Friday, October 3, 2008

BUDDHIST PRACTICE: My need - my intention to solve this problem

I aim to live a simple life, without many of the contraptions that society say are necessary. I aim to find some form of work that will enable me to live my own pace of life in my own home. I aim to find some right work that will pay enough for me to live from and leave enough time to fully practice Buddhism.

A few examples of how I prefer to live:
* I do not and will not drive a car - I was born with a pair of feet attached to a pair of legs and prefer what I was given by Mother Nature than creating mechanical pollutants to replace such.
* I do not and will not have heating/cooling in our home. Mother Nature may be cruel in extreme-season, but I would prefer to be shiver or sweat than die to nature. A jahe wangi and a sleeping bag for winter, ice cubes and fresh-chopped chili meals in summer.
* I do not and will not use a microwave. I want to eat real, healthy, nutritional food, not quick pre-packaged frozen stomach-filler.
* I do not and will not own a cell phone. I prefer to be left to peace in my own home, and rarely even plug the ordinary phone into the phone line, let alone accept using a cancer-causing contraption that will disturb me everywhere I go at anytime.

What needs to be done is for me to find a form of income that I can do from home, regular enough to prevent pressure from society. It has to be something I can pick up or put down when nature says, rather than the clock of man. It has to be something I can do that feels right inside, rather than just provides money. It has to be something I can do now, rather than in the future. It has to be something that allows me to continue to put the emphasis and focus on my Buddhist practice, rather than toss Buddhism into a corner and practice whenever I have a spare minute or hour.

Many Western world Buddhists season their life with Buddhism - but I seek to LIVE Buddhism and season it with life!

I am not willing to follow the Buddhist trend of the Western world to live out a few bits of Buddhism in an everyday life. To slip in a weekend away-from-home meditation retreat each year, or a paperback 'how to live as a Buddhist today' manual each six months, or run to a temple once a week. To me, that is not practicing Buddhism. I need to devote my entire life to Buddhism, and to do this, I must locate a way of right livelihood that can be done from my home and life, enabling me to read, contemplate, and practice when nature calls.

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