One of the most famous pieces in Zen literature, read or chanted every day in Zen practice centers, is called the Heart Sutra, which in a few paragraphs describes the essential path of Zen practice. A phrase from the Heart Sutra says, “without any hindrances, no fears exist.” These hindrances are the ways in which we protect ourselves, shield our hearts, and keep ourselves closed and separate. Zen practice provides a method and discipline for identifying and loosening the ways we get in our own way. It helps us move from living and acting from fear, to living and acting with fearlessness. By searching for safety and control, and from responding out of fear, without realizing it, we sacrifice the freedom, flexibility, and connections that are our birthright.

Business practice could also be described as the method and discipline of removing hindrances. The challenge of business is to identify and remove what gets in the way of manifesting and implementing a wide and creative vision, to remove the obstacles to distributing people and resources where they are needed, and to remove the obstacles to actually meeting the needs of all people in our communities and on our planet. What would a world without hindrances, without fear, look like?

Though this task of integrating our full selves with our work may at times appear daunting, the challenge and the effort are not separate from the path. Zen practice provides tools, ideas, and insights that may give you the courage and confidence to make the effort to see yourself, your work, and the world as they truly are. Integrating Zen practice and business practice allows us to find our work and ourselves, beyond our ideas, and to experience both the ordinariness and the immensity of our lives.

What are your business hindrances – what obstacles, if removed, would help your business become more successful?

What gets in the way of your vision being expressed, and implemented? What actions might you take to reduce these hindrances?

What are your internal hindrances – your beliefs, attitudes – what holds you back; what, if removed would support you to work with more creativity, more passions, more focus?