Zen Discipline: Zen Approach to Habits. Do Your Best. Right Now.
What is Zen? As Louis Armstrong said about Jazz, “If you have to ask what Jazz is, you’ll never know.” We could say the same about Zen.
Zen is one of those words that gets thrown around in western culture. For most in the west, Zen conjures images of peaceful, still, quiet scenes or people. When someone says, “You’re so Zen,” they mean you are calm and soft with a subtle, peaceful smile.
If you haven’t read any book on Zen, your relationship to it is most likely a marketed one. Zen spas. Mass-produced generic Zen paintings you can buy at a store. Zen apps on your phone that display peaceful nature scenes for 30 seconds at a time.
When I discuss Zen in this article or any other articles I write, I mean something very different. What do I mean? Referring back to Louis Armstrong, “If you have to ask….”
This is not meant as a cop-out. It is essential to grokking the nature of Zen not to give direct definitions. By “grokking,” I mean: “To understand something so completely that it becomes a part of oneself.” Zen is always pointed to, never defined. Once it’s defined, it’s sterile and dead.
When I title this article “Zen Discipline,” I use “Zen” to point to a specific relationship to discipline. One that can tap into a greater and more fundamental focus than any words, thoughts, or ideas about field.
It is said that Zen is for the poetically minded. Zen Koans are examples of questions that our usual, rational, mind cannot answer. A well-known example is: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” In this article, we will approach discipline and habit formation in this way, as a Koan.
Discipline is always to do your absolute best. But you only have to do it once.
I’m sure this Koan confused you, or at least your mind immediately objected: “How can I both always need to do my best and only have to do it once?” This is the point. This means it’s working.
I should end the article here and let you meditate on this Koan for a few weeks or months. But we don’t live in ancient Japan. I’ll have mercy on you and give you a brief explanation of what this means to me.
I first heard about this “Zen approach to discipline” from a book titled Zen Guitar by Philip Toshio Sudo. I read this the year I graduated high school,, and this idea has stuck with me ever since. This idea transcends playing the guitar and can apply to anything you want to improve.
In regards to playing the guitar, Discipline is to always practice the guitar at your absolute best, with all your heart and soul. But you only have to do it once—this time.
Discipline: Do Your Best. Right Now.
In the last couple of LSB articles, we have covered the importance of habits for making lasting positive changes and living a meaningful life.
I will link these in the notes.
These articles are based on Jame Clear’s work in Atomic Habit. They approach behavior change and habit formation from a more western frame. Choose worthy goals. Break down the step toward achieving that goal into the most minor pieces possible. Take one action a day in that direction, and let the compounding interest of these habits accumulate.
This is a compelling approach to positive change. That is why I’ve dedicated a couple of articles to it already. And will continue to revisit it in future articles.
Today I am presenting a different frame with the same goal: long-term positive change.
The Zen frame is this: You only have to do your absolute best, right here and now, fully present and focused on the task.
Zen Mary and Discontent Daniela
Let’s imagine two individuals with the same goal of becoming a master at the guitar. One is Zen Mary, and the other is Discontent Daniela or DD.
DD is determined to be a master guitar player and plans to practice for 4 hours every day. She’s initially inspired and motivated, but soon gets frustrated and discouraged that she’s not making progress quickly enough. DD feels so far from her goal that she doesn’t enjoy the progress of playing the guitar and ruminates over how long it will take until she’s as good as she wants to be.
When DD is practicing guitar, a portion of her mind is thinking about how far away her superior abilities are and how much work it will take to get there. It is intimidating and discouraging. She even gives up a few times. But then feels quieter and beats herself up even worse with negative self-talk. So she starts practicing again out of guilt. But still feels like a failure because of how far off her goal is.
Let’s contrast this is Zen Mary’s experience with learning guitar. Every time she picks up the guitar, she thinks: “This is the only time that matters. Pour your heart and soul into this practice session. Do this. The future will take care of itself.”
Yes, Zen Mary knows she will have to practice thousands of times before becoming a master. But she also knows that the only thing she has control over is this one practice session. Instead of focusing on the future outcome, she is focused on this moment. If she gives this one session everything she has, Zen Mary can know she did her part towards the grand goal. In the end, this is all she can do.
This is the difference between doing something as a “means to an end” and doing it as “an end in itself.” The difference between “focusing on the outcome” and “falling in love with the process.”
Yes, both these fictional characters have the same goal. But one is enjoying the process and in turn, much more likely to reach the desired destinations, which is beside the point. Zen Mary is present and available to the joys of playing music and life itself.
Conclusion
We can learn from a Zen approach to discipline: do your best here and now. Trust that the future outcomes will take care of themselves. In doing this, we get the double benefit of getting better at a given skill and being present to all the gifts that the process has to offer here and now.
Learning to play guitar, training to run a marathon, and learning to cook, can all be approached as a meta-practice to be here and now. To better enjoy the journey of discovery available when we see this moment as our most authentic nature. As life itself.
The Buddha supposedly said, “The mistake we make is that we think we have time.” Don’t fall into the trap of postponing your contentment or bliss. Please do it now. I feel it now. There is no other time that you will be able to. When the future comes, it will just be another now. Use this moment, this now, to express it.
Whatever goals you may have, big or small, tell yourself, “I only have to do it once.”
“I will do my best right now.”
Notes:
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