This article is published in the e-book ‘The Great Ocean of Being’ which can be directly downloaded from the http://www.i-ternityfoundation.org.
Zen and its Usage in Corporate ‘Best Practice’ – Joy Roy Choudhury, Member, I-ternity Foundation and Head of Communications, The Beyond Duality Project http://www.beyonddualityproject.wordpress.com
ABSTRACT: Zen Buddhism with its roots in India, China and Japan, is a multi-disciplinary system of experiential learning with the caveat of non-conceptualisation based on a stable foundation of meditational practice that promulgates a state of no-mind. It is not to be misunderstood as an anti-intellectual pursuit, but Zen is suggestive that attachment to thoughts and categories are the maladies of the mind leading to stress. Zen doesn’t let words or numbers limit the possibilities of things it is a way of direct pointing to the mind/heart to discover the ‘’inner-nature’’ leading to self-realization. The Zen practice of meditation results in altered states of consciousness or Satori which helps the practitioner become one with his surroundings, enabling his compassion to flow ceaselessly for all sentient beings. These neuro-cognitive and physiological changes in the practitioner are highly recommended for organizational development in terms of teamwork, strategic landscaping, decision making, creativity and leadership. The stripping of the ego considered as a management virtue, is a spontaneous outcome from the Zen practice, which after all shows the practitioner the ‘’mirror-like’’ state consciousness which cannot be stained by anything.
Keywords: Zen, Leadership, Management and Meditation, Spirituality and Psychology
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The Zen Lineage
Zen Buddhism or simply Zen is not only system of learning that have incorporated meditation as an integral part of the understanding of reality as ‘things as they are’, but, it is also highly regarded as a way of life which is organic, spontaneous and receptive to change and transformation. Tracing the history of Zen and its development would take us back to 6th CE, when Bodhidharma, the Indian monk crossed over to China to preach Buddhism, where it encountered the schools of Taoism lead by the venerable master, Lao Tzu, and, also Confucianism, finally reaping the harvests of Zen or Ch’an as it is called in China. The new system thus developed, migrated to Korea, and, finally to Japan where the finest flowering of Zen took place under the able guidance of great monks like Bankei, Basho, Hakuin, Dogen and others.
The meaning of the word Zen has roots in the Sanskrit word ‘Dhyana’ meaning meditation; in Chinese it is called Ch’an. Though meditation is a technique of bringing the wandering mind back into attention, or, a way of centring it, Zen doesn’t exclusively include any technique to reach a desired objective or goal. The very concept of Zen is that it cannot be grasped by normal logic or by common understanding, the quatrain that originated with Bodhidharma puts it together for ages to come as: ‘’a direct transmission outside scriptures and apart from tradition,/no dependence on words and letters,/direct pointing to the human mind,/and seeing into one’s own nature and becoming Buddha, that is, becoming enlightened-awakened- from the normal hypnosis under which almost all of us go round like somnambules.”[1]
Zen Practice and Realization
As it is widely accepted, Zen is based on direct experience that changes the neural architecture, the physiological changes are dominated by a clarity of perception and the enlightened traits or behavioural conducts are all-inclusive based on compassion for the world and all sentient beings. To become awakened, or, to become a Buddha is not an objective or goal in the Zen way of life and it doesn’t put over emphasis on the means to an end in the process of transformation. In Mahayana Buddhism and in Zen, the last desire is the desire for enlightenment which needs to be overcome by the practitioner. In fact, Zen is suggestive that ‘the original realization is marvellous practice.’ Realization is not an endpoint which is somehow reached because of strenuous practice, or, to put it in another way, practice itself is realization. The practitioner lives in the present moment without any affectation towards the past or the possibilities in the future, in a way he is cut off from the linearity of time and this puts his attention on the immediate moment as if these moments are like discrete particles coming one after another. To quote the famous frog haiku by the Zen master, Matsuo Basho: ‘the old pond/the frog jumps in/the sound of water’, here, the moment creates its own ontology where the action is objectively seen by the observer/the poet by being there at that instance. There is no separation between the observer and the observed and in that totality or in unitive consciousness things are seen directly as they are (mirror-like consciousness) which is direct pointing to the human mind or heart. Seeing into one’s own nature is the process of self-realization in Zen. One understands one’s own nature was only obscured by habitual conditioned actions and once the trappings of the false ego are overcome by practice, enlightenment happens suddenly.
Zazen or ‘Sitting Meditation’
‘’The zazen of even beginners manifests the whole of their essential-nature’’ -Dogen, Shobogenzo
In Zen meditation practice called Zazen or ‘sitting meditation’, the focus is on the process of emptying thoughts, but this is something which is to be done with a sense of natural ease. The pertaining question that arises is how does the practitioner control the mind by using the mind? The Zen answer to this is to leave the mind where it is without having to control it or manipulate by dropping thoughts, and, contemplate on an empty state. The Zen way is to allow thoughts or sensory data without engaging with them, without judging, classifying, analysing them at any instance. If the practitioner sits like this with the whole attention on sitting, then he slowly develops a stable centre which is like a ‘swinging door’[2] that remains in its own place whilst allowing thoughts to pass through. This cannot be called a passive sitting as the learner is dynamically present every moment but there is no aim or goal that he must reach because of this practice. This is an important aspect in Zen which is highlighted in Mahayana Buddhism that the final desire is the desire for enlightenment or Nirvana/Moksha that too is not cultivated.
Zen, Tao and the Upanishads
Zen is indebted to Taoism which predated its entry into China because it strengthened natural spontaneity of human nature as in the very definition of Tao (the Way/Course) it is declared that ‘’the great Tao flows everywhere, both to the left and to the right. It loves and nourishes all things, but does not lord it over them, and when merits are accomplished, it lays no claim to them.’’ The Tao or the Way of which we are a part cannot be defined in the same way we cannot define the concept of Brahman in the Upanishads. It is in the realm of experience, but linguistic or visual symbols will only suffice for a partial truth of the Tao. By cutting off the desire for enlightenment, the practitioner has harnessed non-dual action or ‘’wei-wu-wei’’, the action of non-action. Siting without sitting or doing without doing is no doing at all, it is easeful relaxed doing, by getting rid of the reward or the goal, the meditator can finally relax in his own being without having anything to do. The individual who has realized the Tao/the Brahman is always free from duality, there is no separation of his consciousness from that of the cosmos, to him nature is organic and he is an integral part of it, to act upon nature or to do is not an event where the doer is separate from the doing or upon which it is done; in fact, there is no doer but only doing or an awareness of wu-wei or non-doing. In the absence of the doer, doing is non-doing or simply doing-without-doing (Wei-wu-wei). Lao Tzu says, ‘’the wise man deals with things through wu-wei and teaches through no-words/the ten thousand things flourish without interruption/they grow by themselves and no one possesses them.”[3]‘’They grow by themselves’’, or, ‘’no one possesses them’’ is the definition of nature or cosmos as something organic – the stars, the galaxies, the black holes, the rivers, mountains, the woods, and, green grass are all part of the collective consciousness or the Buddha Nature in Zen. In the Upanishads, the whole material universe has come from Brahman and it says ‘’that which cannot be apprehended by the mind, but by which, they say, the mind is apprehended- That alone know as Brahman and not that which people here worship.”[4]
Non-Dual Action and Zen
The non-dual action which is the Zen spontaneity has further correlation with Lord Krishna’s sayings to Arjuna on nishkama karma in Bhagawat Gita. In the absence of separation between the subject and object, between the self and the world, or, when there is no awareness of an agent that is believed to do the action as being distinct from an objective action that is done, it is only then that the concept of non-dual action is properly understood. Non-action requires eliminating the sense of self or the ego which interferes with the action because of the expectations associated with it. Unless the practitioner can dissipate the cloud of expectations and desires that prohibits him to experience the world as it is in itself (Tao), non-dual action has no meaning. Even the judgement that something needs to be done in a purposive sense is part of the cloud that obscures the view of the clear or empty sky. Wu-wei is not doing-nothing but doing more with less resources or knowing where to stop. Naturally the system reaches a state of vector equilibrium in this process becoming more sustainable for any action that may proceed. Vector Equilibrium (VE) is the state of relaxing in ground of being, a poise or equanimity where there is no intention of bringing even the mind back into attention or disengage with discursive thoughts; it is simply sitting without sitting and finally reaching zero phase or the empty state on its own accord. Buckminster Fuller who coined the term VE, described it in terms of a system of energy having a distinct geometric form with all vectors having equal length than as a structure, it is the primordial state where movement of energy comes to state of absolute equilibrium or stillness. From this zero-phase, all dynamic energy events occur. He goes on to say that ‘’the vector equilibrium is the zero-starting point for happenings or nonhappenings: it is the empty theatre and empty circus and empty Universe ready to accommodate any act and any audience.”[5]In other words, the vector equilibrium is the quantum field or the vacuum field -the stuff out of which everything is made. It’s a boiling sea of random fluctuations where virtual particles can briefly and spontaneously appear from the vacuum and then disappear again, even when no one has put any energy into the field to create a real particle.
Resting in Consciousness: Zen and Ashtavakra Gita
Relaxing in the being while doing zazen is resting in the state of natural consciousness. In Ashtavakra Gita, the sage Ashtavakra while having a discourse with King Janaka, says ‘’to attain liberation, know yourself as the witness, conscious of all these”, and, later, says “rest in consciousness’’ as there is nothing else to do. If one can relax, unwind and rest in consciousness then this very moment one can be at peace and free of bondage. ‘’This very moment’’ is the Zen, ‘here and now’ and the process of enlightenment is not gradual but sudden or abrupt. The marvellous practice is the realization of that state of enlightenment. The ultimate meaning of meditation is resting in consciousness and ‘seeing through’ to what we ourselves are. The famous Zen master Dogen says: ‘’you shall first learn to step back…’’ by letting go of all thoughts in the natural way and returning to the ground source. Relaxing in the source and resting in beingness is what Martin Heidegger has called resting into yourself – ‘the releasement’ or ‘enchanted regioning’. It is about find a state-space (or, a quantum state) where one can realize that he is the Buddha or the awakened one, and that there never has been a separation between the individual and the universal consciousness. What apparently happened is that, while asleep, the practitioner has forgotten all about the ground on which he treads.
Heidegger’s ‘regioning’ is the ‘field of Buddha’ (The Tao/Brahman) – it opens the truth consciousness.
Zen No-Mind, Shiva Sutras and Gaudapada’s Mandukya Karika, and Tibetan ‘Rigpa’
Buddha talked about the four dignities of man and that includes sitting, walking, lying down and standing; these postures were held by him in the process of enlightenment. In Zen particularly, all these postures can be part of meditation if done with awareness. The key to Zen meditation is moment to moment non-judgemental awareness in a state of mind where there are no thoughts. It is called Zen No-mind or Mushin in Japan (wu-hsin in Chinese). The No-Mind state is also discussed by Gaudapada (Guru to Sankaracarya’s teacher- Advaita Vedanta Lineage)) in the third chapter of Madukya Karika where he says from the perspective of pure Advaita Vedanta – duality causes samsara (subject-object duality) and non-duality causes moksha/liberation. In the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep duality exists so samsara/the subject-object schism is experienced, though in the Karika, Gaudapada suggests that in the deep sleep state duality is not experienced like the other two states (waking and dream) but is present in the seed form. Cessation of duality is moksha/nirvana to him. In verse 3.31 of Mandukya Karika (Ch-3) he says ‘’manodrsyamidam dvaitam yatkimcitsacaracaram/manaso hyamanibhave dvaitam naivppalabhyate” which is that ‘’all these dual objects, comprising everything that is movable and immovable, perceived by the mind (are mind alone)”. For duality is never experienced when the mind ceases to act. In short, duality is an experience of the functioning of the mind, which is the cognizer of cognized, when the mind dissolves or in the state of no-mind there is no duality which the Tibetan Buddhists say in a different way that there is cognizance, but it is empty cognizance. The non-dual awareness is called Rigpa which happens spontaneously in the no-mind state. This state of the practitioner is also discussed in Shiva Sutra texts in Kashmir Shavism. It says ‘’Meditation is the seed. Just sitting relaxed within himself, he enters spontaneously into the lake of Supreme Being.”[6]Swami Lakshmanjoo elaborates this in ‘The Supreme Awakening’ by saying that for a yogi or a practitioner the real asana or posture is the supreme energy of awareness. The real posture only exists when one is truly residing in the state of absolute awareness, the awareness of the self. In Zen, the injunction is often to do nothing and just sit! If anything is done, the mind immediately becomes active bringing in thoughts. In Zen, just sitting is Zazen and by practising it moment by moment it is possible to reach the state of ‘mushin’ or no-mind. The Shiva sutra says that the moment one achieves that state of just sitting with gentle quietness, the practitioner finds himself bathed in the lake of the supreme being. That lake was always within the practitioner as a possibility or potentiality in an involuted state. In Zen, everything is done with an effortless ease, there is no intention to excel in actions, but excellence or mastery is achieved when the mind has nothing to grasp. Similarly, in the Shiva Sutras, the true yogi leaves aside the effort of yogic exercises (asana), breathing exercises (pranayama), contemplation and meditation and simply remains in the posture with nothing left to do, aware of what he actually is. The sutra further reinforces this point of effortless ease with which a yogi gathers himself by use of the word ‘sukham’ – a blissful internal state where he finds himself in and perceives the reality as the embodiment of his awareness.
Buddha’s Enlightenment Experience
Buddha’s enlightenment happened after he gave up all possible efforts to excel and reach the state of liberation or nirvana. It so happened, that he sat under the bodhi tree with nothing left to do and suddenly with the morning star appeared in the eastern sky, there was a leap in his consciousness and the transformation led to the experience of enlightenment instantaneously. Buddha’s enlightenment experience called anuttara-samyak-sambodhi or ‘’unexcelled, complete awakening’’ was not a willed effort on his part, nor, there was any desire that led to the outcome of enlightenment. Enlightenment simply happened, and it was not a gradual process but an abrupt one. In the parlance of quantum physics, this is a moment of quantum leap where the electrons jump from one orbit to another without going through the intervening space. Such quantum leaps are discontinuous and non-local in origin. In that eternal here-and-now there is the supreme realization that the so-called every day or ordinary consciousness is the source of that supreme awakening. In Zen, enlightenment is an ordinary experience (‘buji’ or nothing special) and one does the same everyday work as chopping wood, carrying water or gardening. The original mind or the Buddha mind is the ordinary mind as the 6th patriarch of Zen, Hui-neng clarified in his famous verse: ‘’There never was a Bodhi Tree, /nor bright mirror standing. /Fundamentally not one thing exists. /So where is the dust to cling?” Hui-neng who was an illiterate woodcutter, who had never worn the robe or studied the sutras, uttered this verse as he had the supreme awakening of the oneness of all reality here-and-now. The original mind had never wandered to-and-fro, had never gone astray so there is no question of dust to settle on the mirror-mind. It is only that one fails to see the reality of things as they are attached to forms and meanings and as the Diamond Sutra says, “all forms everywhere are unreal and false’’. For Hui-neng, this is a sudden awakening to the empty oneness which constitutes the deeper reality of this universe. When the mind identifies with its own image then the situation is a kind of paralysis since its rooted in fixity. It is a like fixed image of oneself in motion. To cling to it or to grasp it is to allow a constant contradiction or conflict in possible actions. That is why in Zen, the masters often reiterate ‘’in walking, just walk/in sitting, just sit/above all, don’t wobble.” All attempts to control the mind will result in failure and, so, one acts spontaneously with no-mind (wu-hsin) and with no-thought (wu-nien). In the sayings of the great natha yogi, Gorakhnāth, we find the same wisdom attributed to the state of no-mind, ‘unman’. This is ‘beyond mind’ where in a certain sense a deep process of transmutation has taken place, and, the limitations of the ordinary mind with its petty delusions are transcended. The no-mind is the original abode of the mind, but its fluctuations are integral to the experience of false reality.
Patanjali’s cessation of the perturbations of the mind finds a completely new direction under Gorakhnāth as he delves deep into the transcendence and reversal of the functioning of the mind into the state of no-mind, unman: “They are truly wise whose mind dwells in the unmani. The ordinary mind (while in its ‘exoteric’ condition) is deluding; in its reversed state, through which it becomes ‘no-mind,’ it is wisdom.”[7]
Zen Creativity & Teamwork in Corporate Practice
When Satya Nadella, the Microsoft CEO appeared at the Times of India office at New Delhi very recently, he was pleasantly talking about his love for cricket, environment and politics and adding the need for academic institutions to encourage cross-functional skills for the workplace. He later quipped: ‘’I my first week at Microsoft, I ran into a guy who spent his free time alternately reading industry magazines and T.S. Eliot. He said one was for information, the other was for inspiration. More than cross-functional skills, though what we really need to emphasize is teamwork – a culture where people from diverse backgrounds can come together to do great work.”[8] Zen’s biggest contribution to the world community is creativity, as a way of life which is based on ordinary naturalness and spontaneity, the greatest Zen masters were versatile in both poetry and painting, in gardening and pottery, in meditation and cooking. All activities were ensued with mindfulness and a deep attention which further enhanced the practice leading to insight experiences or Kensho. It is a state of insight-wisdom where the sense of one’s physical self, fades and an impression of merging with the world/nature takes place. Often during retreats, the practitioner’s mental field is amplified by a heightening, widening, deepening of internalised awareness. This moment of bliss is a creative opening into something new and fresh; it is also an insight into the buddha nature – all have buddha potentiality them, we are all on the threshold of enlightenment, a small trigger, a flipping of consciousness can bring back the original realisation. Upanishads say that everything in the universe is Brahman. Once the practitioner has direct experience of the principle, he sees the whole thing. Zen always encourages sudden enlightenment. These moments of Kensho are discontinuous and non-local; these moments can happen even amidst a corporate boardroom meeting, with the value of paying attention to detail, a small intuition can bring forth a great innovation in the industry. But key to these moments are neuroplasticity of the brain and an openness to learn. Zen believes in no constructs or concepts- it is free flowing like clouds and water resembling a life that is continuously on the go without any attachment to anything.
The Kensho or Satori states in Zen are flashes of enlightenment which always trigger a new way of seeing things for the practitioner. Meditation and enlightened states have correlation as both involves transformation of brain function. The enlightened traits observed in the practitioner includes quickening of sensibilities and emotions and a greater understanding of existence as experienced ‘here and now’ with refinement of intuition. This insight-wisdom involves an array of complex psycho-physiological changes when one practices zazen or not-thinking meditation and the learner carries this mindfulness and clear awareness into his everyday life. At the level of the beginners, one keeps a simple style of meditation having a passive attitude with focus on the in-breath and the out-breath. This generates a relaxation response, slowly with consistent practice the Zen method of training can initiate integral changes in personality and behaviour with a long-term benefit of spontaneously cultivating selflessness and awareness. Buddha’s eightfold path enumerates right understanding, right thought, right speech, right conduct, right vocation, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation – these understanding is assumed to be the result of the event that happened to him that long night as he sat under the bodhi tree. Buddha came to understand that our sufferings or stress (‘dukha’) is largely self-inflicted and root cause lies in the ego (the I-Me-Mine complex). Buddha’s experience of enlightenment was a unitive experience of the universal consciousness, and, the application of that in everyday life scenarios is a kind realisation that naturally constitutes the idea of living Zen. Enlightened experiences change the perspective of seeing reality, apart from that everything remains the same- chopping wood, cleaning dishes, cooking and gardening. In Zen, what is more emphasized is this human side of enlightened experiences despite the quantum leap and neurocognitive changes that take place during the process. The clam awareness and emotional stability simplifies the lifestyle of the learner making it more ethical, just and realistic. The concept of ‘sangha’ in Buddhism, a group of monks practising together is way of learning from each other creating strong bonds which goes beyond the logic of the membrane. In modern society, it transpires into the model of support group or micro-clusters of like-minded meditators who can help each other evolve under the guidance of an authentic teacher (Roshi). Retreats or Outbound Experiences are becoming very popular today as many companies have realized that their personnel need to be off from their managerial work for a period of time to declutter their minds and immerse into sessions of digital detox to unwind and find their ‘inner self’ – this in turn helps them to optimize their priorities in workplace and find more creative ways of handling management problems based on integrity, judgement and intuition.
Zen and Corporate Leadership
The human subject and its function are the measure of all things in business and not the bottom line. The Zen way of understanding corporate leadership is the way one acquires the competency to balance rational, non-rational, mental and vital means of apprehension; one develops the spontaneous ability to make conscious decisions which has filtered out ego-driven assertiveness. Zen values both thinking and non-thinking without any special attachment to both. Another important aspect of Zen leadership is the level of tolerance that a practitioner achieves while confronting with ambiguity in business scenarios. Zen masters always ensured that the student becomes more reactive than proactive when dealing with such events that involve paradoxes and finally transcends that reaching a higher non-dual, non-judgemental perspective. In the twenty first century business economics ruled by robotics, analytics, big data, AI which has created ‘disruptions’ in management processes and thinking, forcing a transformation in the content and its application in workplace, leadership skills are seriously redefined positioning it ‘’in between measured knowledge and deep uncertainty.’’[9] This often termed as quantum leadership is based on the principles of quantum physics which sees the complexity in the order of things in nature as an open-ended system than understood in a deterministic classical Newtonian sense. When the Zen master Chao-chou replies to the monk who asked, ‘’For what reason did the 1st patriarch Bodhidharma come to China?’’, he simply says, ‘’cypress tree in the garden’’. Asked again by the monk imploring the master not to answer by objectification, Chao-chou reiterated, ‘’cypress tree in the garden.’’ The answer far from being objectification, is pointing directly to the zen truth of the field of buddha which is the ground on which the monk, the master and Buddha, the awakened one and the cypress tree stand and die, it is Heidegger’s ‘enchanted regioning’ or ‘region’ – the field of the Buddha Being or Mind, forgetting that man always strayed and wandered in strife and suffering. In terms of understanding the new quantum leadership or zen leadership, one needs to develop the capacity of transcending levels where representational thinking is knocked off to the ground, thereby opening a new field of truth and this is paravritti, metanoesis, the 180 degree turn over. ‘’It is not a turning over by a ‘doing or not-doing’ you, a turning from positive to negative’; it is not done by ‘a you’. It is not done by any other ‘entity’ either. It is not done at all. It is the timeless, unceasing prajnāic functioning of our dhyānic non-being that becomes phenomenally present when there is neither doing nor non-doing, i.e. when there is ‘fasting of the mind.’ ”[10] The way of Zen is the natural way without any contrivances of the mind, and, when the Zen leader knows by not knowing, his mind is a ‘’swinging door’’[11] that allows everything to come and pass through without any attachment and ‘’he does not linger where Buddha is, and where there is no Buddha he passes right on.’’
No-Beginning No-End, But, Only Transformation and Evolution
There is a famous Zen saying ‘when you get to the top of the mountain, keep climbing’ which is part of the basic understanding of a developmental process in terms of change and transformation. In Zen, the closure or beginnings are not important, it focusses only on means or practice which itself is the realisation. Zen is a direct way of coming to an understanding of ‘suchness’ by experiencing the reality resulting in a sudden insight-wisdom: ‘’the flowers depart when we hate to loose them;/the weeds arrive when we hate to watch them grow.’’[12] The naturalness of this understanding means that all opposites cancel each other leaving only the ‘here and now moments’ which are self-contained and quiescent. If one lives these moments doing the work assigned to him with ease and without any attachment to the future possibilities or the past, one can essentially become stress free and happy. Mastery is attention or concentration on the process or journey itself than on the outcome. This Zen learning gives a robust fresh attitude in continual professional development which also supports organizational transformation and the evolution of its products and services. It is perfectly natural, unaffected and without any sense of business, and, as Thich That Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen master says ‘’you can wash dishes to have clean dishes or you can wash the dishes to wash the dishes.” In Zen, after all, there is no place to use any effort, it is downright ordinary and nothing special. So, the ignorant will laugh but the wise will always understand that the functioning of the universe is relativistic in nature. This understanding of the interconnectedness of innumerable points in the universe, where each point is connected with all others ad infinitum is the archetype of a spiders web with dew on it, often, called Indra’s net where each dew drop acts as a mirror reflecting all others in the series without any beginning, or, end, is, therefore, the basis of the dependent existence in the world, and this the reason why “when you are silent it speaks;/when you speak it is silent…/the great gate is wide open to bestow alms,/and no crowd is blocking the way.”[13]
About the Author:
Joy Roy Choudhury, Member, I-ternity Foundation
One of the co-founders of I-ternity Foundation, Joy brings in passion and creativity that is required to succeed at the highest levels. With twenty years of experience in corporate communications, brand development, PR and marketing, he has been able to synthesize spirituality and management as a common mantra and vision that helps individuals to grow and develop, and, harness their own potential. He has worked with different advertising agencies including Ogilvy and Mather, and, also with Roger Waters’ of Pink Floyd on ‘In the Flesh 2002 Tour’ and with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (Tull for Tsunami Victims) on designer merchandise. He has worked with UK organization Assessment Tomorrow and UK Skills on E-Assessment and various skills projects. As an ardent follower of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, he stresses upon Quantum Sustainability, Zen Leadership, Corporate Wellness and Ethics. He is working on Mindfulness programmes to enhance 21st century skills for the community. His research interests are in the areas of Zen Meditation, Ontology of Time from Dogen, Heidegger to ADS-CFT, Time and Organizational Change, Future Poetry of Sri Aurobindo, Quantum Consciousness and Sustainability, Hermeneutics of the Shiva Sutras (Kashmir Shaivism), Ashtavakra Gita and Non-dual Consciousness, Sri Vidya and the Cosmic Design.
[1]Alan Watts, The Way of Zen
[2]Swinging door, Shunryu Suzuki
[3] Lao Tzu, Tao Te King, Ch-2
[4]Kena Upanishad 1.5-8
[5] R. Buckminster Fuller, Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (2nd edition)
[6]Swami Lakshmanjoo, Shiva Sutras, Sutra 16
[7] Gordan Djurdjevic, Masters of Magical Powers: The Nath Yogis in the Light of Esoteric Notions
[8] TOI 7th Nov 2017 Edition
[9]Liisa Välikangas & Dr. Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi, Quantum Leadership: In search of the next management frontier, Boardview magazine, 2018
[10]Wei Wu Wei, The Tenth Man
[11]Shunru Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind – Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
[12]Dogen, Shobogenzo
[13]Cheng-tao ke, Alan Watts, The Way of Zen
-J
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