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.
why do you have a job
bookworm
U.S.A. Veteran
Do you really need to make money? Yes with money you can buy your own food money will get you a home of your own, but having a job and making money is not going to help you attain enlightenment, all its going to do is waste your precious time as a human being.
2
Comments
All experiences (including those one has at work) are a chance to learn and practice the dhamma.
Practice makes perfect
I think it comes down to Right Livelihood.
The urge to purge!
Crustaceous Osteen! I am enlightened and I say it is.
1.) Mortgage
2.) Sports car
Do you know what they do in monasteries? They cook, wash dishes, clean toilets. These are not pesky distractions away from practice-- they ARE practice! Insight into reality is not to be found by running away from the world but in the very midst of it.
In the light of mindfulness, everything and anything can be a vehicle for insight.
Here's a lovely summation: From HERE
There is the idealism of imagining you are not.
Which is the more cumbersome weight -- money or idealism?
My money is on idealism.
:om:
But there is something to be said for settling to your own satisfaction matters that are tentative.
Today's society, however, seems to prioritize the economy over everything else even if it means people have to work harder for less pay at jobs that don't yet exist. The American President has been talking about how important it is to create jobs yet one of the main areas of dissatisfaction among people in the US is their jobs.
I can see from the point of view of someone who has no dependants but if you have surely doing this be a selfish act?
Is there a way to reconcile this?
There is the Middle Path.
开悟之前，砍柴，挑水；
开悟之后，砍柴，挑水。
Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.
My aim in life is to live it and to attain enlightenment would just be a bonus.
I believe that there are certain "jobs" that are needed, whether its working for local businesses that make you happy, or giving knowledge of a certain skill set or ability you have in trade for money.
The difference between working lightly and happily with your own trade or for local small businesses, versus big paying jobs that suck your life away, cubical, and corporations is YOUR lifestyle. Some people feel the need to own fancy cars, big homes, and a bunch of sh** they don't actually need. But if you live minimalist, on a good budget, with little to preferably no debt, you can do what you enjoy without worrying too much about money.
So OP, I disagree to live without any form of work, however you may live with a form of work that can be considered play.. if you pull your cards right.
If we enjoy what we are, we will enjoy the work involved.
Because people may say we need to work for food/family, but if I look around I see many people not only work for that, but also for a lot of things I feel you don't really need. Ice creams, holidays, bigger homes, cigarettes, a marriage, to be able to support kids later, etc. and let's not forget status and career itself. Is enlightenment really in those things or does enlightenment drive you away from those things? Personally I have the feeling it is the latter one. Other people have those feelings too and those are the ones becoming monks/nuns. I'm not saying those people are better or anything, just that for them a more simple lifestyle is what works best.
For me a big part of Buddhism is daring to ask questions and daring to look at all aspects of our lives. I looked at every aspect and came to the conclusion I don't see much future in myself following my career path and would like to try what it's like living without it. I can see myself getting very sad if I wouldn't have been able to do so.
This is what the Buddha supposedly said: Metta to all lay people, monks/nuns and everything in between!