• The Art Of Zen Flowers
• The Art Of Zendikar
• Sparknotes Zen And The Art
• The Art Of Zentangle
• The Art Of Zen Book

Phil Jackson won 11 NBA Championship rings as a coach—6 with the Chicago Bulls and 5 with the LA Lakers. He’s the most winningest, successful coach not only in NBA history, but in the history of professional sports the world over.

A maestro of managing egos, Jackson got people like Kobe Bryant, Shaq, Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan and other alpha maniacs to subordinate their talents to the goal of a better team.

Zen and the Art of Early Childhood Education “Early Childhood” is more than just a developmental stage or part of a job title. It is a leap of faith: that we are making a difference in the lives of young children when many of the results of our hard work may not become apparent until long after we may be forgotten. Directed by Kristine Hayworth. With Zen Van Songen, Kristine Hayworth, Nyoman Jassi, Ian Van Wieringen.

His Zen leadership style was wildly successful on the court. It provides no shortage of food for thought when it comes to work and real life too.

Leading by Zen: the no-ego team

If you’re someone who makes a living in tech, in one way or another, you may well have some, ahem, triggering memories of gym coaches.

Long story short, the psychology of sports leadership is often not geared towards respectfully influencing team members, building up character, and teaching tolerance and mindfulness. It’s more often about intimidation and coercion, getting people to fall in line and perform for fear of failure, ridicule, termination, or “atomic wedgies.”

Other times, it’s all about putting the pressure on, to “win one for The Gipper.”

In all fairness, the ‘gym coach’ nightmare is a pretty extreme manifestation of the “alpha leadership” archetype. Sports, particularly as they ascend the ladder to the highest professional levels, are some of the most hyper-competitive areas of human civilization.

But it’s incontrovertible fact that the alpha leadership model—so favored by the vast majority of sports coaches—is also the predominant one across Western culture, from business to education. It just varies in intensity.

Phil Jackson is a different sort of animal

“After years of experimenting, I discovered that the more I tried to exert power directly, the less powerful I became. I learned to dial back my ego and distribute power as widely as possible without surrendering final authority.”

He leads, and succeeds, with a leadership philosophy built on a foundation of meditation, mindfulness, and Buddhist ideas. His real-world application of Zen is one of the most fascinating going.

Born in 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana, Jackson was raised in a very, very Christian household. His Pentecostal parents gave him a sparse, reserved midwest childhood, with no TV and no movies. He was well on the way to being a minister, just like everyone figured he’d be.

Then fate took him down a completely different path.

Turned out he was pretty good at basketball. He won two state titles with his high school varsity basketball team, which got him scouted to the University of North Dakota’s team. In 1967, he got drafted into the NBA by the New York Knicks, who won two championship titles with him on board (in 1970 and 1973).

While he was never a powerhouse player, Jackson was intelligent and determined. Fans liked him; teammates respected him. The qualities of character and strategy that animated his coaching philosophy were already apparent.
Jackson retired from play in 1980 and floated around as a coach in lower-tier professional leagues until 1988 when he was hired as the Assistant Coach for the Chicago Bulls. In 1989 he moved up to become Head Coach and quickly whipped them into a championship team.

He won, a lot. He clinched the NBA Championship Title a whopping 11 times over 20 seasons, as indicated in the title of his 2013 book, Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success.

With the Bulls, he won six times in two seperate 'three-peat' runs (the first such feat since the Boston Celtics won 8 championships in a row with legendary head coach Red Auerbach from 1959-1966). In the 1995-1996 regular season, the Bulls posted a record-breaking 72 wins and 9 losses (Golden State squeaked past this milestone with a 73-8 record in 2015-2016).

Moving to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1999, Jackson immediately did another three-peat champsionship run, followed by two more wins in 2009 and 2010 towards the end of his career.

He left his NBA coaching career with a jaw-dropping .704 winning percentage, the highest ever. And he did it all.. with Zen!

Well, to be fair, it was Zen in the main, with a dash of humanistic philosophy and Native American cosmology as support.

In any case, his material world success further dismantles the idea that Zen is an inscrutable Eastern philosophy—or a trend reserved only for new-age types and academics.

The Jackson model sees power withheld and delegated. Team members are encouraged to grow, coaxed to find their own answers to the problems that beguile them. The goal is to bring everyone into harmony and oneness.

“[Leadership is] a mysterious juggling act that requires not only the thorough knowledge of the time-honored laws of the game but also an open heart, a clear mind, and a deep curiosity about the ways of the human spirit.”

Jackson’s leadership provokes a lot of soul-searching about the alpha leadership we’re familiar with as Westerners. His style is a lot different than that of the energetic, assertive figure leading by example, giving orders and whipping the troops into shape with good old fashioned discipline.

Lending Siddhartha to Shaq: team leadership riding on winds from the East

One of the most amusing examples you can find of Jackson’s idiosyncrasies is his practice of giving personalized books to players to read. Particularly when said book-giving involves handing a copy of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha to Shaq and asking him to turn in a book report.

Hesse’s fictionalized account of the life of the Buddha tells the story of how young Siddhartha gave up his gilded princely life for a selfless, spiritual quest for enlightenment. Jackson assigned the book because he felt Shaq was being too materialistic.

Shaq didn’t give up his high-powered lifestyle and run off to a Tibetan monastery, but he did get the book’s angle on compassion. He became more generous with teammates, and more empathetic in general, according to Jackson.

Fun fact: apparently Jackson had earlier lent Shaq Ecce Homo, the final book by Nietzsche, everyone’s favorite German philosopher. Shaq didn’t actually read it but looked at Cliffnotes.com to get the gist (the gist being, tone down the self-doubt and wackiness, Shaq, or risk Nietzschean insanity).

Jackson drew quite a bit of ribbing from the NBA world at large for incorporating mindfulness meditation into his pre-game ritual. His strategy for dealing with teamwork intangibles—all those minute issues that seem impossible to articulate in words—came off to many as silly and eccentric.

But, of course, it worked. Ios for mac air.

One Team, One Breath

Jackson started doing his famous 'One Team, One Breath' policy when he wanted to bring consciousness and mindfulness to the LA Lakers. He brought in a person that taught meditation through the University of Massachusetts’ medical system, as recommended by famous American spiritualist Jon Kabbat Zinn, author of the 1994 mindfulness popularizing text Wherever You Go There You Are.

In pre-game sessions led by the UMass mindfulness teacher, he would have his team practice deep breathing in unison, getting them to sync all of their breaths as one.

Of course, such oneness was not always achieved, given the incredible egos involved.

Following a game when Michael Jordan single-handedly ran up the score and clinched the win for Jackson’s Bulls, assistant coach Tex Winters quipped to the star player that “there’s no ‘I’ in team,” to which Jordan replied: “but there is in ‘win.’”

If mindfulness exercises occasionally fell short of their ideal outcome, Jackson still saw them as incredibly useful. They were, if nothing else, a very accessible means of calming the everywhere-at-once chatter in his players’ heads, putting attention on the present moment. Since mental exercises were not part of the NBA curriculum at all, he gained a distinctive psychological advantage by increasing his team’s ability to focus single-mindedly.

In the NBA, mindfulness is important because the game is chaotically fast and the pressures on players are extreme. In real life, it’s important because the practice can help us get a handle on ourselves, and stop going into a tailspin or endless series of tangents.

Of course, lest we think Jackson’s strategy is all about holding hands and feeling terrific, Zen Masters like him also know how to use “the stick.” In old-school temples, falling asleep during meditation will result in a whack of the “compassionate stick”, also known as a keisaku. Jackson was not above using such methods, even if the vagaries of the American legal system prevented him from literally whacking his players into submission.

Some of the more bizarre disciplinary things he’s pulled on teams include: forcing them to scrimmage with the lights turned off and making them practice in complete silence.

Perhaps most cruel of all, he also used to sometimes divide his teams by weak and strong, then call no fouls on the weaker team. When the weaker team invariably started to win by a huge margin, he would stand by and watch the stronger team’s pained, incredulous reactions.

I can only imagine Jackson’s enormous schadenfreude at watching egomaniacs Kobe et al. being taken apart by foul-playing and—I like to imagine—foul-mouthed benchwarmers.

Mr. Jackson, you can be quite the devil.

Incorporating Jackson’s lessons on a team that doesn’t include Kobe

“Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.”

— Satchel Paige, quoted in Jackson’s Eleven Rings of Success

When it comes to applying Jackson’s lessons in your own organization, there are a bevy of takeaways. More than you can shake a “compassionate stick” at.

To begin with, there’s one of his main, very simple yet powerful lessons: leading a team is a fluid process, and “you have to follow your intuitive nature.”

True leadership is about learning to lead “from the inside out,” and being authentic with your inner voice. That takes time, and self-examination. Bitter truths will need to be borne, dirty laundry will need to be aired, and criticisms of the self-administered and external variety alike will need to be accepted.

The issue of “being authentic” extends to trusting your gut when it comes to assembling your team. Jackson feels that you have to look at someone’s attributes for what they are. Even if someone has many desirable characteristics, if there’s something “off”—if they just don’t fit into the framework you’re building—you’ll have to say no to them.

In job world parlance, that may mean that it’s better to hire a go-getter upstart lacking experience, rather than a demanding veteran with a bad ‘tude.

On the other hand, as Jackson’s positive results with Jordan, Shaq, Bryant, and other “difficult” personalities show, true leadership can iron out a lot of kinks.

By guiding people in a non-patronizing way, nurturing them to be their best self at work, it’s possible to put some problematic types on a better path. When one person improves, it strengthens the entire team.

Elsewhere in Jackson’s Eleven Rings, he speaks of mindfulness as an antidote to spiritual malaise.

In his book, he’s referring specifically to the “soul-deadening” NBA experience of a new game and a new city every other night. But this feeling of placelessness is perhaps just as valid when it comes to those of us working in a screen environment all day, particularly if you work remotely.

We’re all over the map, in one sense, but we’re not really anywhere. To overcome the cognitive overload of short attention span multi-tasking, and the potential loss of purpose that can afflict us, it makes sense to turn to mindfulness and meditation exercises.

Another great takeaway is Jackson’s nonchalant attitude to winning and losing. He was once asked by a reporter, after a game he had lost, what he would do after leaving the arena. Then he was asked what he’d do if he had won instead. His answer was the same for both scenarios: go home, have a drink, and eat the dinner his wife had prepared for him.

This is sage wisdom for endurance in working life. We’re going to lose, a lot, even if we win a lot. Big entrepreneurial success stories like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk know and accept this, and we should too.

Being able to stay on an even keel prepares you to deal with the highs and lows of life, either of which can blow you out of sync and cause intractable problems long-term.

Authentic leadership, authentic success

Leadership is tough stuff.
Most of us have experiences of being led by managers who, although well meaning, ultimately don’t have any visionary strategy. They didn’t know how to read people on the team individually and be authentic with them. Or worse, they weren’t curious and they didn’t really care.

Jackson’s lessons show that the best team is one where everyone, including leadership, does care and enjoys the experience, win or lose. It’s a tribal way of looking at team building, where responsibility, empathy, and compassion are seen as deeply important.

Life’s bigger than a few egos, after all.

Mindfulness is one great tool for reaching this state of unity on an individual level, allowing us to find time for quiet contemplation. Mindful leadership can allow us to find success in a way that’s meaningful, authentic, and sustainable.

By leading in a way that animates a near-spiritual sense of team unity, you distinctly increase your chances for success without forcing it.

Because sure, success is great, but succeeding authentically is one of the sweetest things out there.

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April 21, 2021

Zen and the Art of Eating: Meaningful Ingredients For Dining Brought Together At Enso Village

Once upon a time, there was a cherished ritual ofAmerican life known as the family meal. But in these busy days, we tend totreat mealtimes as multitasking opportunities. We get our morning coffee adrive-through; lunch is brought to our work desks from a delivery service; ourdinner comes home in a box to be consumed on the couch.

Even how we see these spaces in which we eat hasevolved. Our car is our breakfast nook, our office desk is the breakroom, ourcouch is the kitchen table. The recent pandemic significantly altered ourdining habits, due to precautions against coming together, unmasked and inlarge groups, simply to share the joys and benefits of eating and drinking withothers.

Yet each of us has the power to choose differently, ifwe wish. Because at Enso Village, none of this has to be “the way it is.” Therecan be a different way.

As America’s first Zen-inspired life plan community, wehave designed our communal eating venues, our farm, and our teaching kitchen atEnso Village to encourage residents to become even more connected to, andpresent, with our food and with one another. We hope our residents will come toregard meals as both a source of both sustenance and social opportunity. Ifresidents so choose, they may become more thoughtful stewards who are consciousof where their food originates, as well as how it can be more sustainably grown,harvested and prepared. They may also opt to be more mindful in their ownpersonal ways while dining, whether that’s being fully present in the momentwith those they’re dining with, or simply savoring the tastes and flavors. Itis genuinely a personal choice in how – or if – we elect to practicemindful eating.

While this may seem like a revolutionary approachwithin senior living, it reflects our Zen roots and the Quaker values of ourparent organization, The Kendal Corporation. It also thoughtfully complements ourHealdsburg location in Sonoma County, a unique region that offers bothremarkable biodiversity and a notable 10-month growing season. “Think of theZen practice, being aware of the earth and environment, and understandingKendal’s Quaker ethos of social responsibility,” says Benjamin Butler, Kendal’svice president of culinary services & operations. “Then, think of northernCalifornia, where sustainability, the farm-to-table and thoughtful growthmovements come from. It all come together at Enso Village.”

THE ZEN APPROACH TO FOOD

There is a Zen practice of mindful eating that involves being morepresent and aware when we eat our food. We start by defining the differencebetween eating and eating mindfully – one is mindlessly gulping down a handfulof grapes; the other is thoughtfully, attentively chewing while noticing theflavors, textures, smells and tastes with all our senses. There’s also adifference between eating as simply a task to be completed and eating as ahuman ritual. Whether we take a moment of solitude to savor the experience orparticipate in a meal with others, the act of eating can enhance our sense ofconnection and our shared humanity.

The Zen practice of taking care of all details of our everydaylife includes a deep appreciation for the source and preparation of the food,and the many hands that have contributed to usher our food from seed to fork tocompost back to the earth. There’s an emphasis on the awareness that all thingsare connected, interdependent, and ultimately, one continuous circle.

These philosophies are ones all of us can integrate inthe following ways if we choose:

• Reflecting on how the meal came before you and givingthanks for the food. Eating with gratitude reminds us of nature’s wonder andthe hard work which culminated in the creation of the dish you’re about toenjoy.
• Using all five senses when we eat; paying attention toall the ingredients, flavors, textures and sounds; appreciating the appearanceof the food, the aromas, even the crunch of a carrot or the juiciness of agarden-fresh tomato. This helps you to be more present as you eat and canenhance your appreciation of the food.
• Planning your meals thoughtfully, making lists beforeshopping so that you avoid impulse shopping and use what you’ve purchasedwithout waste. You may also consider participating as a volunteer in the EnsoVillage farm/garden – a rewarding endeavor which can sustain you and others.

These practices result in greater gratitude and appreciation, andoften translate into a sense of increased deliciousness. The act of gardeningorganically and with care for the earth, and sharing that harvest with others,produces more delicious meals that energize and heal both body and earth.

“Everyone should have equal access to good food,” saysWendy Johnson, a founder of the Organic Farm and Garden Program at Green GulchFarm in Marin County and author of the book, Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate. “We must share the harvest with the wider world.” Wendy lived andtrained at Green Gulch for 25 years before moving toher current home next door to the farm. She’s also a garden mentor to the EdibleSchoolyard program; she and husband Peter have continued to participate withthe Green Gulch farmers to donate food during the pandemic for hungry citizensvia community networks in the area, including the Berkeley Food Network and TheCulture Conservancy.

The Art Of Zen Flowers

FOOD AND THE KENDAL ETHOS

Each of Kendal’s 13 communities across eight states isdesigned to meet different needs and tastes. Yet they all share a commitment tolifelong learning, community service and wellness, empowering older adults to achievetheir full potential. That commitment is carried through to its approach todining.

“Our mission at Kendal for Enso Village is to createsomething that’s healthy — both for the nutrition of residents but also for ourenvironment, and for those who work the farms and process the foods we use,”Butler says. “We understand the food supply system and we’re part of themovement: reducing chemical use, supporting nutrition, building a system thatis sustainable and offers fair values.”

Each Kendal community works with multiple vendors intheir region to secure fresh, local ingredients whenever possible, and focus onusing only fresh, never-frozen meats, fresh breads and produce.

Communities with gardens and resident garden clubscontribute produce that will then be featured on their dining menus. Monthlytalks with a dietitian and resident food committees ensure residents have avoice in the overall quality, consistency and nutritional benefit.

Something also unique to Kendal: Staff always dineswith residents, often sitting together at meals. “It’s the Kendal Way for thestaff to sit and talk with residents,” Butler says. “Our vision for EnsoVillage is similar to Greens Restaurant, with lots of large tables where youcan dine together with different people at every meal.”

ENSO VILLAGE’S APPROACH

As a Kendal community, Enso Village embraces athoughtful combination of tradition and innovation that has become the Kendalhallmark. Yet the community will also stay true to its Zen roots and deepconnection with Healdsburg and greater Sonoma County.

Sustainability is integral to all that we do, which will perhapsbe most visible in our approach to dining. We know that industrial agriculturalsystems are one of the greatest contributors to climate change. We will striveto meet the highest level of sustainability with the smallest possibleecological impact while delivering an unparalleled dining experience focusingon high-quality, farm-to-table cuisine.

Along with occasional contributions from our resident garden, wewill have a strong reliance on local produce vendors to procure the freshestlocal produce possible. Whenever possible, we’re committed to sourcing foodthat is organic, and choosing foods that have been grown through regenerativeagriculture practices – which are farming principles focused on soil health andwater management while being mindful of fertilizer and pesticide use.

The Art Of Zendikar

• In addition to emphasizing locally sourced foods, wewill focus on items and ingredients that are seasonal and organic as often aspossible.
• Our chef-prepared meals will feature daily specialsand a variety of vegetarian options; our vegetarian bistro, inspired by GreensRestaurant, will be a place to sit for a simple meal and also offer deliciousand healthy grab-and-go options.
• Our dining experience will align with that of SonomaCounty’s remarkable restaurants in terms of featuring locally sourced andfair-trade foods, Michelin-star chefs, local wines, area-trained bakers andwarm dining atmosphere where all are welcome, and both hearts and bodies arenourished.

Sparknotes Zen And The Art

Because of Enso Village’s Healdsburg location,residents will be just two miles from some of the finest dining availableanywhere in the country. Sonoma County, renowned for its fine wines andrestaurants, will certainly become an extension of our community’s own finedining, including the Charlie Palmer restaurant planned for the hotel acrossthe street from Enso Village.

Ultimately, what will truly make dining at EnsoVillage so unique will be the people who will soon call this community home.

“The act of eating a meal is a shared experience thatbrings residents together,” Butler says. “It’s an opportunity every day to formnew friendships and foster camaraderie. And the residents here will play aunique and vital role in shaping what it means to be a community.”

The Art Of Zentangle

Perhaps you’d like to deepen your appreciation of – and connect to – food and mindful eating.

The Art Of Zen Book

Or you may wish to understand what it truly means to choose a Zen-inspired senior living community. Our staff is here to answer your questions and help you discover more about life at Enso Village. Simply share your contact information and we’ll reach out to you.