THE ONE WHO IS NOT BUSY --- CONNECTING WITH WORK IN A DEEPLY SATISFYING WAY
by Darlene Cohen. MJF BOOKS, 2004
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (pviI-viii)
INTRODUCTION --- the problem of "busyness" (pviI-viii)
Western thought is "dualistic." We create categories, distinctions, labels. Something either "is" or "is not." We are either productive or non-productive, busy working or busy taking a break from working. But there is a way to reach beyond these categories and labels and connect with our work --- and our lives --- in a manner that is deeply satisfying.
The technique of "simultaneous inclusion" enables you to get the most out of life by being fully attentive each moment to whatever you are doing. It is based on Eastern thought and mastered through meditation and practice.
The training for "simultaneous inclusion" begins with breath-counting exercises designed to develop your mind's ability to focus and concentrate. You will become fully aware of immediate physical sensations and perceptions.
Other exercises show you how to turn your body into a refuge from the draining sense of busyness, integrate ever more complicated events into your attention, and control your attention so you can shift, expand, or narrow your attention at will.
The ultimate goal is for you to learn how to be "busy" and "not busy" simultaneously so you can enjoy a fuller, richer, and more happy life.
[1] SKILL 1 = The ability to narrow or widen your mind's focus at will (px)
[2] SKILL 2 = The mental flexibility to shift your mind's focus at will from one thing to another --- to go from "narrow" to "narrow" to "narrow" (px)
1) The ones who are "busy" (p1-16)
[1] Nancy (p3-4)
[2] Luann (p4-5)
[3] Ken (p5-6)
[4] Michael (p6-7)
[5] Richard (p7-9)
[6] Emmy (p9-10)
2) The problem of life is "busyness," which is a problem of "focus" (p11-42)
[1] Terminal overwhelm (p14-16)
[2] The problem is managing busyness (p16-20)
[3] Two approaches (p20-21)
(1) Taking a "break" (p21-23)
(2) A break is a "Sabbath" (p23-25)
[4] "Simultaneous inclusion" (p26-33)
(1) The Zen approach to human consciousness (p27-28)
Historically, the use of Zen "koans" was one of the distinctive methods employed by various Zen schools in Japan. Koan literally means "public case" in the Japanese language. Koens were not theoretical statements or exercises in intellectual cleverness, as is often supposed in the West, but were public cases that people studied as practical tools for meditation themes and as instructional texts. Koans are not puzzles or riddles as is also often supposed. They were designed to confound the habits of intellect, thereby unlocking the user's ability to cross the mental barriers of concept and emerge into direct experience. It allowed the perception of the world without our usual cultural conceptual overlay.
Traditional koans have three parts, each of which is in itself a related teaching. They are, namely, the Introduction, the Case (or main story), and the Commentary. The commentary has been added to by successive generations of Zen teachers (Masters) who studied the original teaching and have added their own instructions, often in the form of another story or verse.
(2) 21st Case = the Book of Serenity --- translated by Thomas Cleary (p28-33)
1. Introduction --- the "Introduction" is referring to simultaneous inclusion, or "non-dual perception," the experience we have when we just do our lives, without considering whether it's timely, boring, pleasant or unpleasant.
2. Case --- In reading traditional Zen teaching stories or koans, you become aware that the zen monks loved to challenge each other's understanding of the deepest meaning of life, which served as an amusing pastime, a source of satisfying companionship, and a means of expanding their ability to express the "Dharma." Dharma is a Sanskrit word meaning the way things work on the most fundamental level, such as counting on the sun rising every morning, or the law of gravity, or birth and death practices, and other human rituals that are taken for granted.
3. Commentary --- the Commentary asserts the vitality of human life and it acknowledges that our difficulties often inspire us to exert ourselves to find a better way to do what we have to do, including dreaming and having visions of our own relief. Thus we can discover that right in the middle of our upset, there is a solution to our problem, which is an aspect of the upset itself!
Solving life's problems is a natural process of things. If we stay alert and attentive during the struggle to solve our problems, solutions will begin to appear.
[5] Applying the teaching (p33-36)
We have a habit of describing our activity as either being busy or not busy, either productively working or taking a blissful break from working. On the other hand, we delight in our leisure time as an unstructured idyll of relaxation and ease. In our leisure world we function best by loosening our directed, judgmental mind and switching to a wider, more experiential point of view. Reading on the couch or watching a TV program, we are able to sink more fully into the sensory, feeling realm. At home the distinctions we make between things and people are not as "goal-related" as they are at work.
At work or when we do a specific task, we make an assessment of the worth of objects and activities according to our survival needs. We assign a value to each project and person, and proceed upon these judgment calls. In our work world we must differentiate between activities and people.
Yet it is possible to reach beyond the assigned labels and connect directly with our work in a way that is more deeply satisfying. This requires that we develop the breadth of vision and the mental flexibility to simultaneously include both the "dual" and "non-dual," the differentiating kind of perception and the non-dual awareness, in any one activity.
In Zen, the "strobe effect," where one moment we experience nondual awareness and the next moment we perceive differences, is a good "attention exercise" for teaching our brains that our mode of perception can be fluid and adaptable, going back and forth at will. Having both points of view simultaneously --- dual/nondual and busy/not busy --- is what makes our work and life profoundly gratifying and expressive of our most authentic nature. Each realm informs the other.
We can learn to understand that our perceptions of our states of mind and the things of the world come and go in our experience constantly. Ultimately, we need to learn that we can watch them rise and pass away without undue attachment. At the same time they are shimmeringly, glisteningly themselves, precious and perfect just as they are. Each of the two views enhances the other.
[6] Necessary skills (p37-39)
(1) Skill 1 = The ability to narrow or widen your mind's focus at will (p37-38)
(2) Skill 2 = The mental flexibility to shift your mind's focus at will from one thing to another (p38-39)
[7] How multitasking really works (p39-42)
3) Exercises that cultivate the skill of "simultaneous inclusion" (p43-71)
[1] Wandering mind meditation --- Practice 1 (p46-49)
[2] Focus on your activity (p49-50)
[3] Meditation on movement --- Practice 2 (p51-53)
Exercises 1-10 (p53-62)
Expanding our mental landscape at work (p62-63)
[4] Walking meditation --- Practice 3 (p64-68)
[5] Talking meditation --- Practice 4 (p69-70)
[6] Eating meditation --- Practice 5 (p70-71)
4) Training the "busy ones" (p73-85)
5) Living seamlessly (p87-100)
6) The ones who are "not busy" (p101-109)
7) A question of values (p110-120)
CONCLUSION (p223-226)
NOTES (p227)
AUTHOR BOOK JACKET NOTE Darlene Cohen has been a priest of the San Francisco Zen Center since 1999 and an author of two other books: Arthritis --- Stop Suffering, Start Moving; and Turning Suffering Inside Out. She gives public and private lectures, worksops, classes, seminars, and retreats that teach "mindfulness" for corporate business, medical clinics, and meditation centers.
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