Blog Your Blessings: the Zen Precepts

Be good. If you can't be good, at least don't do any harm. Be kind.

These are some of the Zen Precepts as my friend and teacher Brian Vaugh recently presented them to some kids at the Dae Yen Sa Temple and Meditation Center in New Hartford, Connecticut.

I like these few rules because they are few, the are positive, and they are active. Rather than a list of "do nots," these few rules clear a way to a good life even when life isn't easy or particularly kind.

Of course, their simplicity in a way belies the challenge they present in the face of deliberate cruelty, destructive behavior, willful abuse, and the like. It's not easy to be good and kind to a person who has betrayed you or a colleague who has climbed over you to get ahead. Then the desire to get even threatens to take over. The only valid get-out-of-hell-free card is to smile and let it be and move on. When you love your own soul, it's possible.

The abundant life is a walk in love. This is at the heart of all wisdom.

I created a brief video of Brian explaining these precepts in greater detail. If you have a few minutes, please have a look at Brian's thoughts on the Zen precepts.

Blog Your Blessings