Q. How does your philosophy square with Buddhist thinking? My Zen practice asks me to accept whatever's in front of me, to be completely engaged and present to the task. Aren't you asking us to realize ourselves by quitting the dull and boring task in order to do what we love?

A. I'm no Buddhist, so please bear with me. People often erroneously believe the "do what you love" philosophy means do what you feel like doing. Not so. The phrase (do what you love) means live -- use -- your values and talents in the service of self and others. Exercise inborn gifts and the qualities that make you you, so that your life, and that of others, is served. To recoil from the tough stuff is to thwart both self and other.

Vocation, defined in MS books and others (like the great psychoanalyst Carl Jung) is a way of becoming fully and uniquely human in the context of our life in community. Is this Buddhist? Only a Buddhist could say. A vocation asks us to function, to do more of even what we don't feel like doing in order to express values, whatever we respect, to blossom fully -- we get up extra early to write, or sing, or practice the harmonica. We stick with the odious, part-time rent paying job, not merely to passively accept what life doles out, but to grow spiritually, to develop awareness. We grapple with whatever's in front of us as a way of transcending the inner foes that otherwise keep us from expressing who we really are.

Quit dull and boring tasks? No, no! En route to the vocation that we need -- a way of functioning that unfolds us as unique, fully expressive beings -- we encounter (or go deeper into) the tedious so as to develop virtues, innate power. So long as we think, "This job is dull or beneath me," our own thought processes prevent our doing what we love! Both Buddhist right livelihood and the Westernized vocation seem universal notions. Perhaps the only difference (I only say perhaps) is that the concept of vocation is inherently active, optimistic, and suggesting of possibilities, for e.g., that each can transcend limits, circumstances, can evolve into better circumstances, can create some semblance of opportunity to change life's conditions.

Is vocation a purely Westernized idea -- like that which prompted adventurers and, say, Pilgrims, to a new land when they found their native land constricting? Is vocation inherently optimistic? I leave that for each to figure out. However we come into such notions, from East or West, the whole world agrees: Each is expected to function, to be fit for life.

As always, The Center always suggests a few sessions with a competent, well trained career or guidance counselor to help actualize ourselves through daily work. Hope this helps! [more]