Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

Your calling.

What is your calling?

Comments

  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran

    To hopefully make life better for those around me.

    What is yours?

    KundoDeformed
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited June 2016

    This has always attracted me.... :tongue:

    Buddhism is my calling.
    And all that entails. (What you think it entails, is probably different to what I think that entails. But that's ok. We're both right.)

  • howhow Veteran Veteran

    @gavenv said:
    What is your calling?

    Any transcendence of my Ignorance

    Deformed
  • nakazcidnakazcid Somewhere in Dixie, y'all Veteran

    To lessen suffering, in myself and others.

    Deformed
  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    Now for a totally serious answer, I will quote Ramana Maharshi: "Your own self-realisation is the greatest service you can render to the world."

    lobsterFosdickKundo
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    @gavenv said:
    What is your calling?

    I would have to say the Buddha Dharma and the good fortune/karmic imprint to have been born in human form, which has giving me the opportunity to practice it...(Owoo and not forgetting the byproducts that stem from such a practice)...

  • FosdickFosdick in its eye are mirrored far off mountains Alaska, USA Veteran

    A calling - ach, I had one of those once. It was bright and shiny and solid, and then it vanished like smoke in a high wind. My new calling is to let go of my attachment to the old one.

    silverlobsterMorningstar
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran

    I've often found my calling can be whatever I put my mind to.

    It's easier that way.

  • I appreciate this invitation because i'm someone who has felt a very strong sense of calling since I was 18, but it's something that embarrasses me to talk about, so no-one in my life knows the details of what I feel I am here to do, and this has somewhat impeded me in owning my life and fully embracing what I am capable of. So maybe sharing here will help me.

    First of all, I don't feel like 'I' have a vision. I feel like i've been assigned certain tasks. Those tasks have been assigned through inspiration, I suppose, which usually comes in meditation and silence, but sometimes in spiritually enhanced environments like monasteries or spiritual festivals. So, none of what I will outline has anything to do with what I think or desire. Since I was 18 i've just had one simple motivation in my heart... to be of the highest service. That motivation feels like it was planted within me to guide this lifetime, and it has served as a magnet for what my calling would become, as it has never allowed me to stop or stagnate. It also means that I have become limitless in whatever task I am willing to work towards.

    Anyway, the main task that I feel I have been assigned is to, in some form, work towards 'material security for all human beings'. That to me is the obvious and clear direction that humanity needs to go in now. We have everything we need for all human beings to have the food, water, shelter etc. needed, and so that is what we should be doing. I don't know what the extent of my involvement will be in this vision. But I have been well equipped with some skills and knowledge that give me an insight into what I will be doing in time. One of the big ones is my interest and understanding of non-violent philosophy and strategy, which indicates to me that at some point I will be engaged in political action to further this vision.

    A further element is perhaps inspiring and guiding some kind of ethical evolution. I shared on these forums a few years ago some ideas I had for what - I considered at the time - a condescend Dharma, but really it's just an ethical practice based upon developing more tolerance, patience, empathy, compassion and forgiveness. I think that will be part of the vision as material security for all human beings is only going to be truly achieved through a more compassionate humanity - not through different political and social systems, but through a genuine change of heart.

    There are other things as well. So many ideas and possibilities, but they are all satellites of this core vision of material security for all human beings. I feel like I have been in training for 15 years now... well, I have been, there's no doubt about that. So many times i've thought / hoped that I am ready, only for new lessons and knowledge to be revealed. The most recent being my introduction to the concept of 'effortless action'. This has taken a huge, huge load from my shoulders. Previously, with my sense of calling, I felt a massive burden and pressure to 'change the world', but with my own very limited human faculties it seemed impossible to even begin, let alone make any sort of real and meaningful contribution. However, with effortless action, I am learning a new, higher way of working in this world in harmony with higher spiritual forces, so that my work here is much more of a partnership than one of sole responsibility.

    Now I am learning how to recognise higher guidance (inspiration), how to know what I need to be working on (interests), what my general field of work is (passions), how to make progress (opportunities), and how and when to act (timing), and all of this is held together and maintained by living a slow, still life. I know that I can make much more progress in one hour of inspiration than in endless months of graft and hard work. I don't feel the need to force anything to happen now. I know (albeit with some doubts still at times) that when I am needed to perform then the inspiration will be there, with the right opportunities arising, with the right people to help, and the right timing for things to 'succeed'. All I need to do is to create calm and peace in my life so as to ensure that I am aware of when the higher prompts come. That is mostly where I am at the moment.

    Even though I have been riddled with self doubts over the years, it's hard for me to believe that all that I have been through and come to understand is for nothing. I don't know what my role will be. I might be at the forefront of something, or maybe influencing from the background... it doesn't matter. So long as I am doing my job then that is all that matters. This sort of talk is crazy talk, of course. Most people with callings are crazy. This is all pie in the sky, cloud cuckoo land silliness. At least, that is what I am told, hence my preference for silence. But, as I said, in the spirit of ownership, and in the firm (ish) knowledge that this is not the musings of a deluded, egomaniac, but just someone who has had their hand dealt for them and has no 'out', I feel it is worth sharing and, maybe, making more real.

    Bunkssyrphus
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    @Shoshin said:..(Owoo and not forgetting the byproducts that stem from such a practice)...

    Ice cream! :p

    Shoshin
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran

    @mindatrisk -- A Zen teacher once observed, "Silence is golden and sometimes its color is pure yellow." I call that an observation worth heeding. If your calling cannot enter the fray of human discourse -- even at the risk of some criticism -- then how convenient it is to hold it tight within and risk falling into a self-anointing coma of goodness or calling or overarching kindness. Protecting what is worthy of protection sounds very good. The only problem, as I see it, is that the true measure of any goal or direction is the willingness to give it up, give it away ... and stop protecting what may be called "the truth." Anything less than that is likely to morph into some high-falutin' egotism ... you know, the stuff with theological bells and whistles and sweet talk.

    Bleah.

    Better to put it on the chopping block of a world that might be a little less frightened, a little less hungry, or a little less angry. "Success" and "failure" are not the point. Doing what you can is.

    Just noodling.

    lobsterhowsyrphus
  • @genkaku said:

    @mindatrisk -- A Zen teacher once observed, "Silence is golden and sometimes its color is pure yellow." I call that an observation worth heeding. If your calling cannot enter the fray of human discourse -- even at the risk of some criticism -- then how convenient it is to hold it tight within and risk falling into a self-anointing coma of goodness or calling or overarching kindness. Protecting what is worthy of protection sounds very good. The only problem, as I see it, is that the true measure of any goal or direction is the willingness to give it up, give it away ... and stop protecting what may be called "the truth." Anything less than that is likely to morph into some high-falutin' egotism ... you know, the stuff with theological bells and whistles and sweet talk.

    Bleah.

    Better to put it on the chopping block of a world that might be a little less frightened, a little less hungry, or a little less angry. "Success" and "failure" are not the point. Doing what you can is.

    Just noodling.

    Yeah, indeed. And I am getting there. The 'effortless action' part is the important part for me. I don't know what i'm surrendering to - God, my Buddha nature, the Tao... whatever - but this is not in my hands, nor in my control, nor something that I can come anywhere near to 'achieving' through my own mind and efforts. This is a wave that I have invited into my life that at best I can ride. I'm part of a much bigger process. As I think we all are when attuned to our true nature. I tried to 'do what I can' and it amounted to very, very, very little, and so I opened myself up to a different way of 'succeeding', and new teachings came that I truly hope will work. We shall see!

  • KundoKundo Sydney, Australia Veteran

    @federica said:
    This has always attracted me.... :tongue:

    Buddhism is my calling.
    And all that entails. (What you think it entails, is probably different to what I think that entails. But that's ok. We're both right.)

    I read that as entrails. I need sleep :awesome:

    DairyLama
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    Das voodoo, das is..... i'z no practise vodoo, dovoo?

    Kundo
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran

    Enlightenment beckons.
    http://iamspirituality.com/top-10-ways-to-achieve-spiritual-enlightenment/

    Afterwards calling is clear ...

  • karastikarasti Breathing Minnesota Moderator

    To be in this moment and this moment alone, whatever it happens to bring. And to accept that each moment is precisely perfect as it is because it can be nothing else.

    lobster
  • RuddyDuck9RuddyDuck9 MD, USA Veteran

    I am still trying to work that out! I think my calling might have something to do with creating a calmer or happier moment in someone's (anyone's) life. Even just one second. I haven't yet figured out if I feel compelled to do this because it makes me feel useful or if it's because of the benefit to the other person. :confused: probably a bit of both!

  • gracklegrackle Veteran

    For me it is to be that trustworthy friend that so many seek but fail to find.

    RuddyDuck9lobsterVastmindRatBoy
  • RatBoyRatBoy St. Louis area New

    For the world to be a better place for my having lived in it.

    I struggle with the best way to attain that, but try to do small things every day.

    I love grackle's previous comment - I try at that, too.

    lobster
  • Will_BakerWill_Baker Vermont Veteran

    to house the poor

  • To have money like Will Baker :)

    lobsterDairyLamaWill_BakerRuddyDuck9
  • DaltheJigsawDaltheJigsaw Mountain View Veteran

    To perform, to be happy and to be compassionate.

  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    To redistribute ice-cream so that all can enjoy. :p

    RuddyDuck9
  • GuiGui Veteran

    To search for nothing and fail.

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited June 2016

    The OP joined in April. They have visited a total of 3 times since then. They were last on forum on June 5th.
    Until such a time as they return to further contribute, I'm shutting this down.
    The OP is welcome to contact me to re-open, as required, if good cause is given.
    Thanks to all for your contributions.

This discussion has been closed.