
Haven't found your calling? Stop looking. - toddpersen
http://workinthewild.com/blog/2013/11/18/havent-found-your-calling-stop-looking
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6cxs2hd6
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. ;)

~~~
GuiA
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 :(

~~~
6cxs2hd6
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. :)

~~~
goldenkey
I never thought of it that way. Your comment has enlightened me, funny enough.
:-)

------
TrainedMonkey
TL:DR

Just learn to enjoy what you have.

~~~
md224
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.

~~~
delluminatus
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.

~~~
unclebucknasty
A simple, but insightful comment. When you consider the phrase "inner peace",
you realize that it _must_ actually be the natural state.

After all, what could cause a person to lack internal happiness/peace except
external influences and, perhaps most importantly, their own judgments about
those influences? Even judgments about themselves must be based on external
factors, otherwise what is one to consider deficient in his/her own existence?

