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I did not see the direction this article ultimately took coming. I've been feeling burned out at work. I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to keep this going for another 15-20 years before I can retire. So, one might think this is going to be your typical business/career advice article. It starts out telling a story about an unnamed (but real) celebrity/hero then moves on to Darwin, Bach, and some others. Then it takes a turn with an account about a visit to a guru in India, Sri Nochur Venkataraman, and lands on the topic of Vanaprastha (loosely translated as "retiring into the forest"). Then it goes on to discuss corpse meditation done in many Theravada Buddhist monasteries. Anyway, lots to think about. It's a fantastic read. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/work-peak-professional-decline/590650/

I'm starting to recognise...maybe it is my career that is messing me up. Evidently, what we choose to do daily, is the practice that shapes us into what we are. I've been in entertainment, full time, for nearly 5 years, but my anxieties have really been present for almost 10. It was easy when I was young...I was sheltered and had little responsibility. I was still in the same field (about to leave school so still developing) when I started losing sleep and I guess that was because I realised, but would never admit to myself, that I was setting myself up for lack of stability and a lot of stress. All for the purpose of "doing something fun with my life". I think the fun has been over ridden. Last year was the best, but this year, things have quietened down and I feel like I'm back to stage one. I now inevitably practice mindlessness every day, because I am desparate for clients. Phone calls here and there, one half-sent email, there goes my twitter, then more calls, finish that email etc etc. It's all "business related", but scrappy as hell. I'm on a TV set tomorrow and I don't even know what time I start and finish until late afternoon today. How can one ground oneself with a lifestyle like this?? Nothing is focused, there is too much juggling and I don't think I'm alone in the world here. At the same time, I could carry on with all those in the same boat and we could all be mindless wrecks together, or I could exit stage right and take a new path. If anybody else has been in my shoes, I would love to hear from you. Bless.

Hi fellow bums, I'm turning to you, more experienced travellers on the Way to ask for help. I don't know who else to seek for support in this subject, because few people I've met have embraced taoism, and their answers doesn't seem to help either. I had a dream: to become a writer and live writing. It all started when I discovered this passion, when I was 16 years old, but I only had the guts to follow it four years later, after spending that time working on jobs I hated and following a career that made me unhappy. When realizing how unhappy I was, I decided to leave everything and follow this dream, as unreal as it seemed to me, because I had few people giving me support to chase it. I dropped off university, and slowly started to change my career from graphic design to writing-related activities. As one step further towards what I wanted, I decided to join a course that made me write a lot, so I applied myself to one of the hardest vestibulars (a brazilian special exam for admission in universities in Brazil) in Journalism. It took me a lot of commitement and dedication, but I made it. I think it's worth mentioning that I never felt so happy than when I was writing. It was an experience that made me explode in excitement. I don't write for admiration, ego-boosting or fame. I write because what I feel when writing, I haven't found out anywhere. But then, I decided to take a better look at the spiritual subject. It started with Aikido, and then Meditation, and then I got into the cultivation practices I first saw here on The Tao Bums. After reading so much of Taoism and Buddism, I start getting in touch with concepts of "abandoning the self", "dedication to enlightement" and other stuff that seem to imply so much on "abandon" this dream. Thing is, all this stuff started to make me question my dream, and slowly, I stopped writing. It's not anything related on writer's block, but more over on "not doing it because it's an attachment." And to be truly honest, in comparison to writing, I don't feel as blissful when meditating. I must admit that I do not write "enlightened," beautiful stuff with "conscious" messages. In fact, I'm a big fan of writing detective noir stories, and writing humanistic dramas (Henry Miller, Phillip Roth and Bukowski, for example) filled with sexploitation, violence and other nasty content of urban settings. But the more I hear on abandoning it, and the more I decide to give my writing career up, I feel unhappiness. I don't want to abandon my dream, as I don't want to stop seeking enlightement the spirit. Am I not ready to follow enlightement because of this? I feel confused, and I'd like to see some other bums opinion. Namaste,