Work practice

When I joined the VZC a few years ago, the initial motivation was to learn how to be a "better" activist. I had been involved in environmental and social justice work my whole life and so had seen many, many mistakes made by me and others -- it seemed that often we were often doing more harm than good. A community-based spiritual practice with an experienced teacher was recommended by a visiting monk as a way to dive into the burning questions and doubts that I was struggling with.

Although sitting, walking, chanting, and meal practice were intriguing what really hooked me were the work practice opportunities offered by the VZC. Working with other people, whether in the VZC or in social justice groups, seemed to be at the heart of the difficulties and so the chance to explore that in a Zen practice context was very appealing. And it has indeed been rich and rewarding both in terms of volunteer work and also my paid job. In the last few months I've been particularly noticing how much VZC work practice is impacting work outside the VZC. The people I work with have also been asking more about Zen practice which is a good barometer for whether or not practice really is shifting my work habits!

We have many opportunities for work practice within the VZC already -- officer roles in the zendo; operational teams like marketing, peer support, and Sangha Sunday planning; collective work practice periods during zazenkais/sesshins; occasional work parties to remove broom or clean up the highway near the VZC; Board positions; and individual opportunities such as assisting with events, transcribing, gardening, zendo cleaning, or any of the bazillion things that need to be done to keep the VZC going.

Recently the VZC Board has been talking about how to tweak the coordination of work practice so we can better match members who are interested in engaging in work practice with tasks that need to be done (and that are a good fit for members' interests, skills, availability, etc.). This has been done informally for some time but with the steady growth of the VZC we are now looking to put a bit of structure in place to help keep things smooth.

In looking at what other centres do around structuring work practice as part of our development process, I came across this article by Zoketsu Norman Fischer. I really enjoyed it so thought I would pass the link on for y'all to enjoy!
http://www.intrex.net/chzg/Zoketsu.htm

It would be great to hear your thoughts on work practice: what's your experience been thus far, and what would you like to see develop in terms of further opportunities in this stream of practice?