Archived post from Jeff's forum. Always very interesting stuff on there from time to time.
~
Intuition wrote:
Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've posted. I've started a new job recently, so it's taken alot of my attention.
There have been 2 recurring topics that I'd like to get others' thoughts on.
-Pursuing
mundane knowledge such as knowledge of mathematics, history, one's
profession, etc: How is the pursual of mundane knowledge such as
knowledge of one's profession, mathematics, etc related to the spiritual
path? Is it a distraction that takes attention and energy away from the
spiritual path? Or is it helpful? Or is it neither?
-lifestyle
(stressful or not in the relative world): Should one strive to make
one's life as stress-free as possible to devote more attention to the
Spiritual path? (choosing not to have kids, choosing to have a job where
you have to work less, living off the grid, etc). Or does it not
matter?
I'm currently someone who works alot, and studies alot
(mathematics and computing). I've got options, though. In the future, I
could even work remotely and live in a much cheaper country, and only
need to work about 1 out of every 4 years.
I see a couple roads before me.
1-
I devote alot of time to my career and my field. I spend tons of time
studying maths and AI (which I enjoy), and I perhaps even take time from
work to get my PHD. Bright future in the field (I have the work ethic
and discipline for it), very comfortable amount of money, living in the
US.
2-I still stay in my current field, but I don't go deep into
it, into AI and all the mathematics required, doing something that is
perhaps less intellectually satisfying, yet provides comfortable wages
and requires about 1000 hours less time from me to break into, and I
work remotely, living in a cheaper country, and probably need to work
about 1/4 as much due to this fact.
Years ago, I experienced the
results of mystical praxes (and I still do), which I've found to be of
innate good and value. since then, gnosis and spirituality have been my
ultimate endeavors in life, and so I always want these to be my ultimate
guiding light and compass.
~
Alexander wrote:
One of the intuitions I had at an early age, Intuition, echoed what
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, "vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Human
life is short, it will be over before we know it, and the real work is
the preparation for death. This realization informed a lot of the
decisions I made for learning, career, and so on. Though things have
worked out OK, at the same time I've pondered off and on if I followed
the right course. For example, I could have pursued engineering, or a
different field, instead.
Lately I've been teaching, which gives a
good amount of free time, which is very compatible with the spiritual
life. If I were in Europe this would not be as big a deal, as working
class jobs there provide more time off. But, here in the States it was a
good course for work/life balance. However, it is also a path that
brings its own stresses and insecurities, does not pay very well, and
does not provide a lot of status in society.
At one point I
considered becoming a monk, but I also have very little patience for
institutional religion and would likely rankle under all the unnecessary
rules. I also felt that as a modern person, in many ways it was not
appropriate to follow a monastic path. Certainly I may have done so in a
previous era; but for a life in the 2000s no. I ended up studying
philosophy (again something I could have done without the university
degree :p), exploring many different intellectual and religious
traditions in the process, without the baggage of dogma.
One
thing I have internalized, is that my long term goal is to maximize my
freedom, so I can dedicate more to spiritual pursuits. This resulted in
my changing my view of personal finance in my mid-20s. I did not put any
thought into money before 25 ("do not worry about what you wear, or
what you will eat..."), but I started to become a lot more practical
about it. I worked for a short time at a bank and that got me more
interested in investing. I was always very frugal ("what is the need for
physical comforts?" - very ascetical type of attitude) and incidentally
from this was saving a lot. At the bank I got to thinking "why not find
a way to make these savings grow?" which got me interested in
buy-and-hold investing, using savings to buy stocks with dividends, and
letting them compound.
On the web there is the idea of "FIRE,"
financial independence and retire early, which despite my modest income I
have been building towards as a long term goal. So, save as large a
percentage of the income as possible, invest it in large cap dividend or
growth stocks, and let the portfolio compound over time. Then, the
dream is to be able to retire early and be able to live off those
savings. The idea here would be (if successful) retire or start working
part time by 40, then be free to dedicate whatever time was desired to
spiritual pursuits.
This has been an interesting development,
because it is actually a contradictory view of money. In other words, I
have both a disparaging ascetical view of it, and also a practical
embrace of it. There is a famous sociologist Max Weber who said this is
called the "Protestant work ethic," as a lot of the people who founded
the New England colonies here in the States had this similar idea, and
Weber said that incidentally it led those settlers (the Pilgrims) to
prosper. So, make of that what you will.
Here I have to confess a
few things about my own experience of the contemplative life. As a
teenager I read the great mystics of history, the accounts of the
ecstasies, samadhi, and so on, and I always imagined my practice of
meditation would bring great fruits. However, for myself this has not
been the case. Though I experience energy and vibrations, they have
never turned into some spectacular state. I have never experienced a
"nondual" state in which I lose a sense of "I." And I have never had an
experience in which I have consciously left the body. While this is
irregular for someone on this forum, I have been reading more on OOB
forums, and it seems like this is typical there. Many people meditate or
attempt OOBEs for years, and experience no spectacular phenomena, and
unfortunately this has been the case for me. This was very distressing
to me for some time, as I have always felt my "main focus" has been
spiritual matters, but I have gradually accepted it with idea of "amor
fati" (love your fate) and that it is "God's will" and one should
"submit."
So in my own case the contemplative life has not been
particularly impressive. And even when I dedicate many hours in the
evening to the practice, I am underwhelmed by what results. So in this
regard I am starting to become a lot more skeptical of my young idealism
about what the contemplative life is, that for the most part it is very
mundane and unfantastic, that it is more a hard life of simplicity and
sacrifice. While I am filled now with esoteric wisdom that the layperson
does not ever encounter, have certain knowledge of phenomena the
average person cannot understand, and have conquered sorrow, loneliness,
anger, and so forth, I cannot say it has reformed me into some type of
spectacular "superhuman." It also provokes the question of, "is more
free time than I have now really required?" Or, if I should lead a
balanced life and pursue a family, finance, pleasure, and other ends (in
Hinduism, they call this the four Purusarthas).
Recently I was
watching an interview with William Buhlman (the successor to Bob Monroe,
the coiner of the term "OOBE"), who has certainly impressed me with his
experience and wisdom. And, he offered a very interesting point. That
we are here in the human realm because living out this existence is
precisely the point of it. That by living out your life you are
fulfilling your purpose - learning and growing, and developing wisdom.
So, I would not be averse to the experience of the here and now, but
just like you embrace the spiritual life, you embrace the human
experience as well. :)
~
Jeff wrote:
Thank-you friends for posting here some very interesting ideas. I guess
I will just tell you my story, and possibly it will at least fill out
this inquiry, and it might help some of you decide what to do with your
life.
I started meditating in the midle of 1973. By my birthday
in 1974 I had learned to still my mind, become lucid in the dream state,
and had mastered the OOBE, as well as having negotiated 7 of the 8
stages of samadhi. On that birthday I dedicated my whole life to the
spiritual endeavor, and taken up a celibit life. I wandered about as a
mendicant ariving in Santa Barbara, CA, and spending the remainder of
the summer there. There I camped on the beach, practiced meditation and
Tai Chi on the beach, and met some people. By the end of the summer, I
had no place to go, and there did not seem to be any movement forward,
so I decided to head back to Tucson.
The problem that faces the
dedicated contemplative becomes a livelihood. At that time I decided
that an ethical livelihood, which would increase my meditation time was
doing healing work. Doing that work, plus being a dedicated
contemplative I developed a small reputation, which gave me a modest
income.
One of the criticisms that I received from people was I
was too young and inexperienced to become a spiritual teacher. I should
marry and have children. So, I met a woman in 1976. We got married.
Marriage meant I had to bring in more money, so I got a job, and
developed a career. Along the way we had a couple of kids, then we
ended up divorced, so I had 2 children to support, so I had to work
harder. All along I kept up my meditation practice of 3 sessions per
day.
Looking back now after 45 years, while I love my children,
and I am very proud of them; nonetheless, marrige and children and a
career has been a massive distraction. For me I would have been better
off staying celibate and living as a mendicant, wandering, and possibly
never developing a spiritual leadership role. or, I could have kept the
healing work going, which would have produced a modest income. Either
way, my spiritual life would have been more fulfilling.
There is a
downside to being a dedicated mendicant, which leads to poverty.
Spiritual groups need to be funded. Who is going to fund that group?
Well, in 67 years on this planet most of the funding has come from me.
Yes, people do fund the GWV (thank-you very much); however, I am clearly
not long for this world, and when I go, so is likely the GWV.
What
happens when I die? I expect that the GWV will crumble due to lack of
funding, and all of the work done here, and elsewhere, will be
forgotten. Many of us have studied the mystics, and what I see in the
history of mystics and mysticism is most of the mystics are never
recorded. Of those who leave behind a legacy will either be demonized,
or find their legacy corrupted by a pretnetious and hypocritical
preisthood, who will mislead people, as all mainstream religions are an
example.
I see that being a mystic requires a great deal of
youthful effort, which does not come to the person who had a career and a
family, then retired and took up a contemplative life. However, that
person in retirement might have acquired a savings that he, or she,
could use to fund a religious movement.
In hindsight, the path
that I led as a dedicated contemplative doing healing work, or just
being a mendicant foraging seems like either would have been the best
choice.
So, in conclusion what we do is up to each and everyone
of us/ I can only recommend meditating skillfully 3 to 6 times a day.
And, chances are the world will ignore you, or quickly forget you. So,
develope no attachments, and lead a lifelong spiritual life.
