2 + 2 = 5

[maytagman]

It's an interesting time.

 

I feel the world is a bit out of balance; war without peace, hate without love, ignorance without enlightenment. These are all problems which require more thought than I am currently capable of devoting. Corruption runs unchecked, entire nations live in oblivion. In one way I suppose this has always been the status quo, but in another I know we are capable of so much more. Realizing the futility of trying to change the world is a sobering experience.

 

What remains when you abandon the world? Only oneself. And in this realization I find another world of imbalance. Vanity without true health, material wealth without substance, work without lesure: a chaotic existance. A fickle pursuit of money, meaningless attraction, trivial sexual escapades, cars, alchohol, and prestige; expensive hotels, insincere politeness from those around you, artificial friends, beatiful girls who are genuinely disinterested or useless. Wasted potential and wasted time.

 

But is it really? Does it make you less of a mystic or less of a sage if you drive a BMW? Wouldnt a true mystic drive nothing at all? Maybe so, but is this man truly a sage or an enlightened individual, or is he merely living up to the stereotype which we have created for a wandering monk? It is a series of questions... What is the balance to a life of excess? Charity? Raising children? So many questions. What does a monk do with wealth? Give it away?

 

I find myself surrounded by things that denote success. But I feel no satisfaction in it. It is merely the fruits of years of compromising what is important to me. My free spirit is subdued for the sake of profit, for alas my sense of necessity is keen on the fact that wealth is a necessary evil. Still, there has to be something more. One could say the classic life of the clergyman or seeker is dead. No longer is it possible simply to leave behind your belongings and wander for years. Nobody will take you into your home and give you sanctuary for a night of your journey, you can no longer simply bed down when your feet are tired, or when you come upon somewhere you identify with. The passages in Basho's work today seem fiction, though just a few hundred years ago it was a perfectly acceptable and even admirable life.

 

Now there are taxes, insurance, bills for everything even if you own nothing, superhighways, hotels, and the mindset that a wandering man in shabby clothes is a vagrant rather than a poet or wiseman. The few places on earth that offer the sanctuary of a monastery are across the world, where I do not speak the language nor could I ever hope to integrate wholly. I would be just another westerner and judged as such. Rightfully so, for there have surely been many an insincere round-eye who's gone this route.

 

What is a modern monk? Such a concept is laughable to most, and disgraceful to the rest. What would my family think if I simply quit my jobs, sold my cars and said I'm becoming what is essentially a bum? Could I be happy with no money, no respect, and no future? Would it be a passing phase where after a few years I would be fed up? I'd be left behind by my industry and essentially useless. It makes a man think what is important to a man. What our society values is not what I value, but I still feel compelled to live up to the American dream.

 

 

 

So, where does it leave me... I'm not even sure anymore. Life is nothing more than balance, can I strike a balance between conventional success and unconventional prosperity? This is the current iteration of my adventure, and I will start sharing it here. Let's chat some time.

[Yoda]

Maytagman,

 

Bagdad is a spiritual place to be right now! Lots of energy there for your practice!!

 

Since you can't go around begging for food these days, a certain amount of income is important and if you are earning too much, I'd just say deal with it. Maybe start a charity, take on a pupil and teach them how to make good money too, or just have fun with it.

 

Knowing how to make money is a real gift and just doing that, I think, is a great service to the vibration of the planet as a whole even if all you do with it is to drive around BMWs.

 

I don't think it really matters that much what you drive, wear, etc.

 

Having money does give you better access to seeing teachers, gaining internet access for cool sites like this, etc. Also, having money can sometimes contribute to an apartment or home which may be more conducive to spiritual practice. So there's a lot of good in what you've already achieved.

 

I was a spiritual nomad first, now I have a job. Pluses to both sides... people who have jobs often want to retire and people who are retired often want more direction to their lives.

 

Is working fewer hours a week an option down the road somehow or taking more vacation time? Sometimes that can be a good meet in the middle solution.

 

-Yoda

 

PS, there is a web based service in the US and Europe for travellers who want to stay for free at people's houses for a night, btw. I forget the site, but it was featured on our national public radio station as a fairly successful operation where both the hosts and the visitors get reviewed like on ebay to ensure that nobody really raunchy can stay in the system.

[Flynn]

Very well written, and I have had the same thought process many times. Perhaps Yoda is right about a balance, but then again we might never know unless we try every option.

 

Realizing the futility of trying to change the world is the realization that you aren't trying hard enough. Nobody is blind enough to not realize the problems we have created if presented with the proper argument.

[freesun]

PS, there is a web based service in the US and Europe for travellers who want to stay for free at people's houses for a night, btw. I forget the site, but it was featured on our national public radio station as a fairly successful operation where both the hosts and the visitors get reviewed like on ebay to ensure that nobody really raunchy can stay in the system.

 

You probably mean this site http://www.couchsurfing.com/

I have not used it myslef but know people in my hometown who have already participated.

[Bob H]

There are many shades of grey between the black and the white.

 

I did the corporate whore thing, and with all the mergers and acquisitions and flat-out bad business practices of the 1980's I ended up constantly digging for a better job or a different job or at least a soft place to land when the shit hit the fan. Finally, after getting sick of bouncing from this to that, I retrenched. I toned down my resume. I pared it down again. Finally, I cut it down to the point that any more pruning could be considered an outright lie. I let my hair and beard grow out (a drunk at a bar once referred to me as "that Jesus-looking fellow that just left"), stored my suits in plastic bags in the attic in case I needed them for a funeral, and applied for work as a temporary. I then had some of the happiest times of my work career. I didn't have much income, but plenty of time for other things, enough time to squander some on just myself for a change. I could excel at work without playing politics (who plays company politics with the mail boy?), and no one was trying to root me out. It was sweet.

 

This, too, went bust, but not of my intentional doings. I got lung cancer, fought through that and was left with migraines so bad I couldn't hold a job anywhere and I took early retirement. Stepping out of the corporate grind-place dropped the stress until the migraines were bearable, even if I was still too much an idiot under their influence to work. I now had medical coverage, though, and enough income not to starve. About that time, I found the Tao. Evidently I was ready to receive my teacher, even if that teacher was Sifu Amazon Dot Com.

 

I'm not a slavering capitalist. I'm not a wino bum. There's a lot of fun room in the middle, and I'm loving it. Maybe you can find your middle ground, too. I hope so, I think you'll like it a lot.

[maytagman]

True, this is a place of energy, although I'm not sure it's the right kind! It is certainly a good place to practice restraint and clarity in the face of chaos. The fact that I'm here is a testament to my compromising nature. I detest war of all kinds, this one being the most despicable. Yet, I'm here because the pay is good.

 

Nonetheless I thought long and hard yesterday. Although I am at work and moving from here to there, my mind is elsewhere. I thought to myself, 'It's true that I don't speak an eastern language well enough, but what honestly needs to be said?' Some of the most renowned thinkers rarely spoke at all, and many monks refrained completely in the ancient cloisters of my old country. Silence affords one the opportunity to speak only when their thoughts are the most profound. I suppose it's a verbal aging process that goes on in the mind.

 

So, I suppose if it were really my inclination, I could fall into favor with some of the mountain temples I've visited in Japan.

 

I made another observation last night as well. Although roaming about on land is out of style, there's one place where it's still acceptable, the sea. For some reason, society views a man who leads a spartan life at sea as a mariner, rather than a vagrant. Maybe it's the skill that's required to sail, or maybe it's just the romance of being out on the water braving the storms. I've always enjoyed sailing and seamanship, maybe exploring out on my own or with some devotees is a suitable path. And this is one field where modern technology has been an enhancement rather than a detractor. There's never been a safer time to lead a life at sea. After the initial investment of a fine ship, there's little to buy but provisions and repairs. One could live for years on peanuts this way. Certainly is thought provoking!

 

I have a renewed hope in this, thanks to some thoughts of mine and some thoughts of yours. I suppose we'll see how it works out, but in the mean time, back to work. It certainly helps me to chat about it with some like-minded folk. Collective meditation and all that.