A Pandemic Has Hit. Now What?
How I've Jumped Through The Hoops of Uncertainty With This Book
1995 was a stressful year for me. I had lost my Mom two years earlier from a rare form of cancer. Shortly thereafter, my career in healthcare administration was derailed leaving me in a deep place of uncertainty.
Living in Chicago at the time, I unexpectedly contacted by a friend who happened to be a member of a local Kiwanis club.
“Hey, Michael — Sorry to hear about the loss of your Mom. Just checking in see how you’re doing.”
Not well, I responded. Just trying to get my life back together.
“While I have you on the phone, I wanted to see if you could come and present to our club.”
Sure. What do you want me to speak about?
“It doesn’t matter. Just make up a topic and come. Our members will love hearing you speak.”
Fortuitously, this speech in front of 15 people fueled a whirlwind of association and corporate speaking engagements over the next ten years -- a period in my professional life which led to major levels of success.
Even though I enjoyed the rush of being in front of enthusiastic audiences on a weekly basis, it was an unsettling time for me — traveling place to place, waking up in strange cities without any sense of grounding. I longed for a spiritual foundation that would allow me to reconnect with the essence of life and a sense of calm amidst the frenetic pace I experienced.
Let’s now fast-forward to today, March 16, 2020. At the time of this writing, our world is mired in chaos due to the coronavirus pandemic. Thousands have perished. Many more are sick. And the uncertainty of cities shuttered and a tanking global economy has led to unprecedented levels of panic and uncertainty
Uncertainty: One Breath, One Page At A Time
In 1995 I stumbled upon a book called Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior. It remains my all-time favorite read.
Written by legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson, it offers a compelling look at how his quest for enlightenment was fostered through his two greatest passions:
Basketball and Spirituality
While coach of the Chicago Bulls in the 90’s, he developed and employed a framework around these two facets of his life leading the teams that he coached to ten NBA championships. Phil’s primary aim? To get the players to recognize the life quest they were on was much greater than simply themselves. Counter to the relentless, winner take all attitude that remains to this day, he stressed the importance of displaying awareness, compassion, and selflessness in the heat of life’s battles.
Phil’s philosophy was informed by his discovery of Zen Buddhism at the end of his own playing days in the 70s. It was also during that time that he began meditating regularly.
In mindfully navigating the present uncertainty facing our world, I thought it would be valuable to revisit this book. Here are five excerpts from it that continue to hold profound meaning for me to this day
“In basketball — as in life — true joy comes from being fully present in the moment, not just when things are going your way. Of course, it’s no accident that things are more likely to go your way when you stop worrying about whether you’re going to win or lose and focus your full attention on what’s happening right in the moment.”
I use to spend a good portion of my day racing through life without paying attention to what was right in front of me. Phil’s advice helped me realize that my time on earth was much, much more than that next speaking engagement, writing assignment, or paycheck in my pocket. Rather it was about being aware of each and every precious moment of life and enjoying it.
“What pollutes the mind in the Buddhist view is our desire to get life to conform to our peculiar notion of how things should be, as opposed to how they really are. In the course of everyday life, we spend the majority of our time immersed in self-centered thoughts. Why did this happen to me? What would make me feel better? If only I could make more money, win her heart, make my boss appreciate me. The thoughts themselves are not the problem; it’s our desperate clinging to them and our resistance to what’s actually happening that causes us so much anguish.”
To this day, I still have moments where my ego-centered thoughts get in the way. I often try to force things to happen in a manner in which I want them to occur versus trusting the natural flow of the universe. Taoism, a philosophy I was indirectly introduced to by Phil encourages us to follow the “Wu Wei” path of effortless action by letting go of the need to control what is already being perfectly orchestrated.
“..I learned early that one of the most important qualities as a leader is listening without judgment, or what the Buddhists call bare attention.”
When problems and conflicts arise, it’s best to simply acknowledge them with an open, listening heart versus immediately trying to jump in and fix them. Today when a knotty situation surfaces and my knee-jerk reaction is to try to immediately fix it, I’m reminded of how many times when I’ve done nothing and the issue mysteriously begins to sort itself out with little or no intervention on my part.
“Being aware is more important than being smart.”
There are lots of so-called brilliant experts and intelligent folks in the world who in reality have no real awareness of the underlying dynamics taking place around them. I recall an ex-partner of mine whenever she saw me confronted with a problem or issue saying “come on, you have a Master’s Degree,” as though that conferred me with an extra dose of intelligence. All I could do is smile at the absurdity of that comment
“I used to believe that the day I could accept defeat was the day I would have to give up my job. But losing is as integral a part of the dance as winning. Buddhism teaches us that by accepting death, you discover life.”
I find it healthy to ponder physical death on a daily basis because I’m ultimately going to experience that fate. Life and death for me are simply two sides of the same coin — — shifts in consciousness that occur many times over the course of our lifetime. Phil in his book suggests that life is a mystery — a beautiful dance where it’s not about winning or losing but how you play the game.