Zen and making a living

5/4/2011

Zen and making a living

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As many of you are already aware, June 4, Wind-in-Grass will be presenting its 5th full day meditation workshop.

The theme will be Career and Meditation ("Zen and the art of making a living"?). Broadly, we will be exploring the seeming contradiction between a meaningful career and its responsibilities, and a spiritual practice and discussing how to navigate, and combine the two.

But I thought it would be an interesting experiment to give the Sangha the opportunity to shape the talk that affects us all (well, not you trust fund babies): What interests you about this subject?

For example- David Weinstein brought up the experience of having to work during sesshin for 36 hours in order to attend, and knowing others were having to make work calls there etc.
I was curious what to do with the fact that koan practice makes my mind so supple and flexible, that sometimes I feel like it might be harming me at work, where I need structure and plasticity.

This has been sent around internally. Some of the initial responses have been:

"At the end of the work day, I am all worked up, mind moving a mile a minute. Its a high, its stressful, its exhausting. After a day of meditation, its like the opposite- I feel calm, centered, relaxed. The obvious answer to resolving the contradiction seems to be "make work your practice", but how can really do that?"

"Things that come to mind are: -Are my life [work] and my practice two different things?- Obviously that is a stacked question, because my experience is that they're not. But I do still watch my mind create that distinction. and from here are all the little assumptions that arise from making that distinction: I need time to have a spiritual practice Practice is what I do on the pillow Wanting to make a living is somehow wrong This should look different blah blah blah...."

"Does awakening mean I am going to have to leave my corporate job?"

"Should I chase my passion or be happy with 'just a job'? Where's the balance?"

PLEASE use the comment section to build the discussion, even if you are not thinking of attending, your experiences and questions are what this practice is all about

9 Comments

Leah

5/4/2011 07:00:14 am

IWork and zen connected for me this sesshin. I was dealing with a difficult management situation while driving to Santa Rosa. Wrestling with how to deal with it. My first response: irritation...employee requires a stern reply...situation and leadership here means being hard. Not my usual style, but I thought it might be something to practice. Was all prepared to go with that. But then, as it does, sitting changed things around. Didn't plan for it to. It just did. I had to have my conversation while at sesshin. (One of the teachers gave up her room to give me a quiet place.) And, interestingly, what came out wasn't a lecture or discipline but a conversation...trying to understand where the employee was coming from...trying to work toward a solution...showing my biggest motivation--which was concern...

So, I guess this points to one of my questions: Sitting was not something I expected to use as a management tool. Why was it such a good one? How did that shift take place? And how can I tap into that same thing when days get busy and hectic and the last thing I feel like I have time for is sitting?

5/4/2011 07:24:59 am

Also...

Does sitting while waiting in commute traffic or between meetings "count"? Am I still able to notice things i...be aware...focus...if multitasking while doing it?

So far, the answer for me is no. But I wonder why that is.

I can do two things at once. I know I can walk and mediatate...walk AS meditation. It's one of my favorite things. I know that when I was in college, long nighttime drives back to campus down deserted highways felt reflective and deep in the same way as sitting on the cushion. And I often drop into the zone while writing, drawing, or dancing. My hands or feet are moving and it's like time around me stops.

But meditating while in meetings...networking...driving... those don't feel the same...

Leah

Jesse

5/4/2011 08:36:49 am

I've found that often work is the place where my practice is most alive. Trouble at work provides great grist for the mill in many ways. I struggle with coming in to work with a silent mind and not being able to ramp up my cognitive engine fast enough to keep up.

5/4/2011 09:31:34 am

Apparently, this is a more important topic and stirring topic to me than I thought.

I also struggle with (and wonder about) not knowing in a work context. In zen, not knowing is a good thing... the best thing, really. But is it at work?

Telling a colleague or a client, "I don't know the answer, but let me find out and get back with you...or I don't know but I know who does" can be a really powerful, great response. Certainly better than bullshitting.

And not knowing does give the opportunity for collaboration and other people to step in / step up.

But often, especially in leadership positions or client pitches, I feel like I do need to know. Answer ready. Buttoned up. Decisive and definitive. What does not knowing mean in that context? How can you lead and inspire confidence and still not know?

jesse

5/4/2011 11:31:46 am

Leah, I especially like your first post about the difficult conversation. I love that part about thinking you need to be a certain person in an upcoming situation but doing something different instead. It's like, Well, I think I'm going to need This Self for this thing I've got going on later...but Selfs expire, so I can never count on them to still be around and be available when I think I need them--like I'm constantly shedding skin. And whatever Self I have when that moment arrives (or doesn't arrive, as the case often is), well, that's the Self I've got at my disposal right then. Grand! Fantastic! (To me that points to where Zhao Zhou, in response to "Does a dog have Buddha nature," replies alternately "no" and "yes" on two separate occasions) I'm so glad you said that :) And I think your story points to the most fabulous thing about all this: zen is at the very bottom of everything for me. It's bigger than any one thing like work, school, relationships, etc. So it's a great tool for everything.

I've noticed lately that there's less and less difference between my experience of my Regular Life and when I'm Meditating. Most of the time now I feel pretty much the same when I'm walking around or doing things as when I'm meditating, which is to say: Not Very Special. I think doing the practice when I'm driving or doing work or shitting or whatever is what it's all about and it's kind of neat that it's not the same when you meditate in a meeting.

Yeah, not knowing is most intimate and all that. It's good!

I agree with the last part, too. Cuz in the middle of a meeting, when someone asks me a question and all I can come up with is, "man, the temperature in here is just PERFECT" or "Oh wow, that bird is totally singing inside me" or absolutely. Nothing. At all., well, it doesn't go real well.

But then I have two responses for myself in that case:

1. Maybe there's some kind of work out there that is better suited to my particular mind (which there is)

and

2. I've never been fired for not having an answer (but I've never been above the bottom floor of the totem pole either).

and, actually

c. What is my life about? Is it about giving the right answer to a question? Sometimes I think I'll never be materially successful because it's becoming less and less about giving the right answer...but somehow I think I'm in and heading for some other kind of success...

OK! that's enough.

5/5/2011 04:21:20 am

Jesse, okay--good points. It IS interesting that meditation is not the same in a meeting. Also interesting that, apparently, I am valuing the experience of calm/clarity over all others. My frizzy frazzled self...when that one shows when my eyes open for the morning, I generally do everything I can to tamp it down before I get to the office. No one is fooled, though, are they? Or, maybe the frizzy frazzled is actually more interesting.

What keeps coming up this week: the idea that being perfect is the fastest way to alienate people. If you're perfect, no one can relate.

So, there's a question for our career seminar: who among your colleagues do you most respect, value, and relate to? In my case, the people who put it all out there. The smoking..the date misadventures...the clumsiness...the broken down cars...the people who have a smile but don't hide behind it. Real life is compelling. And that is usually a messy thing (dried sh*t stick.)

You also raise another good question: What kinds of successes are there?

Whee.

5/6/2011 12:18:09 am

*waving hello*

5/8/2011 08:54:53 am

Jesse, I read this earlier in the week. Thought of you and success...

"If you look at famous creative people (Einstein, Edison, Franklin, etc.) they have some common characteristics:

- Many did not do well in the traditional educational structure.
- They are a social bunch who thrive on visiting and talking with people.
- They don't give up and are highly motivated.
- They worked long and hard and made a lot of mistakes before they created something for which they are renowned.
- Their early experiences where varied and filled with the freedom to explore.
- They have excellent senses of humor."

-- Houaling 'Leading Change by Developing a Culure of Innovation' The Chair Academy Conference

5/8/2011 09:04:13 am

Most of my of my postings here make me laugh. They’re all about looking all puffy and important. “Employee”…sets up hierarchy. Which there isn’t. And all week I've kept trying to remember the koan about that… Kept thinking it was something about no titles. I finally remembered, late last night, that It's "trued person of no rank." Then I promptly forgot again. *Wry laughter here*

So there's a question: what does "no rank" mean in a work situation? How do you operate without rank? And what happens when you try to pull rank - or think you need to? Or feel like you've somehow achieved one?

Jesse - that totem pole? Maybe it's more like one of those rolling logs you see in lumberjack games...the ones people are trying to stand and balance on in water. Bounce. Whoa! Splash.

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