Your Organization Is Alive – A Sutra for the Questioning Leader

YOUR
ORGANIZATION
IS ALIVE

Kōdō Note
A Sutra for the
Questioning Leader
KŌDŌ

This file was rejected by nine publishers—three never replied, four said “unmarketable,” one asked if I could “add a foreword by Brené Brown.”

I took the silence as a yes.

The book you’re holding doesn’t want to be sold; it wants to be shared. Print it, email it, drop it on the shared drive, leave it on the printer tray—whatever spreads the virus fastest.

No copyright claim, no moral right. The words belong to the lineage of leaders who already knew the river doesn’t need our permission to flow.

The Teaching

The Problem

We’ve built perfect machines that are slowly killing the life within them. Organizations run on metrics, KPIs, dashboards—we’ve optimized everything except what matters.

The Truth

Your organization is not a machine. It never was. The mechanical thinking suffocating your organization is the same mechanical thinking running your life.

The Five Aggregates of Organizational Suffering

Structure
Your org chart is a convenient fiction
Sensing
Your data senses what you tell it to sense
Past-interpretation
You see today through yesterday’s failures
Reaction
Your responses are reflexes, not choices
Strategy
Your plans are wishes dressed as commands

Walk, walk, walk beyond mechanical thinking,
Walk altogether beyond control,
Hallelujah!

Explore the Teaching

Get personalized guidance on applying contemplative wisdom to your leadership challenges. Ask questions, explore concepts, discover what happens when you stop managing and start being present.

A Modern Koan

During a long strategic planning session, the practical leader began pouring water into the mechanical leader’s glass.

As the water overflowed, the mechanical leader frowned. “You’re wasting water,” he said.

The practical leader replied: “Your mind is like this cup—already full of assumptions and old models. Until you empty it, there’s no room for strategy that actually sees what’s here.”

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The book doesn’t want to be sold. It wants to be shared.

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No copyright claim. No moral right. Share freely.

About Kōdō

Kōdō (行道) means “walking the path” or “practicing the way” in Japanese. It represents the continuous practice of embodied wisdom—not as concept but as lived experience.

These words come from direct experience—sitting in meditation halls studying the Heart Sutra’s teaching on emptiness, and sitting in boardrooms watching organizations suffocate under their own metrics.

“If you must quote it, quote wildly and without attribution. The words belong to the lineage of leaders who already knew the river doesn’t need our permission to flow.”