This book review reprinted from the Ethical Culture Review of Books (http://www.ethicalculture.org/review). Single copies may be printed for personal use; for any other purpose, contact reviews@aeu.org for permission.
A Whole Life’s Work: Living Passionately, Growing Spiritually
Lewis Richmond
Atria Books. 2004.
246 pp. $25.00 U.S., $37.50 Canada
ISBN: 0-7434-5130-9
Lewis Richmond is a practitioner of Zen ordained by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (whose famous Zen Mind, Beginners Mind was one of the influential books of the “seventies”-- a period when eastern religions were first widely introduced to the West). Lew is one of relatively few remaining students of Zen ordained in that Suzuki era; he is also a concert pianist, a composer in various genre of music, and a businessman who has spent many years in the day-to-day workplace of corporate America.
In 2002, Lew captured the attention of many with Healing Lazarus: A Buddhist Journey from Near Death to New Life (Atria Books), recounting his experience emerging from an encephalitis-induced coma after he had been given only a 2% chance to live. That compelling book, joined with an earlier one-- Work as a Spiritual Practice: A Practical Buddhist Approach to Inner Growth and Satisfaction on the Job (Broadway Books, 2000)-- broadened Lew’s readership from the arena of what publishers call “spiritual and self-help” books to a more burgeoning market worldwide interested in “near death experience” and its often transformative effect on human life.
In his new book, A Whole Life’s Work, Richmond brings this unique range of experience to a single commentary—asking the question, on his opening page “What is the work of a human being?”.
For Richmond, the context for this question is extremely broad. It includes not only the work of the single human being but the journey of Homo sapiens in general, something the author notes as encompassing “thousands of years…still going on…regardless of time, place or culture.” This is a big perspective but, thankfully, Richmond does not produce an ethereal commentary. This is a book for the average reader, as Richmond says, one who is apt to say of ancient wisdom: “That’s fine for the Karmapa. But what about an ordinary person like me? Why me? What can I do?”
Appealing to this reader, Richmond proposes that our predicament as humans is perhaps most like having been enrolled in a “cosmic Outward Bound program” with little information about where we are going. “Our work”, he says, “is to find out what our work is.”
From this metaphor, Richmond groups his chapters as categories of work, question, or discovery which, he thinks, profoundly inform this human voyage. These include comment on our roles as “Earner”, “Creator”, “Helper”, “Learner”, “Parent”, “Hobbyist”, “Elder”, and even “Monk”, all tasks which, along with an eightfold set of “inner work”, Richmond says, are essential to what he calls our “Consciousness Project”, humankind’s “arriving” or “coming of age”.
Constructing these chapters on roles and tasks, Richmond is aided greatly by a decision to not simply rely on his own experience or observation, ample as that might be. Instead, he interviewed many people about precisely how these roles had played in their life- experience and what had contributed to their lives’ biggest highs and lows. This widened perspective is not only informative but allows the author to mix story-telling with his perspectives and commentary from the world’s great Wisdom Traditions without sounding either academic or preachy.
Of course, one expects that Richmond’s text will be further heightened by the sense of subtlety, balance, and inter-relatedness that comes with his Zen awareness. We are not disappointed, and there are some simply funny anecdotes reflecting such “tit for tat” in the perception of reality, as in one where Richmond recounts a student once asking “Is that a real poem or did you just make that up?”.
Such is typical of Richmond’s awareness of the subtleties involved in the universality and singularity of his topic. He says, reflecting this balance-- “Except for outward show, the Whole Life’s Work is much the same wherever we go. If we are correct that this great work of life is something universal, transcending culture, society, educational level, and affluence, then we should see its signs everywhere, in every person.” He then turns to celebrating singularity, noting that the most impressive moment he had with his own teacher was one wherein Suzuki exclaimed to his students: “You are asking me, as though I have some kind of rule of thumb, ready to hand to you on a platter? What are you dreaming?”. It was at that point, Richmond says “I decided to follow him”.
I was able to read this enjoyable and deeply compelling book in one afternoon and this fact makes it particularly useful. The book is, in the best way, a bit like a “walk in the park”—you can wander through the first time, picking out points of interest, then return to the places you like and spend a little more time with them. Most effectively, the book reveals underpinnings and interconnections among its chapter titles which at first would simply not be imagined.
The primary ethical lesson from Richmond’s work is perhaps best summarized in his final pages when, returning to his metaphors, he says: “We began our exploration of A Whole Life’s Work by pointing out that our first purpose as living creatures is to survive. The eight modes of our outer work—the Earner, the Hobbyist, the Creator, the Monk, the Helper, the Parent, the Learner, and the Elder—are the way we survive, the journey we take in the exterior world to develop ourselves fully and understand our rightful and fulfilling place in the world. …But we now know that survival—even a fulfilling, fruitful, survival—is not enough. The eight inner modes of work—Precepts, Vitality, Patience, Calm, Giving, Equanimity, Humility and Wisdom—are equally important. In fact, now they are even more important…critical to our survival; in a way it never was before. ….we now understand that survival and the Consciousness Project amount to nearly the same thing. Both the beast and the Buddha that dwell within us must learn to make peace with each other on the same ground as that which unites all the world’s religions, the ground of compassion.”
Finally, speaking of the voyage of this cosmic Outward Bound program, Richmond reminds us: “…the “other shore” is not out there. It is here. We are surrounded by it on all sides. Each breath, each footstep, each encounter with another human being, so much like ourselves, is the other shore.”
Dr. Johnson is an officer of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture and the National Service Conference of the American Ethical Union. He is active in both religion and science, being a co-founder of InterSpiritual Dialogue ( www.isdac.com) and the author or co-author of many scientific articles and books, including Nabokov’s Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius (Zoland 1999, McGraw-Hill 2000) which, in 2000 was a “Ten Best Books in Science” at the Washington Post, Booklist, Library Journal and H.M.S. Beagle. In summer 2004 he will be a speaker at the Parliament of the World’s Religions (Barcelona, Spain) both for InterSpiritual Dialogue and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
A Whole Life’s Work: Living Passionately, Growing Spiritually
Lewis Richmond
Atria Books. 2004.
246 pp. $25.00 U.S., $37.50 Canada
ISBN: 0-7434-5130-9
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