Career Success - Dr. Frederick Lenz, Zen Master Rama
"Next to meditation itself, I really can't think of anything more important than the development of your career.
People who are involved in self-discovery lead different types of lives. The lives they lead are not necessarily the lives of renunciation. Rather, it is a structuring of the elements in your life in a particular way.
Many people excuse themselves by claiming that they don't have to do work anymore because they are beyond it. They are simply afraid of getting their hands dirty. Getting your hands dirty washes your being.
If you seek enlightenment, then career is a very important idea on your agenda. Approach your career from this standpoint and you will have a very different career. You will be successful.
Self-control is completely necessary for increasing and raising your attention level. One of the places you practice that is at work.
It is necessary to be focused. This is the raison d'etre of career.
Some people have a very strange idea that material success does not coincide harmoniously with self-realization, which is absurd. Material success is as much a part of the universe as anything else.
To assume that wealth or sexuality or the usage of power, any of these things are not void in nature, gives them a reality they don't actually have.
One of the greatest mistakes that people make who pursue self-discovery is they neglect to develop their careers. There is a popular notion that those who seek enlightenment should abandon the things of this world.
It is necessary to be occupied almost all the time, to have your mind focused; otherwise, you get very spaced out. There are many variant psychic forces and powers that roam through the worlds. You can pick them up.
I meet people who neglect career. Their lives aren't centered at all. They don't have much money. They have this spaced-out look in their eyes. Their chances for enlightenment are very small, unless they change the way they live.
You don't want to become so sensitive that you can't interact with people in the world. If you get to that point, you are not practicing. You are running away from the world, and you've made yourself weak.
It is possible to renounce everything and attain enlightenment. But most people don't want to renounce; they wish to run away from responsibility and hard work.
Work sustains us as bodies and it consumes a great deal of energy. The conservation of energy is the component theme of Buddhist practice and yoga. That is why people live in monasteries.
There are lifetimes where one goes off into the Himalayas and meditate in a cave. But this is not really one of those lifetimes for most people. Our earth has changed.
We live in a competitive society. To pretend that it is not there is ridiculous. That is how the whole planet is set up. If you are not competitive, you do not succeed, you do not survive.
Money equals the ability to be mobile in this word, to travel, to live in a place that is suitable, to not be brought down or drained, to not to be a victim.
Money is very useful in this particular world to buy you space. In the old days, there were not too many people on the planet. Today everybody owns the forests and woods and there are "No Trespassing" signs everywhere.
The earth is not the same everywhere. Certain powers are available in one part of the earth that are not available in another part. The rich realize this. They live in these places and they use that power to stay rich.
Some of the highest vibratory places one can visit have become very expensive. They are the domains of the rich. The rich figured out a long time ago that certain neighborhoods have more power.
Without money, you are powerless in this world. You are totally subject to whatever happens. To be without money in the physical world is to be powerless.
The way our world is set up, a higher economic priority is given to things that bespeak a greater refinement. It is just a determination that was made, to make money.
We live in a world of careers. Work, as Sri Krishna points out in the Bhagavad Gita, is a necessary path for everyone attaining enlightenment. It is something that we all do. If you don't meet the challenge, if you don't learn anything new, if you kind of just veg-out in this lifetime, then you will be right back in the same place in your next life.
When you visit the Zen Monasteries, one of the first things required is that you bring a donation. They have to pay for those monasteries. The upkeep is fantastic. The monks have to be fed, and so on.
It's very important for the coming times to have a sound economic base and to be as mobile as possible. The energy lines will be shifting strongly as we enter into the end phase of the earth's cycle.
If you can marry a handsome man or a beautiful woman and you have two choices and both people are equally nice or obnoxious, you might as well marry the wealthy one.
Naturally, the Zen Master Rama philosophy is to have a high state of awareness and material success. The two really go together. You should be able to draw the power of material success through you.
Economics is important because it's possible to buy the places that are necessary to live in relative inaccessibility and seclusion, or to move with a bit of style and chic-ness into the middle of civilization.
Many people spend their life always worrying about whether they have enough to cover expenses. They experience unhappiness.
The obvious answer to money is to have tons of it - simply figure out how to make more money than you really need and go for it.
If you are having problems with money, the answer isn't cutting back. The answer is to make more money.
Since we spend more time and energy doing it, career becomes the most important item on our agenda to turn into a meditative form. Next to meditation itself, I really can't think of anything more important than the development of your career.
In the West, people spend most of their time and energy working. The problem is you are so tired from work that you don't have much energy to meditate - unless you use work in a tantric way.
Do a strong work meditation all day. You won't be as exhausted as everyone else because you have been gaining a kind of internal power from your work.
Most people are operating out of repetition. If you come to work or school each day with the same mind-state, you probably can't get more out of it than you did yesterday.
The work that most people do in the world tends to deaden them, deadens their mind, uses up their energy and they get a paycheck and old age and not much energy. You get the check and they get your energy. That energy is translated into corporate dollars.
A Buddhist is working not just to get paid, but working to advance spiritually. You shouldn't create a syntactical break in your mind between your career and your religious practice.
Most people want to make maximum money for minimum work, and that does not result in a happy life. Work does not become an active force to advance your awareness into higher states.
Work perfects you if you do it properly. It is a chance to exercise control, restraint, discipline, creative inspiration. If you are mindful in your work, if you put your best effort into it, then something comes back to you.
People who work to bring about perfection see work as an extension of themselves. The point is to do a good job. That will empower you. To do a poor job will make you weaker.
Two people can be work at the same job, side by side. One person is working just for a paycheck. Another is working to perfect their being. Some people think that the material world will make them happy.
It doesn't matter what your work really is. It is exciting to do well at something. It empowers you.
If you are smart, you never retire. You may retire from that job you have had for many years, but you will pick up another career for yourself of some type.
There are some careers that will develop your mind more than others. In the study of enlightenment, it is most important to develop your mind and your body.
Pick a profession that will give you enough money to give you economic freedom. It is nice to pick a career that really taxes your mind. Use your mind in new and creative ways. You will find that your mind will develop and become stronger.
If you seek to develop the mind fully, for the enlightenment process, you will benefit if your career is related to computer science, law, medicine, or the arts.
I recommend computer science to people who practice meditation. The mental structures that are used in computer science are very similar exercises done in Buddhist monasteries.
The study of law, medicine and the arts, in each of these instances, the developed mindset is very helpful to one who is practicing meditation.
In the Atlantean civilization, law existed to create order, that is to say, to see justice was done. In the old way, the law was equal for all, not the strong win and the weak lose.
Atlantean medicine was evolved to heal, since healing is oneness.
In the creative arts you draw a special power. The discipline required is awesome to be an actor or an actress, to be really good, not just another one waiting tables.
We've done this before in other worlds, in other lives. It is our strength, law, medicine, entertainment, and computers, the networking of energy. All of these are arts.
It is very important that your career raises your awareness. If your career is lowering your personal power, then it has got to change.
Work in a place that feels good to you. Select the best of that which is available. The Zen of working is just to do it, not to worry about it. Feel you would be doing it without the money.
Combine meditation with career as a yoga. You will find that your practice will not be any less powerful than a person who lives in a monastery. You might even excel because practice in a monastery can get very one-sided.
Be a great capitalist. Be a great socialist. Be a great whatever you want to be, but do it with style, clarity and precision. That is the hallmark of those who seek higher knowledge and truth.
Use career to develop yourself. Have fun with it. Dedicate your activities and your career to eternity, to enlightenment.
I encourage you to make money and to become enlightened. The two are not necessarily different. Have fun with whatever you do because we are only here for a while.
Your intent is important. You will pull a very deep power when you are working not just for yourself, but you are working for your enlightenment and to aid others in their enlightenment.
Success does not necessarily create happiness. I could take you on a tour of West Lost Angeles. You would be surprised that happiness does not blossom in Beverly Hills any more than it does in most places.
Career success is using your daily work, schoolwork, work in the world, work at home, as a way of advancing your mental state.
There is the flash in the pan, the sudden success. But continued success is dependent upon tremendous attention to detail.
Having the competitive edge to be able to succeed is having control of your time, life and mind.
Career success means making enough money to lead the kind of life you would like to lead as a practicing Buddhist.
If you think of thoughts of success and back them up with hard work, then you will be a winner. If you cherish doubts, negative thoughts, then you won't be a winner at all.
From my point of view, which is the point of view of no illusions, there is only winning and losing. You might as well be a winner.
Duality is a part of reality, and there is definitely winning and losing. If you don't think so talk to someone who has beaten cancer, talk to somebody who hasn't.
As long as you are in the relative worlds, you should be realistic and know there is winning and losing here.
Winning and losing are feelings; something in us knows if we have won or lost.
People use ideas of non-duality as an escape from reality. It is very easy to say there is no winning and losing and justify the fact that you didn't do a very good job.
I think it is very important to view life in terms of winning and losing until complete enlightenment has occurred.
I believe in winning. It is clean. I like it. I definitely don't believe in losing. It is a bad attitude. It is not necessary to lose, but it does happen once in a while.
Winning is an approach to life. The place it starts is not on the playing field or in the business organization; nor is it competitive. We are trying to do our best to bring perfection into whatever we turn our attention to.
Winning begins at home. It begins with your thoughts and your actions.
Most people are taught from an early age on, to conceive of themselves as losers. They are taught that there are a very special few who are eminently successful in life.
The main reason people fail is they become attached to others who hold them back. Letting go of others and going forward may seem like a lonely and impossible task, but I assure you it is not.
If you decide that you are a winner, and if you hold that image in your mind strongly enough, you will become a winner.
If you want to succeed always associate with winners, people who have understood something. You will notice that they all share something in common, tremendous attention to detail in their personal lives and associations.
You need a string of successes behind you to buoy that self-image; otherwise, you have a terribly negative attitude about yourself and it is very unlikely you are going to succeed at anything.
Approach each task in your life, no matter how simple or how complex, with power. Pick and choose things initially which are not impossible to succeed at. You need to develop the profile of a winner.
Success will come about because you are in a higher state of mind. If you create good karma, then you will go into higher states of mind.
As an individual learns and practices higher meditation techniques, a tremendous volume of energy and creativity flows through them. If they direct some of that energy towards their career, then naturally they will become successful.
As you progress towards enlightenment you will find that you become a winner at anything, not because you are so concerned about winning anymore. You are just concerned about the pursuit of excellence.
Power is something that is not really visible. Some people have the power to rise above circumstance. Sociological factors and DNA are not all that determine success. It is power.
Willpower determines success in business, interpersonal relationships, health, whatever it is. All the activities in your life, success and failure in them, are dependent upon your ability to manifest will.
People who tap the kundalini and are able to release it are more successful. Anyone who is really on top has some access to the kundalini. They have learned somewhere down the line, in this or other lives, ways of releasing power
A student of mine is an actor, he used to go into these interviews and sometimes not get the part. He was "taken out". Someone would use power in a way that would cause him not to succeed
The way to win the race is not to trip somebody else. Simply have more energy. You will not only have a greater chance of winning; but whether you win or lose, you'll be happy.
When you hold positive thoughts and images in your mind, you raise your power level and you create a vibratory energy around those thoughts - those thoughts are more likely to manifest.
As you evolve and develop your psychic abilities, you will enter into perceptions of life, truth, beauty and you will gain power...you will gain the competitive edge in daily life.
You work many hours. It is the major activity of your life. You can lose a lot of energy or gain a lot of energy from it. Put your full attention into it and do a good job, because it is part of your impeccability.
Use career to develop yourself. Have fun with it. Dedicate your activities and your career to eternity, to enlightenment.
Think about these things and see if they make sense to you. You will find that work will no longer be a four-letter word. It will be a three-letter word -- fun.
All things are divine. And yet, we pick and choose among them what's appropriate."
- Dr. Frederick Lenz, Zen Master Rama
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