Zen Sense

By Earl Smith

This is not a book to read quickly through cover to cover. Each meditation is designed as a “thinking piece”. The first, and most important, task when beginning to read one of them is to discover what the core issue is. The meditations have been carefully crafted so that each one contains at least one core idea. Once you discover that core idea, the rest of the meditation is designed to give you fuel for your “thinking fire”.
When the mind ceases to think it begins to die. When a person ceases to learn the process of dying begins in earnest. When you don’t exercise the single most important characteristic that distinguishes you from all the other ways of being on the planet, you give up that most human of capabilities. Thinking is the path to growing emotionally and intellectually. It is the journey that every human being can take from where they are towards what they can be.
And here at the beginning, I must confess to the same tendency that much author’s evidence. I do write to be easily misunderstood. Every writer hopes that all who read what has taken so much effort to produce will understand what has been written. But every writer also knows that a large percentage of readers will simply not “get it”. Like every writer, my hope is that the latter will be vastly outnumbered by the former.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Earl Smith
• Release date: Nov 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215922279

Earl Smith

Rev. Earl Smith became the youngest chaplain ever hired by the California Department of Corrections when he was asked to become the chaplain at San Quentin in 1983. In 2000, Earl was named National Correctional Chaplain of the Year. He currently serves as chaplain for the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors. He has appeared on HBO, CNN, The 700 Club, Trinity Broadcasting and the Discovery Channel, and has been featured in Newsweek and Time. He was born and raised in Stockton, California, where he lives today with his wife, Angel, and their children Ebony, Earl Jr., Tamara, and Franklin.

Book preview

Zen Sense

Meditations on Meaning

Earl Smith

Raven Press

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

Assignments

Why Zen?

About this Book

About Me

Meditations

Yes, You Can

Decisions, Decisions

How Do You Decide?

A Cost of Anti-Humanism

A Non-Cumulative Life

The Benefits of Quiet Time

Seeking the Upward Path

The Passion Quest – Finding Your Center

Ten Minutes That Will Change Your Life

Change Aversion – Coming to Terms

Orthodoxy or Optimism?

Knowing What Matters

Thoughts on Excuses

The Importance of Acting on Good Ideas

Giving Yourself Permission

Finding Your Path

Presence in the Present

Wondering Why?

Ways and Whys of Talking

Finding Meaning Without Manufacturing Meaning

The Missing Middle – Framing the Challenge

Leaving the Rut Means Growing Your Life

Breaking Out of a Rut

Charting the Course for Change

Apprehension – Fear or Understanding?

Your Life as a Work in Progress

Finding a Mirror – Realizing

Getting the Right Personal Vision

Reason Why or Thinking How?

Fighting the Wrong Battles

Finding the Right Battles

The ‘Completeness Doctrine’

The Propose of a Compass

When Opposites Detract

Eleven Habits of Self-Sabotaging People

Making the Possible Probable

Consultants and Prudence

Change – Two of Many Perspectives

Parting Thoughts

Zen Sense

Meditations on Meaning

Earl Smith

A bird perched on a tree branch Description automatically generated

Raven Press

Copyright 2023

License Notes

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Introduction

The true measure of the value of any book is not the time that you spend reading it but the time you spend thinking about what you have read. This is never truer than with a book like this one. I will have succeeded if I give you some things that you consider worth thinking about. You will succeed to the extent that, by thinking about what you read, you make changes in your life and grow as a result.

This is not a book to read quickly through cover to cover. Each meditation is designed as a thinking piece. The first, and most important, task when beginning to read one of them is to discover what the core issue is. The meditations have been carefully crafted so that each one contains at least one core idea. Once you discover that core idea, the rest of the meditation is designed to give you fuel for your thinking fire.

When the mind ceases to think it begins to die. When a person ceases to learn the process of dying begins in earnest. When you don’t exercise the single most important characteristic that distinguishes you from all the other ways of being on the planet, you give up that most human of capabilities. Thinking is the path to growing emotionally and intellectually. It is the journey that every human being can take from where they are towards what they can be.

And here at the beginning, I must confess to the same tendency that much author’s evidence. I do write to be easily misunderstood. Every writer hopes that all who read what has taken so much effort to produce will understand what has been written. But every writer also knows that a large percentage of readers will simply not get it. Like every writer, my hope is that the latter will be vastly outnumbered by the former.

Assignments

At the end of the meditations, you will find an assignment. They are designed to highlight the focus of what you have just read and to guide you when thinking about it. After that, you are on your own.

My experience has been that the process of writing down your thoughts will magnify the benefits that you receive from going through the book. I recommend that you avoid simply reading the assignments and then casually skimming over your responses. In fact, your approach will be a direct reflection of how seriously you are taking the project of claiming authorship of your own life.

There’s another benefit of writing down your responses. They will provide a record which you can return to and review. As a historical record, they will allow you to see what you were thinking at the time and to compare it with how you’ve come to think when you reread your responses. This book is, after all, about personal growth that will allow you to become the architect of your own life. A measure of that growth will be how your understanding and confidence will have changed over time.

Finally, writing out the responses constitutes a major step in reclaiming the authorship of your life. It’s not a passive step but an active one. It displays your increase understanding. It reflects your determination to take control of your own future. And it signifies you as an individual acting proactively in your own interests.

Why Zen?

In a world heavily encrusted with thou shalt and thou shalt not, Zen Buddhism stands almost completely unencumbered by such things. In a world that is crowded with convoluted prescriptions and proscriptions, Zen Buddhism requires none.

It was decades ago that I discovered this ancient wisdom. What first struck me was that its contemporary practitioners were not intent on telling me what or how I should be. Quite the opposite was the case. They were committed to helping me become what I could be without pre-determining what that might be.

This early experience was both unsettling and uplifting. As a youth, as with most youths do, I was on the hunt for some ideology which would tell me why I was alive and what my purpose was. The monks that I met offered little or nothing in that area. In fact, they seemed unconcerned with the questions. I remember one monk, when I pressed the question, responding in the following way. If you want to talk about such things, I recommend that you find a church.

What I discovered, those decades ago, was that Buddhism was not a religion but a way of looking at the experience of being alive as a human being. That single understanding was truly life changing. It set me on a journey of discovery and learning. Here was wisdom whose roots reach back well over 5000 years into human history. It represents the cumulative insights of hundreds of millions of human beings. And yet it is founded on only four basic principles.

Those principles do not judge who you are or what you’ve become. They don’t condemn or denigrate. They don’t separate humanity into them and us. They don’t condemn parts of humanity to hell and consign the rest to heaven. In fact, the core principles of Zen Buddhism are completely without negative reference. They are based on the inherently positive idea that all humans carry within them the capability to experience life as the wonderful gift that it is. It’s four core principles gently suggest a path towards achieving this experience.

When I began mentoring, I tried all sorts of approaches. It quickly became apparent that my own experience with Zen Buddhism provided by far the most effective approach. At first I was worried that such an approach would seem alien to the people I was mentoring. But it quickly became apparent that such worry was wasted energy. Doors opened for client after client. The sun came up with warming frequency for the people I was working with. In short, it worked better than all the other self-help approaches.

About this Book

One early autumn weekend three friends decided to head to the local fishing hole for a couple days of relaxation. Two of them were regulars at the lake. Their friend had heard so many stories about the fish, the camping, and the comradery that, when he heard about the trip, he signed on immediately.

Now, as it happened, there was something peculiar about these three friends that bears mentioning. You see, each was a senior member of the clergy of their religion. One was a Rabbi of great reputation who had spent a lifetime studying the Torah. The second was world renowned scholar of the Koran. Now these two were neighbors who had retired to the shores of the lake to enjoy each other’s company and the bounty that the lake provided.

The third member of the gathering was a bit different. For one, he was considerably younger. Yet to even begin thinking about retirement, he spent his time teaching at a major Catholic university. Now both a priest and widely respected scholar, he was in the prime of his career.

The three had met over the years at several ecumenical gatherings designed to increase understanding and communication among their great religions and, as friendships developed, spent private as well as public time together.

Now, back to the story. The three friends arrived at the lake early Saturday morning and decided to get in some fishing before even setting up camp. Hurriedly, they got the canoe in the water and headed out. After about an hour, the Rabbi said, I’m thirsty and left my water bottle in the car. I’ll be right back. At that, he stood up, stepped out of the canoe and walked across the surface of the water to the shore. Once there, he got the water bottle and walked back to the canoe and resumed his seat.

The event had two different impacts on the remaining occupants of the canoe. Our Koran scholar smiled and shook his head. But the priest went silent and pondered what he has just seen.

The Rabbi received a wink about half an hour later when his fellow retiree said, You know, I’ve got just the lure to get these fish biting. He then proceeded to stand up, step out of the canoe and walk to the shore. Upon his return, he resumed his seat as if nothing particularly remarkable had happened, tied on the lure, and proceeded to cast it out.

The third friend was lost in thought and pondering the amazing spectacles that he had just witnessed. He quickly concluded that it was a test of faith. He knew in his heart that his faith was just as strong as his friends’, so he spent some time in prayer and finally felt he was ready. I forgot my hat. I think I’ll go get it. He then stood up and stepped out of the canoe. Down he went into the water. His friends did the best they could to suppress the urge to guffaw but made little progress when faced with the vision of their friend trying desperately to climb out of the water. Finally, the Rabbi winked back at his friend and said, I suppose we should tell him where the rocks are before he drowns!

As the subtitle of this book indicates, this volume is written as a series of ‘thinking pieces’ that are to serve as points of meditation on important matters. Think of them as rocks leading to the shore. I’ll leave you to figure out what and where the shore is, what the canoe signifies and what’s the reason for the journey. All I intend to do is provide a general map of where the stones are. I wish you well on your journey and hope that my map is of some use to you.

About Me

I have been a mentor to dozens of individuals - helping them chart a course for their lives and navigate the reefs and shoals along the way. As I look back over those years, I am struck by the diversity of my experiences and the knowledge that I have accumulated. As one of my early mentors was fond of observing, There is no substitute for having done a thing. Writing about what you haven’t demonstrated mastery of is like thinking about being alive. It just isn’t the same thing.

As with any such undertaking, an author owes his readers a description of his background and experience. You have a right to know who it is who writes and the basis for his presumption.

My experience includes designing and organizing companies, business/technology management, team building, strategic alliances, negotiating complex arrangements, governance & compliance, resourcing & financing, mergers & acquisitions, management/team/board assessment, coaching and strategic and tactical planning and implementation. It also includes dozens of mentoring engagements. Over the years, I have found those efforts to be by far the most satisfying and now have dedicated my life to helping others chart and follow their course.

I received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas and a Master of Management Science from the Alfred P. Sloan School at MIT. In 1996 I was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy by the Department of Government and International Studies, Strathclyde University, Glasgow Scotland with a focus in political and social theory and comparative cultural analysis. Subsequently I taught advanced political and social theory as an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Government, University of Birmingham in England.

As I look back over my experiences, the ones that I value above all are the times when I was able to help others. My fondest memories are of those times when a person faced a challenge that was truly daunting and was, with my help, able to overcome that challenge and grow in capability and understanding far beyond what they thought they were capable of. In a real sense, this book is written for those who find themselves in similar situations - facing challenges that they are not sure they can overcome. The message that I very much want to communicate is ‘Yes, you can overcome. Yes you can grow in mastery, understanding and knowledge. You can become so much more than you are."

This book is written as a series of thinking pieces. Although there is an overall plan, each chapter is designed to bring an issue into high relief and to help you get your mind around both the challenge and the way forward. I expect that you will find some of the chapters somewhat obscure at first, but I urge you to persevere. No complex issue is mastered by a simple reading of a chapter or two. It takes thinking - reflection - living with new ideas - before some yield and real growth is possible.

We have all had the experience. Sometimes it takes weeks, months or even years to digest important lessons. Recently I finally came to understand something that a mentor had tried to teach me more than a decade ago.

For what it is worth, I suggest that you resist the temptation to ‘blow through the book’. At the core of each chapter is a suggestion that will lead you to reconsider how you have been approaching a particular challenge and how you might change your behavior, approach and understanding to master it. Impatience carries a terrible cost when it comes to such changes in behaviors. The time you spend thinking about each chapter will prove much more valuable than the brief time you spend reading it.

The intent is to give you the beginnings of insights - set you on the path that will result in your growth and mastery - open the potential that has always resided within you. Be true to that project and our partnership will yield benefits far beyond your expectations.

Meditations

I have used the term meditation with a specific definition in mind. For this book, it means to think deeply about something that you have read. Digestion after ingestion. The value that you harvest will occur during those times which you are meditating upon what you have read. In that sense, each of the meditations that follows is a bit of grit that may, with the right conditions and attention, turn into pearls of great value.

Unlike many self-help authors, particularly in the Western tradition, I do not see myself as the provider of fundamental truths. In a very real sense, I am simply a guide along a trail through the woods. I can give you a rudimentary map, some set of directions and perhaps some of the provisions you will need along the way. But, having done that, my contribution is done. It is up to you whether you make the journey. It is up to you whether you find your walk through the woods enjoyable and enlightening. It is up to you because it is your life, not mine.

So, how should you approach meditation? Each has certain characteristics in common. The first is that each one of them focuses on an issue that all humans face when trying to come to terms with the reality of being alive as a human being. The context of the meditation may seem provincial but the issue at its base is not.

Your first task then is to figure out what that basic issue is. If you don’t, the meditation will seem a shallow water discussion of a marginally interesting topic.

Assignment

Select a time of day when you’re going to focus on meditation. It doesn’t have to be every day, but you should schedule it at least three times a week to begin with. Enter the times in any personal calendar that you might be keeping. This is evidence of your commitment to a consistent and extended effort. Make sure that you reserve enough time. Don’t skimp when it comes to your future.

Yes, You Can

It is a typical conversation which generally comes more than once during the initial months of most of my mentoring engagements. The client – generally younger and less experienced than I am – will insist that something is beyond their capability. I will insist that it isn’t. And so, I urge them to attempt – and they