When No Thing Works
A Zen and Indigenous Perspective on Resilience, Shared Purpose, and Leadership in the Timeplace of Collapse
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo first 3 months
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pre-order for $19.57
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Norma Wong
About this listen
Spiritual and community lessons for embracing collective care, co-creating sustainable worlds, and responsibly meeting uncertain futures—a Zen and Indigenous take on building better, more balanced ways of being
For fans of Hospicing Modernity, When Things Fall Apart, and Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet
Talking story, weaving poetry, and offering wisdom at the intersections of strategy, politics, and spiritual activism, When No Thing Works is a visionary guide to co-creating new worlds from one in crisis. It asks into the ways we can live well and maintain our wholeness in an era of collective acceleration: the swiftly moving current, fed and shaped by human actions, that sweeps us toward ever uncertain futures. Grounded in Zen Buddhism, interconnection, and decades of community activism, When No Thing Works explores questions like:
- As we stand at a threshold of collective change, what leaps must we make?
- How can we push through discord and polarization and meet these critical changepoints collectively?
- What practices, strategies, and spiritualities can align to vision a sustainable future for our communities and descendents?
- How can we step out of urgency to tend to our crises with wisdom, intention, and care?
With wise and witty prose that wanders and turns, guides and reveals, Zen master and Indigenous Hawaiian leader Rōshi Norma Wong’s meditation holds our collective moment with gravity and tender care. She asks us to not only imagine but to live into a story beyond crisis and collapse—one that expands to meet our dreams of what (we hope) comes next, while facing with clarity and grace our here and now in the world we share today.
©2024 Norma Wong (P)2025 North Atlantic BooksCritic reviews
“This slender volume is a bountiful exhortation of the human spirit’s potential to unwind intractable challenges of our ‘collective acceleration,’ and a sharp knife that slices through wishful, lazy, or destructive machinations to get there.
Wong Rōshi’s unique confluence of locations, lineages, and experience are honed into a wisdom lens we can peer through to couple our Why and our Way. Like all great teachers, she imparts story and strategy with equal measures of humility, reminding us that how we be matters to how we become.
Lyrical, sure, and threaded with the deft insight and forgiving humor of a guide who knows how flawed we can be, Wong Rōshi offers not so much a map, but a strategic pointing to the constellation of choices and practices we can and must navigate to enter a slipstream into an ever-possible future, together.
This work is a triumph, and you can feel the thunderous dance of ancestors’—past and future—approval.”—Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Rōshi, coauthor of Radical Dharma
“Norma Wong has been a compelling teacher in the realm of transformation for years—when I met her she was somehow one with the floor as several grownups tried with zero success to lift her up. I wanted to learn everything about that grounding. In this tight, engaging work, Norma is walking us through current events and possibilities, pointing out the actual currents, the questions, the timeplaces and emergent worldviews that most matter. This is deep, no-nonsense grounding, taught lightly, with invitation and humor and curiosity. Profound and embodied in each line . . . I know I will return to this text over and over.”—adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy
“Norma Ryuko Kawelokū Wong explores the essence of a twenty-first-century Indigenous worldview in When No Thing Works. She relies on knowing that all things, past and future, are in relationship. What we imagine and how we walk in the present determines the future. As Norma signals, our walk must include leaps that take us into unknowns, but we will not be alone. Norma gives us wise counsel for this difficult moment on Mother Earth. One culture, one belief system, one community alone is unable to fulfill our ancestors’ collective hopes for all of our descendants.”—Judith LeBlanc, citizen of the Caddo Nation, ekah (grandmother), and executive director of the Native Organizers Alliance
Related to this topic
-
The Holy Bible: King James Version
- The Old and New Testaments
- By: King James Bible
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Prentice Onayemi, Ellen Archer, and others
- Length: 82 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This newer edition of the King James Bible published in 1769 is usually preferred by most that read it over the older 1611 version. This 1769 edition is highly sought after due to being more reader/listener friendly than the 1611 since many typos were fixed.... We hope your new audio bible will go everywhere with you and be a blessing for years to come.
-
-
Very Good
- By José de Ribera on 12-17-20
By: King James Bible
-
The Mastery of Self
- A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom
- By: Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.
- Narrated by: Charlie Varon
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ancient Toltecs believed that life, as we perceive it, is a dream. We each live in our own personal dream, and these come together to form the dream of the planet, or the world in which we live. Problems arise when our perception of the dream becomes clouded with negativity, drama, and judgment (of ourselves and others), because it's in these moments of suffering that we have forgotten that we are the architects of our own reality and we have the power to change our dream if we choose.
-
-
listen.. .then listen again
- By Casiano on 12-22-16
-
Super Attractor
- Methods for Manifesting a Life Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
- By: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ready to turn what you want into the life that you live? The number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Universe Has Your Back shows you how. In Super Attractor, Gabrielle Bernstein lays out the essential methods for manifesting a life beyond your wildest dreams. This book is a journey of remembering where your true power lies. You'll learn how to co-create the life you want. You'll accept that life can flow, that attracting is fun, and that you don't have to work so hard to get what you want.
-
-
Not a huge fan
- By Pamela H on 09-30-19
-
Medieval Myths & Mysteries
- By: Dorsey Armstrong, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Dorsey Armstrong
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 10 enlightening (and often humorous) lectures of Medieval Myths and Mysteries will show you how far from the “dark” times of legend these centuries were. Uncover the facts about the Knights Templar. Reveal the truth behind the tales of legendary creatures like the Questing Beast and the unicorn. Trace the events of the Black Death and the ways it altered the world in its wake, and much more. With Professor Armstrong, you will dig deep into the ways that later generations reshaped the narrative of the medieval years and perpetuated the myths.
-
-
Interesting, but centered on Britain
- By Ximena on 04-10-20
By: Dorsey Armstrong, and others
-
The Bhagavad Gita
- By: Eknath Easwaran
- Narrated by: Paul Bazely
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Bhagavad Gita, "The Song of the Lord", is the best known of all the Indian scriptures, and Easwaran's reliable and accessible version has consistently been the best-selling translation. Easwaran's introduction places the Gita in its historical setting and brings out the universality and timelessness of its teachings. Chapter introductions give clear explanations of key concepts in that chapter.
-
-
Content and narration reduced me to tears
- By Lauriesland on 01-11-16
By: Eknath Easwaran
-
Happy Days
- By: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you could wake up every day without anxiety? View your past with purpose, not regret? Live happy, peaceful, and free from fear? You can - and Gabrielle Bernstein will show you the way. Gabby has long been loved by her listeners as a spiritual teacher, motivational speaker, and catalyst for profound inner change. Her new book presents her most powerful teaching yet: a plan for transforming the pain of your past, whatever that may be, into newfound strength and freedom.
-
-
Healing is privileged
- By Tina Clayton on 02-26-22
-
The Holy Bible: King James Version
- The Old and New Testaments
- By: King James Bible
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Prentice Onayemi, Ellen Archer, and others
- Length: 82 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This newer edition of the King James Bible published in 1769 is usually preferred by most that read it over the older 1611 version. This 1769 edition is highly sought after due to being more reader/listener friendly than the 1611 since many typos were fixed.... We hope your new audio bible will go everywhere with you and be a blessing for years to come.
-
-
Very Good
- By José de Ribera on 12-17-20
By: King James Bible
-
The Mastery of Self
- A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom
- By: Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.
- Narrated by: Charlie Varon
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ancient Toltecs believed that life, as we perceive it, is a dream. We each live in our own personal dream, and these come together to form the dream of the planet, or the world in which we live. Problems arise when our perception of the dream becomes clouded with negativity, drama, and judgment (of ourselves and others), because it's in these moments of suffering that we have forgotten that we are the architects of our own reality and we have the power to change our dream if we choose.
-
-
listen.. .then listen again
- By Casiano on 12-22-16
-
Super Attractor
- Methods for Manifesting a Life Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
- By: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ready to turn what you want into the life that you live? The number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Universe Has Your Back shows you how. In Super Attractor, Gabrielle Bernstein lays out the essential methods for manifesting a life beyond your wildest dreams. This book is a journey of remembering where your true power lies. You'll learn how to co-create the life you want. You'll accept that life can flow, that attracting is fun, and that you don't have to work so hard to get what you want.
-
-
Not a huge fan
- By Pamela H on 09-30-19
-
Medieval Myths & Mysteries
- By: Dorsey Armstrong, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Dorsey Armstrong
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 10 enlightening (and often humorous) lectures of Medieval Myths and Mysteries will show you how far from the “dark” times of legend these centuries were. Uncover the facts about the Knights Templar. Reveal the truth behind the tales of legendary creatures like the Questing Beast and the unicorn. Trace the events of the Black Death and the ways it altered the world in its wake, and much more. With Professor Armstrong, you will dig deep into the ways that later generations reshaped the narrative of the medieval years and perpetuated the myths.
-
-
Interesting, but centered on Britain
- By Ximena on 04-10-20
By: Dorsey Armstrong, and others
-
The Bhagavad Gita
- By: Eknath Easwaran
- Narrated by: Paul Bazely
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Bhagavad Gita, "The Song of the Lord", is the best known of all the Indian scriptures, and Easwaran's reliable and accessible version has consistently been the best-selling translation. Easwaran's introduction places the Gita in its historical setting and brings out the universality and timelessness of its teachings. Chapter introductions give clear explanations of key concepts in that chapter.
-
-
Content and narration reduced me to tears
- By Lauriesland on 01-11-16
By: Eknath Easwaran
-
Happy Days
- By: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you could wake up every day without anxiety? View your past with purpose, not regret? Live happy, peaceful, and free from fear? You can - and Gabrielle Bernstein will show you the way. Gabby has long been loved by her listeners as a spiritual teacher, motivational speaker, and catalyst for profound inner change. Her new book presents her most powerful teaching yet: a plan for transforming the pain of your past, whatever that may be, into newfound strength and freedom.
-
-
Healing is privileged
- By Tina Clayton on 02-26-22
-
The Books of Enoch: The Angels, The Watchers and The Nephilim
- With Extensive Commentary
- By: Joseph Lumpkin
- Narrated by: Dennis Logan
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The well-known and acclaimed work of Dr. Joseph Lumpkin has been enlarged to include new research on the Books of Enoch, Fallen Angels, the Watchers, and the Nephilim. After presenting extensive historical backgrounds and brilliant translations of The First, Second, and Third Books of Enoch, Lumpkin takes time to piece together a historical narrative of Fallen Angels, the Watcher, and the Nephilim, using his extensive knowledge of ancient texts.
-
-
Lose the echo effect
- By Mark Medbery on 10-29-17
By: Joseph Lumpkin
-
The Book of Enoch
- From the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament
- By: Robert Bagley III
- Narrated by: Steve Cook
- Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why is The Book of Enoch so important to anyone interested in Biblical history? The answer is simple: It is directly quoted in the New Testament by Jude (vv.14-15). Themes of the book referenced in 2 Peter 2:1. Jesus also used content from The Book of Enoch in many of his sermons in Matthew and Luke. In this text, you will hear the word of God through this amazing document. We will take this amazing journey together and learn why this text is not an official book of the Bible.
-
-
Amazing and disturbingly accurate celestial calc.
- By Susan I Carter on 12-05-17
-
The Book of Enoch
- By: Unknown
- Narrated by: Christopher Glyn
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The book of Enoch was thought to be lost for over 2,000 years until, in 1773, a traveller brought three copies back from Ethiopia. Whether or not this ancient book was actually authored by Enoch, the father of Methuselah and great-grandfather of Noah, is an ongoing debate among historians and theologians. But all recognise the book of Enoch as one of the most important apocalyptic works outside of the Bible.
-
-
Further Information
- By Timothy on 01-11-20
By: Unknown
-
The Pursuit of God
- By: A. W. Tozer
- Narrated by: Mark Moseley
- Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During a train trip from Chicago to Texas in the late 1940s, A.W. Tozer began to write The Pursuit of God. He wrote all night, and when the train arrived at his destination, the rough draft was done. The depth of this book has made it an enduring favorite.
-
-
A Mature Theology
- By Douglas on 04-18-13
By: A. W. Tozer
-
Neville Goddard: The Complete Reader
- By: Neville Goddard
- Narrated by: Barry J. Peterson
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Neville Goddard: The Complete Reader, Includes all 10 of Neville Goddard's Spiritual Classics: At Your Command, Awakened Imagination & the Search, Feeling is the Secret, Freedom For All, Out of This World, Prayer, The Art of Believing, Seedtime and Harvest, The Law and The Promise, The Power of Awareness, and Your Faith Is Your Fortune. If you are familiar with the great American mystic, this will be a goldmine of wisdom in one book. If you are new to his work, you are in for a spiritual journey.
-
-
Hidden Gem
- By TrauntsiePants on 05-22-18
By: Neville Goddard
-
Journeys Out of the Body
- By: Robert Monroe
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With more than 300,000 copies sold to date, this is the definitive work on the extraordinary phenomenon of out-of-body experiences, by the founder of the internationally known Monroe Institute.
-
-
Methodical, Revealing, Fascinating exploration . .
- By Diana on 05-03-14
By: Robert Monroe