Soto Zen Wisdom

Humbly offering wisdom inspired by Soto Zen masters Dogen Zenji, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Trying my best.

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

Dogen's 8 Qualities of a Great Person
1. Having few desires
2. Knowing one has enough
3. Appreciating serenity/quietude
4. Making diligent effort
5. Not losing sight of true dharma
6. Concentrating on settling in dhyana
7. Practicing wisdom
8. Not engaging in useless argument

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

"The goal is right here! We are on the starting line and at the same time we are already on the goal line."

(Maezumi Roshi, "Close the Gap between Yourself and Yourself")

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

WARNING: Longer post (but worth reading or bookmarking for later).

Your life has seasons.

Each one is unique. Characterized by its own distinct desires, struggles, opportunities, and identity.

But one reflection I've had recently is just how easy it is to completely disassociate with the present season.

To give all your time and energy toward a longing for some nostalgic memory of a prior season or an anticipation for some beautiful state of a future season.

You look back at the past and all you see is sunshine. Because it all worked out. You forget (or glaze over) the struggle you endured. You're here today. You made it. You're alive. You're doing fine.

You look forward at the future and dream on what could be. You'll have so much more. More freedom. More purpose. More health. More deep connection. More everything.

The past is beautiful and the future feels limitless. So, logically, you slowly start to treat everything about the present as the bridge. A dash connecting your past and your future. A gap to be crossed as quickly as possible.

Everything you do today is in anticipation of some eventual end state.

I'm doing this now, so that I can have that later.

Unfortunately, the danger of that dissociation with the present is significant. You may spend your entire life living for a future that has a decidedly mirage-like property. You inch closer, but when it's right in front of you, it disappears and reappears on the horizon.

You may spend your entire life skipping through the present, deferring your presence, your joy, and your very humanity to a future that never comes.

In a classic French fable, a young boy is gifted with a magic ball of golden thread. He's told that if he simply pulls on the thread, time will leap forward. The catch, of course, is that once it's pulled, it can never be put back.

The young boy takes advantage of the newfound powers. Each time he's faced with a boring day at school, a frustrating set of chores, or a scolding from his parents, he pulls the thread, skipping through to the good parts.

As an adult, he continues, leaping through mundane struggles in his marriage, the friction of having a newborn, and the boredom at work. He finds himself pulling on the thread more and more, avoiding even the most minor inconveniences of his life.

But when he wakes up one day and sees an old man looking back at him in the mirror, he's filled with regret. He realizes in that moment that as he chose to skip through the boredom, struggles, and friction, so too did he miss the real texture of being alive.

How often do we all do the same? How easily do we default into this disassociation? Disconnecting from the present in anticipation of some future.

A mentor recently asked me this:

"Where are you going and why are you in such a rush?"

It hit me hard.

And to be honest, I haven't stopped replaying those words since he said them.

Why are you in such a rush?

The world wants you to rush into everything. Rushed decisions. Rushed conversations. Rushed relationships. Rushed timelines.

In doing so, you slowly relinquish your agency. You give up your claim on your own life. Surrender authorship to a pen that was never even yours.

In a world that wants you to rush, the ultimate act of rebellion is presence.

Be in the season you're in. Don't romanticize the past, don't fantasize the future. Be here. Be now. Be in this. All of its texture, depth, and struggle. All of its joy, tension, and pain. Sit with the uncertainty. Become friends with it. Fall in love with it.

Because every single thing you do today is something your younger self dreamed of and something your older self will wish they could go back and do.

The good old days are happening, right now.

And the next time you find yourself skipping through the present, remember these words:

Where are you going and why are you in such a rush?

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@SahilBloom Beautiful. Thank you for the reminder.

"The goal is right here! We are on the starting line and at the same time we are already on the goal line."

(Maezumi Roshi, "Close the Gap between Yourself and Yourself")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@readswithravi "If we set up any goal as such, then there is a split. There is something extra which hinders us from seeing what our life actually is."

(Maezumi Roshi, "What Is Koan?")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

"To have gratitude or to enjoy our life does not mean to have some special feeling in our life, or special enjoyment, or special gratitude. By 'gratitude' or 'enjoyment,' we mean something deeper than that: gratitude before we have gratitude, enjoyment before we enjoy it."

(Suzuki Roshi, "Evening Sesshin Lecture")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@ValaAfshar Dogen's 8 Qualities of a Great Person ...

8. Not engaging in useless argument

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

Pride does cause suffering, but "humble yourself" still leaves the self in charge of its own posture toward life.

"Our true life and our daily life are not separate. All our surroundings and this self are not separate. You cannot do this by any intellectual efforts or schemes, for when you do you encounter this I, my, me."

(Maezumi Roshi, "Intimacy of Relative and Absolute")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

Choosing what's important isn't straightforward. Here's one Zen Master's take:

Dogen's 8 Qualities of a Great Person

1. Having few desires
2. Knowing one has enough
3. Appreciating serenity/quietude
4. Making diligent effort
5. Not losing sight of true dharma
6. Concentrating on settling in dhyana
7. Practicing wisdom
8. Not engaging in useless argument
~
Source: The Roots of Goodness

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@mskoriwilson Your own definition of success may still be a ruler.

"When you do something with some limited idea or some definite purpose, what you will gain is some concrete things which will be the cover of your inner nature."

(Suzuki Roshi, "Find Out for Yourself")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

When you see plum blossoms, or hear the sound of a small stone hitting bamboo, that is a letter from the world of emptiness.

(Shunryu Suzuki, Letters from Emptiness)

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@ValaAfshar "Detachment means to live with people, with everything ... attachment is to stop the plum. To attach to flower and stop its beauty it means to appreciate dead flower."

(Suzuki Roshi, "Genjo Koan")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@Kpaxs What you are looking for is already in the attempt, not in who you become.

"When you do something, if you fix your mind on the activity with some confidence, the quality of your state of mind is the activity itself."

(Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, "The Quality of Being")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@wealth_director That longing to be told something true is one of the oldest human hungers.

"When you do not depend on any authority ... you yourself has authority. Your life will be more stable, and your eyes will be open, and our mind will be clear."

(Suzuki Roshi, "Question and Answer")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@thesamparr You might enjoy this as a follow up. See the recommendation from the author of 4000 Weeks on cover.

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@DearS_o_n The wish to be further along is one of the most human things there is.

"As long as we have some definite idea about or some hope in the future, we cannot really be serious with the moment that exists right now."

(Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, "Emptiness")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@readswithravi Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki.

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@thesamparr You might enjoy this as a follow up. See the recommendation from the author of 4000 Weeks on cover.

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

Everyone carries the wish to feel fully alive. "...those who know contentment are happy even when sleeping on the ground; those who do not know contentment are still dissatisfied even when staying in a heavenly mansion."

(Shobogenzo, "Eight Awarenesses of the Enlightened Person")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@stijnnoorman Suffering has the shape of a gap... but close one gap, and the gap moves.

"Even though you choose one out of many, that one desire is limitless — no end — until you lose yourself in the desire. And that is why we suffer."

(Suzuki Roshi, "The Idea of Self")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@edgaralandough This breath, this coffee, this conversation already are the life you're looking for.

"That is actually not something which you should attain, but which you have always."

(Suzuki Roshi, "Our Everyday Life is Like a Movie")

[Soto Zen Wisdom @SotoWisdom]

@readswithravi What you're longing for is not buried beneath anything.

"...all self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind."

(Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, "Prologue")