OCCUPATION

The goals you set determine the steps you will need to accomplish in order to achieve. Not enough time to accomplish all your goals, but if you allow others to work for their own benefit, there's plenty of life-times to go around. By giving education, and career choice, you free up opportunity (and save time), allowing people to be able to focus. Working together on a common goal, where the work has greater value than the individual, the work may become primary, eliminating self, thus death is inconsequential.

No fear to work every second in a lifetime, for there is no body, 'nobody' to die in any case, all more a misunderstanding of the nature of reality and a preoccupation with self. So do not fear death, fear self and ignorance, for you waste the time given, and stop complaining about the time I gave you, for you are bothering the angels with your half-warm stance, and half-efforts.

Make a list of what you want to be involved in, not only your interests, but groups, sports, helping others, and creating a system of compound growth, in order to save the world. Lucky to have a clear purpose in life, wake up every morning feeling great, and knowing how to create meaningful experiences for yourself and those around you, living a rich life full of joy. Making good friends through participation in common interests and pursuing your passions.

Don’t hurry, don’t rush, but also do not delay, find the correct time in everything, the timing is key

Let your work be a labor of love, for your time is more valuable than you realize. Ideally, meditating on the root nature of mind at every moment, you will perform some trivial task that doesn't require your conscious attention, leaving you free to use your time well. If you can't find your way toward the highest, then at least select or create a way to enjoy your time while earning. Few will be ready to abandon the material directly, but at least you can make intelligent compromises if you are not strong enough or insightful enough to see through the veil at this time.

To each person's nature is a proper and fitting place in society. Seek out your true place, so that action and activity bring you happiness in working together with others on meaningful pursuits. A good occupation, which is required to earn a living but also rewarding in of itself, may be challenging to find. The toil of artisans, and every good thing created, is at the same time a form of religious practice if you pay attention to what you're doing, and elminate the feeling of a self that is participating.

Everything on earth has a place, a time, and a use. Make good use of yourself, and put yourself to work in creative and entertaining ways, for the benefit of all sentient beings. Asking the question, 'what can I earn, what's in it for me,' you already are losing the game, having lost the way. The correct question is 'how can I best be of use, as a continual aspect of the undifferentiated will and best goodness of the divine plan.' If you can use something again, perhaps in a new way, you may save both time and money. If you can do without something in the first place, even better.

Every good effort will bring forth results, but make sure the result is worth the effort invested. Time passes, and the choice of what to focus on becomes of paramount importance. Just knowing what is more or less important is the dawning of wisdom.

Inspiration, purpose, and direction in life, not occupation with materiality, when so many valuable opportunities exist. You may teach, counsel, heal, and restore. You may create, build, establish, and produce that which has use and benefit. You may entertain, vivify, and amuse, and bring joy and love. In the words of a master, 'Not knowing value, they fritter away the time given in a thousand off-hand ways.'

Be wary of working for success when you engage in business, and choose a direct path. Leave the worst for yourself, giving everything that is good to others. Leave possessions and furniture behind, practicing for death. If you are only staying somewhere temporarily, why outfit the place in luxury? If your material support dwindles, make an effort to offer goodness and value. Give away your food and wealth in the service of others. Do not frequent towns. Rather, remain in solitary retreat. Fulfill your pledges and commitments. Go to sleep with a happy mind.

Writing once, it can be shared a thousand times, even millions. Speaking words, they may not have the ears to hear you. Showing them, they can see more easily, seeing a work of art, hearing a song, reading a book, walking in a temple, sitting in a chair, eating a meal. Experientially, not lecturing as in a sermon, walking a taut wire, learning to ride a unicycle, juggling balls or bowling pins, juggling while walking a wire, or Unicycle on a wire

occupy - to stay in a place
occupied - busy, not free
occupation - the state of being occupied, at work

Lonely by virtue of desiring others, and compounding this by being unsatisfied with the work of the day, without a clear goal in mind. Following great work and your dreams, you will find good company coming to call, eager to share in the work of helping others.

Be aware of starting projects, becoming involved. Everything takes time, and may cause stress. Only by being uninvolved can you have free time, and an unoccupied mind, suitable and available for study and practice. Many people are supporting and sharing an external-based life, verifying each other’s illusion and dream-world, preoccupied with the world, and tasks they have set for themselves. Don't use up the hours of the day on activities.

If threatened or people make demands, insist on consulting with others before committing to a settlement. Listen patiently, and acknowledge what they have said, but say in reply that you need to discuss the matter with others before being able to reach a decision. Set a time frame for getting back to them. In legal matters, insist on speaking to an independent lawyer of your choosing. If seeking to hire heavy equipment, build something, or buy supplies, let the contractors know you will seek multiple offers, and compare prices. Check with other towns, or through family or friends living elsewhere for competitive quotes. Do not be in a rush to have work done, nor agree to prices on the spot.

It is not so demanding to prepare food, and wash dishes and clothing for the day, especially if maintain each day's chores as meditation, with focus and concentration. Lucky to lay in supplies of rice in sealed containers, and canned goods, fragrant tea, dried fruit and jars of preserves, bottles of honey. Work daily in the garden, again as meditation, not rushing nor expecting, just participating, one with the fresh vegetables, adding a trip to local markets. Chop wood and buy charcoal, work on shelter. Over time, the effort spent on these necessities will diminish.

From a certain point of view, temporal preoccupations are not totally vain. We need to eat, dress, and to find shelter. However, don't give too much importance to the affairs of this world. Accumulating material goods in this lifetime won't give us much joy, or love. Use the money to start a process that yields a fruitful life, lucky to have a good start. Our lives are beautiful dreams. Don't be so determined to use our land, can always sell. Meditate on whether the feeling is satisfying there, or invest money to buy a new property.

A man sculpting clay certainly, but let it not be you who is sculpting. As the chair-makers of old, let your simple craft be the vehicle of your meditation. Watch your hands moving, and pay attention, developing a trance state, unconcerned with time passing nor the result of the sculpting, either good or bad. Let a table at the appropriate height and a firm chair with a sitting pad be your station. Sit and improve your posture for hours daily. Singing too if that appeals to you, but not in the Wat.

Plenty of work to do, and not unlimited time in a body, although more bodies may be called if the work is good and worthwhile.

PRACTICE

There will never be a time when you will cease to be occupied, so set aside time now in order to practice diligently.

Without a path and direction, nothing is relevant, and a thousand steps toward Rome won't help you get one step closer to London, if that is your destination. The teachings are your guide, so teather yourself to the task, and take the steps that you are able.

Keep your attainments secret, relishing the achievement with heaven, where the angels laugh at you in any case, as your efforts and failures are known to them, and to yourself if you would only remember, since before you were born.

Ensure that your body is not afflicted by illness, negative forces, or obstacles. Break free of ordinary human affairs, and be decisive regarding intention, not looking to others for confirmation. Gather practice materials that you will need, and have with you texts of profound teaching. Possessions are useful in as much as they contribute to your development, and enjoyment of life. Beyond a crucial pivot-point, additional holdings only tend to hold you back, however, rather than move you forward.

Come progressively to an established schedule of periods for practice, sleep, meals, and breaks, allowing no bad habits. Whether your practice is elaborate or simple, you should make it even and regular, never sporadic.

As challenging as it is to begin practicing, it is more challenging to reach the point of continuous effort. As challenging as it is to understand profoundly meaningful teachings, it is more challenging to put them into practice. Each day, for what more do you have within your grasp, set aside a certain period of both time and effort for dealing with the mundane but necessary activities of the body, and the homestead. Meet these annoyances with patience, kindness, and equanimity, testing your generousity of spirit. For without food and shelter, and a place to live, how will you spend time advantageously studying and practicing that which you hold dear? Slowly, by steps, gather others to work alongside, creating the income-flows they need as salary for their lives.

Not practicing in order to improve so much, but rather copying valid corresponding relationships of the divine, like being like, we move into vaid forms, or representational systems, and transform.

Swedenborg envisioned correspondences between heaven and earth. Since every good thing and it's usefulness is related to heavenly truth and goodness, we should live as if we realized the valid relationships, thus living in a high, clean place, with flowers and good air, surrounded by kind, honest people engaged in meaningful, valuable ocupation. Further words should be well-spoken, with good intention, and care. Clothing should mirror that of the angels, mostly plain colors if not white, and unadorned, if not better stil competely nude, and in innocence. Establish good correspondences in daily life, a good connection by way of analogies between heaven and earth.

Beginners will do well in silence and immobility, practicing in a resonant place. Less distraction, and clarity of focus. As you progress, these outer influences will affect you less immediately, your concentration having improved.

Sitting quietly for three hours or more, your back will get sore, so sit up straight, whether learning through long-sitting, gently and unendingly correcting posture by minute degrees, until less-painful posture results, or whether through mastering balancing exercises such as holding handstands motionlessly, or riding a unicycle, or walking a tightrope or wire.

Simply sitting up straight for long periods, like on long drives, working the lower spine against the seat belt. Sitting up straight is key, and walk upright although not overly so. Make a sound, as in singing, with an audience drinking at the well. For we are the straw, and the Lord is the water in the glass, and the presenting life problems and associations are the force that draws the precious energy through us.

I used to walk by a guy chanting 'Om,' or perhaps 'Aum,' when I was going to school at UC Berkeley. He was there in the morning, at the corner of Telegraph and Dwight, making his mellow sound over and over, and still to be found sitting there well into the afternoon. Naturally, at the time, my friends and I dismissed him as one of the crazies that make up the scene, a left-over meditator who in his enthusiasm, didn’t notice that twenty years had passed. Ironically, now that even another twenty years have gone, and I’m his age, sometimes I used to sit in 'his' spot and keep heaven and earth together, using his mantra. I like to sit up straight against the wall with my legs stretched out, toes pointing up. If you can’t stretch your legs out at 90 degrees, work on it daily, starting with knees bent, but wedge your butt tightly against the wall.

Physical systems - Hatha Yoga, exercise, movements, dance, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, slowly, truly, every moment being magical, and movement of steps in the right direction is a step towards me. Posture, motion, mudras, asanas, breathing, singing, climbing, moving, walking. Start changing the body physically.

By floating a needle on water, either due to surface tension or with a support, the resistance is very low, and can practice focusing beams of psychic energy to rotate the needle.

Sing songs over and over, until the enlightened words start spilling out. At that time, the cadence and rhythm having been established, record the words, rather than trying to write them, not worrying if you are in key or sound good. More important are the texts, the teachings the communication. If you would write in this life, let it be words of value and wisdom, whether drawn from your own wisdom and experiences, study of others' texts, or having been channeled though you.

The body is the vehicle, you can't go around it, or ignore it, it is the vehicle by which you travel in this plane. You need to use it, and in order to do that it has to be stronger to accomodate the increased energy flow, moving to colder climates only as you generate more heat. People in colder climates are more lively, active by design, in order to keep physically war. Not just in terms of development, but intellectually, emotionally, speed-wise.

Further, although you may have achieved some merit, it is only in practical situations and in dealing with annoyances that accomplishment is tested and revealed. Let the challenges of daily life be mastered then, and set in place, so that they may assist you in your journey, and not be obstacles hindering your progress.

Especially the nature of water, air and other elements, and an investigation of the human body as a vehicle, what food it actually consumes, not the gross food that passes for sustenance in the material plane.

- Renunciation, letting go of possessions, and ultimately self -

Renunciation is a prerequisite for the practice of any vehicle, be it sutra or tantra. For tantra, renunciation is particularly important because sexual desire is used in the path; without renunciation, the practitioner can easily become attached to the object of desire. Renunciation all the way through to holding onto a self, of identification with the objects of the senses, renunciation of possessions, home, community and family.

- Purposeful, intentional sacrifice and suffering -

Purposeful, intentional, sacrifice and suffering, as in the Christian tradition of Our Lady of of Fátima, a series of apocalyptic visions and prophecies given to three young Portuguese shepherds, Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, for the expiation of the negative karma of others. The little girl was fond of voluntary suffering, for the remission and forgiveness of sinners of the world.

Tonglen in Tibetan Buddhist practice, breathing in the suffering of others, absorbing their negative karma, and breathing out merit you have accumulated.

Help others, genuinely love, that's the best investment you can make. Don't live in fear of loss or hardship, as guarding possessions may actually lose what time and intention you have remaining now.

Resulting from the near-death experience, it felt that all life is love and learning, participating in the game of experience, making personal progress as well as helping others. Material involvement didn't seem relevant. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow.

MONASTERIES

Rather than build, if open after lockdown, consider spending days in old, huge churches of Europe, India, Nepal and elsewhere, as these magnificent spaces would be virtually impossible to recreate. Sitting silently, working on posture, breathing, and mind-control. Singing quietly perhaps, and spending days busking, sleeping outside in summer, renting a room with a heater or fireplace in winter. Much easier to visit than to imagine carving stone to make elaborate temples, rooms, and sculptures. Must tune in to the energy created by monks meditating in past times, otherwise the temples are just that much rock, brick, and cement.

- Thai-language Buddhist Library
- Sitting
- Prayer, chanting
- fasting, Meditation

Temple - teachings as recorded video lectures, group meditation. Sitting in nature, need a large screen or mosquito net enclosure to meditate in.

Video the aged teachers speaking in their own language, saying whatever they think is most important to say, in whatever order they choose, for as long as they care to speak.

No need to visit many Wats, just find a good community and practice there, or nearby. When you find a great wat, with exceptional practicing monks who accept others' presence, then buy a strong folding table and chair for sculpting. A good sitting pad and large mosquito nets are basic equipment. A good folding chair also.

Find ruins in Thailand, or large, almost empty temples off the tourist areas, near border in mountains. Talk to teachers at forest temples in Thailand, and ask them if there are power places to visit, and who their own teachers were or are, and if any great teachers are renown in Thailand. If staying at a temple or having met a teacher several times, and managed to be quiet or make a good impression, ask for a letter of referral or introduction in Thai . Also, request blessings and teachings, energetic transmissions. If visiting a Wat, ask the Jawawat for teachings, and be silent and receptive, listening to the reply. Spend time quietly sitting, apart, taking in the energy. Bring my own food and shelter, and if asked to leave, stay nearby and return in the morning. Spend days in study and reflection, writing when the mood moves me to do so, as now, when there is something specific to say. Gathering clay, sit at a table, and sculpt, faces and Buddha's if that comes, or whatever pleases you, and as with singing, don't be involved.

Spend time visiting larger Wats, and don't disturb the monks there by speaking with them. Consider living near a larger temple in remote wilderness, better for the center anyways. Consider that monks in the Himalayas had scant supplies, and no truck to transport food and supplies, and no security beyond begging for food.

There is a ritual formula that students visiting temples use to greet a master, and ask for instruction in the path towards enlightenment, both personally, and for the sake of all beings. Read some of the books I have, and biographies, many offer outlines of the correct behavior, and way to request instruction politely. I make many errors as a beginner, from talking too much, mentioning magical powers, lacking study and preparation, to not asking for instruction or blessings, and not being humble and modest.

Gathering clay, sit at a table, and sculpt, faces and Buddhas. No need to visit many Wats, just find a good community and practice there, or nearby. When you find a great wat, with exceptional practicing monks who accept your presence, then buy the table and chair. A good sitting pad and large mosquito nets are basic equipment. A good folding chair also. Sit at a table and do sculpture, or read quietly, or just sit and meditate at a distance, toning almost silently.

A man sculpting clay certainly, but let it not be you who is sculpting. As the chair-makers of old, let your simple craft be the vehicle of your meditation. Watch your hands moving, and pay attention, developing a trance state, unconcerned with time passing nor the result of the sculpting, either good or bad. Let a table at the appropriate height and a firm chair with a sitting pad be your station.

STREET PERFORMANCE

People like a show. Don't try to tell them, as no amount of linear-thought in words may reach all but the most gifted. Instead, put on a stage show, a fight, a performance, and perform. The dance, the forms, the katas, the hand motions, the speed, the correct postures.

Need an audience to receive. The circuit must be complete, in order to draw energy. The attention and consideration of the audience inspires the performance, and enlivens it. You are only a straw, and without desire or receptivity, no teaching or performance is possible. The water in the cup is only drawn through the straw by the vacuum created due to the action of the one who seeks to drink.

Speak with a booming, mighty voice, resonant upon itself, deep and rich, not to harm, but rather to participate more fully. Note how the children (and they all are my children) stop to stare, and the more awake and perceptive notice, but those who are preoccupied or solidified do not. And if you do not speak wll, then do not speak. And if not ready to use the voice, then reserve it for a time. But start to practice. Don't waste your time speaking and reaching until the voice is ready. prepare yourself. Study. Practice, and recognize the exercises, writing them down in an order, an orderly progression, a course of study. Degrees of achievement, able to be demonstrated in the right company. Not as a show, and not before the profane, to profane the achievement.

They stared at the speed of my hands, and the positioning of my fingers, not necessarily knowing or recognizing the magical, holy, precious truth, but alive to the special unusual nature at the least. The audience began filming with their phones, to record the moment, they recognizing enough to spend time watching, if not participating, for there are many years in preparation, and instant participation may injure and harm, not enlighten.

He was watching my hands, my movements, and judging the value, the beauty, the perfection and practice-hours that had built every motion, and it fueled the will to continue. By their attention is my church built.

When the guitar player's skill combined with my singing and his singing and the notes of the guitar, the people started paying attention, stopping what they were doing for as long as they were interested, as long as it was worth their time, they were pleased and satisfied and happy, and even overflowing with praise, breathing and sharing musical moments (sound vibration) directly wihout instruction verbally (ver-bully), but rather directly received into their attentiveness.

1. Hire a musician to teach and accompany me.
2. Attract musicians, by way of offering a place of practice and beauty, and the associated necessities. 3. Sit up straight and practice tones, then melody lines.
4. Practice the words to the songs, they are the blocks by which communication is achieved, the body of the communication.
5. Rent or purchase a place to gather the students and teachers, not of necessity, but rather to save time, and they know where to come to pay attention

The child started copying, the flight attendant, the old chinese woman, without words, just seeing the truth of the motions, and feeling their age and tired bodies, and souls, they see immediately the truth of the performance, the doing.

Be a representative example among the people, building both within and without, that all may see clearly. As society becomes materialistic and confused, take radical approaches extending the reach of the Dharma, such as making music videos, movies, stories, street performances, staged theatrics such as mock fights, talent contents, and YouTube channels.

Use awareness of all-encompasing totality to enact the drama of your own life, and in relating to others, to become a living example. A realized person is capable of many aspects, offering varied emotion and friendship as is appropriate, focused on the development of others. In the manner of a powerful dramatist or improvisational actor, words and actions skillfully enlarge the scope of others' perceptions and concepts, gradually loosening their rigid, ingrained patterns of chinking.

All situations are dramatic theater, expressing the divine in material form. Many things are annoying, and it's hard to choose our battles. However, if we battle unthinkingly with every annoyance, it uses up our time and energy. Step back from yourself, and despite the difficulty, despite the frustration, respond in a gentle, wise manner, in control of emotion. Take a breath, and notice that you are not involved, although it may seem that you are. Interwoven and simultaneous, all reality is the dance of heaven. The considerations that we feel are so immediate and pressing are a reflection of our own limitation of understanding. Every difficulty is at the same time an opportunity for practice what you have studied and taken to heart. Let the example of great teachers be the guide.

Develop knowing indifference. If you may not refuse, and must play a role in the comedy or drama of the world, at least understand that it is all a game. If it has fallen to him to personify a king, a great man, a famous scientist, he will not be proud of himself; if he must play the part of a poor wretch, an ignorant man, he is not ashamed of himself. He knows that these differences only exist on the stage and that, once the play is over, the actors will be stripped of the used costumes in which they have been seen.

He was watching my hands, my motions, and judging the value, the beauty, the perfection and practice hours that had built every motion, and was aware, and it fueled my will to continue. By their attention is the temple built. The child started copying, the flight attendant, the old chinese woman, without words, just seeing the truth of the motions, and feeling their age and tired bodies, and souls, they see immediately the truth of the performance, the doing.

HOMELESS WANDERER

In a body for a moment, clothed in flesh, unaware and sleepy, powers unheralded. Where to lay your head, thinking you have a head. Don't put yourself first. Don't assume that what appears to be real is substantial.

Homeless by choice, by design, by intention. Dismissing the superficial, seeing clearly, choosing the work at hand. Pay attention to the passing breaths, concentrating on breathing in fully, and exhaling fully. How easily the attention wanders.

What may seem like wandering is actually a thread within the fabric of the totality of being. No more in this place than you are in any other. Angels don’t operate in space, rather appearing instantaneously at the focus of their attention, so that when an angel turns toward the person or experience that attracts, it seems as though they materialize into that space. In truth, there is no such thing as space, only physical beings that experience what appears to them to be different spaces.

A wandering, ascetic teacher does not starve. Coincidentally helping all beings at the moment of their greatest need, he or she attracts those essentials needed for survival, and gathers suitable students and helpers that may benefit from association. Even in lack of supplies, and physical suffering and pain, the opportunity for focus is found, deepening meditation until the crossing over past death is reached. For death comes, but it is what you accomplish with the time given that counts.