Zen & the Art of Modern Living: A Non-Traditional Buddhist's Guide (By Joe Yan)

I'm not vegetarian. I don't sit down and recite passages every day. There isn't a shrine in my dorm room. I don't believe there is an afterlife. Yet, I still call myself a Buddhist.

After all, I believe religion is but a construct. It is a large, sophisticated story that mankind has fabricated, just like the ideas of country, laws, and individualistic free rights. However, despite being what I consider to be nothing more than a social construct, Buddhism provides us with many helpful principles for leading our modern lives. For instance, we can use Buddhist ideologies to combat our ever-growing materialistic desires. In today's capitalist economies, products are constantly viewed as the solution to human fulfillment. This is a large-scale problem that humanity has not faced in a long time—having too many options. Having too many options means that correspondingly there are more things that we desire. In Buddhist philosophy, it is believed that desires are what cause pain. Desires provide us with things that we want and unfulfilled expectations, and it is when we do not reach those expectations that we experience pain. A Buddhist mindset values detachment from physical things and recognizes the ever-changing nature of things. In the modern world context, I find that a Buddhist mindset allows me to calm down and reexamine my basic needs. If unnecessary desires cause me pain, then eliminating desires would bring me happiness. Thus, I often reevaluate my needs. What do I need? I find my answer to be simple: a roof, a bed, and some good books to elevate my mind with. Thus, I find Buddhism’s nihilistic ideologies to be a good way to combat capitalism's twin brother, consumerism.

I also find other principles of Buddhism to be helpful in my daily life. For instance, an emphasis on meditation and controlled breathing helps me reexamine my life from a more objective, detached state. Think about your daily life—how often does your mind spend on autopilot, detached from reality and drifting from the physical world? I find that this is a curse as I begin to overthink everything and my mind becomes fatigued, something that happens to me at tennis matches. I often get caught in storms of self-blame after I make a mistake. This serves only to harm me, as I lose focus on the court, and my shots become less precise. A way I have coped with this is by slowly and controlled breathing every time before a point. I empty my head and focus on the new point.

From battling consumerism to emptying the mind, Buddhism has provided me with many helpful tools for the well-being of my mind. Similarly, I hope Buddhist principles can spread to others and calm their chaotic daily lives.