As a person with monkish-type tendencies I've always found it difficult to relate to worldly imperatives and values especially where the world of work is concerned, or to take it very seriously beyond putting in my four hours of bread labour, as Tolstoy would have called it. Nowadays it seems that not only are we all supposed to find meaningful forms of employ, but there is considerable pressure also to strive for stardom in one form or another.
I say give it a rest already!
I view all this with a deeply skeptical eye because for me fulfillment is found solely in the practice of mindfulness. And let me be clear--not the sort of mindfulness that is used as a quick fix, or mindfulness as an afterthought, if there happens to be time (which there won't), but mindfulness as the core around which the rest of my life orbits.
If mindfulness practice is not made central, all other endeavours will be rendered insubstantial and of questionable value. Busy work is not the point in life. Neither are accolades, purpose, success, legacies or any of the other conventional markers of a life well-lived. They may be nice to experience and/or have their role to play, but they are not where real sustenance in life is derived from.
Trophies can be taken away from us, businesses fail, accolades can easily turn into heckling, a sense of purpose, as we imagine it, may fail to take shape.
What I mean to say, is that we could spend our whole lives waiting to turn a corner in these areas and if we do, we will have missed the only deeply real, source of nourishment and sustenance readily available to us in some form of mindfulness practice.
These other endeavours I have mentioned may bear relevance and importance in our lives, but never as much relevance and importance as the simple act of being alive to what is in front of us here, now.
There is no more deeply satisfying source of nourishment, as I say, than being present to the simple gifts and graces of life. If we miss that, we will have missed an opportunity for experiencing the poetry and passionate vitality that sustain us.
Owning our own business isn't going to save our lives, enjoying the accolades of unknown others isn't either. However, engaging in a soulful, sincere and heartfelt way with our lives in moments of mindfulness will.
Spend five minutes, spend 50--the main point is to show up in a committed, engaged way for those five minutes, really experiencing the texture and flavour of life in the moment.
Moments are timeless. This is in part why mindfulness is such a powerful practice. In a timeless realm there is nothing to strive for, nothing to re-coil from, nothing to worry about. It is a simple act of being.
And being, in a world of relentless and aggressive doing, is a beautiful, magical thing. Check it out.
