Overview
Zen is a term that is widely known but not widely understood. Most people think the word just means simple, calm, or peaceful. Many people don’t even know that Zen is a tradition in Buddhism. Some of that is due to the practices in Zen being quite different from many other Buddhist traditions. Despite that, understanding Zen as simplicity is not a bad starting point. Zen itself is a simple practice. Zen comes from the word zazen, meaning “just to sit.” Whereas many Buddhist traditions put a lot more emphasis on things like chanting sutras and studying teachings, Zen emphasizes just sitting. It does some chanting and studying, but Zen’s bread-and-butter is just sitting. Just sitting means just being present. Being present means not trying to get something. That is zazen, which is where Zen comes from. It’s that simple practice of acting without the idea of gaining.
Most people can’t fathom doing something without trying to get something out of it. It’s at odds with how human beings fundamentally operate. Humans operate with a purpose or goal. If you look deeply at how people act, everything people do has a purpose. Action is based on motivation, and motivation means trying to get something. Even things considered pointless, like scrolling social media or procrastinating have a point. The point is just something short-sighted. Zen is not emphasizing this sort of short-sighted behavior. It is trying to free you from the need to act with a specific goal in mind.
Buddhist Foundations
To understand this, you need to understand basic Buddhist principles. The most fundamental of these is the Four Noble Truths. In one sentence, the Four Noble Truths say that suffering stems from desire, and cessation of desire leads to freedom from that suffering. Acting with the expectation of getting something out of it is desire. Acting without that expectation is the cessation of it. To understand how to cease from desire, you must understand the nature of desire itself. A big part of Buddhist practice is recognizing desires as they come up and learning how to act in a way that is independent of those desires. Once we start to recognize our desires, we can act in a way that is more independent of them.
There is another concept that often comes up when discussing the Four Noble Truths, which is samsara. It is the view of desire over a much longer time frame. Samsara is the cycle whereby human beings perpetually try to satisfy their desires. As we go through our lives, we do what we desire to do. Our actions are a product of our desires, which, in turn, are informed by our actions. We get stuck in a perpetual cycle of desire without agency to act outside it. Buddhism allows us to break out of that cycle and gives us the freedom to act on our own accord. It gives us the tools to observe our desires and allow them to arise without acting on them.
The final part of the four noble truths says that we must follow the Eightfold Path, which means to practice Buddhism. The path focuses on seeing the world clearly, acting in a way that allows us to wake up, and cultivating mindfulness through meditation. These three aspects play on one another and ultimately are a singular practice. When you practice in this way, you will go beyond desire and free yourself from suffering.
Buddhism From the Perspective of Zen
What differentiates Zen from other forms of Buddhism is its unflinching belief that the freedom you seek is here now. We often think that painful experiences cause us to suffer, but when something painful comes up, we don’t always suffer. What causes us to suffer is when we want things to be different than they are right now. If we can accept the pain as it is, we can find freedom from it. This is something we can sense intuitively.
You may notice that some people handle pain better than others. Some people are greatly affected by it, while other people aren’t. The people who handle it well tend to be the ones who understand that hardship is a part of life. They don’t expect life to go perfectly, so when unanticipated difficulties come up, they can accept them. It is that acceptance that defines Buddhism. When we become okay with our problems, we don’t have to avoid or minimize them. We can be present, even in the midst of hardship.
The essence of Zen is simply being present, meaning we can accept our problems without getting caught up in them. We don’t need to think about how things could be different. We are simply able to act. It also means we can be less afraid of problems arising. Once we figure out how to accept our problems, we don’t have to worry about new ones coming up. If life gets tricky, we don’t have to get ahead of them and start trying to plan for them. If we can learn to handle our problems without taking them personally, we can become more confident in our ability to address them in the moment. We don’t have to spend time preparing for problems that never come to fruition. We can just be in the present moment. That is Zen practice. The unrelenting orientation towards the present, not for the sake of self-improvement, but because that is what true freedom is.
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