Rajat Bhatia

I think that most of us that are into consciousness work somehow need to find a balance between their career and their spiritual pursuits. While it's fairly possible to integrate your conscious work with physical activities like sports, running, martial arts etc, (things which require little mental work). I wonder whether its also possible to integrate such work if you are a knowledge worker like a scientist, mathematician, philosopher, engineer, etc. Because most of the thinking that is done in such professions is not grounded in experience but is abstract (& obsessive in most cases). In some ways, thinking seems larger than life when you are a knowledge worker which causes an unintended and unconscious disconnect with the present (at least to me). So the challenge for such a person, I think, is to find a way to think consciously if he is to harmonize his spiritual journey with his profession. I wonder whether you guys also feel the need for that. And whether, to your knowledge, such a thing is even possible. Any perspectives are welcome.

I am a student of physics. Not working currently. Does your work involve a lot of abstract thinking? Do you find yourself obsessing over some theoretical problem when not at work? If yes, does it degrade your meditation/ self-inquiry in any way?

It's funny to see it from an outside perspective. I never really knew that Indian Spirituality attracted the world's attention that much. I have really been oblivious to it until I started doing consciousness work 3 years ago. And now I see that our entire culture is rooted in spirituality one way or another. Most of our customs were designed to raise consciousness. (They have become mechanical now and have lost their value in most cases). India is more like a hotchpotch of many spiritual paths, most of which are institutionalized and are now practiced in a blind way, not helping their followers become more conscious. Most of these people are not getting any real benefits but still, they are very strict in their customs and beliefs and hold them as absolute. So you are more likely going to find many non-sensical things and various superstitions (some of which might have some value if you study them closely). It also depends on your place of visit as some places are more spiritually centered than others. Bhakti Yoga - devoting oneself to a personal God - is the most practiced spiritual path here. So don't be surprised to see God figures a lot. So if your real purpose to visit India is to find genuine spirituality and meet enlightened masters, then you are gonna struggle a bit because even though many claim to be, such people are very rare and hard to find. It is best to do some serious research before going. And Let us know how your trip goes. Good Luck Lynnel

Thanks

@Azote Treat the process like an exploration. You don't know what you are going to find yet. And you can't find your mission just by sitting and contemplating. When you are on the right track, it just comes to you from nowhere. This is why some people call it a calling. You will get your Aha moment too but with time and through experiential-exploration. So if a path is aligned with your current values, you need to seriously assess it experientially to conclude anything meaningful about it. Action is way more important than theory here. Most of us, never really dedicate ourselves to the mastery of any particular skill set. We just prefer to sit at a single place comparing our unconsciously acquired mental impressions of various professions. We reflect on these mental impressions of Doctors, Scientists, Artists, Saints and then whimsically conclude who we would like to imitate or surpass. But the thing is that what we like to do is more real and authentic than who we want to become. And we generally end up liking what we do if we become adept at it and our work is in alignment with what we deem to be a good value/cause.

@electroBeam The problem ofcourse is that consciousness work is often time consuming and requires serious practice which then sort of interferes with your "personal desires" and other plans which you might have had previously. And If we try to prioritise between our personal desires and raising our consciousness, we fail miserably. The former being authentic, the latter being "the right thing". This is why most people are then compelled to either find their authenticity in doing "the right thing" or ignoring the enlightenment business altogether and stay commited to honing their personal skills however low conscious they might be (which is quite difficult after watching Leo's content for a long time).

Are you experiencing that too?

@Azote Hello Azote. I am a Physics undergrad and I too aspired to be a great scientist. With time though, this desire has been fading. One of the chief reasons I liked science and physics in particular, was because it helped me feel connected to the reality, to see the mundane and obvious phenomenon in novel ways. But since I started doing consciousness work (3 years ago), I realized that there are better and more intimate ways to experience reality to its fullest and understand it profoundly. This made me more and more inclined towards my meditation practices and research on consciousness rather than my physics studies. Because what I was trying to achieve from physics indirectly was achieved directly through consciousness work. My story is actually quite fucked up because I am more or less stuck in life. I don't really know whether to go with this science thing and become an academic or find a way to earn a living refining my understanding of my experience. Perhaps I need to find a balance between the two. I don't really know. I actually know what I want out of my life. My real problem is how to earn a living out of it.

@Torkys Don't you think though, that values change with time?