Zen at Work [Paperback]

Kaye worked at IBM for 30 years as a design engineer. He studied Zen, became a Zen master and, upon his retirement, became the Abbott of Kannon Do, a Zen Meditation Center in Mountain View, Calif. Here, Kaye shares how he came to find that his workplace could become the site of his religious practice. He learned that he could shift his interest to the dynamic process of work, to the best ways of approaching tasks and relationships so that the work environment could express a spiritual, communal feeling. The being-in-the-world emphasized in Zen, Kaye found, was no different from the character traits of integrity, morality, self-discipline, willingness to learn, responsibility and perseverance which IBM encouraged in its employees. Kaye's book is an extraordinary witness to the way Zen practice can mesh with corporate culture, for the book demonstrates elegantly how Zen thinking can transform an individual's experience of the workplace.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Kaye worked in several technical and administrative positions at IBM from 1956 to 1988 and at the same time took up the study and practice of Zen Buddhist meditation. He eventually became the abbot of the Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center in Mountain View, California. The author discovered that the precepts of Zen could be expressed everywhere in daily life and that they enhanced his ability to deal with challenging situations in the corporate world. In this engaging personal narrative, he skillfully interweaves vignettes of workplace activities with expressions of Zen Buddhist philosophy. He provides an interesting exploration of the successful integration of a committed spiritual practice and daily corporate and family life. His thoughtful, understandable, and insightful presentation offers real examples of the practical application of spiritual wisdom. Recommended for larger public libraries and business collections.?Elizabeth Salt, Otterbein Coll. Lib., Westerville, Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It is very easy to scoff at a title like this one. Don't. Veteran IBM executive and Zen monk Kaye shows how spirituality and work can comingle, even merge with ease and effectiveness. No particular order informs his stories and explanations of the Buddhist way of being, except that separate type fonts distinguish tales from Zen truths, a perhaps unfortunate distinction. Instead, the author's and readers' minds flow; one workplace account of a dispute between old and new processes, for instance, proceeds naturally to a discussion of a facilitator's roles--helping with consensus, acknowledging feelings and ideas, etc.--and similarities to the practice of zazen. Of course, actual participation in meditation will yield further benefits and results, but the real impact of Kaye's journey is the potentially positive one on those searching for something else in life, the spiritual quest of the 1990s. Barbara Jacobs

A Zen teacher who balanced his commitment to Zen practice with a high-level business career shares the wisdom and practical experience he gained by integrating spiritual practice into the workplace. 192 pp. National publicity. 10,000 print.

Les Kaye is the abbot of Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center in

Mountain View, California. For more than thirty years he maintained both a career at IBM and an active and ever deepening Zen Practice. While at IBM, in fact, he grew from novice to Zen Master.