Soyen Shaku’s Zen Commandments
For the 21st Century
Stoicism may be all the rage now, and I’ll always appreciate a good quote by Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius or Seneca or Ron Swanson (“Keep your tears in your eyes where they belong”), but Zen will always speak most clearly and profoundly to me. Of course, it’s not a competition. Stoicism and Zen are both very similar and very different; either or both can speak to anyone depending on that person’s need at the time.
The following is from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, compiled and edited by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki:
Soyen Shaku, the first Zen teacher to come to America, said: “My heart burns like fire but my eyes are as cold as dead ashes.” He made the following rules which he practiced every day of his life.
In the morning before dressing, light incense and meditate.
Retire at a regular hour. Partake of food at regular intervals. Eat with moderation and never to the point of satisfaction.
Receive a guest with the same attitude you have when alone. When alone, maintain the same attitude you have in receiving guests.
Watch what you say, and whatever you say, practice it.
When an opportunity comes do not let it pass by, yet always think twice before acting.
Do not regret the past. Look to the future.
Have the fearless attitude of a hero and the loving heart of a child.
Upon retiring, sleep as if you had entered your last sleep. Upon awakening, leave your bed behind you instantly as if you had cast away a pair of old shoes.
These rules could have easily come from Meditations or The Enchiridion. Not quite a story, but neither is it an abstract list of rules. These aren’t commandments or precepts. They don’t promise salvation or even success. They are practical, daily rules for a simple life that we can all practice, even if we aren’t a Zen Master.
In the morning before dressing, light incense and meditate.
I think the essence of this rule is about taking a moment — five, fifteen, thirty minutes, however much or little — to wake up, breathe, and collect yourself before the day. I’ve never been one for incense or candles, but both are used in sacred and religious rituals as a way to consecrate something and set it apart. Don’t worry about what happened yesterday or what’s going to happen later today. Consecrate a few moments in the morning and make it sacred, even if it’s just sitting on the edge of your bed and taking a few deep breaths before jumping in the shower.
Retire at a regular hour. Partake of food at regular intervals. Eat with moderation and never to the point of satisfaction.
Let’s save the part about “retiring at a regular hour” until the end when Soyen talks about sleep. Let’s talk about eating habits. Mine are terrible. I’m a 33 year-old man with the eating habits of a college sophomore. I definitely don’t eat a regular intervals, and on weekends I tend to binge.
Americans eat a lot. Although now with the advent of foodie culture we tend to value quality over quantity — we’d rather have a really tasty sushi roll over, say, a buffet plate full of mac and cheese. a steak, and a bakes potato — we definitely want to feel satisfied. Really, Soyen? I can’t be full, satiated?
Soyen Shaku was almost certainly vegetarian; most practicing Buddhists, especially clergy, are. Being too full also causes lethargy, which is not conducive to a deep meditation practice. But more than that, it’s about consuming only what we need and not more. Its about not doing anything to the point of excess.
Receive a guest with the same attitude you have when alone. When alone, maintain the same attitude you have in receiving guests.
This rule is about acting authentically, being your “true self” no matter where you are or who you’re with. Zen is all about finding and acting from this true self.
We live in a highly performative culture. Many of us have different personas based on what we are doing and who we are with. The you at work is probably different than the you with your friends, which is different than the you with your family. And all of these yous are different than the you when you are alone. This thing we cling to called the self is a convenient illusion.
It’s a sort of echo of Jesus’ teaching to “love your neighbor as yourself”. There is fundamentally no distinction between me and my neighbor, my guest. It’s a sort of Mobius strip of ethics. As another Zen Master, Yasutani Roshi, said: “The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.”
Watch what you say, and whatever you say, practice it.
I may not meditate as often as I should and may eat too much pizza in one sitting, but I have to brag a little bit here; I’m pretty good at keeping this rule. If something doesn’t need to be said — if it’s not true, informative, edifying, or insightful — I don’t feel the need to say it. I’ve never been one to gossip or talk about people behind their backs.
Don’t be a hypocrite. Be your authentic self. Practice what you say; if you can’t practice it yourself, don’t expect others to. We love to point out hypocrisy in others while imagining we are immune from it. Here’s another take: if what you say does not have direct bearing on life as it is lived here and now — in other words, if you can’t practice it — does it really need to be said?
When an opportunity comes do not let it pass by, yet always think twice before acting.
I’m a chronic over-thinker and under-doer. I’ve let so many opportunities pass me by because I second- and third-guessed myself. This comes from a lack of confidence and anxiety about whether it is the “right move” or whether it will blow up in my face. This is no way to live.
But neither can we be at the mercy of our knee-jerk impulses. Our actions have consequences (karma). I’ll just use an example off the top of my head: one cannot claim an election was “stolen” and fraudulent and whip up one’s supporters into a frenzy until they storm the nation’s capital and then claim no responsibility and face no consequences. Again, that’s just an example I pulled out of the air randomly.
Do not regret the past. Look to the future.
Wait, I thought Zen was all about “being present”, not living in the past or future but living totally in the moment until your life is just a string of infinitely incremental moments with no meaning? Nah. As Alan Watts says, “It is impossible to be in anything other than the present moment. We cannot relive the past, we cannot enter the future; we literally can only be in the present moment — it is impossible to be anywhere else.” The thing is to not allow yourself to get carried away by either, to not regret the past or worry about the future. Regret solves and achieves nothing. The past can be a great teacher, but it can also be a tyrant if you allow it. The future is not set in stone.
Have the fearless attitude of a hero and the loving heart of a child.
I’ve been watching Hilda on Netflix. Have you seen it? It’s so good. It’s about a little blue-haired girl who makes friends with people and magical creatures and goes on lots of wonderful adventures, usually in order to help said friends and magical creatures. She is fearless and loving, and exemplifies Soyen Shaku’s rule. But she is an actual child. And fictional. It’s incredibly difficult for anyone over the age of thirty (especially post-2020) to even feel fearless and heroic, let alone have the loving heart of a child.
Here’s the secret to this one: don’t worry about trying to cultivate both, trying to be a hero and a child. A loving heart is, by nature, fearless. Lovers are the most dedicated fighters, and children are some of the most fearless people.
Upon retiring, sleep as if you had entered your last sleep. Upon awakening, leave your bed behind you instantly as if you had cast away a pair of old shoes.
We’ve come full circle, back to “retiring at a regular hour”. American sleep schedules are pretty fucked up, and got worse during quarantine. I was out of work for three months and by the end was going to bed at 2 or 3 am and sleeping until noon. Even now, I go to bed at about 10 but, like I’m sure many of you do, I lie in bed scrolling through my phone until 11 or midnight. I wake and linger in bed until the last possible minute and rush to get ready for work and run out the door. But this isn’t a good or healthy way to spend a quarter of your life.
Zen is always all about doing everything wholeheartedly. When you go to bed, sleep; don’t spend an hour scrolling through social media and obsessing over things you have no control over. When you wake up, get up, light incense and meditate. When you eat, eat just what you need without greed. Do one thing at a time and give it your full attention and love. In the words of Ron Swanson, “Never half-ass two things; whole-ass one thing.”
