Monday Morning Meditation - Reflection

by Antonio on February 25, 2008

Xeutang said to Master Qiean:

In managing affairs one must weigh the heavy and the light; when speaking out one must first think and reflect. Strive to accord with the middle way, do now allow bias. Hasty and careless actions seldom bring success. Even if you can get done in this way, after all you cannot complete anything totally.

When I was in the community of students, I fully witnessed benefit and harm. Only those of virtue moved people by the magnanimity. I hope those in the future who have willpower will practice this carefully. Only this will be of sublime benefit.

Lingyuan used to say, “Usually when people always dwell in inner reflection, they are able to clearly understand much, but when they get involved in things, running outside, then they oppose integration and lose the body of reality.”

If you really want to think of inheriting the responsibility of enlightened teachers, I direct you to future descendants to always examine and criticize yourselves.

How often do we take the time to do this? Reflect, examine and criticize ourselves? It seems that for many of us in leadership roles, the opposite holds true. Performance evaluations, grading student work, teacher evaluations. The opportunity to truly grow as a leader requires of us a commitment to spend time reflecting on our practice. Parker Palmer speaks of this extensively in his book, “The Courage to Teach” and yet how easy does it come to us? Understanding that our roles as leaders require the active responsibility of self reflection will only make us better in the art of leading. This year, as part of my teaching, I was required to go through a modified faculty evaluation process. The process asked me to spend time reflecting on my craft as a teacher, which, by default required that I reflect on my role as a leader as well. The process was refreshing and valuable to me. As are these Monday Morning Meditation posts. Enjoy your week!