Next morning, to everyone’s surprise, the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How amazing is that!” the neighbors exclaimed in excitement. The old man replied, “We’ll see.”

 
A day later, the farmer’s son tried to ride one of the wild horses. He was thrown on the ground and broke his leg. Once more, the neighbors came by to express their sympathies for this stroke of bad luck. “We’ll see,” said the farmer politely.

 
The next day, the village had some visitors – military officers who had come with the purpose of drafting young men into the army. They passed over the farmer’s son, thanks to his broken leg. The neighbors patted the farmer on his back – how lucky he was to not have his son join the army! “We’ll see,” was all that the farmer said!

____________

The neighbors are quick to offer ideas about good or bad to the experience, but the farmer’s counsel is just to be present to it.   

Opinions such as good and bad are extra and lead to separation from the direct arising of the moment.  The direction is not to personalize the experience, nor to withdraw from it, but to encounter and act appropriately.  What is left if the idea of “how things should be” falls away?

The direction is to be present to the magic, trust it, express it.

The students in my college chemistry course put up a web site with the title “Stuff my Chemistry Teacher Says”.   The title used another word for stuff.

The dozens of entries were accurate.  It was a reminder that an incredible number of topics get touched upon in a course.  However, the students had put one as a sticky that appeared on each page:

“Never forget, the world is magic.”

The reason to study chemistry is to not just understand the principles, but to go deeper it and appreciate experience beyond it–the nature of the physical world, our own nature.  The same appreciation can true for any subject.  In the larger sense, we can study our own life, appreciate it and experience our nature.    Chemistry and Dogen are not often used in the same sentence, but this perspective is in harmony with his famous teaching:  “To study Zen is to study the self.  To study the self is to forget the self.  To forget the self is to be enlightened by the 10,000 things.”

The real appreciation of the magic or mystery is to experience the vividness that penetrates all that is experienced in the moment.  It is easy to retreat from this mystery and fall back into a repetitious world of same old, same old or what if, should have been etc.

An example that anyone can try:  Take an ice cube and hold it tightly.  The ice cube melts.  In a sense, there is nothing new here, we have seen it a thousand times.   In the study of science, the melting might be described as a physical change that a solid undergoes to a liquid, with no chemical bonds formed or broken.  But if the attention if fully directed on the ice and the hand, there is a direct experience.   First wet, then cold, then burning cold and discomfort or pain.  Bring the power of attention to each of these experiences as they occur in time. Simply exhaust the experience to full potential without analysis.  Later, the questions can follow: What is the experience of the hurting? Who is hurting? What is the origin of the pain? Where is the uneasiness?

Reality is directly what is experienced.  Take another look at the ice cube in the hand.  The experience of cold or pain only arises when your hand touches it.  Is the experience in the ice or the hand?  Experience is a mysterious quality.  It arises from time and conditions and cease when they are not longer present.  It arises from nothing and returns to nothing.  There is magic there to be seen.

The example gets right at the question of what is real.  Is there an independent existence or is it all impermanent and fleeting (empty).  The experiences are the thoughts, feelings and sensations that arise in life.  In Buddhism, this is expressed as the 5 skandhas.  These skandhas (or heaps) are form, sensation, perception (thinking), mental images, and consciousness (awareness of an object). The important point is that these conditions arise in time.  However, they are then constructed or shaped to give us the idea of a self/object dualistic world.

Distinguishing experience from descriptions of experience lead to confusion of what is real– does a thing have an independent existence or not–no fixed identity (impermanence).

This is not a question to be wrestled with intellectually. Nowadays, people are very courteous about their comments about this, but Saraha* had some direct guidance about interpretations of reality it the 8^th century:

Those who believe that what appears is real

Are as stupid as cows.

Those who believe emptiness is real

Are even stupider.

It is the thinking and talking in our mind that distorts our experience.  This erratic movement of the mind causes the separation and confusion.    Zen training, and especially zazen (sitting meditation), is the major driving engine to end this confusion of the thinking and talking, and to bring clarity and vividness to the experience.  The work of zazen focuses the energy to develop the power of attention to make us first aware of our thinking and talking minds, of our hopes and attachments and allow them to lose power.

Zen practice can move us from the repetitious to experiencing the magic.  It allows the bright and empty mind to shine without being obscured or filtered.

Some very succinct advice to keep in mind when we sit:

When we sit,

Don’t invite the future

Don’t pursue the past

Let go of the present

Relax right now.

                  Gampopa

Seen this way zazen is the expression of life itself, not a separate tool to help to experience or achieve something else.  Zazen is the practice of life.

Trust in Practice, Trust in Life

In the mind without thinking

No effort is made

Doubts and worries disappear

And faith is restored

First, trust is often misused term.  The expression: “Trust me.”, seems almost a passive naïve concept, suggesting giving up responsibility and relying on something external.

Then there is the issue of trusting the life of the quiet mind.  Two examples:

“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. . . . .  “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew)

Enough for a fire.

The wind has brought me

Maple leaves.  (Haiku by Ryokan,  18^th century zen teacher and hermit)

Trusting practice requires full participation in the appropriate activities of life, whatever the individual circumstances, with the vivid insight that life is perfect and complete just as it is, and will manifest or unfold in this way. The idea of shaping life to a goal or form just drops away.

Trust is active energy, a dynamic.  Trusting practice is to put full energy and effort into the moment without hope or expectation.  Trust grows concurrently with the settling of the mind.  It is confidence in life.  It allows us, to respond directly and freely to each condition, so that the energy flows and functions naturally.  Trusting practice is trusting life.

So there is the mystery and magic of the moment and trusting in the completeness as it arises.

In the mind without thinking, the possibilities are endless.  Life, practice extends beyond imagination.  The magical world manifests itself and participation is free.  The experience is not all fun and games; conditions arise to manifest as pain, disappointment as well as joy.  All are magic. They are life and the mind without thinking; we can have faith and trust in each of these and experience them in the movement they arise.  Compassion grows out of this and expresses itself.

This is the direction of Zen practice.

A closing verse from Niguna:

In this world of magical suffering

We work at a magical practice

And experience a magical awakening

Which comes from the power of truth.

(*Some verses are found in Wake up to Your Life ,  Ken McLeod, 2001, but primary citations have not been located.)

Index Tab: (above):  Links for Specific Articles by title

Categories: (side bar):   Articles by Topic in Chronological Order

Links to Most Searched Articles (opens in a new window):

Working:

Dealing with A Bad Performance Review Appraisal

Employee Performance Appraisal Rankings–Lessons about Flaws from “Arrows Paradox”

Office Backstabbing 101

Zen Stories

Two Monks and a Woman

The Tigers and the Strawberry

Zen

Zen Teaching Schedule

Advertising Zen

Offering Zen to Students

Problem Solving

Teaching Students Problem Solving-Confusion/Resourcefulness/Confidence

Eliminating Mental Bias Decision Errors

Effective Quantitative Problem Solving Methods

Solving Complex Problems—Put Aside the First Idea

Education

Academic Survival–The First College Semester

Getting Off Academic Probation–Looking Further for Success

Parenting

Making up a Good New Children’s Story Every Night

Stacking Blocks for the Imagination–A Great Toy not Found in Many Stores

Health

Cold Remedies, Miso Soup and the Influence of Advertising

Healing Ocean Oriental Medicine

Preventing Common Household Accidents–Swiss Cheese Model

Regardless of the reason (Dealing with a bad employee performance appraisal) ,you are stuck with this review for a year. It is not the end of the world or of your prospects for a good career with the employer. The first impulse to change employers is never the best immediate option.

Career consultants have a lot of classical advice on how to get on track; People usually ignore it or cannot use it. The opposite approach is considered here. There are three actions that will make your situation worse. Watch yourself to see if they apply to you.

Complain

No doubt about it, you got an unfair deal. The reasons that it was unfair are specific to your situation. It may be that your work was not valued, your boss was out to get you, or that they don’t like your personal style. Make sure your side of the story is told so that you can be vindicated. Take opportunities to get the story out. Some people hedge on this and only tell “trusted” friends. Complaints can be made in e-mails to a few select friends.

Negative comments have an interesting way of making their way back to the managers. This news tends to harden their position that you are an underperformer. The opposite approach is to keep your negative opinions out of the light. If possible, even send messages that things are going to improve.

Take It Personally

Ouch. A lower than expected review hurts emotionally as well as professionally Don’t see the performance evaluation for what it is–an opinion about you that serves different purposes. The real way to make the situation worse is to take it as an attack on your personal self worth. This approach allows the hurt to fester and internalize so that the pain continues to renew itself. That way there is no opportunity to put the experience behind and move on. Eventually, a negative air occupies the space around you. Your energy will decrease. Your co-workers will notice it.

If you are having trouble moving on, talk to someone outside of workplace who can help you.

Stay the Course

Make no changes and hope that the situation rights itself.

Sure, some conditions improve on their own, such as a cold that runs its course in a week. Other situations just lead to more trouble. The odd sound from the automobile engine doesn’t go away. The situation is similar here. The bad evaluation is just the first noise; Your situation will likely get worse if you just keep plugging along. Just persevere and be confident that that management will see the error of their ways and reward you.

Don’t make the effort to calmly follow-up and understand what has to change from the arbitrary and unfair perspective of the bosses. Ignore the fact that managers like to see improvement and tend to reward it significantly in the next review cycle. If your boss cannot help you, actively seek someone who can. (Looking for a Teacher, Asking for a Boss)

Getting a bad review is like finding a footprint in newly poured concrete. You can ignore it and let it harden or do some work to smooth it over, with no long term consequences. It is a matter of the right efforts at the right time to minimize the effect of the review.

]]> http://workingwithinsight.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/stuck-with-a-bad-performance-review%e2%80%94making-it-worse/feed/ 1 workingwithinsight http://workingwithinsight.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/advertising-zen/ http://workingwithinsight.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/advertising-zen/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:06:40 +0000 workingwithinsight http://workingwithinsight.wordpress.com/?p=253 ]]> “A Zen Master was asked whether Zen should not be propagated to some extent in our times which are in such need of its qualities.  Would not more availability, some publicity, public sermons and the like be more useful?  His answer was both characteristic and a fundamental summing up.  He replied that, after careful pondering, he could not see any positive harm resulting from such propagation.  As to the good it would do, he was extremely doubtful.  For even if it did not go in by one ear and out by the other, even if it produced a sizable uplift, by the time the person had gone home and sat down to the family dinner, it would all be gone.  The real propagation, he thought, would be for the would-be propagators to settle themselves down and cleanse their own heart yet again.  For in doing so there springs up in the human hear such a deep fountain of love that it cannot possibly be contained in one’s own hear, but needs some flow.  And since everybody, even the worst criminal, has that same human heard which is directly touched by such love, words are really not necessary.  There is a coming into ambience, a touch, a link, and the person so touched may of his own volitions start walking the Way.”

The excerpt above is from The Wisdom of the Zen Masters by Irmgard Schloeal, a Rinzai nun who lived in England (1921-2007).   The book was published in 1976, New Directions Paperback (Quote from Pg 19).

It would be preferable to have a specific reference, but Schloeal does not identify the Zen Teacher, and after 30 years, it has not been traced.  Yet the view is helpful since it runs counter to many activities of organizations. It provides an opportunity to refresh our own perspective.

Comment: It certainly is the case that accidents tend to occur at the end of the working day when people are comfortable with their surroundings, tired, and let their attention down.

A more technical description is in the short article: Preventing Common Household Accidents

Source: Schloeal, Irmgard; The Wisdom of the Zen Masters, New Directions 1975, Pg 52

Unobstructed and Immediate

I

Apply your spiritual energy before desire arises
The mind will be shining bright, alone and liberated
It will be clear everywhere and revealed in everything
(Ta-hui, Swampland Flowers, Zen Sourcebook 119)

II

The obstruction of the Path by the mind and its conceptual discrimination is worse than poisonous snakes or fierce tigers.  Why? Because poisonous snakes and fierce tigers can still be avoided, whereas intelligent people make the mind’s conceptual discrimination their home, so that there’s never a singe instant, whether they’re walking, standing, sitting or lying down, that they’re not having dealings with it.  (Ta-hui 121)

III

Like following a road where it is set and familiar, then we think that is all there is.

IV

A flash of lightning
Sparks of fire from flint.
If your eyes blink,
It’s already gone.
(Wu-men-kuan Case 21)

V

You don’t need fine phrases
Before you speak the answer is there
If you just chatter on
Knowing will become deceiving
(Wu-men-kuan Case 24)

Trust in Mind

I

The Great Way is not difficult
Just don’t pick and choose
Cut off all likes and dislikes
And it is clear like space.

II

Outside don’t get tangle up in things.
Inside, don’t get lost in emptiness.
Be still and become One,
And confusion stops by itself.

III

Do not live in the world of opposites.
Be careful! Never go that way.
If you make right and wrong,
Your mind is lost in confusion.

IV

Nothing is left behind
Nothing stays with us.
Bright and empty,
The mind shines by itself.

(Trust in Mind Seng-ts’an (Sozan), from Zen Sourcebook, Addiss et al editor,2008)

Impermanence

I

One may ask, “How can thought and mental acts arise without an object?” To remove this doubt, there is comparison to a mirage.—Here thought and mental acts correspond to the mirage, and the object to the water. When a mirage makes it appearance, no real water is there, and yet the notion of real water arises. (2)

II

One may ask, “How in the absence of objects, can different verbal expressions arise?” In answer things are compared to an echo.—An echo is not a real sound, and yet it is heard. Similarly verbal expressions are not real things, and yet they are understood. (6)

III

One may ask, “ How, in the absence of an object, can the images apperceived in trance arise?” In answer, things are compared to the moon reflect in water,–The moon reflected in water is not really in the water, and yet, because the water is wet and limpid, the moon is seen in it. So with concentrated thought. The objects which form its range are not real things, and yet they are perceived, the state of trance playing the part of the water. (7)

(Asanga Mahayanasamgraha II, 27 in Buddhist Texts through the Ages (Conze et al editor, 1964)

IV

Forms don’t hinder emptiness; emptiness is the tissue of form.
Emptiness isn’t the destruction of form; form is the flesh of emptiness.
Inside the Dharma gates where form and emptiness are not-two
A lame turtle with brushed eyebrows stand in the evening breeze. (31)

V

A boundless unencumbered space, open, empty, still,
Earth, its hills and rivers, are only names, nothing more.
You can quarter the mind, lump all forms into one,
They’re still just echos murmuring through empty ravines. (42)

(Zen Words for the Heart, Hakuin’s Commentary on Heart Sutra, Waddell Editor.)

Dharma talks are often energy transmitted through words with the intention to help further the sitting and the  practice.   The talk may be non-discursive, having no progression from beginning to end.  Just simply sit with attention and listen.  If something resonates with you, allow it in to help with the zazen.  If there is no resonance, simply let it go without looking back or chasing after it. If attention strays during, simply come back to the present; there is no need to try to reconstruct it as a lecture   There is also no need for intellectual analysis as there is nothing to figure out. The energy in the room and the attention are essential to experiencing these talks.

Practice in the World

I

Look and listen, touch and eat
Smell, wander, sit and stand.
Renounce the vanity of discussion
Abandon Thought and be not moved from singleness. (55)

II

Mindfulness is established (by him) precisely to the extent necessary just for knowledge, just for remembrance and he lives independently of and not grasping anything in the world.  (32)

III

Whatever pours forth from the mind
Possesses the nature of the owner
Are waves different from the water
Their nature, like that of space in one and the same  (72)

IV

Do not sit at home, Do not go to the forest.
Recognize mind wherever you are.
When one abides in perfect and complete enlightenment,Where is Samsara and where is Nirvana. (103)

V Capping Summary

He who clings to the Void
And neglects compassion
Does not reach the highest stage.
But he who practices only compassion
Does not gain release from the tools of ignorance.
He whoever is strong in the practice of both
Remains neither in delusion nor Nirvana (112)

Source: 32: The Dhamma,  All others from Saraha’s Treasury of Songs, from  Buddhist Texts through the Ages (Conze et al editor, 1964)

Dharma talks are sometimes experienced as energy transmitted through words with the intention to help further the sitting and the practice. The talk may be non-discursive, having no progression from beginning to end. Just simply sit with attention and listen. If something resonates with you, allow it in to help with the zazen. If there is no resonance, simply let it go without looking back or chasing after it. If attention strays during, simply come back to the present; there is no need to try to reconstruct it as a lecture There is no need for intellectual analysis as there is nothing to figure out. The energy in the room and the attention are essential to experiencing these talks.