Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life

118 Pages·2003·0.64 MB·English

by  Ezra Bayda (Author)

“Bayda writes with exceptional clarity and simplicity about the awakened
life. He has a gift for describing ‘ordinary mind,’ or the customary thoughts,
feelings, and experiences of everyday life. His style is as plainspoken as
Pema Chödrön’s. He deserves membership in the ranks of respected
meditation teacher-authors.”
—Publishers Weekly

“With clarity and compassion, Bayda applies Zen Buddhist principles to
everyday life. He explains how all experiences, both pleasant and
unpleasant, help us to discover our ‘path’ to wisdom and an open heart.
Presented here are realistic suggestions to help us survive the journey.”
—Library Journal

“Ezra Bayda wisely translates the Eastern spiritual belief into an extremely
useful handbook for practice. Being Zen is humble and direct, which
reminds me most of Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. It is
what its title states—not an explanation of Buddhism or Zen, but an
essential guide to its daily practice. Bayda’s is a gentle, sharing voice that
evenly embraces humor and sincerity, bringing reason and heart-sense to
our most irrational behaviors.”
—Parabola

“A skillful wedding of mindfulness and Zen—straightforward, simple, and
wise.”
—Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the
Laundry
ABOUT THE BOOK
We can use whatever life presents, Ezra Bayda teaches, to strengthen our
spiritual practice—including the turmoil of daily life. What we need is the
willingness to just be with our experiences—whether they are painful or
pleasing—opening ourselves to the reality of our lives without trying to fix
or change anything. But doing this requires that we confront our most
deeply rooted fears and assumptions in order to gradually become free of
the constrictions and suffering they create. Then we can awaken to the
loving-kindness that is at the heart of our being.
While many books aspire to bring meditation into everyday experience,
Being Zen gives us practical ways to actually do it, introducing techniques
that enable the reader to foster qualities essential to continued spiritual
awakening. Topics include how to cultivate:

Perseverance: staying with anger, fear, and other distressing
emotions.
Stillness: abiding with chaotic experiences without becoming
overwhelmed.
Clarity: seeing through the conditioned beliefs and fears that “run”
us.
Direct experience: encountering the physical reality of the present
moment—even when that moment is exactly where we don’t want to
be.

Like Pema Chödrön, the best-selling author of When Things Fall Apart,
Ezra Bayda writes with clear, heartfelt simplicity, using his own life stories
to illustrate the teachings in an immediate and accessible way that will
appeal to a broad spectrum of readers.

EZRA BAYDA teaches at Zen Center San Diego. He is also the author of
Being Zen, At Home in the Muddy Water, Saying Yes to Life (Even the Hard
Parts), and Zen Heart. For more information, visit
www.zencentersandiego.org.
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being zen
Bringing Meditation to Life

Ezra Bayda

SHAMBHALA
BOSTON & LONDON
2012
SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Horticultural Hall
300 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
www.shambhala.com

© 2002 by Ezra Bayda

Cover art and design: Jonathan Sainsbury

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUES THE HARDCOVER EDITION OF THIS BOOK AS
FOLLOWS:
Bayda, Ezra.
Being zen: bringing meditation to life/Ezra Bayda.
p. cm.
eISBN 978-0-8348-2340-2
ISBN 978-1-57062-856-6
ISBN 978-1-59030-013-8 (paperback)
1. Zen meditations. I. Title.
BQ9289.5.B39 2002
294.3′927—dc21 2001044166
To the memory of Susan Loda, who lived the practice life with
courage, kindness, and grace
Contents

Foreword by Charlotte Joko Beck
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part I: The Basics of Practice

1. Skating on Thin Ice
2. Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control
3. Swiss Cheese
4. Experiencing and the Witness
5. The Eighty-Fourth Problem
6. Three Aspects of Sitting

Part II: Practicing with Emotional Distress

7. The Substitute Life
8. Practicing with Anger
9. Practicing with Fear
10. Practicing with Pain and Suffering
11. Practicing with Distress
12. Work and Practice

Part III: Awakening the Heart of Compassion

13. Hard and Soft
14. Letting Be
15. Loving-Kindness
16. Loving-Kindness Meditation
17. Awakening the Heart of Compassion

Epilogue: What Is Our Life About?
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Foreword

LIVING IN OUR “ADVANCED” culture, its increasing unease becomes obvious: the
faster we race toward our many goals, the less we know of serenity and
satisfaction. Life, for most of us, remains a wearying puzzle. Although we may
try to be indifferent to our predicament, this evasion is again unsatisfactory.
Until we realize that we are truly nothing but life itself, we will keep trying to
change and manipulate life in hopes of solving the terrifying puzzle it presents.
We may even stumble toward the real teachings that exist in the great religions
and also outside of them. But it is difficult to understand them as more than
concepts (which may assist us to a degree but falls short of the mature,
integrated understanding we long for). So what do we do?
A big, big question! Many excellent books describe very well the human
predicament, its elements and structure. Very few of them are helpful in making
clear what is involved in developing a genuinely useful practice. To say “Just let
it go” is like telling an exhausted drowning person to “Just swim to shore.”
If you want to wake up, not just talk about it, this book will give you practical
guidance—the kind of guidance that you need. Not simplistic, formulaic “Just do
it this way” guidance, but words that give you practical help, combined with
encouragement—even inspiration—for your efforts. And even though all reading
is preliminary, it is often a crucial first step. Both for beginning students and for
longtime practitioners, this book will clarify the muddy waters.
And Ezra, the guide? Although I have known him for years as a student, a
friend, and now a fellow teacher, I hesitate to string a lot of nice adjectives with
his name—these are never the exact truth of a person. But I do live with Ezra’s
kindness, his steadiness and keen perceptiveness—and most of all, his unceasing
practice. And I am confident in recommending his book to you. Enjoy it and
benefit.

—Charlotte Joko Beck
Acknowledgments

I WISH TO EXPRESS MY DEEP GRATITUDE to Charlotte Joko Beck, my teacher and
friend. Much of what I have learned, and much of what appears in this book,
comes directly from my work with her. I’d also like to thank Stephen Levine and
Pema Chödrön, both of whom have strongly influenced my path, especially
helping to temper the precision and discipline of my Zen training with the more
heartfelt quality of loving-kindness.
Many thanks to Carolyn Miller, who voluntarily typed the entire text without
complaint, making many valuable suggestions along the way. I’m also grateful to
my daughter, Jenessa, for her thorough and merciless editing. Just knowing I
would be subject to her scrutiny inspired me to be clearer.
When I submitted my manuscript to the publisher, I thought it was complete
and ready to go. Little did I know! It was my good fortune to work with Emily
Hilburn Sell, who shaped and edited my words, cutting out the deadwood while
skillfully highlighting the unifying themes. I am indebted to her for bringing this
book into its present form. In the process we became good friends.
I would also like to thank Elizabeth Hamilton, my wife, friend, and teacher—
but not just for her invaluable suggestions on the text. I consider her unwavering
support, as well as the strength of her own practice, to be instrumental in helping
me to learn what I have learned these last years—the learning out of which this
book developed.