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how do we deal with the kind of stress that Buddha didn't have to deal with, (like work stress)
zenmyste
Veteran
Buddha and his monks left home and give up all posessions..
I'm from the UK. And can't really do that.
If i attempted to live a monk's live not only would I starve, I'd probably die. In the UK we call homeless people 'tramps')
And its very very hard to live this way in UK because you can't exactly go out and wait for lay people to give food. (Just doesn't happen here) and the homeless can't get any food or money etc etc.. Its not a great life being homeless in the UK. (Plus the weather is aweful)
So my question is really about; what practises can one do to be more content at a really stressful job working 12 hours a day. 8am till 8pm.
How do we react to our horrible boss.
How do we put on a brave face for our clients when really I'm hating it.
(Its not like I can just leave this job and find another because you will always get something you don't like about working)
But buddha didn't have this stress did he?
He didn't have to set his alarm and make sure he's in work 'on time' and if he's not he'll get shouted at and stamped on etc..
In this modern day we can't just go and sit under a tree and meditate for hours or read scriptures because by the time we get home we are too tired.
Any thoughts here guys
Thanks!
I'm from the UK. And can't really do that.
If i attempted to live a monk's live not only would I starve, I'd probably die. In the UK we call homeless people 'tramps')
And its very very hard to live this way in UK because you can't exactly go out and wait for lay people to give food. (Just doesn't happen here) and the homeless can't get any food or money etc etc.. Its not a great life being homeless in the UK. (Plus the weather is aweful)
So my question is really about; what practises can one do to be more content at a really stressful job working 12 hours a day. 8am till 8pm.
How do we react to our horrible boss.
How do we put on a brave face for our clients when really I'm hating it.
(Its not like I can just leave this job and find another because you will always get something you don't like about working)
But buddha didn't have this stress did he?
He didn't have to set his alarm and make sure he's in work 'on time' and if he's not he'll get shouted at and stamped on etc..
In this modern day we can't just go and sit under a tree and meditate for hours or read scriptures because by the time we get home we are too tired.
Any thoughts here guys
Thanks!
0
Comments
If you are miserable in your life, then be miserable and treat misery as your teacher. Sit with misery and feel it in your body. See how your misery is affecting others. and then be compassionate to yourself and others about this misery.
For the boss, find a bit of compassion, maybe he is more stressed than you. Maybe because he is the boss no one asks him how his life is or invites him for a drink. There is rarely anyone we cannot find any compassionate point about, and I argue that I have one in my life but I am still learning.
If you hate the alarm clock then have in your mind one positive thing for after you wake up. Hey you have a job and are not homeless! You can meditate for 5 minutes, coffee smells good, you packed a lunch and laid out clothes so your morning is less stressful.
As far as trying to compare living in buddhas time to our own, yes the modern world has its own stresses, but we also have never worried about being eaten by a tiger on the way to a speaking engagement
I know exactly what you're talking about.
But exactly.
And without wanting to go into any detail, you have noooooo idea the crap I'm going through now with eviction, job loss, and complete lack of income, the only way I can deal with it, is on 2 planes:
I live self and not-self, side by side.
On one plane, I'm working through every legal channel at my disposal to deal with all the practical crap being hurled relentlessly in my direction.
And I'm holding my own, but it's hugely stressful, worrying and insomnia-inducing stuff.
on another plane, I'm looking at a note, on my mantelpiece, that tells me "Whatever you put Energy into, will Grow", so I breathe, realise it's all grist to the mill, detach and let things be as things are.
On the one hand, I have to get a grip, not let myself be a walk-over, and deal with things logically, practically and un-emotively.
On the other hand, I have to develop and cultivate Compassion for myself and those embroiled in this mess, realise that In Life there is suffering, due to clinging, grasping and UNskilful attachment, and work through everything with metta and karuna.
Does that help, any?
Can you enjoy your work?
Does it nourish interconnectiveness in any way?
Does it harm the environment?
One of the good things about Buddhism is that we can take the values with us wherever we go. We can be shining examples of the dharma without even mentioning it. I believe this will benefit not only us, but those around us.
Also, we can't very well take out a cushion and sit when we are supposed to be working but we can focus simply on what we are doing without worrying about other things.
Where I work, the politics are a disaster. However, something comes in damaged and I make it work again.
I could be a monk I suppose. I've given up all my possessions twice already so that wouldn't be much of a worry. My wife passed from cancer before we ever had any children so the only ones that depend on me now are two cats, a dog and an old friend who is also dying (caused by his own hand no less) that now lives with me. He apparently only has a little time left.
I don't know... I know that I can contribute to society by working and helping others when and where I can but I don't know that I have as much to offer in either a tent or a monestary.
I think a monestary would be ideal for me but I don't think I would be ideal for any monestary.
Attempting to become "just like them" is basically ... to put it gently ... foolish and deluded.
So what then? In what way or towards what are we being encouraged by bright banners?
My own answer is that the peace we seek is a peace in the mind and heart. It is a non-imitative peace, being utterly up to you or me. To leave home is to leave the comforting assumptions of the past ... the assumptions in which mind and heart may find warming comforts. To leave home is not to disdain the home that raised us, it is simply to see that home with new eyes and a new heart. To eat little and sleep less or to wear raggedy clothes is not the point. The point is to gather and nourish our own capacities for courage and patience and doubt wherever we may be and then ... don't stop ... keep on walking ... pay attention and take responsibility ... praise or damn the gods as you see fit ... just don't stop.
And does such an effort assure a peace that we may constantly reassure ourselves that others in the past have attained? The only way to know that is to keep walking ... gently, firmly ... forward. Bright banners and a couple of bucks will get you a bus ride. Walking, by contrast, takes people to some interesting, and sometimes peaceful, places.
Sometimes, I just feel that the monk life would be right up my street. To give everything up and just lead a peaceful, chilled out life without any modern day stress. (It sometimes looks as if the monks have become monks to 'escape the mundane everyday stresses)
But I know I'm kidding myself. Its probably not as easy as that.
Guess ill never know!
This isn't just a 'Buddhist' finding, it's also a scientific understanding; they've done studies on stress on air traffic controllers - typically thought to be a high stress/pressure occupation - and it was found that some air traffic controllers were stressed, and some weren't; proving that the occupation isn't inherently stressful - it was the individuals REACTION to the occupation that was stressful.
It's good news that we create the stress, because it means we have the ability to decrease it also.
http://www.amazon.com/Would-Buddha-Answers-Workplace-Dilemmas/dp/1569753008
Blessings.
So what did Buddha have to deal with, that we don't? Well, in his day there were still man eating tigers in those woods they wandered around in. And bandits. If you got sick or ate contaminated food or drank contaminated water or even got an infected cut, you could only hope to eventually get better on your own, because medicine was a joke.
And if you crossed the only law around, the King's law, retribution was swift and lethal and without legal defense. If you were an old man or woman and had no sons to take care of you or otherwise ended up disabled, you starved to death or begged enough to barely get by. "Jobs" were trades handed down in the family. If you wanted to do something besides what your father did, you were out of luck.
So stress exists in many forms, and I'll bet most of those people would have given anything to have your life. That doesn't make your life easier. Just different problems. Just a thought.
Hey Zenmyste
I think you already know what I am posting here but sometimes I need to remind myself.
There is a world of difference between the conceptualization of meditation and doing it.
Successfully integrating a Buddhist meditative practise into the modern world has everything to do with the priorities that we create. If your priority is to see the meditation practise in everything you do, all of the former difficulties you mentioned will develop in time into your meditation hall & teacher. Only those things that you hold to be more important than the priority mentioned can limit this practise. It's all on you, not on your environment..
A soft, consistent focus on developing this priority allows any world to equal in practise a timeless sit under a tree with a pile of scriptures..
Much metta to you.
metta
Stress is not something that is an automatic result of having a job. It's something you create yourself.
As for monks, they have another kind of stress. The stress of having to give up things. A monk's life is not easy. There are monasteries in the UK, so there is an option of going on this path if you want to. Of course you can also do it abroad.
Metta!
I like your question very much because its something that I, and many others, probably think about very often.
Everything I would have said has already been said by everyone else, except that I would add that there is always an option to become a monk for a short period of time, such as one year. Many people in Thailand do this (from what a friend tells me), become a monk at the age of 21 for one year. There is also the possibility of going on retreats during holiday time, or even weekend retreats. I think that actually with all the daily chores, that sometimes you can have more time at home to meditate than the monks do :-)
I like to think of the daily grind as a bit of a joke. We all know its not really real, because we (humans) invented it all. We built our towns/cities, we created jobs and we indulge in the fantasy that we have created from it all. Every time you look around you'll be hard pushed to find something that we ourselves haven't created. This can also be pushed further metaphorically to extend to pretty much anything that we perceive as fantasy, because our untrained minds warp everything we experience. If only we can catch a glimpse of untainted reality. It's really hard not getting sucked in by the grind, especially when its day in day out.
At work, like others have said, I try to be a decent example of observing the Dharma, though nobody knows I'm Buddhist. When I get back home, I spend 5 or 10 minutes cleansing my mind of the BS that has occurred that day and reminding myself its not really true reality. If I meditate longer, sometimes I'm lucky enough to catch an inkling of what's really real, then the rest seems unimportant.
You aren't alone in the way you feel.
Sabir
I never needed an alarm clock. Go to be early enough so you wake up at the time you need to be up.
10 hrs/day? Is that 5 days/week? I hope you get a good fat paycheck for that.
If you gave it up that long houred, stressful job, ended up having to settle for less renumeration with a job that was more in line with your aspirations, would you spend that free time gained sitting under a tree beside a stack of scriptures.
Just wondering what you think?
Nobody ever laid on their deathbed lamenting "Gee, I wish I'd spent more time in the office...."