The Art of Simple Living: 100 Daily Practices from a Zen Buddhist Monk for a Lifetime of Calm and Joy

by Shunmyō Masuno

If the world is not going the way you want it to, perhaps it is better to change yourself.

Try not to be swayed by the values of others, not to be troubled by unnecessary concerns, but to live an infinitely simple life, stripped of wasteful things. That is “Zen style.”

Any given day, a mere ten minutes is all you need. Try making time for emptiness, for not thinking about anything.

How being busy makes you lose heart When we are short on time, this scarcity extends to our heart as well. We automatically say, “I’m busy—I don’t have time.” When we feel this way, our mind becomes even more hectic. But are we really so busy? Aren’t we the ones who are pushing ourselves to hurry? In Japanese, the character for “busy” is written with the symbols for “lose” and “heart.” It’s not that we are busy because there isn’t enough time. We are busy because there is no room in our heart.

Discard your attachments. Let go of your assumptions. Reduce your possessions. Living simply is also about discarding your physical and mental burdens.

Life requires time and effort. That is to say, when we eliminate time and effort, we eliminate life’s pleasures.

Consider trying to write or draw with care—not with the intention of showing it to others, but rather by mindfully facing your inner self. Your true self will show through, in a single line or letter.

When you speak loudly, as a matter of course, you are able to hear your own voice clearly. But moreover, it stimulates and activates your brain. We monks rise early and chant sutras first as a means of awakening our brain.

“Within nothingness there is infinite potential.” It means that human beings are born possessing nothing. Yet within all of us lies infinite potential. For this reason, there is nothing to fear. There is nothing to worry about. This is truth.

Simplicity is about stripping away what is not useful. Determine whether something is truly necessary, and if it is, then take good care of it. This is different from frugality. Frugality is about subsisting with things of low value. By value, I’m referring not only to its price—it also includes the depth of feeling toward such items.

There is no need to be troubled by things that have not yet happened. Think only about what is happening right now. Almost all anxieties are intangible. They are the invention of your own mind.

The concept of mitate In Japanese, we talk about the concept of mitate—seeing a certain item not in its originally intended form but as another thing; seeing something as resembling something else and putting it to use in another way. The notion of mitate originates in the aesthetics of the tea ceremony, in which practitioners put everyday objects to use in elevated forms—for example, a gourd that was originally a water flask being used as a flower vase. Utensils age after years of use. An item’s utility becomes obsolete. But that does not necessarily mean the end of its life. You can discover a different use for it and breathe new life into the object itself. This spirit is at the heart of Zen. Take, for instance, a millstone. Over years of use, it becomes abraded and grains can no longer be ground on it. But this does not mean the end of its life. It could be set out in the garden, perhaps used as a stepping-stone. Or a teacup that has a chipped rim might now be used as a bud vase. Objects do not have merely one purpose. They can be used in myriad ways, depending upon the user’s imagination. How will you use an object? That is the aesthetic concept of mitate. There is abundance not in the accumulation of things, but in knowing how to use things well. Try seeing things in different ways, so as not to be bound by just “the proper way.”