Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy
The most distinguishing feature of this school of the Buddha-Way is its contention that wisdom, accompanied by compassion, is expressed in the everyday lifeworld when associating with one’s self, other people, and nature.
The everyday lifeworld for most people is an evanescent transforming stage in which living is consumed, philosophically speaking, by an either-or, ego-logical, dualistic paradigm of thinking with its attendant psychological states such as stress and anxiety.
Zen demands an overcoming of this paradigm in practice by achieving a holistic and nondualistic perspective in cognition, so that the Zen practitioner can celebrate, with stillness of mind, a life directed toward the concrete thing-events of everyday life and nature.
Jane Hirshfield
Zen pretty much comes down to three things: everything changes, everything is connected, pay attention.
