The Buddha Walks into the Office
A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Wisdom for "Generation Next" on how to make your work meaningful, satisfying, and of benefit to others
Does it ever seem that a lot of the people you work with are, well, jerks? This book is about how not to let work turn you into one of them. Apply the simple Buddhist teachings and practices Lodro Rinzler provides here to whatever you do for a living, and you’ll not only avoid jerk-hood, but you’ll be setting out on the path toward making your livelihood an expression of your inherent wisdom, honesty, and compassion. You’ll discover practical ways to bring mindfulness into administrative support, cabinet-making, financial management, nursing, truck-driving, or latté-brewing. In the process, you’ll discover genuine empathy for the folks you once found so difficult. You’ll also learn leadership skills that apply compassion to management in a way that increases happiness along with efficiency.
This is career advice of the profoundest kind, geared toward today’s twenty- and thirty-something workers and job-seekers whose employment outlook is radically different from that of a generation ago. As Lodro shows, even if the path of work shifts beneath your feet, it’s possible to make your livelihood a source of satisfaction and of deep meaning.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rinzler (The Buddha Walks into a Bar...) once again offers practical life advice from a Buddhist perspective, emphasizing compassionate, harmonious thoughts and actions in the everyday hustle and bustle. This time, Rinzler turns his attention to the new generation of young adults leaving college and entering the professional workforce for the first time. The book is organized according to the Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions, which he interprets and employs as practical methods for cultivating oneself, relating better to others, and doing compassionate works for improving society. For example, in situations involving difficult co-workers, Rinzler teaches young professionals to engage with the fact that they themselves can be jerks just as much as their colleagues, and so to empathize with them despite disagreement. He remains realistic about navigating workplace tension, but insists that the practice is as much for the betterment of oneself as for others and for the greater society. Rinzler offers spiritual guidance for young people who have forgotten something important in the midst of career advancement and professional networking: that it is not what they do that defines them, but rather who they are. With that focus, cultivation and enlightenment can be brought to any job and any experience.
