{"id":547,"date":"2008-07-10T15:29:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-10T15:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2008\/07\/coming-from-zero-face-to-face-post-modern-power\/"},"modified":"2008-07-10T15:29:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-10T15:29:00","slug":"coming-from-zero-face-to-face-post-modern-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2008\/07\/coming-from-zero-face-to-face-post-modern-power.html","title":{"rendered":"Coming From Zero, Face to Face: Post Modern Power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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My power consultant is a post-modern guy. He even wears Italian shoes. At least I\u2019m confident that they\u2019re not Birkenstocks or NB\u2019s. They look odd in a stylish way \u2013 so I like to think they\u2019re Italian. <\/p>\n

Like my consultant\u2019s shoes, my thoughts are a work in progress here. And I\u2019m experimenting with this post-modern power <\/b>orientation with <\/b>a small group and expect that things will develop some over time. <\/p>\n

Modern power is exercised through normative theories. The post-modern power orientation is to put any modern over-arching theory in the \u201cthird chair\u201d and have a little chat with it. This has big implications on how a person<\/b> is regarded.<\/p>\n

You might say that post-modern power dissociates from any one organizing principle by putting the beating-hearted person first and so it is really tight with Dogen (pick almost any Shobogenzo<\/i> passage and you\u2019ll find a dissociation with any one organizing principle in action). <\/p>\n

Given how the traditional, vertical model has not worked well in many important ways in many Zen communities, the present tendency is to emphasize the horizontal. However, when the vertical is weak or fuzzy, the \u201c0\u201d point, the intersection of the horizontal axis and the vertical axis is really difficult to find. <\/p>\n

And I mean \u201c0\u201d here with all of its Zen implications. <\/p>\n

I suspect that some of the new technology companies are way ahead of us here but I haven\u2019t had time to research that yet. Some dynamic coming together of creativity, experience, accountability, and freedom is what is needed in our Zen organizations if we are to attract and train the next generation of teachers. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of my interests \u2013 I suspect that the present types of organizations common in dharma<\/a> communities do not serve the teacher\/student relationship in a way that will hook up Zen in the present with those in the future who might really take us to the next level of cultural integration. <\/p>\n

Another tendency in Zen organizations is to borrow from the nonprofit world and find things that work, like the Carver Governance Model (a modern power approach). This is an important development and \u2026 in so doing, I fear that we may be bracketing our community\/organizational life from the insights and teaching of the dharma and their direct application to our dharma relationships and organizations.<\/p>\n

We could use our training to make dharma relationships and organizations more fully alive if could apply Zen now in a dynamically creative manner, for example, in which Dogen wrote. I think that\u2019s our challenge. <\/p>\n

What I can do now is lay out some \u201cthird option\u201d reflections.<\/p>\n

Post-modern <\/b>is the third form of power along with traditional and modern. I\u2019m borrowing and copying a lot here from Michele Focaut and David White, as I said a couple posts ago. <\/p>\n

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A few more highlights about post-modern power:<\/p>\n

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