Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than for February 08, 2016
Transcript:
Please welcome Alan Watts - What do you desire? - What makes you itch? - What sort of situation would you like? I do this often in vocational guidance of students. They come to me and say: Student: Well, um, we’re getting out of college and we haven’t the faintest idea what we want to do. So I always ask the question: Alan: What would you like to do if money were no object? Alan: How would you really enjoy spending your life? It’s so amazing, the result of our educational system, that crowds of students say: Girl #1: Well, we’d like to be painters. Boy #1: We’d like to be poets. Boy #2: We’d like to be writers. Girl #2: I’d like to live an outdoors life and ride horses. But everybody knows you can’t earn any money that way! When we finally get down to something which the individual says they really want to do, I will say to them… Alan: YOU DO THAT. Alan: And forget the money. Because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing… …you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living. CLICK! That is, to go on doing things you don’t like doing. SPLOSH Which is stupid! Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing… …than a long life spent in a miserable way. And after all, if you do really like what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter what it is… …you can eventually become a master of it. The only way to become a master of something is to be really ‘with it’. And then you’ll be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. Therefore, it’s so important to consider this question… “What do I desire?” - Alan Watts RIDING SCHOOL
hawgowar over 8 years ago
I desire to marry a good-looking nymphomaniac who owns a trust fund and a liquor store.
Chrystos B Minot Premium Member over 8 years ago
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!
Olddog1 over 8 years ago
I read one Alan Watts book long ago. Shallow,and padded with repetitions to stretch it out.
axelant over 8 years ago
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?
ziggman14304 over 8 years ago
@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.
terra.cripe over 8 years ago
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.
leeisme over 8 years ago
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..
MeGoNow Premium Member over 8 years ago
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.
emptc12 over 8 years ago
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
melissalomax1313 creator over 8 years ago
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.
Shimmery Mermaid over 8 years ago
“Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow:”by Marsha Sinetar
Fenshaw over 8 years ago
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."
tengu99 over 8 years ago
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.
nawsa Premium Member over 8 years ago
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.
Kind&Kinder over 8 years ago
" 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.
Ironhold over 8 years ago
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.
gammaguy over 8 years ago
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.
skuech over 8 years ago
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?
newmooo over 8 years ago
Provided that what you like doing is starving to death out in the cold.
Terrywoebegone over 8 years ago
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.