Everything we think of as ours, our bodies and minds and all the material things that make up our lives, has been given to us. The air we breathe and the water we drink are gifts. Everything we do in our work has been taught to us or given to us by someone else. All work, all business, is centered around giving - we give food, goods, services, and comfort.

The Zen tradition offers several different views and practices regarding generosity. Vietnamese teacher Thich Nhat Hanh says, “the greatest gift we can offer is our presence.” He goes on to explain that we can also offer our stability, our freedom, our happiness, our freshness and our peace. Here’s how:

Presence. Just being present to those we work with, just listening fully as a human being, is perhaps the greatest gift we can offer at work. So often we are caught up in our tasks and our busyness. Just stopping and being present can transform our environment and open us in unexpected ways.

Stability. We offer our stability by bringing a calm and clear mind to our work. We offer stability by staying out of the dramas, by not taking sides, by not wobbling. We offer our stability by just being ourselves, moment after moment.

Freedom. Offering our freedom is encouraging others by acting from our own independence, our own ability to make choices. We offer freedom by not being afraid to speak and act for what we deeply believe.

Happiness. Allowing ourselves to feel happy at work can be a tremendous act of generosity to ourselves and to those around us. Our own happiness is perhaps our dearest birthright, not to be ignored or sacrificed at work.

Freshness. Imagine coming to work, fresh and renewed, as if it were a new day, like no other day. Isn’t that a fact?

Peace. Our workplace is where peace can begin. Peace is not something that just happens but a moment-to-moment act, a practice of generosity.

The Zen teacher Dogen (7th century Japan) said, “When we understand completely, being born and dying are both forms of giving. All productive labor is fundamentally giving. Giving is to transform the mind of living beings. One should not calculate the greatness or smallness of the mind, nor the greatness or smallness of the thing. Nevertheless, there is a time when the mind transforms things, and there is giving in which things transform the mind.”

How often in our work lives are we so focused on tasks that we forget the importance of being present to our colleagues? At work we have many opportunities to be generous with our time, knowledge, and understanding. We can give others our trust and confidence.

The practice of generosity is giving ourselves over to what we are doing. The first step in Zen practice is to start where you are, to fully accept your strengths and weakness, your talents and your limitations. This is an act of generosity with yourself. Generosity is a vital ingredient in moving toward doing good and avoiding harm.

Decide to perform an act of generosity each week. Do something generous that is anonymous, without feeling pride. Just do it. Choose an act of generosity to practice - presence, stability, freedom, and so forth. Write it down. Notice what draws you to this practice as well as what hinders you from it. Notice how others practice or don’t practice generosity in your workplace.

Questions for Daily Practice
How do you practice generosity at work?
What prevents you from being generous at work?
Notice how it feels to give and to receive.
Are you more comfortable giving or receiving?
What parts of giving and receiving feel like hindrances? What opens you?

Adapted from Z.B.A. Zen of Business Administration. How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work And Your Life

Marc Lesser is CEO of ZBA Associates LLC, a company providing executive coaching, leadership development consulting, and keynote speaking services to businesses and non-profits. He is a developer and instructor of Google’s Search Inside Yourself program. Marc was the founder and former CEO of Brush Dance publishing. Marc is a Zen teacher with an MBA degree; a former resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for 10 years, and graduate of NYU’s Stern School of Business. He is the author of Less: Accomplishing More By Doing Less and Z.B.A. Zen of Business Administration.

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Having lost sight of our goals, we redouble our efforts.
- Mark Twain

There is an old story of a man riding very fast on a horse. As he rides past his friend standing on the side of the road, the friend yells, “Where are you going?” The rider turns toward his friend and yells, “I don’t know, ask the horse!”

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like the person riding that frantically galloping horse. Our daily incessant busyness - too much to do and not enough time; the pressure to produce and tick off items on our to-do list by each day’s end - seems to decide the direction and quality of our existence for us. But if we approach our days in a different way, we can consciously change this out-of-control pattern. It only requires the courage to do less.

This may sound easy, but doing less can actually be very hard. Too often we mistakenly believe that doing less makes us lazy and results in a lack of productivity. Instead, doing less helps us savor what we do accomplish. We learn to do less of what is extraneous, and engage in fewer self-defeating behaviors, so we craft a productive life that we truly feel good about.

Just doing less for its own sake can be simple, startling, and transformative. Imagine having a real and unhurried conversation in the midst of an unrelenting workday with someone you care about. Imagine completing one discrete task at a time and feeling calm and happy about it.

Every life has great meaning, but the meaning of our own can often be obscured by the fog of constant activity and plain bad habits. Recognize and change these, and we can again savor deeply the ways we contribute to the workplace, enjoy the sweetness of our lives, and share openly and generously with the ones we love. Less busyness leads to appreciating the sacredness of life. Doing less leads to more love, more effectiveness and internal calmness, and a greater ability to accomplish more of what matters most - to us, and by extension to others and the world.

Marc Lesser is CEO of ZBA Associates LLC, a company providing executive coaching, leadership development consulting, and keynote speaking services to businesses and non-profits. He is a developer and instructor of Google’s Search Inside Yourself program. Marc was the founder and former CEO of Brush Dance publishing. Marc is a Zen teacher with an MBA degree; a former resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for 10 years, and graduate of NYU’s Stern School of Business. He is the author of Less: Accomplishing More By Doing Less and Z.B.A. Zen of Business Administration.