I love how the process of writing is itself a dance of knowing myself and forgetting myself, recalling and weaving stories and emotions while getting out of my own way as I search for the right words, the perfect words, and simultaneously let go or at least reduce my own judgments. Much like the practice of mindfulness and meditation, just being present, right here, right now — opening, searching, sometimes holding on, sometimes letting go. Words, ideas, and stories bubbling up from some mysterious well within. When I’m lucky, the words seem to choose me.
Today, as I walked along a trail in the Tennessee Valley, a beautiful path on the California coast leading to the Pacific Ocean, I felt a deep sadness and longing, for no apparent reason. “This place is so beautiful,” I said to myself, and I knew that it would never look this way again — vibrant wildflowers, puffy white clouds, fog in the distance, the chill and heat of a spring afternoon. And I wondered, How many more visits during this lifetime, if any, will I make to this special valley?
I’m struck that as I’m completing this book, the scenery of my life is changing. My first book, Z.B.A. Zen of Business Administration, was written from the vantage point of being CEO of Brush Dance publishing company. Just as I was completing that book, I was leaving Brush Dance and transitioning into a new business: that of an executive coach and leadership consultant, helping to guide other business leaders. Now, as I put the final touches on this book, I find myself transitioning again: leaving my consultancy practice to become a CEO. Yet while my role is changing, my focus is the same. As CEO of SIYLI, the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, I will expand the model I helped to develop for trainings within Google, integrating mindfulness and emotional intelligence and neuroscience. SIYLI’s vision is to aid and inspire enlightened leaders worldwide; its mission is to help create the conditions for world peace.
I’m pleased that I now have a manual — this book! — to help me find my way as a CEO, and as a husband, father, and human being. I sometimes notice as a coach and consultant that, even as I’m speaking with my clients, a voice in my head is saying, “You should be paying attention, Lesser. There is much you could be learning from these words that are coming out of this mouth, your mouth.”
I’m reminded of a famous Zen story (sorry, I just can’t help myself) from ninth-century China about a Zen teacher who could sometimes be heard having a stern conversation with himself:
“Master Zuigan!” he would call out.
“Yes?” he would reply.
“Are you here?”
“Yes!” he would respond to himself.
How sweet, how odd, how wonderful! This Zen story underscores how challenging it can be to be present, to show up, to be free and flexible for our lives. And Zuigan didn’t have a smart phone, the Internet, or television to contend with. It seems that showing up and being fully present, fully alive, has always been challenging.
I like Zuigan’s practice, and I recommend it as the last practice in this book. Ask yourself at any time, at any moment: “Am I here?” And then without hesitating answer, “Yes!” We can all try this when listening to another person, driving a car, eating our breakfast: Are you here? Check in with yourself — what’s happening, right now, with your thinking, your feelings? What’s in your heart?
I leave you, dear reader, with wishes for peace and happiness. And as we often say at the end of the Search Inside Yourself programs at Google, “Live long and prosper.”