Start Today!

time waster or time saver?

2007-06-13T11:14:00.000-04:00

this looks promising. found it by way of this book which is edited by the founder of one of my favorite websites.

any other similar ideas?

This World is Possible

2007-05-23T22:45:00.000-04:00

Its been a long time since my last post. At dinner tonight, a friend gave me hell for the lack of action here. So, as a stop gap, here is an article I wrote for the Village Zendo newsletter, a Zen Buddhist temple where i am a student.

www.villagezendo.org

This Work is Possible

Steve Kosho Theberge

We were standing in the coat room at the zendo when Myoshin asked me if I wanted to write something for the next newsletter. “Just something about your work and your practice,” she said, her eyes twinkling. I quickly said yes — It’d be interesting and helpful for me to put some of what I’ve been thinking into words.

I should have known it wouldn’t be so easy. My work in the movement for peace and justice and my meditation practice have often felt like competing interests at best, if not totally opposed and contradictory. And while I’ve been involved in both since high school, I’ve always felt as though they were distinct interests — parallel maybe, but not intertwined in any meaningful or real way. I’ve wrestled to pull out some kind of unifying theme or idea that would let me commit to either practice without feeling like I was shortchanging the other. Sitting certainly didn’t feel like charging the halls of power, and I wondered how something so personal and individual contributed to building a revolutionary movement. Moreover, how could I feel justified in spending so much time working on myself? Unable to reconcile what I saw then as a major conflict, I made a choice and gave up meditation for Marx.

A couple of years later I found myself deeply immersed in social justice work, yet far from happy or focused. The questions that had led me to meditation in the first place had only become more complex and pointed, and lacking a regular practice, I felt cut off from a clear sense of who this person trying to save the world really was. Clearly, this was not an either/or situation!

So this question, about my work and my practice and the relationship between the two, has turned out to be a central one for me. It’s a question that I have asked a few teachers, and despite all the ways I’ve invented to make it sound more complicated then it is, the answer has never really changed: “Just practice both and it will become clear,” they say. “What is the difference between the two anyway? The practice is just your life, just what is in front of you.”

Could it really be that simple?

I sometimes lose sight of the fact that the teaching of our tradition is really about our lives and how we live them, that all this sitting on cushions is not separate and distinct from any other moment of the day. With that in mind, I’ve been trying to let go of finding some theory that will neatly tie up all the loose end of my life, to stop looking so hard for something and work with what’s in front of me. But I’ve also been thinking that there is not one kind of Buddhism that’s engaged and another that’s not, no difference between secular and spiritual action. As practitioners, we have chosen lives in which the only option is direct engagement with all the 10,000 things.

Not surprisingly, I’ve found the strongest the strongest sense of continuity in the small corners of daily practice, the parallels and overlap hidden in plain sight. Transformation at any level is a daily practice, one that is made stronger with community, with clear guidance, and with faith and determination, tempered by doubt. When we let go of our expectations and definitions and open up to what’s really going on, we can act from a place of clarity and understanding instead of judgment and predisposition. I’ve found that the time spent intentionally cultivating awareness can’t help but work its way in and become a moment to moment practice, in which just being present for the task at hand is all that’s needed - whether it’s lighting incense or blockading the doors of a weapons manufacturer.

Of course, the dramas that we play out on the cushion are ever present in the peace and justice movement. We’ve seen how grasping for power and control has led to deep conflict and crisis, dividing our movements. We’ve seen so many people get sidetracked by their rigid attachment to one fixed ideology, their work suffering because of their refusal to be with not-knowing. The soft, warm-hand-to-warm-hand qualities of empathy and compassion are sorely lacking in many organizations, as is an acknowledgement of the havoc that an unchecked ego can wreak. Our practice of realizing our intrinsic wholeness could do wonders to help build the kinds movements and communities that we need to really shake things up.

In the end, maybe it just comes down to a matter of scale. What really is the difference between the practice of ending this war and the practice of ending all wars? Where is the separation between the profound sense of connection and collectivity we find during oryoki and with thousands of other people in the streets? We can’t wait for somebody else to come along and sweep away our problems and obstacles and we can’t get stuck throwing responsibility onto someone else’s shoulders. No one can save us. We can only work everyday at some small piece, slowly.

Steve Kosho Theberge is a formal student of Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara. He works at the War Resisters League, where he is the National Organizing Coordinator. His main project, called Not Your Soldier, offers youth the tools and resources they need to stop the invasion of military recruiters in our schools and our communities. In addition, he provides antiwar organizing and nonviolent direct action training for activists across the country.

process not product

2007-04-25T22:43:00.000-04:00

I got the flu last week, and it kicked me out of commission in a serious way. Besides setting me back at work (I was out for two days) it also means that i wasn't able to post again this past weekend like I'd hoped.

I was really struck by the comments that people left after the last post, especially by the huge and wide variety of systems that people have put together. But it was also intriguing that people shared this nagging sense of something not quite being right, that despite our best of intentions, we are all still having a hard time keeping on top of things. seems like most of us know that we should be better organized, but just cobble together a loose way of doing things as opposed to taking the time to find something that really works.

I am going to post the David Allen Workflow Chart as soon as I can figure out how - you can't updload PDFs to blogger, and I don't have my own server to post it on.

For those who are really interested, you can download all the free charts and documents from davidco.com directly. Because I only want the best for you, here is a link for a big zip file with everything you can get for free, ya cheapskates. it'll work for the next 7 days, and i'm happy to email it to anyone who wants as well.

Any Time But Now. Anywhere But Here.

2007-04-17T18:05:00.000-04:00

"...Next time i'll try, for the first time in my life.
It won't pass me by.

Procrastinate it can wait, i put it off. let's start today!

my room's a mess and i can't get dressed.
I gotta be out by eight o'clock.
Deep inside i know the answer.

Well there's no time like the present and i'd like to hang out but who doesn't.
I've made enough mistakes for this lifetime.
Now i'm here to make amends.
Next time i'll try, for the first time in my life.
It won't pass me by.

Procrastinate it can wait, i put it off. start! stop!"

Gorilla Biscuits "Start Today" Revelation Records 1994

I just got back from a week in San Francisco. It was a wonderful trip, inspiring and re-energizing in whole host of ways. I've been about half an inch from total burnout recently, and this trip have give me some real perspective on how to start addressing that in a real, practical and concrete way.

This is my first shot at a blog, and I've started it mostly as a way to track my progress in reorganizing and refocusing how i approach my work and the tasks in my life. For most people, I can imagine that nothing sounds more boring then the details of how I go about prioritizing the little details. If thats you, you can stop reading right now - no hard feelings I promise. But, if you wanna stick around and talk about color coding and workflow, please do!

Long story short, I had a number of significant and challenging conversations with people I deeply respect about the challenges and difficulties I'm coming up against in my work as a organizer at a national office. In particular, my buddy Chris turned me on to a great book by David Allen called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. You can check out the David Allen fan club here and here.

In my experience, most people on the left stay far far away from books like this, and for good reason. Most of them reek of corporate, cut throat, back-stabbing power grabs or conversely, new-agey crystal worship BS.

At the risk of total public humiliation, I think this one is different. It offers some clear, straighforward advice on how to deal with the intense level of commitment and responsibilites that almost everyone takes on. So, my plan is to document, step by step, the process of getting my shit together.

Step one.

I started making my lists. Lists of bills to pay, projects to complete, goals to meet. The list is totally overwhelming - the amount of work on my plate right now is kind of crazy - it includes everything from coordinating a major national organizing project to overseeing the redesign of our website, to coordinating our presence at the US Social Forum, to updating our voicemail system. And taking out the office trash.

The next step is breaking down each task to all the component pieces involved in getting them done. But I already feel much better just having it all down on paper.

I bought hanging wall files, a phone log, and something called a "Self-Stick Removable Action Pad" at Staples. I think accessorizing is going to be the most fun part of this.

So, not that onyone is actually reading this yet, but I'd be interested in hearing about different organizational systems people have used, and what that found to be most useful.

Next time: the workflow chart. Are you ready?