{"id":868,"date":"2009-10-15T08:09:45","date_gmt":"2009-10-15T08:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/10\/the-buddha-at-work-right-speech-in-the-movie-business.html"},"modified":"2009-10-15T08:09:45","modified_gmt":"2009-10-15T08:09:45","slug":"the-buddha-at-work-right-speech-in-the-movie-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/10\/the-buddha-at-work-right-speech-in-the-movie-business.html","title":{"rendered":"The Buddha at Work: Right Speech in the Movie Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"buddha_at_work.jpg\"<\/span>by Jon Rubinstein<\/b><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

I’m a talent and literary manager. Recently, a problem
\nwas brought to my attention regarding an upcoming release. So we all got on the
\nphone–movie studio executives, publicists, agents, and myself–to discuss the
\nsituation and see if we could find some resolution. <\/p>\n

Going in, there was considerable tension; the call was
\narranged by us representatives, and all the emails flying around had a real “us
\nvs. them” tone. We<\/i> had our point of
\nview, which was clearly <\/span>right;<\/i> <\/span>they
\n<\/i>were crazy<\/i> for thinking otherwise. The potential was there for
\nsome real conflict. And I was as “right” as anyone else on the call, completely
\nsure that my point of view was as correct and unchangeable as anything I’d ever
\nconsidered.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I had a few things going for me:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I’ve been
    \nslowly increasing my time on the cushion in preparation for the InterDependence
    \nProject’s upcoming     24 Hour
    \nMeditation Marathon<\/a>. (By the way, now’s as good a time as any to     sponsor me<\/a>.) <\/li>\n
  2. I went to
    \nsee     Thich Nhat Hanh<\/a> at the Beacon Theater on Friday night, and the phrase
    \n“    Peace is Every Step<\/a>” was still rattling around in my skull. <\/li>\n
  3. My “Peace
    \nis Every Step”     calligraphy<\/a>
    \nhad just arrived at the office and was staring back at me from the
    \nwindowsill. Way to go, Spiritual Materialism!<\/li>\n
  4. I went to a
    \ngreat class on communication over the weekend where we were drilled over
    \nand over on this amazing, unique, and rare skill called listening. <\/i><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So as the “other side” started stating their case, I was
    \njust a little surprised that I was able to notice my inclination to resist
    \nhearing what they had to say, and simply listen<\/i>. It instantly occurred to me that the people presenting the ideas to
    \nus were not the “enemy,” but in fact, were trying to do something positive for
    \nthe film and for my client. And while our priorities were not exactly they
    \nsame, they were necessarily interdependent. Because of this, I was able to
    \nguide my “side” to being willing to hear the proposal, and to consider it
    \nwithout prejudice. As they said in class this weekend, we became “willing to
    \nwant to,” open to the idea that their request was something we might agree to.
    \nWe walked away from the call feeling energized and collaborative, and I know
    \nthat the client will be better off for it.<\/p>\n

    This lesson isn’t anything new; the Buddha<\/a> taught it from at
    \nthe start. Thich Nhat Hanh tells
    \nus that in order to have     Right Speech<\/a> , we must practice deep listening:<\/p>\n

    “Deep listening is at the foundation of Right Speech. If we
    \ncannot listen mindfully, we cannot practice Right Speech. No matter what we
    \nsay, it will not be mindful, because we’ll be speaking only our own ideas and
    \nnot in response to the other person.”<\/p>\n

    And because we were able to listen, we were able to consider
    \nan alternative to our predetermined point of view. Geshe Michael Roach teaches
    \nof the “emptiness of problems” in his book     The
    \nDiamond Cutter<\/a>    :<\/a><\/p>\n

    “An object becomes<\/i> good or bad according to your perceptions, and these
    \nperceptions are dictated very precisely by the good or bad imprints you put in
    \nyour mind in the past. Problems are not problems from their own side;
    \nrather, there is something in your mind making you see the problem as a
    \nproblem. <\/span>Every problem<\/i> can be
    \nturned into an opportunity, because no problem is a problem in and of itself.”<\/p>\n

    We often assume
    \nthat the best solution to problems in the business world is one that benefits
    \nus the most, in the short term. Clearly, this hasn’t worked out so well; greed
    \nhas led the economy to a near-disaster, we’re choking on the poisons we’ve
    \nspewed into the air, earth, and water, almost eleven million children die each
    \nyear of     preventible
    \ncauses<\/a>, and     wars
    \nrage on several continents<\/a>. <\/p>\n

    Fortunately, the
    \nBuddha provided teachings to guide us in our livelihood. Right Livelihood seems
    \nlike an antiquated concept, and it doesn’t help that the few no-no’s provided
    \nby the sutras include arms-dealing, the slave trade, and fortune-telling. But
    \nit’s possible to make a living in a way that benefits others and cares for the
    \nearth, and the lessons we take from the teachings can actually allow us to be
    \nmore successful in our careers without being solely focused on numero uno. <\/p>\n

    As Thich Nhat Hanh
    \nsaid, “Buddhism is the strongest form of humanism we have. It can help us to
    \nlive with responsibility, compassion, and loving kindness.” There are so many
    \nlessons in the teachings that can help us to have extraordinary careers, full
    \nof joy and peace and compassion, to help make the world a better place. Many of
    \nus spend more than half our waking hours at work, so naturally, having
    \nhappiness in our workplace will help create happiness in our lives. I’ll be
    \nback each week to talk about the many lessons the Buddha provided in this area,
    \nand I look forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences.<\/p>\n

    <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Jon Rubinstein I’m a talent and literary manager. Recently, a problem was brought to my attention regarding an upcoming release. So we all got on the phone–movie studio executives, publicists, agents, and myself–to discuss the situation and see if we could find some resolution. Going in, there was considerable tension; the call was arranged…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media","category-buddhism","category-right-lifestyle"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Buddha at Work: Right Speech in the Movie Business - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/10\/the-buddha-at-work-right-speech-in-the-movie-business.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Buddha at Work: Right Speech in the Movie Business - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Jon Rubinstein I’m a talent and literary manager. 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His writing has been featured in numerous print and online publications. He is the founding director of the Interdependence Project and the host of the I.D. Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s popular weekly podcast (available on iTunes). He is currently on the part-time faculty of Eugene Lang College at New School University in NYC, where he teaches Buddhism. Ethan lectures regularly at universities and venues around the country on Buddhism, meditation, contemporary culture, and activism.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/enichtern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}