I don't know about life anymore

[Vajrahridaya]

Hang out with successful people who are going someplace in life. This is very, very important.

 

"Your company creates your destiny" = Muktananda

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

edit*

Edited October 19, 2009 by TheSongsofDistantEarth

[Enishi]

I often feel similar levels of despair. Still stuck at a dead end job as a hospital orderly, struggling to finish school, introverted and lack of experience with "dating game", etc. My goal right now is to finish school as quickly as possible within the next year and move somewhere like Brazil to teach English or work in Technical Writing. I just hope I can pull it all off before the dollar collapses....

 

I also NEVER want to be stuck in an 80 hr work week corporate hell hole existence. I'd rather take my chances living as a survivalist in the woods. My main goals in life are to cultivate, have fun with people I like, and maybe express the experience and knowledge I gain via writing. Kinda hard to do that if you're at the office 24/7...if I have to deal with material hardship and never get married it will be a small price to pay.

Edited October 17, 2009 by Enishi

[goldisheavy]

While it's possible and I would say very advisable to cultivate while you are working, leisure time is very important and worth fighting for. It's even worth dying for. Ample leisure time is as important to a good life as sleep. You wouldn't dare try living on 1 hour of sleep just because your employer thought it might be a good idea, would you? Of course not. Leisure is essential. Working 60 hours a week is wrong unless you are working with a goal in sight.

 

For example, if you are starting your own business and you work 80 hour weeks, that's fine. Why? Because you have a goal to start your own business. It's not an indefinite state and the rewards, if you succeed, are ample and worth it.

 

On the other hand, if you work 60 to 80 hour weeks indefinitely because one income cannot cover your expenses, then you're a fool no matter how you slice it. You're a fool because not only do you rob your own leisure time, but by working in this manner you subtly put pressure on other members of our society to match your habit, and thus you plunge us all in hell together with you.

 

It's important to not be afraid to work hard, but at the same time, if you believe working hard is what life is about, you're not a spiritual person at all, you're a grunt, a serf and a peon. Leisure is very important and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Leisure time does not mean you are passively idling. Leisure can include creative activity into it. You can write a book at your leisure. You can do scientific or spiritual research. Some of the best and most important scientific discovering of our time were done on leisure time. Fermat came up with his famous theorem at leisure -- he was a lawyer by profession. There are many examples of this. The mind is most creative and best when it is easy-going and it's hard to be easy going when your boss drives you like a useless animal, without mercy and when you sacrifice your life and good health for someone's 3rd yacht.

 

Be careful friend.

[DalTheJigsaw123]

Bumpin'

[Vajrahridaya]

 

I also NEVER want to be stuck in an 80 hr work week corporate hell hole existence. I'd rather take my chances living as a survivalist in the woods. My main goals in life are to cultivate, have fun with people I like, and maybe express the experience and knowledge I gain via writing. Kinda hard to do that if you're at the office 24/7...if I have to deal with material hardship and never get married it will be a small price to pay.

 

This is why I enjoy my job of online sales very much. As I get to be online lots and advocate Buddhist perspective as I understand it, learn about it more and apply it in a somewhat social setting? Plus I get to watch movies and hang out with my girlfriend, and take breaks whenever I want to go to the beach or go out, whatever.

 

I do love working for myself.

[wudangspirit]

Do not look at your life as hard. Look at it as a challenge. Take back the power of your spirit and yourself. You're giving power to the mundae world. The world is there for the taking. If you're working 60 hours a week and living frugal as you say it may be time you load up your car and look for a job in another city if the rent and bills are that expensive.

 

You don't have to give up on life or yourself. Maybe you don't realize you have the power to do anything you want. You make the world you live in. Don't sit around and sulk. Get up, stand up and take control of your life!

Seek options and see them as a challenge and a challenge means you have options. When you say something is "hard" that means you've given up. Do not give up!

 

Your Tao is your Tao. Cultivation is not just sitting around and meditating. Cutlivation is meeting the everday challenges head on with complete and utter virtue. Let your current situation be your cultivation. Learn from the past in order to live in the present so you can see your future!

 

Tao Bless

 

 

Dear Fellow Tao Bums,

 

Please forgive me if this post is a little emo, I just found this site and just wanted to get my troubles off my chest.I am 23 years old, and it's been my dream for many years to spend my life cultivating and meditating. I work 60 hour work weeks, and it is really taking its toll on me. I make just enough to cover my bills and save a small amount, and I am a pretty frugal person. I don't eat out or wear fancy clothes, I shop at thrift stores, dollar stores, and budget grocery stores. I don't own a TV or phone only a netbook and a cable internet connection. I've got the cheapest rent I can find in my city, and I don't buy anything unless I have to. I just don't know anymore, working so much and having no time or money it is really hard on my soul. I don't know how to get out of this work, sleep, wake, chores, work, sleep cycle. I wake up each morning and just want to give up, I don't really know what to do anymore. At this rate it will take me 25 years or more to be able to afford a home of my own. I don't have the money or time to go back to school and if I did I wouldn't know what to go back for that I would enjoy or feel is an honest living. I am also scared of death, I guess that is why I am seeking cultivation. I don't want to be destroyed with death, I want to live on. Is this selfish and wrong? I am scared the life I am living will never allow me to cultivate a high enough degree to survive death. If that is the case what was the point of this whole life to begin with? Inside I am very scared, and frustrated with my life. What other living options do I have, there has to be a better way than this. Has any bum here managed to find a way to work less and focus on cultivation more, what is your advice?

 

Your friend,

 

Mikey

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

This is why I enjoy my job of online sales very much. As I get to be online lots and advocate Buddhist perspective as I understand it, learn about it more and apply it in a somewhat social setting? Plus I get to watch movies and hang out with my girlfriend, and take breaks whenever I want to go to the beach or go out, whatever.

 

 

 

With a such a surfeit of free time, the advantage would be to have extra time to actually cultivate (not just talk about it endlessly) or actually be engaged in some socially conscious endeavors to make the world a better place..some volunteer work or for a just cause... rather than hanging out with the girlfriend, drinking beer, posting all day and night on the internet, going to the beach, etc...then it's a total waste of an opportunity.

Edited October 19, 2009 by TheSongsofDistantEarth

[Yoda]

Great thread Mikey, er, Michael!!!

 

I'd be on that plane to China myself... everyone on the planet is going there. It's the new America.

 

The 4 hour workweek is an ok book on this topic... might be worth flipping through in the bookstore. So is What Color is My Parachute. Our webmaster, Sean, read some law of attraction stuff and moved to Costa Rica and we never heard from him again. Good suggestion about the AYP site... it's free and just a few minutes a day is all that is required.

 

It's definitely all mindset/karma/law of attraction/vibration and how to raise one's vibration in particular departments of life is the big question.

 

My teacher recommends being nicer to one's parents, eating hot non-microwaved food, not using a black wallet, and doing good deeds are easy ways to improve one's income.

 

Your pal,

Yoda

[33865_1494798762]

Dear Fellow Tao Bums,

 

Please forgive me if this post is a little emo, I just found this site and just wanted to get my troubles off my chest.I am 23 years old, and it's been my dream for many years to spend my life cultivating and meditating. I work 60 hour work weeks, and it is really taking its toll on me. I make just enough to cover my bills and save a small amount, and I am a pretty frugal person. I don't eat out or wear fancy clothes, I shop at thrift stores, dollar stores, and budget grocery stores. I don't own a TV or phone only a netbook and a cable internet connection. I've got the cheapest rent I can find in my city, and I don't buy anything unless I have to. I just don't know anymore, working so much and having no time or money it is really hard on my soul. I don't know how to get out of this work, sleep, wake, chores, work, sleep cycle. I wake up each morning and just want to give up, I don't really know what to do anymore. At this rate it will take me 25 years or more to be able to afford a home of my own. I don't have the money or time to go back to school and if I did I wouldn't know what to go back for that I would enjoy or feel is an honest living. I am also scared of death, I guess that is why I am seeking cultivation. I don't want to be destroyed with death, I want to live on. Is this selfish and wrong? I am scared the life I am living will never allow me to cultivate a high enough degree to survive death. If that is the case what was the point of this whole life to begin with? Inside I am very scared, and frustrated with my life. What other living options do I have, there has to be a better way than this. Has any bum here managed to find a way to work less and focus on cultivation more, what is your advice?

 

Your friend,

 

Mikey

You have to be very honest and that is never funny. Thinking is very upsetting, we risk to realise thing's we did not know.

Are you honest to your needs, your real needs?

 

Is your story-telling a way by which it (your problem) survive as being cultivated into your self examination?

Edited October 19, 2009 by Guest

[DalTheJigsaw123]

I love this thread! Please, keep it coming.

 

Great thread Mikey, er, Michael!!!

 

I'd be on that plane to China myself... everyone on the planet is going there. It's the new America.

 

The 4 hour workweek is an ok book on this topic... might be worth flipping through in the bookstore. So is What Color is My Parachute. Our webmaster, Sean, read some law of attraction stuff and moved to Costa Rica and we never heard from him again. Good suggestion about the AYP site... it's free and just a few minutes a day is all that is required.

 

It's definitely all mindset/karma/law of attraction/vibration and how to raise one's vibration in particular departments of life is the big question.

 

My teacher recommends being nicer to one's parents, eating hot non-microwaved food, not using a black wallet, and doing good deeds are easy ways to improve one's income.

 

Your pal,

Yoda

 

Read both books, they are awesome and highly recommended. I need to read more about AYP! Thank you for the reminder.