The Art of Zen Living

“Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.”

- Shunryu Suzuki

We set goals every day.  Some small (I’ve got to run to the store and get milk today) and some big (I’m going to go back to school and learn how to write).  I’ve read a lot about how to set goals, how to achieve goals, and the importance of setting specific goals.  I’ve seen very little written on the topic of setting good goals.  What is a good goal, anyway?  Goals are as different as the people that set them.  If you want to be rich, then your goals are likely to be very different from the goals set by someone that wants to be raise a large family.  But what is a “good” goal?  From a Buddhist view, a “good” or skillful goal would be one that, when achieved, reduced the suffering (or, if you prefer, enhanced the happiness) in the world.  The tricky part is in looking at all the ways we’re connected, and making sure that you aren’t enhancing your happiness at the expense of enhancing someone else’s suffering. So how do you do that?

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