Typical Day

“What is your typical day?” is a question which people or students always ask me. I answered them roughly that my day started at 5 am, breakfast at 7 am, morning chanting at 8 am, lunch at 11 am, and evening chanting at 6 pm. The time between I just do my three main duties; studying scripture or something beneficial, meditation and talking to those who want to understand Buddhism. This is my typical day. But it is not the same as others. It depends on the program of the temple or individual routine. For example, the routine of Zen master, named Zoyen Zaku, who was the first Zen monk, traveling to America. He set himself the rule of living as follows;

Getting up early and practising sitting meditation (Zazen)
Eating breakfast in moderation and take a rest
Teaching those who want to understand and practise Zazen
Be mindful of speech; doing what is said and thinking before saying.
Not let the time pass freely
Don’t regret the past, but focus on the present moment
Sleeping time just sleeps as it is the last sleep.
The time to get up just leaves the bed as throwing the stinky old shoes.

It is a good rule to abide by, because life without rules or regulations is messy. We cannot just live a life; we must learn or discipline ourselves. There are many good rules or regulations, learn those and put them into practice in daily life. And then, life is in order, in peace, in harmony and happy.

Peace, harmony and happiness are goals of human living, don’t they? If yes, then the good rules or regulations should be applied in daily life. If no, just leave them then.