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The Hua Tou in the Workplace

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The corporate world is an often difficult, if not sometimes brutal, place to be but it offers one of the best environments to practice the hua-tou method of Chan. When greed, battles of the ego, and desires for prestige are rampant, it’s a perfect opportunity to reflect inward and ask “Who is experiencing these things?” If we are trying to make ourselves look good by making others look bad, commonplace in many work environments, we may ask “Who is it who seeks prestige?
CorporateHuaTou
The corporate world is an often difficult, if not sometimes brutal, place to be but it offers one of the best environments to practice the hua-tou method of Chan. When greed, battles of the ego, and desires for prestige are rampant, it’s a perfect opportunity to reflect inward and ask “Who is experiencing these things?” If we are trying to make ourselves look good by making others look bad, commonplace in many work environments, we may ask “Who is it who seeks prestige? Who is it who seeks to harm another person in order to satisfy his own desire for prestige, power, or promotion?”

The workforce is an especially powerful environment for Chan practice because we can feel the need to be validated, to be approved of, more so than other situations in life. When we stop and reflect, “Who is this so-called "self" that that needs validation, promotion, and recognition?” we are doing Chan. When we stop and reflect, “Who is this ‘self,’ this ‘me,’ that is treated unfairly and not getting what it feels it's worth?” we are doing Chan. What is the nature of this “self” that is constantly changing? Can it be described intellectually by word or thought?

A great way to approach the often brutal reality of working in a corporate environment is through the Chan technique of self-inquiry, the hua-tou, which points us inward to our True Nature. We don’t affirm or deny anyone’s beliefs or actions, we simply intensely investigate our Selves through them.

We ask the targeted questions with intensity, looking within with all our being, inquiring into the very nature of our lives. Some more examples of questions we may investigate in our corporate work environment if they apply to us:

* Who is working?

* Who has something to gain?

* Who has something to lose?

* Who is being treated unfairly?

* Who is being treated fairly?

* Who is popular?

* Who is an outcast?

We can ask any of these questions as they may pertain to our specific situation and we can create our own. Remember to ask these "Who...?" questions during good or bad, praise or shame, fortune or misfortune, because our True Nature is beyond these pairs, beyond any sense of a self (which doesn't really exist).

Above all, remember to ask them with utmost dedication. It won't work otherwise.

Such questions are a tool, a device, an aid, to point to our True Nature. Pointing into our True Nature is the objective: going past the point where the mind, the Monkey Mind, is trying to figure things out by logic. When we understand that, the questions themselves become unnecessary, but using them can greatly help to begin the journey.

So just dive, dive, dive, deep into your True Nature, that which transcends all.

You may encounter resistance, and even Doubt, during the journey. And I won't lie to you, resistance and Doubt may take a while to resolve. The time it takes depends on you. Persist! Persist!

If you begin doubting, ask "Who is doubting?" or "Who is feeling this resistance/doubt, or loss?"

Remember that resistance/doubt, or "blockage," no matter how strong, is not real. It's impermanent like bubbles on water. It's just a thing of the mind. The mind loves to play tricks on us, toying with us through that vicious cycle of fulfilling, then shattering expectation, over and over again.

This isn't about expectation - so don't believe the mind. This isn't about the mind. It's about going into the Truth Within, which is much beyond what the mind does or doesn't do.

So keep diving. Be like a pearl diver going into an ocean of stormy waters, stopping at nothing to get to the treasure.

Which brings us to the next point: the same intensity you put into your journey, put into your work. Turning "inward" and "outward" are just pointers. They are really One. We have the right to work but we don't have the right to the results of our work. We just do our best in what we do; that is all we can do.

Enjoy the Journey. Keep at it. Persist. Always.

 

Sutras and Shastras

Vijnanabhairava Tantra
Since there is no difference between the Shakti and the one who embodies her, nor between substance and object, the Shakti is identical to the Self. The energy of the flames is nothing but the fire. All distinction is but a prelude to the path of true knowledge. The one who reaches the Shakti grasps the non-distinction between Shiva and Shakti and enters the door to the divine. As space is ...
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Diamond Sutra

Thus have I heard. One morning, when the Buddha was staying near Shravasti in the jeta grove of Anathapindika's estate, He and His company of twelve hundred and fifty monks went into the city to beg for their breakfast; and after they returned and finished their meal, they put away their robes and bowls and washed their feet. Then the Buddha took His seat and the others sat down before Him.

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Mahayana-Sraddhotpada Shastra

There is a teaching (dharma) which can awaken in us the root of faith in the Mahayana, and it should therefore be explained. The explanation is divided into five parts. They are (1) the Reasons for Writing; (2) the Outline; (3) the Interpretation; (4) on Faith and Practice; (5) the Encouragement of Practice and the Benefits Thereof. Someone may ask the reasons why I was led to write this ...

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The Metta Sutta

This is what should be done By one who is skilled in goodness, And who knows the path of peace: Let them be able and upright, Straightforward and gentle in speech. Humble and not conceited, Contented and easily satisfied. Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways. Peaceful and calm, and wise and skilful, Not proud and demanding in nature.

The Buddha's Teaching on Loving-kindness
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The Heart Sutra
Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One together with many of the highest Bodhisattvas and a great company of Bhikshus was staying at Rajagaha on Mt. Gridhrakuta. The Blessed One was sitting apart absorbed in Samadhi Prajna-paramita. The Venerable Sariputra, influenced by the Blessed One absorbed in Samadhi, spoke thus to the Noble Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara:

...

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The Platform Sutra

The Platform Sutra of Hui Neng became a pivotal treatise in the history of Chan, often used as a distinguishing mark of Souther School Chán.  An important resource for anyone interested in the historical devolopment of Chán Buddhism in China. The Master Hui-neng ascended the high seat at the lecture hall of the Ta-fan Temple and expounded the Dharma of the Great Perfection of Wisdom, and ...

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Heart Sutra (Chanted Form)
By NA
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita, Perceived that all five skandhas are empty&nbsp And was saved from all suffering and distress. O Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness; Emptiness does not differ from form. That which is form is emptiness; That which is emptiness form.

The Heart Sutra -- "The Heart of the Perfection of Great Wisdom" Sutra

...

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Selections from the Dhammapada
By the Buddha

Sayings of the Buddha

Speak not harshly to anyone; those thus spoken to will retort. Vindictive speech begets sorrow, and retaliatory blows may bruise you.
-- Canto X.5

Even though a man be richly attired, if he should live in peace, calm, controlled, assured, leading a holy life, abstaining from inflicting injury upon all creatures, he is truly a brahmana, a recluse, a bhikkhu.
-- Canto X.14

...
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Kalamer Sutra

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One, on a wandering tour among the Kosalans with a large community of monks, arrived at Kesaputta, a town of the Kalamas. The Kalamas of Kesaputta heard it said, "Gotama the contemplative — the son of the Sakyans, having gone forth from the Sakyan clan — has arrived at Kesaputta. And of that Master Gotama this fine reputation has spread: 'He ...

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Death & Dying

Reincarnation
By Chuan Zhi

When we recognize that the ego doesn't exist in any real sense but only as an artifice of the mind, there's nothing that needs explaining anymore: the notion of reincarnation is seen as nothing more than an intellectual game. The person, like the raindrop, merges into the sea of the Dharmakaya, a sea where individuality, in any mode of conception, is totally obliterated. Does one molecule of ...

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The Seven Sermons To The Dead ...
By Carl Gustav Jung
Carl Jung was, and continues to be, a tremendous influence on matters of spiritual consciousness in the western hemisphere. He was deeply interested in the psychological and spiritual underpinnings of Zen Buddhism and other eastern religions and for many years collaborated with Zen scholars and priests such as D. T. Suzuki. Between them, an amalgam of psychology and spirituality took shape that ...
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John Donne: Meditation #17
By John Donne
Perchance, he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns ...
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Let Me Become Naught
By Jalai Al-Din
I died from the plant, and reappeared in an animal; I died from the animal and became a man; Wherefore then should I fear? When did I grow less by dying? Next time I shall die from the man, That I may grow the wings of angels. From the angel, too, must I seek advance; All things shall perish save His face Once more shall I wing my way above the angels; I shall become that which entereth not the ...
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The Circle of Life and Death
By Chuan Zhi

My first encounter with a Zen teacher happened when I was in my late twenties. Zen had been an interest of mine for nearly a decade before this chance encounter with a person of Zen. I had never thought seriously about actually DOING Zen, but I liked reading the philosophies that came from Zen literature. Doing Zen was, well, something I thought I would never be able to do: it required detaching ...

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Zen and Death: Jung’s Final Experience
By Michael Gellert
“Death,” Jung wrote in 1945 not long after his heart attack, “is the hardest thing from the outside and as long as we are outside of it. But once inside you taste of such completeness and peace and fulfillment that you don’t want to return.”1 Jung was speaking here of his out-of-body, near-death experience, whose gripping effect indeed made it difficult for him to return to the world of ...
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