How do you make decisions?

[Ryumon]

Re: How do you make decisions?

Sigh... You're telling me you don't look and decide whether you should cross or not?

Kirk

[will]

Re: How do you make decisions?

When we do what we do, whether look both ways when we cross the street, or don't drive off a cliff, they are actions that are done, but they are just done. No right, no wrong only present action. If we were to stand around thinking about right and wrong, then it would take a long time to cross the street.

So which part of us labels what's right and what's wrong?

Gassho Will

[Ryumon]

Re: How do you make decisions?

Again I disagree. It's very zen to say there's no right or wrong, but, seriously, look at everything you do during a given day, look at how many decisions, if made incorrectly, could cost you your life. Crossing a street? Driving a car? Choosing fruit or food that may look like it's past its date?

There's right, there's wrong, and there's maybe. We make many more right/wrong decisions in a day, it's just we don't reflect on them because the right way (crossing the street on a green light) is so obvious.

Kirk

[Tb]

Re: How do you make decisions?

there is no right or wrong... only the idea of right or wrong.

Of course there's right and wrong, it's just we don't see it, because very few of our decisions are that crucial. Should I drive of that cliff, or make a left. There's certainly a right or wrong there. Should I put my hand into that animal's mouth? But since we came out of the caves, we don't often have decisions to make.

(Actually, if you watch yourself some day, you'd probably be surprised how many "right" decisions you make that keep you alive...)

Kirk

Hi.
I do believe if you say one thing is right then the other is wrong.
But that is only if you look in a small perspective, for example what may be right for you (eating a whole cheese because you like cheese) might be wrong for another (who is allergic to cheese).
To quote another old zenguy, you think to small!
There is no "universal right or wrong" there just is.

May the force be with you
Tb

[Ryumon]

Re: How do you make decisions?

there is no right or wrong... only the idea of right or wrong.

Of course there's right and wrong, it's just we don't see it, because very few of our decisions are that crucial. Should I drive of that cliff, or make a left. There's certainly a right or wrong there. Should I put my hand into that animal's mouth? But since we came out of the caves, we don't often have decisions to make.

(Actually, if you watch yourself some day, you'd probably be surprised how many "right" decisions you make that keep you alive...)

Kirk

[Dojin]

Re: How do you make decisions?

Yes i totally agree with Jundo.
there is no right or wrong... only the idea of right or wrong.

whenever someone asks me what do i think is right and what he should do...
i always tell them to do what feels right. and what they actually want to do... if they tell me that they do no know what they want or should do. i always remind them it is their life and they know better than anyone about it, they usually agree and admit it to themselves that they wish to do something more than the other.

but if you think of it, the right action one chooses is usually right for him, and even if it is wrong than it is wrong for him... one mans hell is another mans paradise.

i guess dropping all judgment of right and wrong good or bad. and anything else in zazen really transcends the sitting and accompanies you to all areas of life.

Gassho, Daniel ( making the "right" choice by keeping it short )

[Jundo]

Re: How do you make decisions?

Master Dogen and Nishijima Roshi were/are quite big on 'intuitive right action', the idea that we eventually harmonize with universal 'rightness' through our practice (we become somebody 'who cannot break the precepts' as Nishijam Roshi puts it).

Hi,

I don't think that anyone is saying that Zazen Practice will always let one know "the right decision" (e.g., which number to choose on the roulette wheel of life). I think that if you ask Nishijima Roshi's family members, students or the other folks that know and love him, they will tell you that he is not always "right" (even when he thinks he is). Same for anyone, long time Zen Practitioner or not.

But what Buddhist teachings and Zazen Practice will allow to happen is a new way to look at "right" and "wrong", and also a new way to open to ourselves in making choices.

So, for example, when practicing Zazen together with the Precepts, we tend to be gentler, more generous, patient, tolerant and forgiving (yes, the "6 Paramita Virtues" I am discussing on the netcast). We will also more easily seek to choose the way that avoids harm, and that is giving, harmless or helpful to ourselves and others (not two). Yes, I think our personality can change in that way. There will be less resistance to life, more a feeling of harmony and going with "the flow" (the 'Tao' perhaps).

But that does not mean that the effects of our actions will always be as we anticipate, or that the available data will be complete, or that we won't make dumb decisions or screw things up royally and make a mess of it all.

However, that is when our Zazen Practice allows us to know that, at the crossroads of life, the road we choose is just the road we choose, beyond "right" or "wrong". For that reason, being just our life, it is always "Right". If you seek to choose the straight and smooth road, but you accidently choose the winding, dead-end and bumpy road ... then just "bump bump bump!". That is life.

So, yes, in that way, our choices are always "Right"!

Gassho, Jundo (don't doubt what I say, for I am never wrong) 8)

[Alberto]

This link may be of interest in the study of the preson we tend to think makes decisions

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121450609076407973.html?mod=blogs