How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Rajat Bhatia, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 2:35 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 2:35 AM

How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 4 Join Date: 4/27/19 Recent Posts
I don't quite understand how I can practice meditation and inquiry with the levels of depth and intensity that will actually bring valuable insights. It has been my observation that certain kinds of environments are necessary to facilitate these levels of inquiry. To begin with, you gotta have a lot of free time where no one disturbs you. That itself is nothing short of a luxury. If you choose not to renounce the world and be a part of this society, you need to find a way to earn money to feed yourself. And for that you need work. But chances are that you are gonna end up working in an unconscious environment and lose most part of your day there. How can you stay in the society and have all the time in the world to observe, experiment, inquire without being disturbed by anyone and have enough money to take care of all your necessities? 

It sounds like a really genius life design. I don't really understand how I can create something like that. So if your life is like that, please comment and let me know what you did to make that happen. 
Jyet, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 3:40 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 3:38 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 59 Join Date: 7/15/12 Recent Posts
Hello Rajat,

A  question I myself have been grappling with since I got hooked on this path. A question to which I haven't found any easy answer. All my "solutions" below demand effort, effort in another direction than sitting and contemplating, for that I don't think there is any other solution that becoming a monk/sadhu and depending on the order it might be a lot of other things to do for a monastic anyway.....

If you are people-oriented you can try to find work where you help people and make that part of your practice. This seems to be a route many spiritual people take. Think yoga teachers, therapists and so on......

If you are entrepreneurial, I would defiantly start a business, a business where you can make yourself redundant in the future or sell for a large profit. Obviously, no guarantees and it will be lots of hard work for the first years.

Otherwise, the only solution I have found is to grind it out following the formula. Salary - frugality = invest surplus, Basically earn as much as you can without getting burned out, spend as little as possible and put your surplus to work. There will come a time where you don't have to work anymore. The more you can save each month in percentage terms the quicker it will go. The math is really quite simple. See the links below for inspiration. 

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/ — a combination of simple living, anticonsumerism, DIY ethics, self-reliance, resilience, and applied capitalism

But now I'm eager to hear what solutions to this problem other people have come up with? This is a topic dear to my heart.

 
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 4:08 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 4:06 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
One great thing about vipassana is that you can do it anywhere. Everything that distracts you is a great meditation object. I started out with only 20 minutes per day but found that I could squeeze in more meditation in the midst of daily life: 10 minutes at the office to get centered, a cople of minutes here and there to let go of tensions, a half hour in the laundry room* to make use of the time... and soon I found that other things that had occupied my free time were not that important.

That being said, I only work half time because of disability.

*) To be honest, the laundry room didn’t become an option until recently. Before that, spending time in the laundry room always led to sensory overload.
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Noah D, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 4:06 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 4:06 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
I love mr money mustache.

But you can also just do off cushion practice while you work.
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 4:15 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 4:15 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
I think there is great risk in the temptation of making efforts in order to be able to meditate later. Honestly, I think meditating here and now on the time slots that are available is a more effective solution, even if it’s only a few minutes here and there.
Jyet, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 5:00 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 4:59 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 59 Join Date: 7/15/12 Recent Posts
An argument against my own post, which is very mind-solution based. I do believe there is another way, a more heart and faith-based
for those of supreme surrender. I'm not there yet, unfortunately. 

Looking through Jacobs from earlyretirenmentextreme's blog roll I refound a link to Suelo's blog, a man who has lived moneyless for 15 years in the US having faith in the kindness of stranger's and that life will provide.

http://zerocurrency.blogspot.com/2018/10/gift-economy-suelos-tedx-talk.html

R
eading through his comment section I found this gem from Dogen. Inspirational for sure........

"Students of the Way, do not worry about food and clothing. Just maintain the Buddha’s precepts and do not engage in worldly affairs. The Buddha said to use abandoned rags for clothing and beg for food. In what age will these two things ever be exhausted?

Do not forget the swiftness of impermanence nor be disturbed vainly by worldly affairs. As long as your dew like human life lasts, think exclusively of the Buddha-Way and do not be concerned with other things....

In this world, inherently each person receives a certain amount of food and clothing as a gift. It does not come by being sought after nor does it stop coming by not seeking after it. Just leave it to fate and do not worry about it. If you refrain from arousing bodhi-mind in this life, excusing yourself on the grounds that this is the degenerate-age, in what life will it be possible to attain the Way?" --Dogen Zenji
Rajat Bhatia, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 6:06 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 5:55 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

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Well even though I understand where Dogen is coming from, I still feel that before taking such decisions it is better to consider other options. I have considered renouncing before but I don't want to become a part of any monastery or join a cult. Being that the case, I would have to support myself some way if I am not to beg people or feast myself on the bins. No matter how much you feel about surrendering to "the way". life's necessities will constantly become a hindrance if not taken care of. As a part of the Morality Training, I think it is on us to find the answer to this problem because its resolution can amazingly support our spiritual path. 
Rajat Bhatia, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 6:03 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 6:03 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 4 Join Date: 4/27/19 Recent Posts
But don't you think the risk is worth it? What do you think could go wrong? 
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Andromeda, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 6:18 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 6:18 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 393 Join Date: 1/15/18 Recent Posts
One of the most intensely productive periods of practice in my life was during a time of brutally difficult and time-consuming professional training. It worked because spiritual practice was THE overarching thing in my life under which everything else was subsumed. I was basically obsessed and used every free moment during the day to practice in some way and really made the most of what little time I could devote to formal practice. And I was profoundly grateful for every minute of it.

Using distractions like being disturbed by others is an important part of practice. Every single moment in life is an opportunity to practice, no matter where we are and what we're doing. Having the right intention and the right attitude is key. It may not be easy, but it can be done.
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 6:22 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 6:22 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Rajat Bhatia:
But don't you think the risk is worth it? What do you think could go wrong? 

No.

The risk is that it will never happen or that faulty expectations will distort the practice. Sounds very contra-productive to me.

Also, what Andromeda said - that is really the key.
Jyet, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 7:14 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 7:13 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 59 Join Date: 7/15/12 Recent Posts
I think.....that if you or I still think about what could go wrong.......or at least let those thoughts win we are simply not ready for the surrendered approach. When we are we will simply cast off our life and wander off, like the Buddha.....

Until then to practice where we are is great advice and is the advice you see championed in pragmatic dharma circles when this topic comes up. Obviously where we are is what we have to work with.

If we don't have the faith to be completely surrendered, but still practice where we are I don't see any problem with using a bit of mind to eventually over time, financial independence or here and now, part-time work, for example, solve our situation.

So Rajat? Have you come up with any solutions of your own?
Rajat Bhatia, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 7:54 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 7:54 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 4 Join Date: 4/27/19 Recent Posts
Not Really Jyet. But perhaps I think my situation is a bit different. I am a college drop out and I don't work yet so I have to figure out a way to make a living no matter what. Since I am invested in spirituality I was looking for solutions that could allow me to progress in this path. Perhaps I should have mentioned that earlier. 
Jyet, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 8:47 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 8:45 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 59 Join Date: 7/15/12 Recent Posts
So what kind of work are you suited for? Do you know your talents and personality traits?

What kind of work could you realistically get? it's hard for me/us to answer those questions?

But maybe another MMM link about jobs who makes you over $50000 without a degree could serve in a college dropouts contemplation?


https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/07/25/50-jobs-over-50000-without-a-degree-part-1/


"In my current position of Man Who No Longer Needs a Job, I have the rare privilege of circulating around the country and meeting many people, then hearing about what they do for a living. And what I have learned has blown my mind. While our parents always told us that you need a degree to get anywhere in the job market, the reality has been flipped on its head in the last two decades.

There are all sorts of people out there quietly making a mint, in occupations that I thought were either nonexistent or low-paying. Some of them have questionable skills and you could easily outperform them in their own job. And yet, many of the university-educated job seekers are stuck on the other side of this easy money divide."
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Nick O, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 9:48 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 9:48 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 317 Join Date: 11/5/17 Recent Posts
Don't underestimate what an hour a day + steady off-cushion practice can do. There are people with families and full-time jobs that make great progress.
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 10:01 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 4/27/19 10:01 AM

RE: How do you make money if you spend all time meditating?

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Exactly. I believe off-cushion practice is very underestimated.

And quite frankly, if one requires a very silent and remote place to meditate, what good does it do? One will be cranky and stressed out in no time once one gets back to civilization. As I see it, meditation is not an escape, but a tool for dealing with our existance as it is.

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