I want to spend the rest of my life meditating and training in neikung

[Thunder_Gooch]

Dear Taobums,

 

I am looking to spend the rest of my life with as little real world responsibility as is humanly possible. I want a nice place where I can meditate and not be bothered. I don't mind holding down a part time weekend job, or even working double shifts on weekends.

 

Are there any communities which would be supportive of this lifestyle. I only own some books, a car and a laptop, and my clothes and personal belongings. Everything I own fits nicely in my trunk. I've tried living out of my car, and thats not so bad. However it becomes problematic, when it breaks down.

 

I've tried renting rooms from people but that also doesn't seem to work out so well, with all the drama and such.

 

I welcome your ideas.

 

-mpg

[Trunk]

Intentional Communities listing (ic.org).

They have a free online listing of intentional communities of all descriptions. Some spiritual, some not. Most of them are some variety of green.

[Sloppy Zhang]

I don't know if seeking to run away from "real world responsibility" is such a good idea.

 

Then again, maybe it's just the way that was worded, and I'm reading into something that isn't there

 

In any case, you can always just go out and sit under some trees and meditate. Or join some monastery.

Edited April 1, 2009 by Sloppy Zhang

[growant]

Are you going towards something or going away from something?

[Thunder_Gooch]

None of those options seems viable for me. I did extensive searches on the IC site, all the communities seem like they require at least a $200 a month or thereabouts monthly contribution, as well as 10-20 hours a week worth of chores. I don't believe that would be an improvement over my current situation. Not to mention having to be cordial around all hippie Jesus freaks.

 

Joining a monastery has crossed my mind, but then you have to buy into whatever ideology their selling. I am interested in philosophical taoism, but Mak Tin Si has really turned me off to religious taoism. I am not interested in dogma, superstition and ritual.

 

My current plan is to work until I can afford land, and then build solar powered home off grid. Work part time to pay taxes and feed and cloth myself. However this may take 20 years of full time work and saving to accomplish. In the mean time I am working away my youth, more like pissing it away. Saving for a future that isn't guaranteed. All this work just to own some property that I will be forced to leave behind upon my death.

Seems rather futile to own anything in this world.

 

There just don't seem to be any good options. It seems the only thing you cannot do in this life is stop, everything is go go go!

[Thunder_Gooch]

Are you going towards something or going away from something?

 

I'm just tired of living a lie. Tired of pretending to be someone I am not, just to keep a job, just to have a place to live. I am tired of pissing away my youth. Nothing in this life matters except liberation. Yet, ironically that is the hardest goal to work towards in this society. Everyone has to stay busy, has to stay entertained, has to work, has to do chores, has to do this, that, it never ends. By the time you've paid your time taxes to society and entropy, very little precious time is left for actual meditation.

 

This world feels more like a Nazi concentration camp, every day. I have to force myself into a false mindset to interact with other people. Work 8 hours most days, drive home, clean up after other people, wash my cloths, cleanup, cook dinner, and by that time I am exhausted and ready to go to sleep. I wake up at dawn and mediate for a few hours and its off to work again, to repeat another cycle.

 

Two years have passed me by and it seems only like a few months, and its ever accelerating. I seriously wonder if I will be able to achieve liberation in this lifetime meditating only a few hours a day.

 

I guess I am just frustrated and disgusted, there seems no way out of this vicious cycle, and no way to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

[turbo]

check out Goenka's Vipassana Meditation Centers. I think you are required to have some time between classes, but they are generally pretty cool and will let you stick around for an unlimited time, if you're willing to work around the center. No ritual, just hours and hours of deep meditation every day.

 

Good luck.

[Yoda]

Turbo!!!

[Trevcaru]

Do you mean you want someone else to support you while you attain enlightenment? If you are serious, you could just get your weekend job at some sort of farm, live off the land, and meditate... like the old days. But im sure if you were serious, you would already be doing this. Sounds like you just want a free ride in more ways than one.

 

 

"Are you going towards something or going away from something?" -growant

[Thunder_Gooch]

check out Goenka's Vipassana Meditation Centers. I think you are required to have some time between classes, but they are generally pretty cool and will let you stick around for an unlimited time, if you're willing to work around the center. No ritual, just hours and hours of deep meditation every day.

 

Good luck.

 

Thanks that might work, however they mention something about not training in other systems which invariably I would be. Do you think that would be cause for expulsion.

 

Do you mean you want someone else to support you while you attain enlightenment? If you are serious, you could just get your weekend job at some sort of farm, live off the land, and meditate... like the old days. But im sure if you were serious, you would already be doing this. Sounds like you just want a free ride in more ways than one.

"Are you going towards something or going away from something?" -growant

 

 

I don't mind working on weekends, to pay some sort of rent. However I want to be able to meditate for 16 hours or more each day for at least 4 days out of the week. Right now sometimes I manage up to 4 if I sacrifice sleep to do it, but I don't feel I am making adequate progress.

[goldisheavy]

Dear Taobums,

 

I am looking to spend the rest of my life with as little real world responsibility as is humanly possible.

 

Impossible. I cannot emphasize this enough. You CAN spend all your life meditating and cultivating but avoiding responsibility is utterly impossible. In fact, cultivation is a process of gradually increasing real world responsibility. Real world doesn't mean paying rent or fulfilling some social obligations, although sometimes it can mean that too. It means that whatever happens in your sphere of experience is your responsibility and that you cannot run away from it.

 

I want a nice place where I can meditate and not be bothered.

 

You are like a turtle or like a snail. That nice place is always with you. It's called "your mind". If you don't have a place like that, then going into a nice tidy room away from traffic won't help you one bit.

 

I don't mind holding down a part time weekend job, or even working double shifts on weekends.

 

Are there any communities which would be supportive of this lifestyle. I only own some books, a car and a laptop, and my clothes and personal belongings. Everything I own fits nicely in my trunk. I've tried living out of my car, and thats not so bad. However it becomes problematic, when it breaks down.

 

I've tried renting rooms from people but that also doesn't seem to work out so well, with all the drama and such.

 

I welcome your ideas.

 

-mpg

 

Ok, so in general I think you have a wrong attitude which is caused by insufficient contemplation on your part.

 

However, I do think what you want is possible. You may want to consider joining a kibbutz, or a commune, or a monastery somewhere. I really don't think it's as good as people think though. Things will bother you in those places. People will come and go. You'll get chores to do, etc.

 

If you're in a Tibetan tradition, once it is thought that you're a high level practitioner, you may be put up in a cave and there may be a support system for you. Support system means someone brings you food once a day or once a week. That's it. But this depends on you having good standing in community. So if you like to be free and unconventional, this won't work for you, because essentially you will depend on community to support you if you go that route.

 

You might also consider taking survivalist lessons and go off into the wilderness on your own. You might eat some poisonous plant and die, or maybe a hungry bear will eat you, so you obviously need to be very very brave and if you intend to survive, you have to pay attention in class too. There are classes like that. They'll teach you how to be hard core. Then you will have to break some laws too, because you'll probably be squatting on someone's land, but who cares about that. You won't be paying any mind to convention at that point, right?

 

But if you're so brave that you don't mind dying from accidentally ingesting a poisonous mushroom and if your mind is so composed than a wild bear doesn't even phase you, a question appears: how is it that such a hard-core individual cannot hack the urban life? It's gotta be a joke of some kind, right?

 

Finally, you may want to get a quiet job. Get a job as a secretary or as a guard. Then meditate right on the job. Really you should be able to meditate at any time and in any place...

 

I'm just tired of living a lie. Tired of pretending to be someone I am not, just to keep a job, just to have a place to live. I am tired of pissing away my youth. Nothing in this life matters except liberation. Yet, ironically that is the hardest goal to work towards in this society. Everyone has to stay busy, has to stay entertained, has to work, has to do chores, has to do this, that, it never ends. By the time you've paid your time taxes to society and entropy, very little precious time is left for actual meditation.

 

This world feels more like a Nazi concentration camp, every day. I have to force myself into a false mindset to interact with other people. Work 8 hours most days, drive home, clean up after other people, wash my cloths, cleanup, cook dinner, and by that time I am exhausted and ready to go to sleep. I wake up at dawn and mediate for a few hours and its off to work again, to repeat another cycle.

 

Two years have passed me by and it seems only like a few months, and its ever accelerating. I seriously wonder if I will be able to achieve liberation in this lifetime meditating only a few hours a day.

 

I guess I am just frustrated and disgusted, there seems no way out of this vicious cycle, and no way to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

 

Ahh... haha.. I feel exactly like you. I know the feeling. So you want to be hard-core, like moi? No problem!

 

Listen. Cut convention like a hot knife through butter! Don't run! Just be honest. Be yourself. Even if it means death. Start being honest. If some bullshit comes up, say what you want to say. Act as you want to act. THAT IS LIBERATION! Liberation is taking ownership of convention. Look it... convention is your toy. Play with it. You have a heart, right? you have some kindness right? If so, you'll be surprised how flexible things can be for you. You'll say how you feel and do what you want, and the world will bend to accommodate you. But you must be ready to die or to be tortured. That's not to say you should expect to die or to be tortured. Liberation is being yourself no matter what. If you have to run away to be yourself, you're not liberator. Tell your boss what you think. Tell that girl what you think. Do and be what you ARE, right now. Right here. Not in a cave. Do it. Get ready to become a different man. You won't be the same after this and it might be hard to go back to the "normal" life.

 

No one has ever escaped convention by following it. If regulations constrain you, you cannot escape the feeling of constraint by continuing to follow the regulations.

 

You see, those regulations, the entire convention is in your mind. If you run away into the cave, that entire ugly system goes with you. As soon as you exit the cave, it will be there, waiting for you! If you don't like it, DEAL WITH IT. Don't run. Deal with it.

 

Politely exiting society so that you can be free is not liberation! It means your mind is still weighed down by your preconceptions about what society should and should not be. How is that liberating?

 

Your problem is that you meditate too much and don't contemplate enough.

Edited April 2, 2009 by goldisheavy

[goldisheavy]

Look at this guy:

 

He's working hard. Do you realize you can also get a similar job? Not every job has to crush your soul in the process of being employed. Some food for thought. It looks like he's meditating 24/7. He even talks about karma. It's pretty cool.

[Smile]

It seems the more you progress on the spiritual path, the more you accept the worlds as it is. But them you have to deal with all the ugliness and suffering you open your eyes to, and eventually accept this as well. Some say, enlightenment is just unconditional acceptance of the world around you and becoming a master of living on the deepest level, but what do it know...

[de_paradise]

Hi Pie Guy,

 

I have pretty much the same values and I dont really like toiling away for nothing either. The way to not have to work so much is having little passive income streams such as niche businesses on the internet; another idea is some kind of holiday and market events (few hours, big bang). Anyway, once you figure it out, the same plan can be repeated. They are in most cities around the world, and many arts crafts and whatever fads to sell. Ive done this type of lifestyle for many years in different countries, long before I became a full time meditator. Going to another country and teaching English for say 15 hours a week is good too, if the school is close and you dont spend so much time preparing or commuting. I like non-English speaking countries because things like advertising and peoples gossip doesnt distract one's mind.

 

I have the same reservations about monestaries or some neo-monestary full of new agers. Its a general social belief that if you want to meditate alot you should join one, but thats just a fantasy of people who see the world how they are told to. If I were you, Id leave the owning property idea far away, and use any capital you have to generate income (business), or freedom (flight to Asia).

 

Also the all or nothing of "rest of my life" attitude has to go, because that starkness will limit you from making the proper compromises at the opportune times. This is generally the mental trap of 20-something people, .they want their ideal now, but actually in order to manifest the lifestyle you want is often gradual, something you peck away at, with trials and errors along the way.

 

Bonne Chance,

[freeform]

I once met a man that lives in a little wooden shack, on a high hill, overlooking a huge forest. He looks after the forest - manages the wood (cutting down old trees, selling them on) has a small vegetable garden, gets paid and is respected, but has very little contact with others.

 

In the summer he looks out for forest fires - this is his main role. This is in the south of france.

 

[Sunya]

Act as you want to act. THAT IS LIBERATION! Liberation is taking ownership of convention. Liberation is being yourself no matter what.

 

dude, what?

 

i don't think he's talking about having a wild time and letting the ego free. completely different liberation. you're talking about liberation in the Nietzschien sense, liberation from morals, convention, and servitude as a response to Christian conservatism. are you seriously going to equate that sort of liberation with Taoist/Buddhist liberation of spirit?

[exorcist_1699]

Every minute can be the time for meditation, anywhere can be the place for polishing qi ; the worst situation

is conversely the best situation for training yourself just like marathon runners deliberately train themselves on high plateau lacks of oxygen.

[nordisch]

In India there are ashrams that are located in quiet areas, where you can get accomodation and food for as little as 2-3 $ per day.

I haven't been to one myself but heard of it.

The friend who went there wasn't bothered by anyone and could do his practice for many months.

So save up some money and off you go :-)

[宁]

What Smile said.

 

He put it mildly though.

 

Here's a strong idea: running away from your current life is the fastest way to screw it.

All the problems that you have now are Life's gift to you, to help you evolve.

If you throw that away and run in an ashram or monastery, in the end, you will loose.

 

Take it one thing at a time.

The harder the challenge, the greater the strength.

 

Good luck

 

L1

 

PS: I know many of you long for this, i did too, once. If Life loves you, IT'LL make you understand...

[SimoninTaiwan]

Dear Taobums,

 

I am looking to spend the rest of my life with as little real world responsibility as is humanly possible. I want a nice place where I can meditate and not be bothered. I don't mind holding down a part time weekend job, or even working double shifts on weekends.

 

Are there any communities which would be supportive of this lifestyle. I only own some books, a car and a laptop, and my clothes and personal belongings. Everything I own fits nicely in my trunk. I've tried living out of my car, and thats not so bad. However it becomes problematic, when it breaks down.

 

I've tried renting rooms from people but that also doesn't seem to work out so well, with all the drama and such.

 

I welcome your ideas.

 

-mpg

 

Yes sure most of us have thought about it, but for me the truth is only so much of that is valuable as you still need daily life to test you and what delusions you are still living with.

Its why I think a path combined with hard physical activity even better with Martial Arts stuff as all the fearlessness that is developed on the cushion gets tested for real.

 

A balance of both retreat and interaction i think is good.

 

Otherwise get yourself to Asia living here is cheap you could spend 2 or 3 years on Emei mountain or Wutai for very cheap money couple dollars a day living and eating.

 

 

Simon

[Thunder_Gooch]

goldisheavy,

 

Have you become really comfortable with your own mortality? Have you looked your own death in the eye and honestly asked where your priorities lie? What is it you wish to accomplish with your time here before your inevitable death? memento mori! I have and I realize I don't really give a shit about anything in this world. It is an illusion, and death is inevitable. The only thing that matters is liberation, and helping others do the same.

 

I don't care if sally joe got pregnant by bobby lu. I don't care about this weeks American idol. I don't care about anything in this world. It's all one giant neon distraction, keeping us from doing the only meaningful thing we can do. Life is all fun and games, till you realize it really is an illusion. I am assuming you actually enjoy living, in which case good for you. If and when you realize what a colossal bunch of bullshit everyone and everything in this society are, you'll get burned out too.

 

Being myself doesn't really work out so well here in the "real" world. If I want to hold down a job and have a place being friendly and amiable is a requirement. I just hate being a lie. Pissing away your life for peanuts is bad enough, pretended you like it and the fucking retards you work with is torture. It's even worse to know your time is running out, and another round of this bullshit awaits you if you don't make it out this time.

Edited April 2, 2009 by More_Pie_Guy

[wudangspirit]

Pie Guy,

 

It seems you haven't found the balance. Getting aways from what it reality is not the answer. You have to apply the philosophy to your current situation and still you rmind. Running away from the outside world isn't going to let you run away from yourself.

 

More cultivation will show you that. If you goal is to get some land and become a hermit then the reality is just as you said already. You'll have to partake in real life and work for what you want. That is true reality.

 

Cultivating yourself to live in the real world is the ultimate in self cultivation and living the true Tao. If you do the work you'll see clearly through to your goal and learn to detach from emotion.

 

Don't play a game of Hero, Persecutor and Victim of your self. Breaking free of that is true liberation.

 

Tao Bless,

 

Wudangspirit

 

Dear Taobums,

 

I am looking to spend the rest of my life with as little real world responsibility as is humanly possible. I want a nice place where I can meditate and not be bothered. I don't mind holding down a part time weekend job, or even working double shifts on weekends.

 

Are there any communities which would be supportive of this lifestyle. I only own some books, a car and a laptop, and my clothes and personal belongings. Everything I own fits nicely in my trunk. I've tried living out of my car, and thats not so bad. However it becomes problematic, when it breaks down.

 

I've tried renting rooms from people but that also doesn't seem to work out so well, with all the drama and such.

 

I welcome your ideas.

 

-mpg

[Ryan T.]

goldisheavy,

 

Have you become really comfortable with your own mortality? Have you looked your own death in the eye and honestly asked where your priorities lie? What is it you wish to accomplish with your time here before your inevitable death? memento mori! I have and I realize I don't really give a shit about anything in this world. It is an illusion, and death is inevitable. The only thing that matters is liberation, and helping others do the same.

 

I don't care if sally joe got pregnant by bobby lu. I don't care about this weeks American idol. I don't care about anything in this world. It's all one giant neon distraction, keeping us from doing the only meaningful thing we can do. Life is all fun and games, till you realize it really is an illusion. I am assuming you actually enjoy living, in which case good for you. If and when you realize what a colossal bunch of bullshit everyone and everything in this society are, you'll get burned out too.

 

Being myself doesn't really work out so well here in the "real" world. If I want to hold down a job and have a place being friendly and amiable is a requirement. I just hate being a lie. Pissing away your life for peanuts is bad enough, pretended you like it and the fucking retards you work with is torture. It's even worse to know your time is running out, and another round of this bullshit awaits you if you don't make it out this time.

 

Dude. You seem super angry. That isn't going to go away just by going away into a cave and "meditating"!

 

How can you even begin to think about helping others to "liberation" when you have such obvious contempt for people?

[freeform]

Getting aways from what it reality is not the answer.

 

everyone learns their lessons in their own way.

 

perhaps he needs to escape the world to realise that escaping the world is not the answer.

[Thunder_Gooch]

I want to live a minimalist existence. I don't like people and socializing. I do not think a 40 hour work week is conducive to my spiritual goals, so I am seeking to change my environment. I am willing to work a few days a week, and I don't want to be a parasite on anyone. I fail to see how this is running away from anything.

 

 

 

Pie Guy,

 

It seems you haven't found the balance. Getting aways from what it reality is not the answer. You have to apply the philosophy to your current situation and still you rmind. Running away from the outside world isn't going to let you run away from yourself.

 

More cultivation will show you that. If you goal is to get some land and become a hermit then the reality is just as you said already. You'll have to partake in real life and work for what you want. That is true reality.

 

Cultivating yourself to live in the real world is the ultimate in self cultivation and living the true Tao. If you do the work you'll see clearly through to your goal and learn to detach from emotion.

 

Don't play a game of Hero, Persecutor and Victim of your self. Breaking free of that is true liberation.

 

Tao Bless,

 

Wudangspirit

 

 

Dude. You seem super angry. That isn't going to go away just by going away into a cave and "meditating"!

 

How can you even begin to think about helping others to "liberation" when you have such obvious contempt for people?

 

Meditation is the only time I feel truly at ease. I don't like most people, but then again people who seek liberation aren't most people.