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Hunter
USA
252 Posts |
 Posted - May 02 2006 : 11:27:23 AM
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Hello everyone,
I am interested to read about people's experience and advice about this: When you began to devote your life to consistent daily meditation and related practices, did a need spontaneously arise to change certain aspects of your life? More specifically, I am asking about career changes and choices. Did you become attracted to another career?
It seems that there is a more core question that I am trying to ask but I don't know what it is.
I am just confused about everything and I understand very little.
Thank you, Hunter
P.S. Everyone, How is the weather in your region of the world? I am in sunny California and it is so beautiful and warm. I just started some corn, eggplant, bell pepper, and armenian cucumber. |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - May 02 2006 : 12:17:14 PM
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Hi Hunter,
I think you are asking for help choosing a career.. are you?(between your Law enforcement post and this one)
You have to go with what you like dear... Spiritual life.. esp. the AYP way will fit into your life... whatever it may be. It is so flexible and does not take a long time to go through the entire routine. You seem to have the interest to follow AYP.. so you have the bhakti.. and that should carry you a long way no matter what career you choose..
I am not sure what you are doing right now, as far as AYP goes.. do you meditate? Anything else?
By the time I started getting spiritual.. I was already set in my career and life.. so it was just a matter of fitting AYP into my existing life.. not the other way around. AYP has made me fall in love with all that was already a part of my life.. I think that is what we all want right?
As for "some corn, eggplant, bell pepper, and armenian cucumber.".. now that is my favorite topic.. I have all of that and loads of other stuff started too.. peas, pumpkin, beans, hot peppers, Thai peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, okra, zucchini, brussel sprouts, garlic, onions, cilantro, mint and a bunch of Indian veggies.. no corn though.. they need a lot of space and I have not done too well with them in the past. Well, let me know how yours turn out.. |
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Manipura
USA
870 Posts |
Posted - May 02 2006 : 12:26:58 PM
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Hi Hunter. As I've moved deeper into meditation, I've experienced an increasing need to be true to myself, which carries over into every area of my life, including career. I made a career change which was risky but I knew it was the right thing to do, because my heart was pulling me in that direction. When you get a grasp on the core question you refer to, I recommend not spending too much time mulling it over in your head; instead bring the question to your heart and hear what it has to say. I've never gone wrong when I've done this. Well, almost never. :)
Happy planting! |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - May 02 2006 : 2:04:57 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Hunter
I am just confused about everything and I understand very little.
Perfect. Don't lose that. The alternative is to crystallize into a solid image of who you are and what you want and know (aka "maturity"). And when you do that, you'll face decades/lifetimes of spiritual work in order to pulverize all that. So better not to build up the sham edifice in the first place.
Do what feels right and beautiful now, and let your nows string together. Plan, but don't attach to your plans. Stay flexible. Even stay flexible with the many forces (great and subtle) telling you you're no one unless you crystallize into a tangible identity. I'm not suggesting you be a drifter or rambling poet/holy man. Take action in the world (perhaps even be accomplished or rich or whatever) but always with the seriousness, intensity, immersion, and concentration of a child at play - realizing (as a child does in the back of his mind) that it's all play and nothing really matters.
Identity is a cheap graft-on, like an embarrassing toupee. A river is never the same river, so there is, in truth, no river. Just a flow. Surrender to the flow. Realize you are the flow. If you do, you'll lack nothing.
Weather's great.
J&K |
Edited by - Jim and His Karma on May 02 2006 2:14:58 PM |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - May 02 2006 : 2:33:21 PM
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Wow Jim!!!! Love it.
Do you think it is practical though. Could you get far without being serious about it? "seriousness, intensity, immersion, and concentration of a child at play - realizing (as a child does in the back of his mind) that it's all play and nothing really matters."... but life is not all play now is it?
Don't know, could be a good approach though. Not to get hung up on anything.. but if you don't get serious about things.. you may never get anywhere. I mean, for you.. at 42.. this may seem like a good outlook.. but is this good advice to give a kid starting out? I like this approach.. I wish I had gone through life with this approach.. but sounds like a double edged knife doesn't it?
I guess it is the mom in me that has the doubts...
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Edited by - Shanti on May 02 2006 3:28:18 PM |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - May 02 2006 : 3:48:06 PM
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I didnt say not to be serious. In fact, I specifically said to be serious. I just explained what I suggest is the proper attitude for framing that seriousness.
I explained it as well as I could, and am not sure there's any benefit to further clarification and amplification. What's needed isn't "more", it's less. |
Edited by - Jim and His Karma on May 02 2006 3:48:41 PM |
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ranger
USA
45 Posts |
Posted - May 02 2006 : 7:12:26 PM
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I'm intrigued with the question behind your question, which you said was there, but not clear.
One thing that came to mind was the situation where you need a day job to support what you really want to do. A young man asked Gary Snyder what a suitable vocation for a poet might be. Snyder thought about it, shrugged and said (something like) "I like messing with cars, so if I had it to do again, I'd probably do auto mechanics." Riiiight. Sometimes you just hate pity quotes from people who "have arrived," but the point is clear, sometimes its the matter of finding the best compromise.
Maybe your question is indeed about change. I attended a day long retreat last July with Sheri Huber, a Zen teacher and the matter of vocation came up during a question period. She said she knows a "huge" number of people who have studied to prepare themselves for one career, and found that at the end of their studies, the desire was completely gone. FWIW, she said she'd seen that in all fields, but that "it seems especially common with law students."
Maybe you think you should be passionate about somehting and you're not.
I've experienced all of the above and more at one time or another. For me, AYP has amounted to (among other things) a kind of archeology. I find that what I now really care about doing - what even has the sense of "destiny" behind it - was something I knew in the fourth and fifth grades, and got sidetracked for decades. Doing other "neat stuff" to be sure, but not my own neat stuff.
Once you see it, it's very clear, like that visual puzzle that can look like either a very old or a very young woman, and once you see it, it's obvious.
One other useful concept I picked up from Sheri Huber was "stupid dust." Something within us (or maybe one of those "lower beings") seems to periodically sprinkle us with stupid dust, so that we don't know what we really do know. |
Edited by - ranger on May 02 2006 7:23:38 PM |
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BluesFan
USA
35 Posts |
Posted - May 02 2006 : 8:11:22 PM
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quote:
Take action in the world (perhaps even be accomplished or rich or whatever) but always with the seriousness, intensity, immersion, and concentration of a child at play - realizing (as a child does in the back of his mind) that it's all play and nothing really matters.
Very nice.
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Hunter
USA
252 Posts |
Posted - May 02 2006 : 11:57:14 PM
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Thank you to all of you for such encouraging advice.
Now to answer everyone:
Shanti,
Two years ago at age 18 I started consistent morning and evening meditation. I first learned the spinal breathing technique as taught by Norman Paulsen, whose foundation website is linked to the AYP link section. Now, the "I am" meditation is rounding out the practice very nicley, the pacing part is so helpful.
Meg,
Courage is important isn't it. I loved to read that in your post.
Jim(and his Karma),
I understood exactly what you were conveying to me.
Ranger,
"Maybe you think you should be passionate about something and you're not." What you said there is right on about what I am feeling.
Everyone,
Your support is so humbling to me. Do you know how much this helps me? What can a person do to return the favor for such kindness? I saw some posts on the "paying it forward" topic, is that the way?
Much love to you, Hunter |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - May 03 2006 : 12:57:50 AM
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Hunter--
Pay back by not stopping. Ever. The great opportunity at your age is to drill down before the concrete's hardened. The great pitfall is the tendency to jump around to different fascinations. The jumping's fine. That's part and parcel of the playful spirit I recomended. But don't make these practices a fascination. Don't let it turn into camera equipment heaped in your attic - something you once dabbled in. Instead, let AYP be like brushing your teeth...something you just sort of do every day. Don't live a yoga life for a while. Live the life you've got. But have this stuff you quietly do to keep wiping away at your windows. Long term. Sustained.
Especially for a twenty year old, there's danger in making yoga front and center. It puts it at risk of being something replaced by the next fascination. I speak from experience on this. Move practices over to the tooth brushing part of your life, it's much safer there - and more effective, too. This is the main insight I got from AYP, and I'm incredibly grateful for it.
That was redundant as hell, but I'm sleepy and want to make sure I'm persuasive! :) |
Edited by - Jim and His Karma on May 03 2006 12:58:38 AM |
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nearoanoke
USA
525 Posts |
Posted - May 03 2006 : 06:29:52 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Jim and His Karma
Don't live a yoga life for a while. Live the life you've got. But have this stuff ....Sustained.
Very good advice there |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - May 03 2006 : 11:40:29 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by nearoanoke
quote:
Originally posted by Jim and His Karma
Don't live a yoga life for a while. Live the life you've got. But have this stuff ....Sustained.
Very good advice there
except "for a while" was a typo, a holdover from a previous edit.
Don't live a yoga life. Period. |
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