The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation

Rinzler (The Buddha Walks into a Bar...) once again offers practical life advice from a Buddhist perspective, emphasizing compassionate, harmonious thoughts and actions in the everyday hustle and bustle. This time, Rinzler turns his attention to the new generation of young adults leaving college and entering the professional workforce for the first time. The book is organized according to the Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions, which he interprets and employs as practical methods for cultivating oneself, relating better to others, and doing compassionate works for improving society. For example, in situations involving difficult co-workers, Rinzler teaches young professionals to engage with the fact that they themselves can be jerks just as much as their colleagues, and so to empathize with them despite disagreement. He remains realistic about navigating workplace tension, but insists that the practice is as much for the betterment of oneself as for others and for the greater society. Rinzler offers spiritual guidance for young people who have forgotten something important in the midst of career advancement and professional networking: that it is not what they do that defines them, but rather who they are. With that focus, cultivation and enlightenment can be brought to any job and any experience. Agent: Stephanie Tade, Stephanie Tade Agency. (Sept.)