spiritual job and life advice (yoga journal)

Take This Job and Love It

Stephan Bodian is a Zen teacher, licensedpsychotherapist, and spiritual consultant. He's the author of severalbooks, including Meditation for Dummies and Buddhism for Dummies www.stephanbodian.org http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/1163_1.cfm

Find a more spiritual approach to your work and you'll uncover newmeaning in your life.
By Stephan Bodian

As the new year begins and many of us take stock of our lives,chances are that questions about work and career are front and centerin our thoughts. After all, most of us spend more than half of ourwaking hours at work, and our jobs deeply influence every other aspectof our lives: the time we spend with family and friends, the materialsecurity and comforts we enjoy, the education we can provide for ourchildren, the places we travel to, the people we know.

Can This Job Be Saved?Jennifer was a 32-year-old sales manager and soon-to-be vice presidentat a pharmaceutical company when she confronted many of the issuesthat lie at the heart of right livelihood. Jennifer had deferredfinding a life partner and having children until she had achieved thematerial success she'd been taught she deserved. Now that she ownedher own home in the suburbs and was earning a six-figure income, shesought my help in counseling because she found herself asking sometough and unsettling questions. (Her name and some details have beenchanged to honor her privacy.)

Jennifer definitely enjoyed her work—the contact with clients, therelationships with her boss and coworkers, the frequent travel. But as she pursued her passion for yoga and began to explore a healthy,spiritual lifestyle, she found cause to wonder whether her company wasdoing more harm than good. Her involvement with alternative healinghad led her to question whether the benefits of the drugs she was paidto enthusiastically endorse truly outweighed their risks. And repeatednews revelations of corporate malfeasance in the pharmaceuticalindustry prompted her to challenge the ethics of her own company'spolicies, including aggressive marketing that attempted to sell drugsto people who might not even need them.Jennifer was in a quandary. After nearly a decade spent building hercareer, she had begun to doubt the fundamental principles andpractices of the industry in which she worked. And as she took stockof her life, she realized that being a sales manager gave her scantopportunity to express her more creative and spiritual sides. "What should I do now?" she kept asking. "Do I need to leave my job andpursue an entirely different line of work? Or should I stay where Iam, do the inner work necessary to bring a different attitude to thework I already do, and express my creativity somewhere else?"If you find Jennifer's dilemma familiar, you're not alone.

Of course,the answers you'll find depend on your life circumstances—and on theapproach to right livelihood that resonates most with you. In recentyears, three main views of what constitutes meaningful, sacred workhave gained widespread popularity. First, teachers of Buddhism enjoinus to do no harm and, if possible, do good for others. Second,best-selling authors of personal growth books, who can trace theirintellectual lineage to the Christian tradition of "finding yourcalling," encourage us to "do what we love" and trust that theuniverse will support us in our efforts. And third, there are manyreligious traditions that teach that we can transform any activityinto sacred work by the power of our presence, devotion, andintention.As it turns out, Jennifer resolved her dilemma by drawing from each ofthese different but compatible approaches. After acknowledging thatshe couldn't continue to work for a drug company yet was unwilling togive up her material comforts, she transitioned to a new career as amortgage broker in an upscale suburb.

In this quest, examining the three main approaches toright livelihood can help us clarify a personal path toward a worklife that better reflects our deepest values and sense of purpose.As taught by the Buddha and his followers, the basic concept of rightlivelihood is simple: Do no harm.

If humans are going to survive on this planet beyondthe next few generations, the teaching indicates, we must livesustainably—that is, in such a way that we replenish what we use andgive back as much as we take. As the Native American tradition putsit, we must be aware of the effect of our actions on the next sevengenerations.What Would the Buddha Do?But right livelihood informed by such a refined sensibility oftenturns out to be easier to imagine than to implement, as Patrick Clarkand Linsi Deyo discovered. Longtime Buddhists, the couple thoughtthey'd found a perfect solution to right livelihood when theyestablished Carolina Morning Designs, a firm that manufactures andsells meditation cushions. But the couple's spiritual idealism andtheir aversion to the competitiveness of the marketplace initiallyprevented them from engaging in the business practices necessary toproduce and promote their zafus successfully. "We were naive andidealistic at first," Clark admits. "Our survival depended on gainingnew customers, but we didn't want to compete against other companieswho were also trying to do good."

At the same time, they faced difficult choices that challenged theircommitment to environmental sustainability. "Cotton is one of the most harmful crops in terms of depleting the environment and using the mostherbicides and pesticides," Clark says. "But most people, evenmeditators, are unwilling to pay the extra cost for an organic zafu.We had to shift our attitude and learn to live with the economicrealities. It's idiot compassion to believe that you can completelyavoid doing any harm. And even Buddhists need to meet their basicneeds."As Clark and Deyo quickly learned, practicing right livelihood in thepurest Buddhist sense can be difficult, perhaps impossible, given theextraordinary complexity of our political economy. At the time theBuddha was developing his teachings, many of his disciples were monksand nuns who depended on alms. And since many lay followers raisedtheir own food and made their own clothes, they could mostly avoiddoing harm, because they were able to observe the consequences oftheir actions directly.

Today, however, every act has countless hiddenramifications. "The problem," Whitmyer says, "is that every occupationrequires us to sometimes do things that compromise our spiritualvalues—for example, using nonrenewable natural resources or nottelling the whole truth. We can only do our best given thecircumstances at hand."Buddhist teacher and social activist Joanna Macy, coauthor of World AsLover, World As Self (Parallax, 1991), agrees. "Right livelihood isfar more complex now than it was in the time of the Buddha, because wefind ourselves in economic and ecological relationships that aresimply unsustainable in the long term," she explains. "To the degree that we participate in these relationships, we inevitably cause harmin some way through our work." That doesn't mean we need to relinquishour efforts, but it often means we may need to adjust our idealism andour own expectations. "In such an imperfect world," Macy says, "theclosest we can come to right livelihood may be to hold the rightintention and do our best. In this sense, right livelihood may simplymean keeping your eyes and ears open to the sources you use and theeffects of what you do, and responding to what you learn as much asyou can." In other words, perhaps the best we can manage is "goodenough" livelihood.

Finding Your Calling Although buzzwords like interdependence and sustainability appeal toour sense of social and ethical responsibility, they aren't theprimary motivation for everyone who yearns for right livelihood. Manyof us are more concerned with finding work that lights our hearts,ignites our passions, and keeps our juices flowing day after day. Fedup with a deadening 9-to-5 (or 8-to-7) grind, we're searching for acareer that gives expression to our deepest interests, talents, anddreams—creative "soul work" that lends our life meaning and purpose.While bowing respectfully to the Buddhist injunction not to causeharm, we may be more attuned to mantras like Joseph Campbell's "Follow your bliss," Carlos Castaneda's "Choose a path that has heart foryou," and Marsha Sinetar's "Do what you love, the money will follow.""Everyone is a unique being on this earth with unique gifts to share,"says Michael Toms, coauthor with his wife, Justine Wills Toms, of TrueWork (Bell Tower, 1998).

"To the extent that we contribute our gifts,the universe supports us. Finding our true work involves following ourinner voice, heeding the spiritual call, and living our passions."Toms knows something about this—he is the founding president of NewDimensions Broadcasting Network, a nonprofit foundation that producesa weekly radio program about personal and social transformation. "It'simportant to give our passions priority," he says. "If we can't do itin our work, we can begin outside the workplace, and it will graduallygrow. Sometimes a passion leads to income-producing activity,sometimes not. Often it may be necessary to subsidize your passion, aswe did for years with New Dimensions.""Meaningful work involves bringing your own unique talents and giftsto the task of serving the world," agrees career counselor SueFrederick, who teaches at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "Thequickest way to get people in touch with such work is to encouragethem to share their dreams—the secret dreams inside their hearts.People just light up when they talk about the work that is or would bemeaningful for them."Beneath the sanguine approach to right livelihood that the Toms andFrederick espouse lies a confidence that our deeper passions,interests, and urges naturally guide us to make a unique contributionthat sets our own hearts singing and benefits others as well. Or inother words, deeply aligning with our individual creative impulsesbrings us into alignment with the needs of the whole.But the "follow your bliss" approach raises some thorny questions.Isn't a real estate developer who destroys environmentally sensitivehabitats to build new golf courses and expensive condo complexes following her passions?
Doesn't Osama bin Laden heed the call of hisinner voice when he organizes and launches terrorist attacks? How canwe know, in other words, whether our deepest calling will trulybenefit others? Don't we need other guidelines, such as the yamas(restraints) and niyamas (prescribed observances) of yoga, the ethicalprecepts of Buddhism, or the injunctions of the Ten Commandments?"The 'do what you love and the money will follow' approach can bebased on ignorance," Macy says. "The work that we love and the moneywe earn may have some pretty nefarious sources and consequences. Youcan be an awakened, conscious person in service of an unconscioussystem. Unless you are attuned to the consequences of what you do, youare not practicing right livelihood, no matter how much you love thework."Whitmyer concurs that the "follow your bliss" model of rightlivelihood requires careful calibration. "Do what you love and themoney will follow—if you're doing the right thing," he says. "But youneed to explore 'love' and 'right' in great depth to fully understandthis saying. The exploration begins in the center of your being, witha conscious effort to improve your mental, emotional, and physicalhealth.

You need to cultivate a level of awareness that allows you tonotice your emotions and become less reactive, and you need to hangout with people who are similarly conscious and aware."The challenge in the 'do what you love' approach is to access adeeper level of being, beyond the ego," he continues. "When we dropinto the center of our being and let the ego rest, what we really wantis identical with what's wanted. But unless we do that, the ego's incharge."Want What You HaveThe third primary tributary in contemporary ideas about rightlivelihood is one that flows against our mainstream culture ofmaterialism and individualism. In our country's growth-obsessed socialclimate, we tend to promote a view perhaps unique to the UnitedStates: that each of us has not only the capacity and the opportunitybut also the obligation to do and become whatever we set our heartson. We forget that we may have limited control over our careertrajectories due to the constraints of money, resources, energy,health, familial support, and social status. Instead, we are taught tobelieve that we should be the masters of our fates, and we'reencouraged to feel guilty, restless, inadequate, and dissatisfied ifwe don't succeed in living up to our most ambitious expectations.In contrast, the Indian culture that gave rise to the wisdom teachingsof Buddhism and yoga generally embraced the idea that each person isdestined to fulfill a particular role, or dharma, in life. From thisperspective, our job is not to maximize our potential or shop aroundfor work that's personally fulfilling, but to create right livelihoodout of the work we've already been given—by dedicating ourselves toit, mindfully and wholeheartedly, for the sake of God and the greatergood.

As the Buddha taught, the secret to happiness is to want what wealready have instead of wanting what we don't have. In keeping withthat teaching, any truly dharmic approach to right livelihood willhelp us find both peace and fulfillment in whatever job situation wecurrently face. Indeed, the Buddhist literature is replete withstories of people who used the power of their intentions to makesacred their work as butchers, street sweepers, prostitutes, tavernkeepers, and other seemingly undesirable, and even unsavory, occupations.Perhaps the most exalted expression of this traditional approach toright livelihood comes to us from the Bhagavad Gita, one of theseminal scriptures of Hinduism and a bible for the practice of bothkarma yoga (selfless service) and bhakti yoga (devotional yoga). Inthe Gita, Lord Krishna, an avatar of the god Vishnu, expounds the viewthat only action performed as worship of the Divine, without anyattachment to the results, brings lasting fulfillment.Responding to Arjuna, a warrior who agonizes over whether to fulfillhis duty even though it means he will end up killing his ownrelatives, Krishna teaches that "those who perform their duty with noconcern for the results are the true yogis—not those who refrain fromaction. Right action requires that you renounce your own selfish willand act without attachment to objects or actions."Of course, most of us in this day and age have a great deal moresocial mobility and choice than the men and women of ancient Indiadid—and thus we have more freedom to consider our ethical concerns andpersonal passions as we seek right livelihood. But all of us canbenefit from an approach to work that incorporates Krishna's advice.The path of selfless action that Krishna recommends can transform any activity into spiritual practice; it serves as a blueprint for a trulyyogic approach to right livelihood. When we view our work as anopportunity to stop clinging to a personal sense of what we need,want, or deserve—surrendering our limited ideas of what needs to bedone to the mystery of the Divine as it unfolds...