Integrating Awakening into Daily Life / Work

[maheswari]

i have been there...for years the idea of leaving my work (banking so similar to your work) and going something "more worthy and spiritual" was lingering....
like Carson ,life circumstances obliged me to stay at work...last april i got promoted to become a head of department and i have more work to do[]
but it was the best thing that happened to me cause in june i was overloading like hell (to me the pysical symptoms of overload are the worse lolll...much worse than the psychological ones) and it was the crazy work that saved me and grounded me...so every day i was looking forward to go to work just to work my ass out because it was extremely grounding...u know the endless tasks that need to be done...the countless phone calls...the countless emails...plus guiding the collegues that work "under my authority" (lolll) ..and convincing top managers i work under their authority even when they suggest wrong solutions  
so i say that life puts us in the excat place where we need to be in order to grow and unfold
keeping this job made me face all the things in me that i was trying to avoid and not see
escaping is not the solution...living an ashram is not the solution...the here and now is the solution....spituality is about  becoming more down to earth ...it is very ordinary....it is goign back to square one so to speak
yet out of this ordinary you feel more creativity coming to you....it is a paradox
and you seem (so do i) have enough time to do spiritual things so it is the best mixture....you are blessed to be in such circumstances!!

[karl]

quote:Originally posted by maheswari

so i say that life puts us in the excat place where we need to be in order to grow and unfold
keeping this job made me face all the things in me that i was trying to avoid and not see
escaping is not the solution...living an ashram is not the solution...the here and now is the solution....spituality is about  becoming more down to earth ...it is very ordinary....it is goign back to square one so to speak
yet out of this ordinary you feel more creativity coming to you....it is a paradox
and you seem (so do i) have enough time to do spiritual things so it is the best mixture....you are blessed to be in such circumstances!!

Definitely, either circumstances create the change or it appears that you make the decision. For me I began to accept my inner Guru and move in synchronicity with circumstance.  This is the beginning of unity although it appears still as if it's a physical action and a mental choice.

[kami]

quote:Originally posted by karl



so i say that life puts us in the excat place where we need to be in order to grow and
Definitely, either circumstances create the change or it appears that you make the decision. For me I began to accept my inner Guru and move in synchronicity with circumstance.  This is the beginning of unity although it appears still as if it's a physical action and a mental choice.

Karl,
How beautiful!! That is the key, isn't it - first, meeting the inner guru and second, learning to listen to that small still voice?

For me, like Maha, self-pacing is something that is forced, probably because I tend to be hard-headed When I'm overloading and still refusing to cut back on practices, my life and work circumstances will change in a way where I absolutely need to focus completely on those things, invariably with no time for twice daily sits. It really is astonishing how this happens 100% of the time. After things return to baseline, I realize I'm much more balanced. Maybe the inner guru needs to bludgeon some us on the head to get our attention when we don't listen to the small voice

Cosmic, I can resonate with that pointlessness. I've been participating in the rat race for so long, always looking at something else that  needs to be achieved/done, somewhere else to be.. Now, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be than right here, right now. It isn't a hopeless giving up, but like you say so well, satisfaction and a sense of release ahhh.. Out of the race at last!! And surprisingly, the less I care about the outcome, the greater the "success" at work and life in general.. Beautiful paradox.

Love,
kami

[karl]

quote:Originally posted by kami



Karl,
How beautiful!! That is the key, isn't it - first, meeting the inner guru and second, learning to listen to that small still voice?

For me, like Maha, self-pacing is something that is forced, probably because I tend to be hard-headed When I'm overloading and still refusing to cut back on practices, my life and work circumstances will change in a way where I absolutely need to focus completely on those things, invariably with no time for twice daily sits. It really is astonishing how this happens 100% of the time. After things return to baseline, I realize I'm much more balanced. Maybe the inner guru needs to bludgeon some us on the head to get our attention when we don't listen to the small voice

Oh the Guru will do that and more

I'm in the last quarter of my book and I was writing about self pacing, grounding and not being bull headed, gritting teeth and pushing through the pain barrier. The time needed to break through is exactly the amount needed to prepare for being awake. Before that we aren't ready, we are green apples, too hard and unripe. As you know there is no point in pushing it because it just hurts more, you can only go as fast as you are able to go so there is absolutely no point in causing  yourself pain. However, just like I did.....Nah, nah......I'm not listening

[Etherfish]

mmmmmmm - green apples

If you learn to change your perception you can do miracles.
You may see your job as the most worthless, unnecessary activity there is. Then you go home and think "What would have to change for me to see my same job as a gift from God, so I love doing it?"

Then you may imagine yourself as a monk chopping wood and carrying water and devoted. Then you decide you could do that. So the next day you love going to work, and you do the best job you can even though you couldn't care less about what you are doing, because it is for God, not yourself.

And then one day when you have completely accepted your plight for life, someone offers you a better job!
At first you resist because you already have a perfect job....you have changed your perception, and the world seems to change.

[karl]

I found it harder to leave than to stay. To quit without any income when the job you do pays very well, you getting very little hassle and have a good reputation within the company, that's quite hard to do.

Sometimes it's easier to stay in the job even if it isn't perfect. I couldn't stay in the job, my Guru wasn't going to let me , I didn't even have a 'better life' in mind. I didn't think it would be better without a job, a car, money and the respect you get from being in that position. I could buy virtually anything I wanted, travel widely, eat at expensive restaurants. I gave it all up and believe me I was a hedonist trying to buy the past with my future.

Anyway we do it will be right.

[jeff]

We should all "go" where the inner guru leads, but often we are driven by a percieved aversion to something. If something bothers us... It is pointing to an underlying issue.