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Joko Beck writes that life, as it is at this moment - at any moment - is all that it can be and is, therefore, "perfect." We destroy that perfection and create problems for ourselves by filtering experience through our hopes, fears, prejudices and expectations, which prevent us from living in the present moment. These thought filters are really defense mechanisms created by our egos to protect us from the pain of direct experience. When the ego holds control, we want things to be our way rather than accepting life on its own terms, the way it is. “When we do that, we never get to the here-and-now, this very moment,” Beck writes. “We can’t see it because we’re filtering.”(11) Beck's observations are especially relevant to work, which most of us approach with strong expectations and opinions. Beck outlines practical techniques and philosophies that we can use to tear down our filtering mechanisms and live more fulfilling, complete lives
Everyday Zen: Love and Work doesn't focus specifically on work, but on how to live an “enlightened” life by living each moment with full awareness. An enlightened view doesn’t separate work from other aspects of life because there is only the present to be experienced, whether it is work or another activity. In fact, according to Beck, “Work is the best part of Zen practice. No matter what the work is, it should be done with effort and total attention to what’s in front of our nose.”(7) In other words, we don't view work as “work;” it is what we’re doing at the moment and deserving of our full attention.
Such an attitude means that one does not do “unpleasant” work with a mind that is making judgments, bemoaning the situation, or wishing it were somewhere else. “There is the actual task we are doing,” Beck writes, “and then there are all the considerations we have about it. Work is just taking care of what needs to be done right now, but very few of us work that way. When we practice patiently, eventually work begins to flow. We just do whatever needs to be done.”(8)
The crux of zazen, and the focus of Beck’s book, is making the slight shift in thought from the spinning world of thoughts to the right-here-now. This means developing the intensity and ability to be fully present in the moment. Everyday Zen offers theoretical and practical advice for achieving an enlightened state of mind, where we can accept things and, more importantly, fully experience the object and then move on, without attachment.
Beck explains zazen, seated meditation, making the analogy that we must burn out our thoughts “by the fire of attention, so that our lives can be dispassionate and fundamentally unaffected by outside circumstances.” (31) We are unable to "burn up" each circumstance as we encounter it because of our emotional attachment to the circumstance. We are always trying to “burn” the past or the future with the result that the living present is rarely encountered.
Everyday Zen goes on to offer specific advice for stoking the fire of attention. Beck explains how we cling to our emotions because we identify them, mistakenly, with our self. She explores how we can cultivate an attentive, accepting perspective in relationships. She also discusses the nature of suffering, how we are trapped by our ideals.
One chapter discusses how we snarl ourselves up trying to make decisions. This problem, Beck says, disappears when we truly know who we are. “The more we know who we are, the more our problems shift [from trying to make a decision] into, ‘I am this therefore I will do that…’”(181) Even choices that seem trying or unpleasant are not problems because, if "…that’s what I feel I am and the way my life wants to express itself, then there is no problem.”(181)
While Everyday Zen: Love and Work isn’t specifically about work, it is about living an enlightened life, and an enlightened life would not separate work from the rest of our experience. Each moment is the way it is and deserves our full, unfiltered attention. In addition, by stripping away the filters of “should-be,” “could-be,” likes, dislikes, past and future, we can be fulfilled in any activity because our full absorption in it allows our life to express itself through the experience honestly, spontaneously and completely.
Everyday Zen does have some weaknesses, but the book offers sound advice based on solid theory and logic (as much as Zen can be logical). It’s worth reading for its exploration of how we delude ourselves and sustain our egos and for its practical advice on breaking free of this ego illusion. By doing this, we are freed to live honestly, spontaneously, and fully in the moment - that is to live in an enlightened state in all aspects of lives, including our work.