The Art of Power

Fourteen years ago when I was a junior at Willamette University I took the course Nonviolent Activism and Peace.  To graduate we had to take two integrated studies courses: a 100-level ISA course and a 400-level ISB course.  For the ISA, I took World Views with all the other freshmen during the fall semester of my freshman year.  Its focus would change every 4-5 years and that year the focus was Latin America.  I wrote my first and one of my only A+ papers on the book The House of the Spirits for that course.  I also made friends with whom I’ve kept in contact, one of whom introduced me to my future wife.  For the 400-level ISB course, we had many different options.  I chose Nonviolent Activism and Peace because my adviser, a mathematics professor, taught it.  I had enjoyed taking the math courses Logic and Proof and Sequences and Series from him during spring semester freshman year.  For this ISB course he had us read many photocopied articles along with the textbooks.  Class time was spent discussing the readings.  I had a tough time with the discussions that other students more versed in the social sciences tended to dominate.  The readings ranged from historical figures such as Frederick Douglas to early activists such as Dorothy Day and Gandhi to more recent ones such as Elise Boulding who actually visited our class.  We had other visitors such as Jesuit Volunteers and we had to write a few long papers for the class.

One reading that struck me as particularly profound consisted of chapters 1, 4, and 5 of the book Love in Action by Thich Nhat Hanh who my adviser described as a “socially conscious Buddhist”.  Hanh presented the idea that world peace begins within each of us: peace in our hearts and mindfulness of our actions.  After the semester ended I wanted to explore Hanh’s ideas further so I bought and read his book Peace is Every Step.  It further fleshed out his concepts of taking refuge in the present moment, mindful breathing, and acknowledging and taking care of the negative emotions to turn them into positive ones.  Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk from Vietnam.  He gained prominence during the 1960’s for his non-violent activism against the Vietnam War.  Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize.  He was exiled from Vietnam in the 1960’s and since then has lived in his community of practice, Plumb Village, in France.  He wasn’t able to visit Vietnam until 2005.

In January 2004 I was having a stressful time.  While reading the L.A. Times I saw an ad saying that Thich Nhat Hanh was going to speak at the Bren Events Center at UC Irvine within the next couple of weeks.  I got a ticket, though I don’t remember if it was through Ticketmaster or online.  I think it was will call.  I drove down there and I remember that all the chairs for the audience were folding chairs and the first person to take the stage was someone from UCI, I believe.  She mentioned our newly elected governor and there was a smattering of laughter.  The Governator had just been elected the year before.  The UCI official spoke with an accent and when she said “California”, she sounded similar to how the Governator says it generating more giggles from the audience.

Thich Nhat Hanh took the stage along with a contingent of monks and nuns from his order (the Order of Interbeing) dressed as he was in dark red robes.  I could only tell which one was him from the photos I had seen of him earlier.  One of the nuns introduced him and she described how some people who had his books, tapes, or CD’s would accidentally leave them in their apartment after moving out.  The new tenants would find the books, tapes, or CD’s and feel so happy and lucky for finding them.  I don’t remember a lot of what Thich Nhat Hanh said because much of it gets mixed up with what I’ve read of his before and since then.  I remember how they rang a gentle bell periodically and everyone would stop, breathe slowly, and refocus.  Thich Nhat Hanh talked for a little over an hour and then answered questions for half an hour.  One of the nuns translated the questions because, even though he spoke English, he needed some help understanding others.  When answering one question he used the analogy that if one of his hands accidentally hurt another one hammering a nail, the unhurt hand would try to soothe and help the hurt hand.  The hurt hand wouldn’t seek vengeance on the unhurt hand because they’re part of the same body.  His point was that we should treat each other the same way.  What I remember most about the talk was how calm it was.  Usually when I attend an event with crowds of people such as a concert, it’s stressful getting there, waiting in line, finding a seat, and sometimes dealing with rude people.  It usually gets more fun after the performance begins but it never really calms down.  But for Thich Nhat Hanh’s talk, the crowd wasn’t loud and unruly and everyone calmly took their seats.  Thich Nhat Hanh’s tone, more than his words, calmed me down.  Afterward I picked up a catalog and a brochure.  From the brochure I learned that Thich Nhat Hanh’s order has a monastery in Escondido, CA near San Diego called Deer Park so he comes to Southern California fairly often.

With the catalog I ordered one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s CDs, a recording of him giving a talk called “Truly Seeing”.  The two CDs focus on the idea of impermanence and non-duality.  He uses the example of how a pretty flower will eventually become garbage (in his words “on its way to the garbage”) and that garbage is “on its way to the flower”.  The CDs also contain a humorous but sympathetic and insightful story about a man with a mental illness who believes he is a grain of corn.  It also emphasizes taking refuge in the present moment (e.g. eat breakfast in order to eat breakfast and not to have energy for the day) and mindful living.  I’ve listened to the CDs many times, usually in the car when I have to drive a long distance by myself.  I’ve one of his earlier books, Being Peace, that repeats many of his ideas, and listened to his book (not read by him but by an English actor, Ken McCloud, I believe), No Death No Fear.  Among other repeated ideas, the latter book describes how our lives run “vertically” from birth to old age and how we also live “horizontally” through how we affect other people and the world around us.  I don’t subscribe to all of his ideas and many seem a bit “New Agey” but I find some of them comforting.

At the beginning of this year it was suggested to me that I needed to lower my stress level.  I thought listening to another talk by Thich Nhat Hanh would help me with that.  My wife had a gift certificate for Borders Digital Audiobooks.  I looked up whether they had a talk called The Present Moment.  They did but it cost over $70 which we couldn’t afford even with the gift certificate.  There were several audiobooks by him but not narrated by him but rather by English actors such as Michael York.  The less expensive ones tended to be short, only 2-3 CDs.  But there was one 5-CD book that was also less expensive.  It was a newer book written and recorded in 2007-2008 called The Art of Power.  I had some reservations because I thought it would be about foreign policy rather than peace in one’s daily life.  But reading some reviews assured me that it did contain the usual themes only this time applied to the workplace.

We downloaded the book from the Borders Digital Audiobooks website and loaded it onto the Sansa Clip.  I listened to it over the course of 2-3 months usually while I was folding clothes or riding home on the train.  It does re-emphasize many of Thich Nhat Hanh’s main ideas: deep conscious breathing, meditation, walking meditation, living in the present moment, practicing mindful living.  The book applies these ideas to more modern, everyday work situations.  It describes how office workers program a “bell” into their computers to remind them to breathe clear their minds.  It mentions how one worker’s only time to herself was when she was walking between the buildings so she would practice walking meditation, focusing on each of her steps, breathing, and paying attention to what she saw along the way.

The book using more modern day examples to illustrate concepts.  It describes how going from a negative to a positive environment is like first listening to a CD of music you don’t like, taking it out and playing a CD of music you like.  The book mentions how there are so many devices that allow us to do many things at the same time but insists that we’re happier and more productive when we’re only focused on one thing at a time.  We tend to over-think things.  Often we’re in one place while our mind is in another.  We’re with our loved ones but we’re not really “there” for them.  In addition to modern examples the book cites examples from the story of the Buddha and from things going on at Plumb Village.

Some of the book seems to be addressing bosses and managers at companies, insisting that they respect their employees, get to know them, and treat them fairly.  Pretty obvious stuff but still important to emphasize.  The book also insists on getting proper rest, having the right work-life balance, and being mindful of whether you work is making a positive or negative difference.  Parts of the book address politicians and leaders about using their power responsibly, how true power comes from respect and understanding and not from being feared.

But the book covers more than just work and politics.  It addresses family, relationships, mental and physical peace of mind, all familiar themes since they are connected to work and power.  The last section of the book is a history and profile of the outdoor clothing company Patagonia written by its founder, Yvon Chouinard, as an example of a company that models many of the concepts in the book.  At Patagonia they allow employees to take time off without much advance notice.  They have onsite childcare facilities.  They don’t just try to make their profits grow, but do so responsibly.  I didn’t know that 100% cotton is actually 70% cotton and 30% chemicals including formaldehyde.  At Patagonia they look for ways to be environmentally responsible.  They also encourage their employees’ creativity.  It sounds like a great place to work though I bet it’s difficult to get a job there.

I liked the parts of the book about managing work stress, how rest and time away can lead to better focus and productivity and the parts about living in the moment that I’ve always found comforting.  It seems like each of Thich Nhat Hanh’s books applies his ideas in different contexts: Being Peace in general, Peace is Every Step in the home, No Death No Fear to mortality, and The Art of Power to work and leadership.  He has written many other books and it may be interesting to learn how they apply the concepts.