The Zen Mindset

Nowadays, the human mind is often too preoccupied with thoughts and worries about career, money, children, relationships, health, and social responsibilities -- that is how many of us have developed a compulsive mind that never stops its thinking process.

There is one solution to stop the compulsive mind: the Zen mindset.

What is the Zen mindset? It is the mind focusing on the way of Zen.

Then, what is Zen?

Zen is a way of life. It is a misconception that Zen is a religious belief. Zen is a philosophical approach to living a life of peace and harmony, totally free from stress. In spite of having its origin from Buddha, Zen is not the foundation of Buddhism. The word “Zen” is Japanese, but it derives from the Chinese, meaning “meditation.” It is an Oriental mental practice for self-enlightenment. More specifically, Zen is a transcendental mental state that affects the overall physical and mental being of an individual, and therefore relaxes the body and the mind to enhance body-mind connection, which plays a pivotal role in the art of living well.

Zen is knowing intuitively—that is, naturally knowing the ultimate truth of living. According to Plato, the great philosopher, life is a process of “forgetting” with episodes of experiences and happenings that make you “forget” the ultimate truth of living, which you are supposed to know intuitively. In other words, as we continue to live in the contemporary world, it is easy for us to "forget" who we are, and in the process "forget" how to live. The Zen mindset is to bring us back to the ultimate truth. The way of Zen is to re-discover that inherent wisdom of knowing the eternal truth that may have eluded so many of us in the process of stressful living. Essentially, Zen living is “self-awakening” to the real meaning of living; once we understand that ultimate truth, we will be liberated from the shackles of memories of the past and worries of the future, and thus instrumental in enabling us to live in the present. Many of us are not living in the present; a case in point, texting or talking on the phone while walking or driving is not living in the present, which is supposedly to be walking or diving.  

With the Zen mindset, life becomes simple, and life is never a problem. If life becomes a problem, it is because we have created the problem for ourselves. If there is no problem, then we don't need a solution. Unfortunately, many of us have projected the problem into the future in the mind's eye, and then we start anticipating the problem with solutions. In the process, we pick and choose, resulting in wrong choices that lead to anxiety, frustration, disappointment, and regret, among others that become our problems. Fixing a non-existing problem in life is only creating more problems for ourselves.

Learn how to live in the present and relax by acquiring the Zen mindset, which is the wisdom in neither avoiding problems in life, nor seeking solutions to problems that may not even have existed in the first place.

The following Zen poem may help you to understand better the Zen mindset:

"The perfect Way is without difficulty.

Save that it avoids picking and choosing.

Only when you stop liking and disliking

Will all be clearly understood.

A split hair's difference

And heaven and earth are set apart.

If you want to get the plain truth,

Be not concerned with right and wrong.

The conflict between right and wrong

Is the sickness of the mind."

from an old Zen poem

Start Zen: Learn the healing art of Zen meditation. Free yourself from the thoughts and emotions that are holding you back in your life. Dramatically improve the quality of your life by enhancing the quality of your mind.

Read my book: The Book of Life and Living. It is a blueprint for living a stress-free life through an integration of the ancient wisdom of Tao, the contemporary wisdom, and Biblical wisdom.

Visit my website: Wisdom in Living.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © by Stephen Lau