How To Get Ahead At Work, Buddhist-Style | David Nichtern
Apr 3, 2024
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Meditation teacher David Nichtern discusses integrating Buddhist principles into business, creativity, and career advice. Topics include harmonizing spirituality with work, navigating life challenges through karma and compassion, embracing authenticity in negotiations, and approaching life with lightness and adaptability.
Integrating creativity, spirituality, and prosperity in business is essential for a holistic approach to life.
Recognize and value your worth in negotiations to maintain a balanced self-assessment.
Embrace uncertainty and discomfort to foster resilience and self-compassion, viewing fear as part of personal growth.
Deep dives
Integrating Creativity, Spirituality, and Prosperity in Business
Integrating creativity, spirituality, and prosperity in business is emphasized as a way to align different aspects of life into a cohesive approach. The podcast explores the concept that in the business world, spending a significant amount of time warrants bringing spiritual practice to work. This perspective challenges the traditional separation of work and spiritual elements, advocating for a holistic approach to living.
Navigating Self-Assessment and Negotiation
The importance of never negotiating against oneself is highlighted in the podcast, stressing the need for individuals to recognize their value and worth in negotiations. By maintaining a balanced self-assessment that avoids both deflation and inflation of one's value, individuals are encouraged to be confident yet grounded. The discussion delves into the complexities of confidence and self-worth, particularly noting gender dynamics and social influences.
Embracing Uncertainty and Softening into Discomfort
The podcast touches upon embracing uncertainty and discomfort as essential components of personal growth and resilience. It advocates for softening into discomfort, fostering tenderness, and being curious about challenging experiences like fear. By exploring fear and discomfort with curiosity, individuals can expand their capacity for resilience and self-compassion, viewing fear as a natural aspect of the human experience.
The Buddhist Teaching of Shenpai
In the Tibetan tradition, Shenpai emphasizes using triggers like fear or habitual patterns as reminders to open up and become aware. It involves recognizing that suffering arises when there's a lack of mindfulness or awareness, known as abidio or non-awareness. This teaching highlights the importance of maintaining awareness to address the root cause of suffering.
Embracing the Dignity of Outrageous
The concept of embracing the dignity of outrageousness stems from the warriorship path, symbolized by a Garuda in Buddhist teachings. It encourages a sense of spontaneous, confident action without constantly seeking external validation. By taking leaps, trusting oneself, and cultivating mindfulness and intuition, individuals can navigate between confidently moving forward and knowing when to let go or start afresh, avoiding the tendency to overly polish or dwell on unproductive aspects of life.
Buddhist strategies for making money and being creative.
Meditation teacher David Nichtern believes that business can be, in his words, an essential spiritual practice. He has been practicing and teaching meditation for over 40 years. He’s also the author of a book, Creativity, Spirituality, and Making a Buck. And he hosts a podcast by the same name. He began his career as a successful composer, producer, and guitarist. He’s recorded and played with Stevie Wonder, Jerry Garcia, Lana Del Rey, Paul Simon, and others. Recently, he’s become an entrepreneur, founding an online mindfulness based education platform called Dharma Moon.