Haven't found your calling? Stop looking.

http://workinthewild.com/blog/2013/11/18/havent-found-your-calling-stop-looking

by toddpersen • 13 years ago

25 14 13 years ago

workinthewild.com

TrainedMonkey• 13 years ago

TL:DR

Just learn to enjoy what you have.

md224• 13 years ago

But also work to improve your situation in life if you're not happy with it, right?

Not directed at you, I've just been a bit confused by the tension between contentment and complacency. I think the resolution is some sort of pragmatic middle ground: fix what's wrong in your life, but at the same time, appreciate what's right.

delluminatus2• 13 years ago

It really depends on how serious you are about seeking inner peace.

The moment you say that something is "wrong" in your life is the moment you abandon the deepest (and, I think, most powerful) variety of tranquility.

You cannot categorize parts of life as "right" and "wrong" without discarding the general equanimity of true inner peace.

I think this is a common dilemma for Americans in particular, because the concept of success is so ingrained in our perspective of life that we cannot let go of it.

On the other hand, in the complete absence of right and wrong, words like complacency lose their meaning. Someone with true inner peace is not complacent per se, nor are they even indifferent. Instead, on a deep and abiding level, they are accepting and nonjudgemental.

puller• 13 years ago

Being unhappy with something and working on it are not necessarily related. You could work on something without thinking about it, or without expectations on the result. You could appreciate something as good but want to make it better. You can also be unhappy with something without working effectively on it.

mathattack• 13 years ago

Didn't Crosby, Stills and Nash get it with, "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with"?

6cxs2hd62• 13 years ago

Some people are obsessive seekers. Of riches. Of a calling. Of enlightenment. Of whatever: "If only I had ___, then I'd be happy."

My take on Zen Buddhism is that it's engineered to fix that problem. You need X to be happy? Great, let's get you X. Get up at 4 AM and sit quietly. Cook food. Clean dishes. Try to solve nonsense puzzles. Eventually you'll suffer a mild mental breakdown and achieve a realization -- the enlightenment that there is no enlightenment outside you to be found.

And anyway, in the meantime at least you'll be focused on quiet activities, not bothering the rest of us. ;)

sliverstorm• 13 years ago

For me, the seeking is the happiness ;)

gte910h• 13 years ago

http://sourcesofinsight.com/synthetic-happiness/ Apparently even the seeking isn't necessary

GuiA2• 13 years ago

Huh, I'm confused by your 2nd paragraph.

Are you saying that zen buddhism will make you get X to be happy, get up at 4am, etc. and then suffer a mild breakdown?

Could you rephrase what you meant? I'm legitimately confused :(

6cxs2hd62• 13 years ago

I meant that you show up at a monastery and say, "Hello, I'm here to be enlightened!" They say, "Yeah, we get that a lot. Well, we can help you with that. Let's start by having you get up early tomorrow morning and cooking some rice."

Then they channel all your seeking-enlightenment energy into other activities, until you hopefully someday realize there ain't any such thing. But perhaps that realization is another sort of "enlightenment".

I speak from no significant direct experience. I'm just pointing at the moon with my finger. :)

delluminatus2• 13 years ago

I read it as saying that "enlightenment" of Zen Buddhism is at heart a deep surrendering. This can only come from within yourself. So, the practice is not designed to teach, but instead to simply facilitate that surrender by exacerbating the issues that contribute to it. The carrot of "enlightenment" is dangled before you until, finally, you say, "fuck that carrot, I'm tired of chasing things". Then you are enlightened. :)

In a way, I like to think of it as aversion therapy applied to hopes and expectations.

Haven't found your calling? Stop looking.

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