Ethical Principles of ZEN
Ethical principles set the moral standards for “correct” and “good” action in the spiritual sense. They should give the individual inner support up to enlightenment, providing strength and pointing in the right direction. Even at the beginning of ZEN practice, they reveal a higher condition of being.
I also feel connected to these universal ethical principles.
In the following, you will find “virtues” or “character traits” which are promoted by universal ZEN practice, either consciously or unconsciously. This list, however, is not final. You will notice that these universal ethics are oriented to the eightfold path of Buddhism.
Hope
The idea that every person can be enlightened in the here and now allows hope to awaken in us. Hope is a strong motor of the practice, since it can overcome boundaries and provide motivation.
Curiosity
Being inquisitive accelerates the path. Asking important questions helps to understand more deeply. Curiosity does not mean having doubts or a shortage of faith- but rather wanting to deepen it.
Patience
Meditation practice and exercises with ZEN are unthinkable without patience. ZEN requires patience, diligence, and persistence, in order to experience Nirvana. In the same way, wisdom arises through patient practice. Over decades, Buddha patiently taught others the path of enlightenment.
Community
For some people, support from a spiritual community is beneficial and desirable. Alone, man seems vulnerable, but, as part of a community, he is strong. In a community, spiritual traditions and rites are learned and passed on. The community accepts everyone as he is. Here we can be as we are- completely without fear, perimeters, or defamation. Community teaches the way to enlightenment in the most diverse ways. And it can motivate the individual on his own path to enlightenment.
Empathy
To experience empathy means feeling the pain of another as if it were your own. The understanding and identification with the pain of all beings who suffer is the reason that those enlightened return to the everyday world, to teach others and to help them.
Kindness
Loving kindness, sharing, and charity are a motivation for empathetic action toward fellow human beings. For instance, sharing is an act of kindness, which allows others to have a part in what the ZEN student experienced as an inner blessing.
Justice
We are interested in the well-being of all men and should thus stand up for justice on our path to enlightenment (stand up but not fight). By way of explanation: Children often have a pronounced sense of justice which we can again acquire as adults. Perhaps we cannot always enforce justice and maybe we don’t even know what is really just. But we can plead for universal justice as we proceed on our path, work actively and exert ourselves. At the same time, we should not lose sight of our inner path in the process.
Discipline
The universal order (Dharma) is a “program” which contains the behavior and truths leading to enlightenment. If we devote ourselves to this order with discipline and gratitude, we can find enlightenment. If, instead, we do what we want or feel like doing, we will get lost.
Honesty
Honesty is a way to free one’s own life from impurities. First of all, this means honest words. Words which bring happiness, hope, joy and truth are important. However, truth and honesty to oneself can offend the feelings of others. It is all the more important to formulate honest words, so that the one hearing them can grow spiritually. Honesty to oneself and to the emptiness also means living the truth and not just teaching it.
Humility
It seems to be the goal of all those searching to leave your own anger behind and lead an independent life free of suffering. If, for example, we are aware of the magnificence of nature, the starry sky, and the change of the seasons, it becomes clear what a small part of the universe we are. It is this show of nature which teaches us humility.
Gratitude
Gratitude belongs to the nature of the ZEN students, since they gratefully recall the good which was granted them through the ZEN practice. Gratitude paves the way to purity and lets us practice in a dignified way.
Forgiveness
We forgive because we want to practice active reconciliation with ourselves and our fellow man; we want to free ourselves of everything that stands in the way of enlightenment. Whoever remains caught in anger or rage is distracting himself from his spiritual journey.
Respect
When we practice respect for others and respect for life, we can leave our little ego and emotions behind us. These include fear, anger, jealousy, and lust. Other living beings also find themselves on the path to enlightenment and when we encounter them with respect, we move a step closer to our own enlightenment. Respecting the sanctity of life and treating all creatures well leads to freedom.
Joy
Although we want to separate ourselves from our emotions, dependencies, and illusions through ZEN, every long-term ZEN student has a deep understanding of what happiness and joy mean. Such joy arises from the disentanglement of earthly needs and appears of itself. The condition of Nirvana is the perpetual joy (arising from itself), in which there is neither worldly joy nor “non-joy”. Such perpetual joy arises from the harmony with emptiness.
Tolerance
“There are many different paths in the world, but the direction is the same. There are hundreds of considerations, but the result is one.” Tolerance means accepting that other spiritual paths and systems of belief are justified and one can learn from them. We respect this “otherness” and, through our spiritual humility, we can acquire the insight that we can learn something from other persuasions and paths. Tolerance does not mean that we deny our own beliefs. Rather, it means that we can accept other ways without judgment. All paths have their justification for existence.
Peace and serenity
Inner peace and serenity is more important than external possessions. A life with serenity and equanimity has an effect on living together with others. If we are at peace within, we do not react to the seeming absurdities of life with senseless indignation. We accept life, treat others with dignity, and can leave our ego and selfishness behind us. Inner peace is also a path to the perception that no individual ego exists. This is the key to liberation.
