Zen Lessons from Nature

Abstract

This chapter examines Zen’s understanding of the place of human beings in the wider natural world. It begins by explaining how Zen thinks of freedom as “freedom in nature” rather than as “freedom from nature.” It then discusses how samu or “meditative work” was incorporated into Zen practice, and how it brings practitioners into a more intimate relation with nature. Recounting a personal experience of raking and composting maple leaves at a Zen monastery in Kyoto, it suggests that one of the virtues that can be learned from this intimate working with nature is what Zen, and Mahayana Buddhism in general, calls the Perfection of Giving. The chapter ends by commenting on how Zen masters have instructed their students to learn Zen from the sights and sounds of the natural world.