Is This So?

The last year has been a difficult one in regards to work. Like many people in today's economic climate we have not known if our jobs were safe, or if we would all have to take on different roles at a lesser rate of pay. This has meant that myself and many of my colleagues have been operating on a knife edge in an atmosphere of distrust for months. We were eventually put out of our misery and told what our immediate futures would be - some of us are to remain employed on our current grades and others are being 'deleted'. The news was given in a shambolic, haphazard and uncaring way. Late on a Friday afternoon emails were sent with an attached letter with the news we had been either 'assilimated' or 'deleted'. So late in the afternoon was this email sent that many of us were out on visits and unable to access our emails and heard the news via the grapevine - but not which letter we had been sent. There were many tears of anger, frustration and fear. Those of us who have been 'assilimated' are under no misapprehensions - we all know our time will come and this knowledge, and the misfortune of some of our colleagues, meant that there were no celebrations, just guilty relief. This little scene is being played out in organisations all over the country. It was shocking and saddening to hear that an ambulance is called, on average once a week, to the building I work in as some poor employee has collapsed from stress. Only last week a young man had his breakdown in a lift. Not a lift breaking down you understand - but a young man who broke down sobbing, curled up in the foetal position and
refusing to leave the lift. Eventually he was encouraged out and led to a waiting ambulence. 

Several of my colleagues are off sick with stress related illnesses. One young girl has had a stroke. Several have cancer. Two have died in the last year (although they died from cancer and not stress they are much missed by their friends and colleagues who have to 'carry on regardless'). Several people have already been made redundant and the gap they have left is huge - and those left behind have to pick up the slack. Those left are often frazzled, nervous, anxious and short tempered.

Yet in all this madness I have managed to find some calm and inspiration. Take this week for instance. I attended a 'Storytelling' session and the person running it was a charismatic, enthusiastic teller of stories. It came as no surprise then to find that he was a writer, a journalist, a social worker and amazingly, for 10 years, a Catholic priest, but hey, no ones perfect.

One of the stories he told us was a story called 'Is that so?' which it transpires is a Zen Koan. A Koan is used as a test of a Zen student's ability. The master is not looking for a specific answer but for evidence that the disciple has grasped the state of mind expressed by the kōan itself. The Ex Preist didn't mention Zen at all, in fact he set the story in a small village in Western Ireland and Hakuin was a local man called Finbar, must respected by the villagers for his wisdom.

Is That So?

A beautiful young  girl in the village would spend a lot of time with Hakuin. She would sit and listen to him and relish his knowledge and wisdom. She watch him as he read or cooked or chatted to his neighbours and she admired him greatly. As did all his neighbours who respected him greatly. One day the beautiful young girl announced she was pregnant. Her angry parents demanded to know who was the father. At first resistant to confess, the anxious and embarrassed girl finally pointed to Hakuin, the Zen master whom everyone previously revered for living such a pure life. When the outraged parents confronted Hakuin with their daughter's accusation, he simply replied "Is that so?"

When the child was born, the parents brought it to Hakuin, who now was viewed as a pariah by the whole village. He was ostracised and tormented by his former friends and neighbours. The beautiful girls parents demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. "Is that so?" Hakuin said calmly as he accepted the child.

For many years he took very good care of the child and continued to be treated badly by those who had once respected him. Until the beautiful girl could no longer withstand the lie she had told. She confessed that the real father was a young man in the village whom she had tried to protect. The parents immediately went to Hakuin to see if he would return the child. With profuse apologies they explained what had happened. "Is that so?" Hakuin said as he handed them the child.

When he finished telling the story the Ex Priest asked me what my response to it was. For me it was about the shifting power of acceptance. How do explain to a stranger your own feelings and experience of acceptance? For me it has never been 'Is that so? but 'If you say so'.

The Ex Priest also shared some great quotes:

'Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to know and understand.' Albert Einstein

'There are those that look at things and ask 'why?' I dream of things and ask 'why not?' Robert Kennedy (paraphasing George Bernard Shaw).

'This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievance's complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy' George Bernard Shaw

'Never underestimate the impact which the story of your life and work can have on this organisation or the wider community - good or bad' the Ex Priest.

He also shared this poem - Begin Again by Brendan Kennelly

http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Like-A-Good-Quote/2245241