Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Zen And Detachment

You cannot be happy unless you are grateful. Count your blessings. Live with a grateful heart.

Zen is simply doing whatever you are doing. If you are walking, walk. If you are eating, eat. If you are working, work. If you are playing, play. Be where you are and do what you are doing. It's that simple and it's that hard.

Sometimes I get angry or upset about things that happen. There are occasions when this is a good thing. There are situations in our world that should generate more anger in people. Many times, however, it is just an unnecessary emotional reaction. When I realize this, I am reminded how far I still have to go to be a truly detached person. Detachment is a Buddhist philosophy where one learns to not judge events and to see things as neither good nor bad. They simply are. Our opinions are not necessarily reality. Our opinions are simply our opinions. When we are asked to do something new, or to change the way we do something, we often react negatively because we have made a judgment based on our personal bias. When we are detached, we remove our bias and see things more clearly. This is what it means to practice Zen. By becoming more aware of our own emotional reactions to things, we begin to see more clearly, and to be more present to reality and not to our own illusions.

1 comment:

Tohi said...

I am really enjoying it here. Be back again soon. Very good <3 Namaste <3