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Another way to help you feel freer is by cleaning your room. That way your mind won’t be too foggy. Think about the Buddhist monks that live in Zen temples. They clean their living place completely every morning. The temple is never dirty, to begin with, but that is not the point. Monks use the cleaning ritual to clear their minds. Indeed, the Japanese character for enlightenment is made up of radicals that mean a clean mind. Each time the monk cleans the room with a broom, he also cleans his foggy mind. Buffing the floors helps their inner selves to be polished as well. While you clean your space, pay extra attention to your shoe collection. In Zen Buddhism, recognizing our footsteps is an important practice. If we don’t acknowledge our footsteps, we wouldn’t be able to see what direction we are heading towards in life. Line up your shoes to make sure your next step in life will be well-ordered. Chapter 5 - An easy but powerful method to enrich your life is being involved in art and calligraphy. The wondrous world of art can be quite terrifying with its art galleries and extravagant price tags. However, Zen Buddhism doesn’t advocate being an art connoisseur to integrate art into your life. You can use your imagination to become your own artist. Look at the acclaimed Zen artist to learn about how happy we can become simply by picking up a pen. The Zen monks Ikkyu and Sesshu, who lived in the 15th century are still acknowledged today for being extraordinary calligraphy and for their elegant art. Their artworks are quite expensive nowadays, but they were not created to be acclaimed by other people. The reason these monks painted these masterpieces was to connect with their inner selves. Indeed, the reason why Zen art is important lies in the fact that they help artists to express the depths of their inner worlds. You can start your self-discovery adventure by starting calligraphy or painting. Assure yourself that nobody will see what you are going to paint. Then, take a deep breath, concentrate, and let your pen or brush guide you. You will discover a lot about yourself while painting or doing calligraphy. Being a Zen artist doesn’t require many tools, either. Artists in the West may use the color spectrum in its entirely. In contrast, you only need a pot of ink for Zen art. Even the ocean or the sky can be indicated with black ink in Zen art. Using only one color does not mean the art is one-dimensional. The viewer is left to imagine all the colors in the painting. And imagination is the most colorful thing in the universe. Still, integrating art into your life does not always mean painting by yourself. Simply looking at art is also enough. The Japanese houses of the past used to have tokonoma. The tokonoma was a small room where a Zen calligraphy art was hung on the wall. People living in those houses would practice going to the tokonoma to contemplate the calligraphy on the wall. You can imitate this practice by choosing a place to put a Zen art of calligraphy you like and reflect on it daily. You will benefit from the strong impact of Zen art in your life. Chapter 6 - Nature will bring joy into your daily life. Do you remember the last time you walked aimlessly in a forest or smelled a flower? Chances are you haven’t been to a forest for a long time. You’re not alone, though. Still, you might benefit from changing your daily routine a little bit to spare some time for nature. Zen Buddhism teaches us that people shouldn’t lose their connection with the natural world. We may feel displeased with how monotone our lives are because of our office jobs. Every day is basically the same: the same route, the same office, and usually, the same work. But if you spare some time for walking each morning, you can realize that each day is refreshingly different than the one before, even if you stick to the same path for your daily walking session. The author chooses temple gardens for his daily walks. He experiences that in these gardens, nature is constantly fluctuating. The leaves of a tree change each week, one day is full of rain while the other is quite sunny. Everything changes—nature is never monotone. The ever-changing cycles of nature teach us a lot about how to live our lives. Humans tend to think too much about the past. It is as if we are living in the past, rather than the present. We constantly think about how hurt we were in the past or what mistakes we did in the past. But nature is there to encourage us not to dwell on the past. Why? Because each day brings its own unique things. And we refresh ourselves with time, just like nature itself. We should try to imitate nature and stop dwelling on the past. There are also ways to embrace nature on smaller scales. The author, also a well-known garden designer, teaches young children how to make their own miniature gardens in small spaces such as shoeboxes. He motivates children to imagine being with nature. Then, he requests them to recreate the scene they imagined by arranging soil, twigs, and water. And the resulting product is a great representation of the children: serene, tiny gardens of peace. You can produce your own miniature garden as well. A balcony provides more space than necessary for a miniature garden. Even the window ledges will be enough. You can imagine the scenery of spectacular mountains and flooding rivers to get inspired. And before you realize it, you will have changed a part of your home into the reproduction of the landscape that you imagined. Chapter 7 - Use your opportunities and your time to their fullest, for they are limited. Ask yourself this question: When the opportunity comes to you, will you act on it? A Zen parable teaches about the story of two plum trees. The flower of these trees needed hot summer wind to bloom. One of these trees grew its flower throughout the winter. And when the summer wind blew, the tree blossomed. However, the other tree waited until the arrival of the summer breeze to grow its flowers. And when the flowers were ready, the breeze was long gone. Similarly, we usually delay our personal growth. It’s a bad tendency of ours to assume that we will have time in the future for our self-improvement. However, Zen Buddhists are aware that life is not an infinite resource. Shoji is the word that explains the Buddhist concept of death and rebirth. Shoji teaches people to regard life and death together, like the two sides of a coin. When you contemplate life, you should also contemplate death. The idea of thinking about your death might appear depressing but knowing that life is a limited resource motivates us to be our better selves. Suppose you learn that you only have six months to live. Would you spend that time as an unproductive person, staying as a couch potato and watching TV all day? Or would you make a list of things you want to do before the inevitable death and live your remaining life to its fullest? Hopefully, you’d choose the second option. If we become aware of the certainty of death, we will understand the importance of becoming the first plum tree—the one that started working early for its flowers to bloom. At last, but not least, remind yourself daily that although your life is yours to live, it is not a thing that you can possess. This fact is demonstrated by the Buddhist word jomyo—signifying a pre-determined lifespan. We all have our jomyo—our lifespan that was established the moment we were born. Yet nobody knows the exact length of their jomyo. The belief of jomyo describes life as a gift presented to us, not something that belongs to us. While some people are given bigger gifts than others, Zen Buddhist assure that it is not something to be worried about. At the end of the day, the value of our lives is not determined by how long they last. What is important is how we spent the gift that was granted to us. You don’t have to spend a life full of stress and hecticness. Each time you say, “I’m too busy,” you’re actually embracing the business that you complain of. You can improve your life immensely by refraining from greed and living a simpler lifestyle. Remember, life is short. Your gift might be shorter than others, so try to get the most of it. Start simplifying your life to become happier each day. Actionable advice: Focus on your food. We often rush our food. We grab a sandwich on our way to work as breakfast and eat dinner while watching the television. However, Zen Buddhism advocates the idea of “eat with our whole hearts.” This teaching encourages us to focus on our meals when we eat. The next time you eat your meal, turn off the TV and focus on enjoying your food. Zen: The Art of Simple Living by Shunmyo Masuno Book Review You don’t have to spend your life stressed and miserable. Each time you think, “I’m too busy”, keep in mind that you are the one who chose to live like that. You can better your life by abstaining from greed and living a simpler life. Remember, life is short. And you might not have much time left. Simplify your daily practices to become more content with life. Focus on your food. When it comes to food, we often care about convenience. We grab something to eat on our way to work in the mornings and eat dinner while watching the television. Zen Buddhism reminds us to “eat with our whole hearts.” They encourage us to focus on our meals without any disturbances while we eat. Thus, the next time you prepare your food, keep the TV turned off and enjoy your food in a peaceful silence instead.