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

In these times marked by constant threats of despair, hatred, authoritarian control, and climate doom, different perspectives and worldviews can lead to revitalizing habits and practices. When No Thing Works by Norma Kaweloku Wong Roshi, a Rinzai Zen priest and native Hawaiian community leader, offers a courageous speculative approach to building collective efforts of resilience and resistance.

Drawing from her decades-long experience in policy work, Wong emphasizes the power of imagination in co-creating sustainable solutions and shaping our future amid the certainty of collapse. When disruption and discontent are the status quo, there are ways to approach social problems through practices and strategies that center oneness, cooperation and collective thriving.

As a student of Zen Buddhism and a lifelong seeker on the path of decolonization, I was excited to read this book. Wong’s profound insights reflect the metaphysical aspects of Zen as she discusses timeplace and slipstream. The Indigenous values of peacemaking and mutual respect have relevant applications to our current contexts and challenges.

While When No Thing Works shares applicable tenets of both Indigenous and Zen traditions, it does so without being prescriptive. The lessons of interdependence and meeting uncertainty with anticipation and hopefulness would be particularly relevant to activists and movement-builders, empowering them to interpret and apply these lessons in their unique contexts.