Les Kaye - A sense of something greater: Zen and the search for balance in Silicon Valley

After doing deep Zen practice for many years in the heartland of Minnesota, I heard of a book in 1996 called Zen at Work. The title alone intrigued me, written by a man named Les Kaye, who worked for IBM in San Jose. Zen at Work combined two of my passionsZen and being employed in the world. Since I was sixteen I have always had a job, and as Ive grown older Ive realized what a privilege it is to find meaningful work. Work gives us a structure, a way to face our day and to connect daily with other people, not necessarily ones we like or would meet otherwiseit gives us an opportunity to grow and face the challenge of acceptance, tolerance, and cooperation.

Work can also become painful, toxic, and unbearable in an unhealthy environment. Many people say work is by far the biggest cause of stress in their lives. This problem is even more pronounced in Silicon Valley. With the rapid growth of technology companies and startups in the region has come an emphasis on longer hours and frenetic energy. It seems like the human employees are trying to keep up with the machines they are working on and with. This is impossiblehuman beings are not machines. So many people are drawn to the technology industryits creative cutting edge, its addictive high energy. But, how to handle your life in the midst of it?

How brilliant that Les Kaye, so many years after his first book and with the encouragement of coauthor Teresa Bouza, has come forth with A Sense of Something Greater. This book and what it examines is such a necessary balance, companion, and antidote to the speed and demands of working in the high-tech industry. Kayes writing is derived from the direct experience of living and working in the Valley for decades. This is not an abstract Zen book about principles of ancient teachings. And his Zen students at Kannon Do Zen Center, with whom he works and who are interviewed here, are not rarified ascetics or hermits but people rooted in the work of the Valley. The books foundation comes right from the floor of the office building, the factory, the people who live and work there day by day.

Kaye and Bouza alternate commentary and short Zen teachings with interviews with therapists, executives, engineers, and teacherspeople who exert effort daily to make alive Zen practice in the workplace. These interviews authenticate the teachings. They are searching and the questions are relevant to each person. They are real conversations, and Bouza carries a respect for what the interviewee has to say. This is Zen in actionhow practitioners apply the teachings to bring more intimacy, cooperation, and peace to tech culture.

It is my hope that everyone reads this book, especially in light of our difficult times, but also that more of Zen practice in our country follows in this path, going right to the heart of human action and looking at how the practice can continue to be a tool for freedom, not only in the zendo but right out in the nitty-gritty of commerce where our lives are actually lived.

Natalie Goldberg

November 2017