Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than for February 08, 2016

I desire to marry a good-looking nymphomaniac who owns a trust fund and a liquor store.

hawgowar, thank you for reaching .25 mm below the surface of your psyche. I’m sure you have your avid readers rolling on the floor with your original and subtle humor…. Gavin, keep up the great work. Alan Watts rocks!

I read one Alan Watts book long ago. Shallow,and padded with repetitions to stretch it out.

Too simple, too shallow. Sometimes working 9-5 is the only way to pay for a life which lets you do what you want. Be a car mechanic and write poetry in your spare time, just get the balance right. Also why does this kind of “advice” always cite selfish occupations? Why not suggest people may want to be a paramedic, police officer, soldier, charity worker rather than always self-centered vocations like those quoted here?

@David – yep, all I wanted was to earn a good wage, so I could do what I like to do. I was also in the military for 20 years, and now do volunteer work. Content with moderate dreams.

Yes, this assumes that everyone has some grand dream. I’m good with my 9-5, which supports me and my child and has good benefits. I can read/write/volunteer/dance in my spare time and that makes me happy too. It’s pretentious to think that everyone who has a “regular” job is unhappy.

In 1969, when I moved to San Francisco, KSAN – the amazing progressive radio station – would play Alan Watts lectures in lieu of religious programming on Sunday mornings. It was a wonderful, peaceful, challenging way to start the day..

How foolish. Pretend to give advice to eschew seeking to work for money in favor of doing what you love, and justify it with the implication that it will pay off in cash. Beware of people who tell you they know what’s good for you. Learn to answer that question for yourself.

Long before Alan Watts, there was Isaac Watts the hymn lyricist. I think Isaac affected myriads more people than did Alan, and still does. Say what you will about his religious themes, his following stanzas always give me the shivers:.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,Bears all its sons away;They fly, forgotten, as a dreamDies at the opening day..Like flowery fields the nations standPleased with the morning light;The flowers beneath the mower’s handLie withering ere ‘tis night.4

I relate and adore but I guess it’s not for everyone :) If you ‘work at what you love to do’ the work will come to you.

“Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow:”by Marsha Sinetar

Do as I did. Get a job where you say everyday “OMG!” they’re paying me to do this? I’d pay them, if they asked."

This is irresponsible babble. No one wants to be a garbage man or a janitor. Do you think those folks working the fields are thinking "this is the life i always wanted? Of course not. But someone still has to do those jobs.

This system may work well if one doesn’t take on or produce dependents. In the latter case, your choices should depend on whether the money follows or not.

" No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillionShine," —Hopkins, “The Windhover”Many people find a life doing required duty brings out the gold in them. As one guru had his student polishing river stones for years, true Zen teaches us the clarity and wisdom of chopping wood or carrying water. All that matters is Who is doing these things, not the activity itself. Live a life of joy, whatever you are pressed to do. We can allow ourselves to be happy if we so choose, even in the worst circumstances. A good book: “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl.

What I keep telling people is that when they have their dream in mind, they need to scale things back a few notches and find a day job in that field; that’ll pay the bills until they make it big.[]For example, that kid who wants to be a poet could seek a teaching certification and become a language instructor. Or the kid who wants to paint could see what it would take to get a job at an art museum. In both cases, they’d have an excuse to spend time studying those who came before and learning from it.

Simplistic. Different things work for different individuals..Some become stars in their dream activities, but others who have dreams lack the competence to live them. Some may dream of a job that ends at 5 o’clock, so that they can spend their evenings and weekends enjoying a dream that isn’t corrupted by the need to live from it. The variations are endless.

how pizzed are mumsy and daddy to find they could have saved $150,000 tuition and still had a professional manure shoveler in the family?

“Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing.”

Provided that what you like doing is starving to death out in the cold.

Pie in the sky to say the least. I know plenty of people who “followed their heart” in theater, arts, music and all ended up in jobs they hated. In no small part because they decided having a family was more important than living a self serving life that in most cases ends up a dead end. Posts like this assume you’re alone in the world and only living for yourself.