When No Thing Works A Zen and Indigenous Perspective on Resilience, Shared Purpose, and Leadership in the Timeplace of Collapse

By: Norma Wong

Published by North Atlantic Books, 2024-11-05

<b><i>Between falling apart and coming together lies the threshold—step through with a Zen master's invitation to practice hope in chaotic times.</i></b><br><br>Take a breath. Take a step.<br><br>In this time of collective acceleration—when institutions crumble, climate chaos intensifies, and polarization hardens hearts—Zen Rōshi and Native Hawaiian guide Norma Wong offers something different than solutions. She offers a way of being.<br><br>Part poetry, part strategy, part spiritual teaching, <i><b> When No Thing Works </b></i> reads like sitting with a wise friend who sees both the falling-apartness and what's arising. With stories that spiral and return, with humor that lightens without dismissing, Wong invites us to:<br><br><ul><li>Lift our gaze from urgent chaos to see the horizon beckoning</li><li>Move from "I" to "we" through breaking bread, sipping tea, sharing stories</li><li>Find the critical juncture (机) where change begins</li><li>Practice the leaps that collective transformation requires—not alone, but as "one and one and one"</li></ul><br>Rather than offering answers, Wong opens doorways—showing us how to be at the threshold between a devolving world and an emergent one, how to hear what cannot be heard, how to move in the slipstream of these times with both urgency and patience.<br><br>For those feeling the weight of "too much going much faster," for those seeking a different rhythm, for those ready to cocreate rather than merely resist—this book is invitation and companion.<br><br><i>"What we do with this, matters."</i>