Zen Habits: Virtue, Oneness and Efficiency

Zen habits are beneficial for everyone because everyone needs balance, peace and efficiency. Zen is simply a word that traces back to the idea of meditation, but is more commonly understood in vague terms of eastern balance, oneness and serenity. Zen habits are not strictly connected to eastern thinking though, if zen habits connect to the human condition, this pertains to all people. Christian doctrine has insight into what many call zen habits, as well as the Greek philosopher Aristotle. "If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand," Mark 3. And according to Aristotle, the balance between two extremes is where virtue is found, wherein our habits demonstrate virtue. As you can see, balance and integrity permeate the discussion.

If a person has balance within himself, and moves within the world without internal division, such a person will be virtuous and efficient. Zen habits involve peace and balance. A Christian may understand this internal balance as personal integrity that fights against the division of the self. "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing," Romans 7. Zen habits might be called habits of unity, and from such unity, power.

So what are habits?
Habits are quite possibly the one of the most important practical concerns a person has. Habits reflect character and connect to the fruitfulness of our labors. If this is so, then zen habits would pertain to virtue and efficiency of the agent.

Since we can modify our habits, strengthen, diminish, or even replace them, habits are different from inclinations or passions. Passions and inclinations do not easily change. Hunger exists throughout life but we can adapt our eating habits to certain purposes throughout life. Our desire for money or fulfillment is more or less consistent throughout life, but the quality of our beliefs and the strength of our discipline connect to the specific modes of our self-fulfillment and financial success. We can improve our beliefs. They can better approximate the truth. We can strengthen our discipline. We can obtain more noble and virtuous priorities that motivate us.

Good habits are relevant because being a good person is relevant.

Since habits reflect character and efficiency of action, habits are extremely relevant because they are the emblems of our lifetime accrual of knowledge applied to the world. The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we can work to understand them, whether we knowingly pursue Christian integrity, or unknowingly call zen habits.

Habits Reflect Character

Habits reflect character because individual choices stem from priorities and values. Why? Because every choice excludes another choice, and since this inevitably happens, your choices reflect your priorities. Habits reflect our values because our choices stem from our pursuits, and our values determine what we pursue in our lives. If you desire health, you might exercise and diet. If you desire financial prudence you might have clear habits of planning and revising your financial appropriations. If you value your public image, you might spend extra time on your clothes and mental preparations to meet and exceed social expectations. These are all habits. We must always ask ourselves, "Are my habits united and to good purposes?" Do your habits conform to the description of zen habits above? Or are they evidence of internal division?

Habits Connect to Production

Habits connect to production as a tool connects to the finished product in carpentry or automotive mechanics. A carpenter might use a lathe to form the leg of a table or a car mechanic might use a spark-plug socket to examine and replace spark-plugs. The lathe and the spark-plug sockets don't guarantee perfect results but as tools they connect to how efficiently and with what quality the job ultimately results. Clumsy tool, clumsy result: Attention-to-detail, refined product.

Though this may sound strange, habits are like these tools: we use habits. Wise people know this and constantly struggle to perfect their habits. Foolish people constantly treat habits as the end-all-be-all facts of their existence: 'it's who they are'.

If you are dead you can't change and improve. But if you are alive and are reading this article, you can improve your habits, strengthen them and make them more efficient and admirable.

So, do you want zen habits, Christian integrity, and oneness? Perhaps Christian doctrine is the answer to the question of zen habits? Until this is treated specifically, in any case, we must make a personal devotion to virtue and efficiency. To pursue virtue and efficiency, we must struggle to have a healthy relationship with God (through Christ), and subsequently, we must struggle for internal health, without division, by devoting special attention to good habits: noble goals and efficient application of method to those goals.

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Eph 4:22.