What principles define how you live?

This question is a trick. It beats against the very essence of life itself.

It is we who live. Principles should not define how we live. Rather, the way we live should define principles.

The question presupposes that life is a manual, a set of rules to be followed. But life is not a manual — it is a movement, a flow, a song.

The river doesn’t flow because of the banks; the banks exist because the river has carved its way.

A poem isn’t written because of grammar; grammar is noticed because poems and speech already exist.

Zen doesn’t arise from doctrine; doctrine arises from the living experience of practice.

So if you ask me what principles define how I live, I would say: None. I live. And from that living, principles may appear — as footprints, not as maps.