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After Enlightenment, The Invoicing -- Business Book Combines Zen Practice And Workplace Success

After Enlightenment, The Invoicing -- Business Book Combines Zen Practice And Workplace Success

Published 05-10-05

Submitted by New World Library

NOVATO, CA - New World Library announced the publication of a new book, entitled Z.B.A.: Zen of Business Administration by Marc Lesser. For fifteen years, Marc Lesser followed the difficult but rewarding path of building his company, Brush Dance, from a tiny recycled-paper venture operated out of his garage to an international, multimillion-dollar greeting card, calendar, and gift publisher. As founder and CEO of Brush Dance, he grappled with the usual challenges of running a company: meeting payroll and balancing cash flow, hiring and firing employees, maintaining relationships with vendors and customers, and growing the business in a difficult economic climate.

Informing his every decision is the fact that Marc Lesser is also an ordained Zen priest. After ten years living as a practitioner at the San Francisco Zen Center, four of those years as a monk, Lesser cut his business teeth as a draft horse farmer at the Zen Center's Green Gulch farm and as the director -- and main bread baker -- at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. After thirty years of Zen practice, Marc was ordained last year as a priest in the Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki roshi.

In Z. B. A.: Zen of Business Administration, Lesser describes the delicate path of running a business, and living a working life, as a spiritual practice. In the great Zen tradition of teaching stories, Lesser relates his own personal and professional struggles and how Zen practice has provided strength and insight for facing these inevitable difficulties. Lesser splits the book into four parts made of short, crafted chapters, each ending with specific questions and applications for daily practice. With chapter titles such as "Work: The Impossible Request," "Appreciating Uncertainty," and "Accomplishing More by Doing Less," ZBA explores how specific Zen teachings such as the eight-fold path apply directly to work and life. With the calm, wry voice of a wise teacher, Lesser provides readers with intimate, helpful advice, all the while acknowledging the paradox of applying spiritual practice to the business world.

About the Author

A Zen priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki roshi, Marc Lesser was the founder and CEO of Brush Dance. He has an M.B.A. from New York University's Graduate School of Business. Marc began practicing and studying Zen in 1974 at the San Francisco Zen Center and was ordained as a Zen priest in 2003. Marc leads retreats for business people at Zen Center's Green Gulch Farm and Tassajara. He lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.

To read an excerpt from Z.B.A., click here.

Z. B. A. by Marc Lesser
February 2005 • Business • Trade Paper
Price: $14.95 • ISBN 1-57731-469-7• 256 Pages

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