People who are involved in self-discovery lead different types of lives. The lives they lead are not necessarily the lives of renunciation. Rather, it is a structuring of the elements in your life in a particular way.
I recommend computer science to people who practice meditation. The mental structures that are used in computer science are very similar exercises done in Buddhist monasteries.
You don't want to become so sensitive that you can't interact with people in the world. If you get to that point, you are not practicing psychic development. You are running away from the world, and you've made yourself weak.
It doesn't matter what your work really is. It is exciting to do well at something. It empowers you.
Many people excuse themselves by claiming that they don't have to do work anymore because they are beyond it. They are simply afraid of getting their hands dirty. Getting your hands dirty washes your being.
A Buddhist is working not just to get paid, but working to advance spiritually. You shouldn't create a syntactical break in your mind between your career and your religious practice.
It is possible to renounce everything and attain enlightenment. But most people don't want to renounce; they wish to run away from responsibility and hard work.
Work sustains us as bodies and it consumes a great deal of energy. The conservation of energy is the component theme of Buddhist practice and yoga. That is why people live in monasteries.
It is necessary to be occupied almost all the time, to have your mind focused; otherwise, you get very spaced out. There are many variant psychic forces and powers that roam through the worlds. You can pick them up.
There are lifetimes where one goes off into the Himalayas and meditate in a cave. But this is not really one of those lifetimes for most people. Our earth has changed.
In the West people spend most of their time and energy working. The problem is you are so tired from work that you don't have much energy to meditate - unless you use work in a tantric way.
Self-control is completely necessary for increasing and raising your attention level. One of the places you practice that is at work.
Combine meditation with career as a yoga. You will find that your practice will not be any less powerful than a person who lives in a monastery. You might even excel because practice in a monastery can get very one-sided.
Next to meditation itself, I really can't think of anything more important than the development of your career.
If you seek enlightenment, then career is a very important idea on your agenda. Approach your career from this standpoint and you will have a very different career. You will be successful.
It is necessary to be focused. This is the raison d'etre of career.
To assume that wealth or sexuality or the usage of power, any of these things are not void in nature, gives them a reality they don't actually have.
One of the greatest mistakes that people make who pursue self-discovery is they neglect to develop their careers. There is a popular notion that those who seek enlightenment should abandon the things of this world.
I meet people who neglect career. Their lives aren't centered at all. They don't have much money. They have this spaced-out look in their eyes. Their chances for enlightenment are very small, unless they change the way they live.
We live in a competitive society. To pretend that it is not there is ridiculous. That is how the whole planet is set up. If you are not competitive, you do not succeed, you do not survive.
Money equals the ability to be mobile in this word, to travel, to live in a place that is suitable, to not be brought down or drained, to not to be a victim.
Money is very useful in this particular world to buy you space. In the old days, there were not too many people on the planet. Today everybody owns the forests and woods and there are "No Trespassing" signs everywhere.
The earth is not the same everywhere. Certain powers are available in one part of the earth that are not available in another part. The rich realize this. They live in these places and they use that power to stay rich.
It is very important that your career raises your awareness. If your career is lowering your personal power, then it has got to change.
Work in a place that feels good to you. Select the best of that which is available. The Zen of working is just to do it, not to worry about it. Feel you would be doing it without the money.
