind to believe this too, you enter another mental state where you can take action without fearing failure.
If we can’t really have anything forever, then we might as well make the most of the things we have now.
I tried to appreciate the people in my life more and that became the next one of my top zen principles.
In fact, one of the critical things that helped me be more patient with my parents instead of annoyed all the time, was the habit of reminding myself that they won’t be here forever. This changed everything.
Whenever you’re about to judge someone, don’t feel like listening to them, are annoyed at being asked many questions, or are in a bad mood and can’t deal with a friend, remember this: That person won’t be here for long.
But they are giving you their most precious thing – their time – right now.
By investing yours too, listening actively and truly being there (without bringing arguments from the past or expecting them to behave in a certain way), you can bring joy to both of you and have a meaningful conversation.
5. Live simply.
I’ve always been interested in the life of a zen monk.
Monks are truly contented but own almost nothing. Their days are simple.
They work hard, have dedicated their life to serving others, meditate to rest and empty their mind, have a light smile on their face all the time, eat simple food, have just a few pieces of clothing, d