Eat When Hungry, Sleep When Tired

Text

Zen is not complicated. Eat when you are hungry. Sleep when you are tired. Sit zazen when it is time to sit. The whole difficulty is that we do not do these simple things—we eat without tasting, sleep without resting, sit without sitting. To return to the simplest action, completely, is the entire teaching. The most ordinary life, lived attentively, is already the life of a Buddha.

license: fair_use

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Taisen Deshimaru

Lineage: Sōtō

By Taisen Deshimaru

• Just Sitproverb
• The Cosmos in the Postureproverb
• Automatic Thinkingproverb
• Observe Your Own Mindproverb
• Mushotoku: Without Seeking Gainsaying

From Teachings of Taisen Deshimaru

• Just Sit
• The Cosmos in the Posture
• Automatic Thinking
• Observe Your Own Mind
• Mushotoku: Without Seeking Gain
• Hishiryo: Beyond Thinking
• The Posture Is the Teaching
• True Zen Is Useless
• Here, Now, Nothing Else
• Shikantaza: Only Sit

Sources

• contentZen Deshimaru - The history of Zen, from the Buddha to the modern world

  Zen Deshimaru Buddhist Association

  Kusen on ordinary mind, AZI dōjō transcripts

  Teachings of Taisen Deshimaru: Eat When Hungry, Sleep When Tired