Zen at Work

Ironically, nearly as many people as attended had to cancel due to work...

That said, there was a great turn out this Saturday for Zen at Work, a discussion of the sometimes seeming contradiction between our meditative practice on the cushion and our practice at work. 

David Weinstein led the conversation which was spirited, wholehearted and vigorous the whole afternoon.  It seemed everyone wanted to talk about what happens 9-5. 

So we sat with the koan "Master, I am new to this monastery, what can you tell me about my practice that will help me?''. "have you had your breakfast?" "yes."  "then wash your bowls". 

So we discussed how we wash our work bowls.  How we know when its time to get up, when its time to scratch our noses when when gets painful or dull, or flat for us. 

Kate and Andy were the cooks this Saturday.  As you can see, we didn't much care for the lunch.

After lunch, David introduced the koan:

"Work and getting things done correlate to one another.  The entire world is work, what is the self?"

It was a great afternoon, and my gratitude to those who came and contributed so much of themselves to the discussion.