A Sense of Something Greater
Zen and the Search for Balance in Silicon Valley
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Welcome to Silicon Valley’s search for fulfillment and purpose beyond devices, money, and power.
With worker stress at an all-time high, particularly in the fast-paced technology industry, it’s no surprise that Google, Salesforce, and Apple have adopted mindfulness and meditation into their workplace culture. Studies show mindfulness practice increases emotional intelligence, reduces stress, and enhances health and overall well-being.
A Sense of Something Greater goes deeper than the current mindfulness trend, into the heart of Zen practice. For Les Kaye, Zen is more than awareness––it’s also “the continued determination to be authentic in relationships, to create meaningful, intimate, intentional bonds with people, things, and the environment.” Kaye’s teachings are paired with interviews with current tech employees and Zen practitioners, conducted by journalist Teresa Bouza. A Sense of Something Greater is an essential book for business leaders, mindfulness meditators, and Zen practitioners alike.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kaye, abbot of Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center in Mountain View, Calif., and journalist Bouza provide teachings for integrating the spiritual and ordinary dimensions of life in this guide to Zen for the overworked. Kaye's teachings emphasize slowing down, letting go of the desire to control, accepting change, and cultivating a nonjudgmental attention to life as it presents itself. His teachings are accompanied by Bouza's interviews with Silicon Valley executives, engineers, therapists, and teachers who incorporate Zen meditation practices into their daily lives. The interviews offer current and useful perspectives on how Zen practice can be applied to everyday work-life balance problems, focusing primarily on how to practice being content, centered, and connected while also confronted with things desires, possessions, deadlines that run the risk of corrupting one's personal balance. Kaye and Bouza's book is ambitious in scope and wavers frustratingly among three different identities an investigation of the relationship between work and spiritual life, a portrait of the Zen movement in California, and a book of Zen teachings. However, by situating these insightful teachings and interviews in the world of Silicon Valley, they offer a useful and compassionate spiritual salve for those in stressed work environments.
