In this series, I want to explore simplicity through the eyes of different people. Hopefully, this will enrich our ideas about simplicity and help answer those questions for both you and I.

What is Simplicity According to Zen?

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism that focuses on direct experience of its teachings. In fact, its legendary founder Bodhidharma asserted that Zen is a “special transmission outside scriptures” which does “not stand upon words.”

While Zen has a lot to teach us about simplicity, I’m going to draw specifically on two aspects linked to Zen that I first learned about from the seminal book Zen and Japanese Culture by Dr. D.T. Suzuki.

Wabi – the Love of Poverty

What is wabi? Dr. Suzuki says that it translates to “aloneness”, “poverty”, or “not to be in the fashionable society of the time.” He puts that wabi “characterizes the entirety of Japanese culture reflecting the spirit of Zen.”

To be poor, that is, not to be dependent on things worldly – wealth, power and reputation – and yet to feel inwardly the presence of something of the highest value, above time and social position: this is what essentially constitutes wabi. Stated in terms of practical everyday life, wabi is to be satisfied with a little hut, a room of two or three tatami (mats), like the log cabin of Thoreau, and with a dish of vegetables picked in the neighboring fields, and perhaps to be listening to the pattering of a gentle spring rainfall.

Dr. Suzuki tells a story of Sen no Rikyū, the founder of the art of Japanese tea as it is practiced today, that helps illustrates the idea of wabi.

A teaman of Sakai owned a caddy of a special pattern entitled “Unzan Katatsuki.” As the ware was quite well known among teamen and prized by them, the owner was naturally proud of it. One day he invited Rikyū to tea and used this caddy. But Rikyū did not seem to be very much concerned about it and left the house with no comments. The owner was upset over this, and immediately broke it to pieces by striking it against the gotoku, and sighed, “What is the use these days of keeping an article not at all approved of by Rikyū?”

A friend of the owner’s later collected the broken pieces of the caddy and glued them together carefully so as to restore the original pattern. The work was done with a great deal of skill, and he thought the mended caddy was not after all a poor specimen. He conceived the idea of inviting Rikyū to tea and using the caddy again to see what Rikyū would say about it.

While the tea was being served, Rikyū’s keen eye at once detected the same old caddy now pieced together. He said, “Is this not the same caddy I saw elsewhere some time ago? When it is repaired like this, it has really turned into a piece of wabi.”

Photo by Est Bleu2007.

Sabi – Rustic Simplicity

Another aspect of Zen that is closely linked to wabi is sabi; which “consists in rustic unpretentiousness or archaic imperfection, apparent simplicity or effortlessness in execution, and richness in historical associations (which, however, may not always be present); and lastly, it contains inexplicable elements that raise the object in question to the rank of an artistic production.”

Another story of Sen no Rikyū helps us to understand sabi.

When Rikyū was invited to a first winter tea party somewhere, he was accompanied by his son-in-law. When they stepped into the court, they noticed the gate hung with an ancient-looking door. The son-in-law remarked that it savored highly of sabi. But Rikyū smiled somewhat sarcastically: “This is far from savoring of sabi, my son; it is on the contrary a most expensive piece of work. Look here closely. Such a door as this is not to be found in the vicinity. It must have come from a remote mountain temple far away from the human world. Think of the amount of labor to bring it here, for which the master must have paid dearly. If he had understood what genuine sabi is, he would have searched for a suitable door ready-made or made to order among the neighboring dealers, and would have had it pieced together with an old board found among his premises. Then the door fixed here would certainly savor of sabi. The taste shown before us is not a genuine one.” It was thus the son-in-law was taught the art in a practical way.

Photo by mandolux.

Simplicity is Imperfect

I take it Dr. Suzuki wasn’t suggesting that to pursue the simple life, we should all seek to be poor. Rather, he was saying that “however ‘civilized,’ however much brought up in an artificially-contrived environment, we all seem to have an innate longing for primitive simplicity, close to the natural state of living.”

We see that simplicity according to Zen – from the aspect of wabi-sabi – means a quiet appreciation of simple moments & things, and that simplicity may be imperfect but not without quality.

The door which Rikyū criticized failed to have this quality because it had tried too hard to get it. So did the well-known tea caddy that failed at first to get Rikyū’s attention. But once the caddy had been broken and carefully repaired, it effortlessly embodied wabi-sabi from its being. Yet it wasn’t enough that it had been glued together and become imperfect, the care and attention that was put into its repair added a touch of rustic quality to it that so charmed Rikyū.

It is this sense of quality in an imperfect simplicity that is best illustrated in this last story about the tea-master Rikyū.

When Rikyū was still apprentice at the art of tea, his master told him to sweep the roji – the court attached to the tearoom. The roji had already been swept clean by the master himself. When Rikyū came out, not a speck of dust was to be found, but he at once read the master’s mind. Shaking a tree a little, he let a few leaves fall on the ground. This pleased the master.

Photo by amy’s pocket-camera.

9rules Productivity Community

The 9rules Productivity Community, of which I’m a proud member, is full of updated links to good personal development posts from fellow members.

43 Folders

The inimitable 43 Folders, one of the most original, real and funny productivity blogs in the history of the internets.

Adam Khoo

Adam, the self-made Singaporean millionaire whom I used to coach for.

Christine Kane

Christine Kane, songwriter, musician, inspirational, personal development blogger and one hell of a writer.

gapingvoid

How do you describe gapingvoid? Cartoons drawn on the back of a business card? Marketing and Web 2.0? Sheer brilliant genius?

Itty Biz

Itty Biz had me at hello. Any coach that tells her clients “you have fuck all to be afraid of” gains my instant admiration. More than just work from home tips to keep you sane, Naomi’s a fantastic writer whom you just can’t miss (I even bought her book!).

Lifehacker

Lifehacker shows you how to twist and hack technology so that it actually makes your life easier instead of more complicated. Perfect for a geek like me who spends so much time in front of tech.

Mr Wang Says So

Mr Wang Says So is a blend of mostly local commentary and sometime personal development. But when he does write about personal development, boy does this sharp and successful lawyer blow me away.

Popagandhi

Popagandhi’s not about personal development per se, but she sure is living it and with her fearless traveling, she’s just as inspirational.

Steve Pavlina

The most well-known name in personal development blogging probably has the plainest looking personal development blog as well - which is a neat testament to just how good Steve Pavlina is.

Successful Blog

Don’t be deceived by the title, Successful Blog may be about how to create a successful blog, but it’s also full of inspiring posts on how to create a successful life. I’m in deep awe of how real and warm Liz comes through in her writing.

Tim Ferriss

The blog of Tim Ferriss, author of the original and thought-provoking The 4-Hour Workweek.

Unclutterer

Whenever I need some inspiration to clean up and declutter my space, I head to Unclutterer, one of the sites that got me on the path to living a simpler life. I also get a big kick from seeing other people’s clean spaces in the Unclutterer flickr pool.

Wake Up Tiger

The idea behind Wake Up Tiger is simple, a picture and an inspiring paragraph per post. And it is always so, very good.

Zen Habits

Together with Unclutterer, with its many tips on simplifying your life Zen Habits inspired me to start living more Zen.

That’s it for this list! Hope you enjoy these personal development blogs as much as I have. Stay tuned for more inspiring links from Life Coaches Blog. Have a good weekend!

He said: “try not, do or do not”. Luke was ‘trying’ to lift his aircraft using his Jedi powers, and he failed.

If you are a NLP Practitioner, you know about the power of words.

The words ‘try’ and ‘do’ have an neurological effect to the brain and to some micro-muscles in our body that impact your performance when you do anything.

But There’s More to It Spiritually

When I “try” to make a mental action or verbal action or physical action, the mind doesn’t believe (or have confidence) that what I am about to do is going to work.

When I “do” and make mental action or verbal action or physical action, the mind isn’t concerned about belief but rather concentrates on what I am about to do in the present moment.

No belief makes you a skeptic. Skeptical about:

1. Yourself
2. Your method (or the mechanics of it)
3. The ones who gave this method

When you have skepticism, your mind can’t concentrate.

When you can’t concentrate, you can’t focus.

When you can’t focus, then you’re out of balance.

When you’re out of balance, then you can’t stand on your own two feet.

When you can’t stand on your own two feet then you fall.

The power of words is just one domain to enter into your heart and soul. The essential core of your being is to get rid of skepticism and gain concentration.

Rather than say to yourself that “I can do it”, or “I will do my best”, try to get rid of skepticism and gain full concentration of your mind in the moment. And then you can do your best at your best performance without even trying.

Skepticism is your foe, drive away from it.

Concentration is your friend, stick with it.

How? By meditation. Close your eyes right now, and stay with the moment by observe your breath for 5 minutes. Then continue to surf with the power of concentration.

‘Try’ or ‘do’ doesn’t matter now when you have the power of concentration.

Close your eyes and do it now

Editor’s Note: I’ve cleaned up some of Paiboon’s text and added a clip of the famous Yoda scene to help refresh your memory

Time sure flies, we’ve been around for 2 years and 8 months now. Today, we stand at 507 posts, spaced out at 64 pages and 14 writers who’ve contributed to Life Coaches Blog.

We’ve gone through 2 revisions of the site’s design and today we’re introducing the 3rd revision. It’s even simpler to navigate, full of new features and it’s really beautiful. If you’re reading this post through an RSS reader or email, click here to take a look.

Why the Change?

I’ve changed in the past year. I’ve grown to enjoy simplicity, decluttering my life and space by letting go of the unimportant things in my life.

The more that happened, the more the previous version of Life Coaches Blog started looking cluttered to me. There was a growing disconnect between my life, and the life of Life Coaches Blog. I could no longer feel comfortable in its skin, I was even a little embarrassed at its look and some of the things I had written before.

But there were also posts that I felt proud of, and even though I may be spending less time on the site, I felt a need to honor the time and effort we had already spent on our posts. The previous version of Life Coaches Blog wasn’t easy to navigate, and I needed a better way to present our existing content.

What was the Inspiration?

These are some of the designs that inspired me to push for the 3rd generation. What I got from them wasn’t as much about the exact visual look, but the feel and the essence of their designs. They all have an understated simplicity to them, marrying both form and function in a clean, organized and thoughtful way, which I really enjoy and admire.

Wordpress 2.5

Facebook

37signals

Apple

MUJI

Photo by yoppy.

Behind the New Look

I started with the 3rd generation by doing a new re-design on my own. After working on it for a few weeks in my free time, I realized that I would never get it up to the standard I wanted in time. One, because I didn’t have the time, and two, because I didn’t have the programming expertise.

In the end, I took a leaf from the The 4-Hour Workweek and decided to outsource the work. When I saw the Fresh News Theme designed by Magnus Jepson and Adii, I fell in love with it instantly.

Here was a theme that was elegantly designed, with the simple aesthetic I loved, yet came with all the advanced functionality that I needed. Not only that, the theme also has a helpful support forum where I’ve received considerable help in customizing the theme to make it my own.

Being the first purchased theme in Life Coaches Blog’s 3 generations, that also makes it the first unoriginal design. When buying the theme, I knew I might see it on other sites, but for its quality and the time it would save me, I felt that it was a worthwhile trade-off.

7 New Changes at Life Coaches Blog

Besides the new simpler and understated look, there are also a host of new features, all designed to help you enhance your browsing experience at Life Coaches Blog.

1. Author Biographies at the End of Each Post

Now at the end of each post, you’ll see a short bio of the post’s author, together with an option to contact the author. If you click on his name, you’ll also see a list of all his posts. Great for a blog that has multiple authors.

2. Gravatar Support

Together with an author bio, the new Life Coaches Blog also has gravatar support. Now you can see my mug whenever I make a post and comment! Sign up at Gravatar to see your own portrait appear whenever you leave a comment.

3. More Comprehensive Archives

The archives page is more comprehensive now, offering you new ways to go through our posts. Besides the ability to browse via author as mentioned, in the archives you can also search by category and month. It’s a lot cleaner than the previous version of our archives and I really like it.

4. 1/3 Less Advertisements

You’ll notice that the heavy sidebar advertisements on the sidebar are now all gone, and the in-post ad has been replaced with a much smaller version. The decision to remove the sidebar ads and reduce the in-post ad size by a third was a long way in coming, because they were both the highest earning ads in the previous version of Life Coaches Blog.

But the previous incarnation of Life Coaches Blog and the present one serve different purposes. The second generation was designed with heavy ad-placement in mind, but since my decision to spend less time on Life Coaches Blog, my initial goals of making Life Coaches Blog a profit center has diminished.

Instead, I’ve chosen to declutter the site and make it more pleasing to read, even though it will probably mean a one-third decrease in site revenue. But that’s a trade-off I’m quite willing to make.

5. A Cleaner Sidebar

With less ads, the site is now less cluttered and the sidebar is a lot cleaner. Although the original Fresh News theme comes with a lot of sidebar options, for easy navigation I’ve opted to drop most of them and keep only the most popular posts, comments, recent posts and my favorite quotes of the day. It’s a lot cleaner and the emphasis on content is a lot clearer.

6. A Cleaner Contact Form

I was never quite happy with the previous contact form, it had some CSS problems I could never quite fix and the lack of a security question meant a lot of spam in my inbox.

The new Life Coaches Blog contact and article submission forms are using the superb cforms II plugin by delicious:days. It’s bar none, the best forms plugin I’ve seen and one of the best plugins I’ve ever seen for Wordpress. It’s beautifully designed outside-in, comes with a whole host of customizable features, an easy-to-use interface, a PDF guide, screencast tutorial and support forum. I really enjoyed using it and I love the way it looks.

7. Cleaner Pages

I’ve always been slightly embarrassed about the loud, showy text on the previous versions of the About Us and Store pages. They were written when I was in a different place in my writing and mindset, and I cring now to read their over-the-top sales pitches.

So I’ve gone back and cleaned up the pages and made them simpler, and more real. Now they’re something I can live with.

What Do You Think?

I hope you enjoy the new look. I’m liking it tremendously. It’s reflecting a lot more where I am in my life right now, and is something I’m quite proud of.

So, now that you’re seeing it for the first time, what do you think about the 3rd generation of Life Coaches Blog?

In fact, to me monkhood is nothing much, it’s just wearing a different uniform, from Dockers’ pants to saffron robes, or like working in a different firm.

What’s more, being a monk is what’s made an individual like me change.

And l don’t feel inadequate or contempt or inferior. I only feel happy.

The answer actually boils down into just one sentence.

I just ‘let it go’.

When I let go, I feel lighter. When I feel lighter, I feel happier.

Look at this mathematic function [y = 1/x]

When ‘x’ is less, ‘y’ is more.

When ‘x’ is a lot lesser, ‘y’ is even much, much more - exponentially more.

‘y’ = happiness, ‘x’ = the attachment I have.

Why is that so? That’s how the game works; it is the law of nature. When you let go of something from your hand, obviously you feel lighter. No doubt about it, right?

Why Can’t I Let Go?

Let it go…but how?

You know yourself that sometimes you have to let go of certain things in your life to make your life happier each day, but somehow it doesn’t work.

“Why can’t I forget him after so many years of relationships” or “Ahhh…This person makes me so frustrated!” or “Oh…they have it? I also have to have it.”

Letting go sounds easy but why can’t we do it sometimes? You know why? It’s a law of cause and effect.

You can’t let go by just letting-go. You have to produce enough cause for ‘letting go’ to happen.

What causes the ‘let-go’ effect? That’s a question we shall address today.

The Path

The answer is ‘The Path’. When I step on this path, the ‘letting-go’ effect begins to take shape and I become lighter. When I become lighter, I feel freedom. When I feel freedom then I feel relaxed. When I feel relaxed, then I become tranquil. When I’m suffused with tranquility, then I experience equanimity from within. And this is the process of happiness.

What is The Path? It consist of 8 elements.

1. Right Understanding

You have to understand what the problem is, and what isn’t. When you realize what the problem is then you can solve it.

2. Right Thought

Those negative thoughts are harmful. Get rid of them.

3. Right Speech

When you have positive thoughts then you can speak positively. In fact, speaking positively can also influence positive thought and vice-versa.

4. Right Physical Action

It doesn’t mean to take action towards your goal, it means to act positively. When you think positive, say positive things, then of course you can act positively.

5. Right Livelihood

When your ‘thoughts’, ‘speech’ and ‘action’ are right, then you have to put it into your life. Living by doing it all the time. Live by it.

6. Right Effort

In doing all these, you have to put in your effort. A kite needs to go against the wind to be able to go up. Whenever obstacles put you into the negative domain, you have to use your effort to push it back.

7. Right Mindfulness

Be careful, sometimes negativity comes. So you have to be mindful. Guard all your senses by being mindful of what enters your mind.

8. Right Meditation

It is a balance of the mind. It the state of mind where you can gain inside happiness and use this power to ‘let-go’.

I hope you can start to hop on The Path and experience more inner peace, by letting go of some of the things that have been bothering you right now.

Be well.

P.S. Alvin mentioned about Living The Important, that’s an exact example of how we use our path to be happier and make the most out of our life.

Edit from Alvin: I’ve made some changes to the grammar and helped Paiboon create a table.

“Quitting gets you to mastery. Dropping things that you are mediocre at and focusing on the things that you can be truly great at is the only path to mastery…We have a bizarre preoccupation with thinking that if we only do more things, at a more frantic pace, that somehow we will be successful. Hogwash, says Seth, Andrea Lee and Tim Ferriss…The key is to focus on one thing at a time, and give yourself enough space, resources and energy to grow it to fruition.” Lessons from Seth Godin’s talk about “The Dip” in Phoenix at Escape from Cubicle Nation.

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.” The Simple Dollar reminds us of the things money can’t buy. Be sure to watch the powerful speech by Jim Valvano, who passed away from cancer less than two months afterwards.

“If you’re someone who gets nervous around people because you care about what they think, then you most likely don’t fully understand who you are yet. You’ll lack core confidence, having to work hard to please everyone. Tragically, when you don’t know yourself, you’ll automatically accept the feedback you get from other people as truth.” Kinowear’s writing about the ultimate congruence to your style, but there’s a lot of good advice in there also about being congruent with yourself.

“And, finally, is it conceivable that what you really need the break from is new demands on your time? What does solving that problem look like? And can it really be accomplished simply by unplugging a few things for a day or two?” The always insightful and funny Merlin Mann on taking a virtual break.

P.S. Talking about breaks, by the time this goes online I should be happily on a short break of my own