For many years, my meditation practice was centered around Kannon-Do Zen center in Mountain View, CA. I so admired (still admire!) Les Kaye, the teacher there, for his straight-forward teaching style. Les has a shaved head and wears traditional brown robes, but he’s very much of this ordinary and extraordinary everyday world. While heading Kannon-Do, Les worked at IBM, maintained a marriage, raised children, grappled with his version of the traffic snarls and life snarls that certainly define my own life. Over the years, I’ve been so grateful for his simple teaching to “Keep showing up.”
I remain on the mailing list for Kannon-Do and receive the periodic newsletter. In the most recent one, there’s a transcript of a talk given by Les, entitled “The Problem of Success,” in which he makes this very intriguing statement: “I have come to believe that the fear of death is a result of a mind in panic over the loss of opportunity for success in a future that is no longer available.”
I’ve been mulling this over for a while now, watching my own fear and panic over letting success elude my desperate grasp.
I also laughed when I paired Les’s comment with a quote by writer Tillie Olsen who I blogged about yesterday. Tillie, an activist until death, wrote: “Well, I'm going to be one of those unhappy people who dies with the sense of what never got written, or never got finished”.
I love the crazy truth of these two seemingly opposite world views. But beneath the surface, I feel that Les and Tillie are actually talking about the same thing. At least that’s the message I get from two people who have earned their wisdom badges on the frontlines of life. I hear them telling me to let go of the desperate chase for success, but at the same time, I must aim for success, putting my heart and 100 percent effort into everything I do.
In this way, I’m sure to succeed, along with failing every step of the way.
The question to keep in mind: What is success?
www.kannondo-org
Book by Les Kaye www.kannondo.org/site/books/zaw.html
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