As I’ve said before, I’m not a practitioner of Zen Buddhism … and yet I do believe in a number of its tenets, and have practiced zazen before. Still, it’s difficult to reconcile the Buddhist philosophy of eliminating desires with the self-development desire of striving for goals.

Reader Nick recently wrote:

“I don’t know if you address philosophical questions, but one that I’ve
been confronting recently is trying to reconcile zen thought with
desire to change your life.

If zen says to be who you are in the moment, where is there room for
wanting to find a different job or move to a different city? Where is
there room for doing anything other than what you are doing now?

How do you reconcile the zen idea of reducing desires and just being
with the desire to leave a boring job?”

My answer is that I don’t really have a good answer. I have given this some thought — accepting things as they are vs. wanting to change them — but I don’t have the perfect answer.

I think what I strive for is accepting the world as it is, accepting others as they are … but wanting to improve myself. Not that I can’t accept myself as a great person already, but that I actually enjoy learning new things, forming new habits, striving for goals.

That doesn’t really answer the desires dilemma, but I guess my answer would be that if I have completely eliminated all desires, I would already be at a state of perfection. I’m not even close to that!

I should note that in my limited understanding of Zen, it focuses less than the other branches of Buddhism on trying to eliminate desires … and more on doing. It emphasizes sitting (zazen) and everyday work over contemplating and philosophy. (Incidentally, this emphasis on doing is the core of my Zen To Done system.)

I think Nick poses a great question. I’d love to hear your thoughts — share in the comments!