You are, and Aren't Your Work

The business focus regarding attachments and phenomena is sort of obvious. As you might expect, there's going to be a paradox. It's this, I am, and I am not, what I do.

I am what I do in this sense: I want the words and actions I perform to always reflect what I value. There was a prayer I used to say before preaching: "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O God." Thus, all that I do should be totally reflective of my calling. Any incongruity for politics' sake will lead down a path I would wisely choose not to follow. Nor, on the same hand, would I work so hard as to hurt myself, as this would violate my being fully of service.

The paradox is that, this being said, I am not my work. As soon as I identify with my work, or with anything else external (my body, my salary, my possessions, my relationships) I am no longer free. I, by attaching myself to my work, am saying that a judgement about my work is actually about me as a being. This would be totally counter-productive. I produce work - I am not my work.

In the end, if I learn this lesson, I produce work out of my vocational self-understanding. It is consistent with my deeply held understandings of the workings of the cosmos. As my work becomes "real," it will be judged. I need to be able to step back from the judgement, hear it, think about it, and in that may perhaps choose to do my work differently. I will not, however, identify myself with the work.

My choice is to watch the movement of the thoughts I think and to let each, in turn, go. I may choose to re-evaluate my direction. I will be clear that my vocational and enlightenment needs take precedence over all else.

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