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7 Buddhist Habits to Change Your Life

7 Buddhist Habits to Change Your Life

by Parker · 44 things on NewTwos

The man of character (te) lives at home without exercising his mind and performs actions without worry. The notions of right and wrong and the praise and blame of others do not disturb him. He has plenty of money to spend, but does not know where it comes from. He drinks and eats just enough and does not know where the food comes from.
These are seven habits from the book "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts
Allow you mind to release control
It is not simply calmness of mind, but “non-graspingness” of mind. In Chuangtzu’s words, “The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing; it refuses nothing. It receives, but does not keep.”
“No-mindedness” is employing the whole mind as we use the eyes when we rest them upon various objects but make no special effort to take anything in.
Transitoriness is depressing only to the mind which insists upon trying to grasp. But to the mind which lets go and moves with the flow of change, which becomes, in Zen Buddhist imagery, like a ball in a mountain stream, the sense of transience or emptiness becomes a kind of ecstasy.
Nirvana is the way of life which ensues when clutching at life has come to an end. In so far as all definition is clutching, nirvana is necessarily indefinable. It is the natural, “un-self-grasped” state of the mind; and here, of course, the mind has no specific meaning, for what is not grasped is not known in the conventional sense of knowledge.
"Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness." – Thich Nhat Hanh
Embrace not knowing
Discard knowingness and the people will benefit an hundredfold. Cut out “humanity”; discard righteousness, and the people will regain love of their fellows. Cut out cleverness; discard the utilitarian, and there will be no thieves and robbers.... Become unaffected; Cherish sincerity; Belittle the personal; Reduce desires.
The baby looks at things all day without winking; that is because his eyes are not focussed on any particular object. He goes without knowing where he is going, and stops without knowing what he is doing. He merges himself with the surroundings and moves along with it. These are the principles of mental hygiene.
Buddhism is above all the practice of clear awareness, of seeing the world yathabhutam–just as it is. Such awareness is a lively attention to one’s direct experience, to the world as immediately sensed, so as not to be misled by names and labels.
The highest state of consciousness is a consciousness empty of all contents, all ideas, feelings, and even sensations.
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." – Socrates
Trust in your nature
The idea is not to reduce the human mind to a moronic vacuity, but to bring into play its innate and spontaneous intelligence by using it without forcing it.
When a man has learned to let his mind alone so that it functions in the integrated and spontaneous way that is natural to it, he begins to show the special kind of “virtue” or “power” called te. This is not virtue in the current sense of moral rectitude but in the older sense of effectiveness, as when one speaks of the healing virtues of a plant.
Everyone knows that the Buddha nature is “within” oneself and is not to be sought outside, so that no student would be fooled by being told to seek it by going to India or by reading a certain sutra.
Our true, nonconceptual self is already the Buddha, and needs no improvement.
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." – Oscar Wilde
Let it be
Man is involved in karma when he interferes with the world in such a way that he is compelled to go on interfering, when the solution of a problem creates still more problems to be solved, when the control of one thing creates the need to control several others. Karma is thus the fate of everyone who “tries to be God.” He lays a trap for the world in which he himself gets caught.
To attain nirvana is also to attain Buddhahood, awakening. But this is not attainment in any ordinary sense, because no acquisition and no motivation are involved. It is impossible to desire nirvana, or to intend to reach it, for anything desirable or conceivable as an object of action is, by definition, not nirvana. Nirvana can only arise unintentionally, spontaneously, when the impossibility of self-grasping has been thoroughly perceived.
One stops trying to be spontaneous by seeing that it is unnecessary to try, and then and there it can happen.
So long as one thinks about listening, one cannot hear clearly, and so long as one thinks about trying or not trying to let go of oneself, one cannot let go. Yet whether one thinks about listening or not, the ears are hearing just the same, and nothing can stop the sound from reaching them.
"When you let go of the need to control, you create the space for things to come to you." – Eckhart Tolle
Embrace non-judgment
Complete recollectedness is a constant awareness or watching of one’s sensations, feelings, and thoughts–without purpose or comment. It is a total clarity and presence of mind, actively passive, wherein events come and go like reflections in a mirror: nothing is reflected except what is.
The awakened mind responds immediately, without calculation, and that there is no incompatibility between Buddhahood and the everyday life of the world.
When there are no names the world is no longer “classified in limits and bounds.”
"The highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgment." – Jiddu Krishnamurti
Practice sitting
Sitting meditation is not, as is often supposed, a spiritual “exercise,” a practice followed for some ulterior object. From a Buddhist standpoint, it is simply the proper way to sit, and it seems perfectly natural to remain sitting so long as there is nothing else to be done, and so long as one is not consumed with nervous agitation.
To the restless temperament of the West, sitting meditation may seem to be an unpleasant discipline, because we do not seem to be able to sit “just to sit” without qualms of conscience, without feeling that we ought to be doing something more important to justify our existence. To propitiate this restless conscience, sitting meditation must therefore be regarded as an exercise, a discipline with an ulterior motive. Yet at that: very point it ceases to be meditation (dhyana) in the Buddhist sense, for where there is purpose, where there is seeking and grasping for results, there is no dhyana.
A certain amount of “sitting just to sit” might well be the best thing in the world for the jittery minds and agitated bodies of Europeans and Americans–provided they do not use it as a method for turning themselves into Buddhas.
As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.
"Awareness is not just seeing, but noticing. It’s the practice of being aware without needing to change anything." – Jon Kabat-Zinn
Release your desires
For if nirvana is the state in which the attempt to grasp reality has wholly ceased, through the realization of its impossibility, it will obviously be absurd to think of nirvana itself as something to be grasped or attained.
To try not to grasp is the same thing as to grasp, since its motivation is the same–my urgent desire to save myself from a difficulty. I cannot get rid of this desire, since it is one and the same desire as the desire to get rid of it!
To seek to become Buddha is to deny that one is already Buddha–and this is the sole basis upon which Buddhahood can be realized!
For the practice of Zen is not the true practice so long as it has an end in view, and when it has no end in view it is awakening–the aimless, self-sufficient life of the “eternal now.” To practice with an end in view is to have one eye on the practice and the other on the end, which is lack of concentration, lack of sincerity.
"Desire is the root of suffering. Let go of your desires, and you will find peace." – Buddha
The Way of Zen by Alan Watts - Twos