From Rock Bottom to Zen2.0: How an 900-Year-Old Buddhist Teaching Saved a Failed CEO and Sparked a Global Movement
- 三木 康司
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
The Plant Was Dying Too
In 2008, after the Lehman Shock destroyed the IT company where he served
as an executive, Kouji Miki was dismissed. Nine years of work — gone in
a single conversation. The depression that followed was so severe he
could not get out of bed. Even the houseplant his wife cherished began
to wither, as if mirroring his state of mind.
Desperate, he searched online for "ways to calm the mind" and found
a video on zazen meditation. What began as a survival strategy became
a profound transformation — one that would eventually lead him to create
zenschool, launch Zen2.0 (the world's largest international conference
on Zen and mindfulness, held at the historic Kenchoji Temple in Kamakura),
and contribute to a landmark 800-page publication on Inner Development
Goals by the German academic publisher De Gruyter.
This article tells that story through the lens of the Ten Bulls (十牛図)
— a 900-year-old Zen teaching that maps the stages of human consciousness
transformation through ten pictures and poems. From the desperate search
for meaning (Stage 1) to the return to everyday life with open hands
(Stage 10), Miki's journey mirrors the ancient path with startling
precision.
It is a story about losing everything and discovering that what you
lost was never the point. It is a story about how the oldest wisdom
traditions can illuminate the newest challenges of our time.
What if rock bottom is not the end — but the first stage of awakening?
→ Read the full article on Medium
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Originally published on Medium by Kouji Miki.
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