Won Buddhism of Manhattan

By Won Woo Jin-James Hagger

Generally a member's dharma talk is about how Won Buddhism has had an impact upon ones life. So it often entails recounting parts of ones own personal life history. Now I confess I'm not big on sharing my experiences or my feelings – I've never considered that it was that important or of interest to others ... though if I'm honest it really comes down to my own personal sense of self esteem. 

And there you have the first insight, 'the need to love oneself' which Won Buddhism has helped me to embrace more fully.

But Won Buddhism has affected my life in so many ways. In fact it pervades every part of it. And this kind of makes sense to me. Since Truth has many expedients or appropriate ways of being expressed its not surprising that the Buddhist verses provide answers or insights to the most important questions or issues in ones life. I've always had an interest in what motivates people, both why I do things and why others do things, and the sense of justice or how people justify their actions. I assume most people have the same interest as it seems so basic, but then maybe not, perhaps it's just my Libran tendencies. That's why I love the couple of lines in our weekly prayer that says "May we see the truth, the truth about ourselves, the truth about others and the truth about the universe"... a very powerful call to search.

When I was working in London (which is over 6 years ago now) a close colleague renamed me "the boy who said why?" My 2 year old seems to have that same curiosity, though she'll probably grow out of it in a couple of years !

So it also came as no surprise to learn that the dharma name I received a couple of years ago "Won Woo Jin" means 'May you become universal Truth' .. an appropriate koan for me

So let me share a couple of examples of how Won Buddhism has had an influence. How its practical application provides a sounding board and source of inspiration whether the issue be intellectual, physical or related to relationships.

Some of our most difficult challenges come at work. ... Though I think we all know our most difficult start at home ... but that's worthy of a whole dharma talk itself. Our relationships with colleagues generally have a veil of corporate professionalism but can stretch our patience, distract us from the task in hand and in short upset us. It comes in so many different flavors but those that keep you awake at night and invade your thoughts find a resting place in meditation. I've continually been amazed how the act of accepting and letting go and just being allows difficult situations to be put into perspective and somehow more creative solutions are revealed. And perhaps more than that meditation revitalizes ones energy so that we're able to deal with the same issue, that had started to feed upon us like a leech, with a renewed vigor. When I don't meditate in the morning I find my input to the day is so much less as is my courage (or is it a kind of indifference) to face and accept challenging relationships and tasks.

My second example shows how I continually challenge my understanding of Buddhism and its practical essence. How I relate it to all aspects of my life and when I'm not able to, I try to understand why, since from experience usually it's because I've missed something or somehow got the 'equation wrong'.

Over the last couple of months at work I've been on "An Experienced Managers course." Most participants are far more experienced than me, so it's been a particularly interesting process consisting of personality tests, managerial business games, one-on-one coaching interviews and sessions, 360 appraisals, role plays etc. In many ways the big thrust has been to increase our awareness of management ...which pretty much means ourselves, build ongoing relationships within the group for ongoing support, and most importantly how we can learn to live outside our normal comfort zone and in so doing develop both ourselves and others.

We were given a number of different articles through the period and one particularly resonated with me so I thought I'd share it. Its called "Developing Versatile Leadership" written by Robert Kaplan and Robert Kaiser and is in the Summer 2003 edition of the "MIT Sloan Management Review" Its basic premise is that both under-doing, and the often overlooked, overdoing, of any particular skill or behavior – such as delegating, giving direction, cooperating with peers etc – will lead to ineffective leadership. It's well established that under-doing is ineffective but less obvious that overdoing is also problematic – after all, leaders must often go to extremes to meet tough challenges. However, it's difficult but important to draw the line between the serious efforts required to get things done and going too far. A problem commonly seen in recently promoted senior executives, for example, is their difficulty in adjusting their skill sets to the requirements of their higher level jobs. What had in their previous positions been a seemingly inoffensive, even useful tendency to get heavily involved in operational detail can become a big liability in their new roles, resulting in the misallocation of time and attention away from strategic considerations or getting in the way of direct reports' ability to do their jobs. But still, even in executive positions there are situations that require the individual to get deeply involved. Effectiveness therefore hinges on the ability to appropriately gear their leadership qualities and skills to the circumstances at hand.

The article identifies these as Versatile rather than Lopsided Leaders. That is, those that are able to adjust their behavior and leadership style between the 2 dominant and often opposing dualities... forceful leadership vs. enabling leadership and strategic leadership vs. operational leadership. Versatile leaders are able to continually adjust their behavior, applying the right approach to the right degree for the circumstances at hand.

It all sounds fairly obvious though less than 1 in 5 leaders qualify as versatile. They identify four potential causes.

- First, overdeveloping one skill and neglecting to develop the other. For example at lower levels of an organization forceful and operational leadership is most critical to success and consequently is overused as managers rise to more senior levels.

- Second, all managers operate on the basis of assumptions beliefs, values and attitudes. When these are distorted, they naturally distort a leader's behavior.

- Third, often managers will under or over value a skill or approach if they deem it not part of their job. In fact these neglected skills often take on a different character

- Fourth, imbalance often results from a fear of inadequacy or incompetence, even though it seems many managers underestimate their true abilities. For example some may shy away from strategy because they fear they are intellectually inadequate. Some isolate themselves because they feel insecure about their ability to relate to other people. Others avoid public speaking because they feel they are not good at it (now that I can definitely relate to!)
Ironically underestimating oneself can lead to overdoing certain behaviours. For example those who privately underrate themselves are liable to put pressure on themselves to demonstrate their value at every opportunity.

So how can managers improve themselves?

Interestingly they suggest as a first step seeing it in oneself. Unfortunately, evidence shows self ratings are often inaccurate. But don't worry, if you ask superiors, peers and subordinates they generally come back with a consistent and accurate impression ... hence the increasingly used 360 degree performance appraisals

A second method is to strengthen ones weaker side. Unfortunately this is not as easy as just acquiring a new skill. Reversing an imbalance requires internal work – contending with a misconception, a bias, a prejudicial attitude or a fear. The easiest internal challenge is to simply recognize what the job requires.

Another method is to moderate the overused side. But to stop overdoing it also requires internal work albeit of a slightly different nature. This involves learning to place less reliance and value on, and identify less with, a particular skill or personal quality.

Anyway I've gone to some lengths to try to set out as fair as I can their ideas. But the conclusion they seem to keep coming back to is that its imperative for managers to get a good sense of who they are before they can really take any effective action. Now there are many practical ways of improving skill sets, improving awareness of situations and understanding oneself as touched on briefly above and indeed dealt with in our ongoing management course. For example, it became very clear that teams almost always make much better decisions than individuals. But the article doesn't really seemed to have left the starting blocks and only scratches the surface as it still lacks a core framework and practical means of truly centering oneself and creating balance. I think this is where spiritual training and stability plays a major part and what better vehicle than the teachings of Won Buddhism and the practice of meditation. I continually find the Buddhist teachings fill voids and the missing underlying rationale of why and how our world inter-relates

To not only be effective but perhaps more importantly happy it's imperative that we go deeper and truly understand what and who we truly are.

My third example of how Won Buddhism and particularly meditation has helped me is in my practice of yoga. I've been reading a book recently by John Main – actually a Christian Benedictine monk - who advises that you don't read any books about religion, spirituality and meditation until you have at least 5 years of meditation practice, as it can get in the way. It's interesting that the more you read the more you do start to realize that reading and scholarly knowledge is insufficient in itself and no substitute for daily meditation. We have to leave our thoughts, analyses and feelings completely behind and be still and quiet. We're too often filled with the desire for success, for happiness, for wealth or whatever it may be, that we are always imagining ourselves as we might be. Our challenge is to come to know ourselves as we are and to accept our present position. Aren't we often caught in that thought and potential anxious striving which goes something like...?

"Shouldn't I be ambitious? If I'm a bad person shouldn't I desire to be better?"

But the reason that I digress from Yoga is that this process of being centered, calm and still helps in the act of action such as yoga. There's an awful lot of hard poses or asanas and these can bring out all sorts in us, the fear of falling or hurting ourselves, the desire to be the best in the class, or the self-competitive drive to just be much better or to just not fail. But these are all distractions that so quickly bring you down. It seems necessary to struggle with the technique and push oneself, but then when you have the thought pattern of what you're supposed to do, you need to give in and follow your breath. By focusing single mindedly on the breath amazingly you're able to find real space within your body, space that you never thought was there and that allows you to go into positions you thought not possible.

But it's hard to get and keep that concentration.

And so, all of these examples come back to the importance of maintaining a daily meditation practice.

So how do we do that?

Effective practice requires three things; commitment, discipline and faith.

You must first commit yourself to a journey of self-discovery, a journey into the mystery of leaving the 'self' behind and of self transformation.

You must have discipline to get up each morning and evening to sit and be still and meditate.

And finally you must have faith: Faith that you have a diamond inside you, a Buddha Nature, that you are worthy and valued and lovable, and that you have the ability to change.

All these interrelate and help you in those wavering times that affect us all.

But then there's the paradox of how you measure progress. It's hard if not impossible to do this as you may do in measuring other skills. It's not something to competitively compare or set objectives against. But a good analogy I read which perhaps we can cautiously compare to is that of learning to ride a bike.

Riding a bike is about direction and balance. You need a certain amount of effort but not too much. If you hang on too tightly and are too stiff you'll come off at the first corner. On the other hand if you let go of the handle bars altogether you will fall off even on the straight. So you need the same kind of finesse and flexibility to meditate as you do to ride a bike.

I'm only a fledgling new to this - 5 years is considered a youngster - but its certainly helped me respond to different situations in life, helped me be a more effective leader, and given me a greater sense of stability.

I'm grateful to have found such a wonderful Temple, a constantly enlightening Won Buddhist approach and a Sangha to share and learn this with.

Thank you and I hope we can all bring commitment, discipline and faith to our practice

March, 2004