Do i really need college to survive?

[Justincredible76]

Throughout my years i continue to hear the same spiel saying i should go to college, but im just not sure that its necessary for where i want to take my life. Im a senior in highschool and about to graduate. I want to become a guru or sage of some variety and i want to spend as much time as possible training myself to get to that level. Its the only thing that interests me enough to make my life's work. I think that college may take away from the time i could have to spend on becoming a guru; and i dont want a high end job either, id much rather live a simple life where truth is my main pursuit. With that said though i understand i still have to support myself somehow. My plan long term is to begin my own practice once ive reached a certain level of self mastery, but until then i need to keep diving deeper into this realm. I know there exist monasteries that will house you for free if you are willing to do work and upkeep, but how might i go about finding one? In my online research i find monasteries but they ask for money to be housed. Is the option of living at a place without a money cost even sustainable? If not, is it better i get a job of some sort? If i could pull it off, id like to see what its like to live with limited possessions and responsibility so i can spend most of my time pursuing truth & sagery. But im not quite sure thats possible today and i may be limiting myself more than advancing myself. Then again, i would say i could get to sagery quicker and perhaps better if i were to say leave everything behind and learn zen or another tradition in a monastery away from modern life. So give me your thoughts; is it possible to pursue my interest full time and get away from the modern life of “wage slavery” to live a life of truth and self mastery, or will i have to settle for a middle ground and basically half ass both paths. 

[GreenWoods]

@Justincredible76 Most monasteries will take you without you having to pay if you want to become a monk and ordain.  But that means playing along their rules: sticking with their schedule, their teachings and doing work like taking care of the garden. I believe the only requierements in most monasteries are that you don't have any serious health issues or debts. In Asia it should be easy finding such a monastery 

When you are deeply thirsting for Truth and see no point in "normal life", I see no reason why you should force yourself into a university right now. Go and become a monk for some months/years and then you can go to university afterwards if you want. In the world is so much misery, you can find yourself a nice subject in university  and then a job that allows you to help humanity in a conscious way. And as you become older/ more spiritual advanced you can transition to becoming a guru if you wish (or do both). Or you remain in the job and become super helpful as you become more conscious. Or stay in your monastery for a decade or so and become a guru right away

[Justincredible76]

@GreenWoods great words man, thank you! Ill definitely explore asian monasteries but should i just look through the internet, or will that be too limiting in scope? If itd be too limiting where else can i look? I really like the option of staying at a monastery for a decade or more to become a guru without delay, so i think i will do that. One thing that may hold me up is i’d have to fly over to asia still, and i dont have the funds on my own to pay for it, and my parents are quite apprehensive about what i want to do, but they still love me so i think theyd be willing to pay for the flight with some convincing. If not i guess id just have to get a job for a bit but i took an acceptance to a college just as a saftey net and the start date of that is in early September so id have to start the job really damn soon if its required i have to pay for it. Also i talk to my friends very frequently so i wonder if id be able to keep up with them at all over in asia, it may be a bummer if i cant but ill do whats necessary i suppose; i can always find them again later. 

[GreenWoods]

@Justincredible76  With the internet, you should be able to find one. You can also try asking in other forums like travel forums. If you don't find anything you like, go straight to Asia, I would go to Thailand, Nepal or Japan.

How strongly do you want this? Unless you are totally determined, you will probably quit a few months/years in. But that's fine. There are many ways you can live a life devoted to Truth other than being a full time monk.

How old are you btw? And for how long have you been wanting to become a monk? Because in your age one can change one's mind quite often (I'm almost sick constantly  hearing this from my dad :D)

Yes, just work for a month or so then you can pay for the flight. 

In most monasteries you won't be allowed to do much internet chatting with your friends. Maybe they make an exception due to your age but don't expect to have internet access several times a month. I don't know but I guess for most monks it's a few times a year.

But actually you don't need to give up your old life completely in order to get deeply enlightened. How do you think about psychedelics? I would recommend you this (that's also roughly my plan):

Go to monastery for about  a year. After that, your life will already have changed drastically. Then go home and go to university or prepare yourself on your own for a job you like. At the same time you can continue meditating for  as much as you like, perhaps 5 hours. Let's say you do this till you are 24. By then you will be extremely conscious. And now, instead of staying in a monastery for decades, take psychedelics. In that way, your family and your friends will be extremely happy, as you can still spend time with them and are still somewhat in normal life. And you too will benefit, as taking psychedelics plus 5 hours daily meditation will propel you forwards way more quickly than 15 hours daily meditation in a monastery. At the same time you can work in  conscious job and once you feel ready you can become a guru if you still want.

If your parents are already shocked by your wanting to become a monk, don't take psychedelics also or they will turn crazy. The long retreat in the monastery will already drastically advance you. Psycheselics won't run away, better start to take them in your twenties 

[CreamCat]

College is becoming worse everyday. See if you actually need a college degree.

[Justincredible76]

@GreenWoods Im 18 and i wouldnt mind straight up going to japan and finding a monastery there without prior knowledge of one, but id definitely need extra money to live off till i find one.

Im committed to this enough to the point where basically the only thing i think about all day is self mastery and enlightenment, that is, when i AM thinking and not doing something else while fully engaged. I want this bad enough that id spend decades in a monastery if i had to; ive been like this ever since i found out about this path a year or two ago. 

Youre right saying being a full time monk isnt the only way to do it, but i feel like its the way id prefer to go about it as i think itd bring me the most benefit. With how i am right now, if i didn't pursue self mastery full time (or at least for a long while), id feel unaccomplished and unfulfilled like i missed out.

The way i see it theres a whole lot of confusion to be had in the modern life which would likely distract me or hold me back without giving me much growth. But yeah maybe staying at a monastery for decades is not the most efficient way of raising my consciousness. Maybe itd be better to live a mix of both somehow. The only issue with that is i want to spend nearly 90 to 100 percent of my time with this stuff, which would be hard with a job and financial responsibilities. So in that case perhaps its better to be a monk full time. 

Ideally for me the way i see it now, id spend a long time in a monastery where id be allowed to find and take psychedelics (im not sure many would allow for that or how id even get them though), spend basically all of my time meditating and getting a deep understanding of myself and body and a few times maybe once a month or less id have a chat with my friends to keep up. Then after years of experience find a way to start my own practice, or before that go to an already established practice like the isha foundation and volunteer there to get ideas for how things work. With that knowledge then maybe i can help a different scope of people on my own (or maybe ill end up staying there for longer than expected).  

One additional idea ive had is maybe ill get a job this summer to pay for the flight then start drop-shipping if you know what that is, and if it takes off ill have passive income fueling my bank account so i can pursue being a monk full time and have spare money in the bank to spend on psychedelics for growth. Seems like the most fiscally viable option, but im still not sure how quickly i can get drop-shipping going to where im making profit. Im very ambitious to start this path right now and that may take some time to build up. 

I mentioned before i took an acceptance to a college as a safety net but i really dont see myself going there, i only need enough money to survive and not much more. If its possible to live simply without a college degree i would easily do that, maybe drop-shipping would fuel that idea.

How old are you by the way? I like your life plan im definitely gonna take inspiration from that, gimme your thoughts on mine too. 

[Justincredible76]

@CreamCat i want to live relatively simply so im really not sure i would need a degree just to survive. I dont have much interest in academic pursuits or any of the paths that are opened with a degree. I did well in school but its just not my interest at all. See my recent post by the way!

[GreenWoods]

@Justincredible76 You seem pretty determined

On psychedelics: You can be extremely lucky if there exists even one monastery allowing psychedelics use. But finding it - probably almost impossible... You will have to leave the monastery for some days and take the psychedelics somewhere else.

On money: I don't know much about  drop shipping but I guess it's unlikely that someone who is inexperienced manages to create passive income from it within a few weeks/months. But you could go to a monastery let's say for 3 years and then leave, work some months and then return or go to the next. During your break from the monastery you will also have the opportunity to study more theory to keep up with your practices.

I am 19 and my situation is quite similar to yours:) I have known about enlightenment for one year and am almost as determined as you. I am about to do a one year retreat because I don't  see how I could possibly be doing anything else. If enlightenment is by far your number one priority then your plan is perfect. Although... being full time in a monastery has also its disadvantages. If you have your own home, you can meditate when and how you like (unlike in monasteries) you don't have to do work which you may find unnessary, you don't have to study their dogmas, you can "freely" take psychedelics and you can visit your parents and friends more often, but you have to work to survive.... For now I guess it's  best to go to a monastery for some years first and then you can reevaluate

If your parents are like mine, then you probably have a lot of debates too?

[Justincredible76]

@GreenWoods i used to have some debates with parents, but nowadays its subsided into my mother just imploring me to go to college. She so damn convinced its the only way ill survive, its a shame. But its out of love i guess so whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/ ¯. 

I would like to do psychedelics to advance my meditation but you might be right saying traditional monasteries wont allow for it. Maybe theres a good reason and its not just a dogmatically held belief, i dunno i sure hope so haha  .

im thinking maybe i spend a couple years at the monastery gaining experience without psychedelics, then come back home and work a job and on dropshipping with my newly equipped skills and wisdom, then find my own path with psychs for a little (if it would help me advance), then perhaps spend a longer period of time away at a monastery then onto sagehood. I think its a pretty solid plan but my parents will be surely displeased with my decision  . Oh well not that i really care that much . 

 

[CreamCat]

12 hours ago, Justincredible76 said:

@CreamCat i want to live relatively simply so im really not sure i would need a degree just to survive. I dont have much interest in academic pursuits or any of the paths that are opened with a degree. I did well in school but its just not my interest at all. See my recent post by the way!

It seems you will just waste a lot of money and time by going to college. But, I don't know what kinds of jobs you want to have.

[Shadowraix]

20 hours ago, Justincredible76 said:

ive been like this ever since i found out about this path a year or two ago. 

Let it sit and boil for longer than that. This path is still new and fresh for you. Invest in it longer before making such a commitment.

[Justincredible76]

@Shadowraix in a sense this path is relatively new for me, but since the day i discovered it day in and day out id be thinking of things i could do with my life and absolutely none of them speaks to me as much as this path. Since i can remember the most important things in my life have been truth and friends. If i were to not go down this path, i would feel a massive sense of missed growth. I feel that modern life has very little for me to benefit from with how i am right now. I want to get myself to the best possible version of myself as soon as i can, so that i can pursue other things in an amazing way. If i dont do this, ill continue to half ass everything i do. 

With that said though ill gladly continue to ponder other paths i could take, and consider what they have to offer. 

[Justincredible76]

13 hours ago, CreamCat said:

It seems you will just waste a lot of money and time by going to college. But, I don't know what kinds of jobs you want to have.

@CreamCat if were talking jobs id like to have my own meditative practice like one shinzen young has if you look him up, but in order to get to the point i can reliably own one, i need a certain amount of training. College will help me basically not at all with that, i would say. At least it wont help enough to the extent where its a better option than learning the knowledge id get from college on my own. 

[bejapuskas]

@Justincredible76  You need your ego to survive ?

[DivineSoda]

If you are interested in the college route, check out places like Naropa University in Boulder, CO. It's expensive though. Personally I would go to Asia if I were you. 

You can start by finding local meditation groups and asking around. 

Best of luck to you my friend. 

[Ibn Sina]

I think what you need to survive depends  on the environment that you are in. 
People like Charlie Chaplain didn't need a degree.
Steve Jobs didn't need a degree.
Thomas Edison didn't need a degree.
Great Musicians and actors don't need a degree.
Sadhguru or Osho didn't need  a degree.
But that doesn't mean they did less work they had less knowledge. They had like a triple PhD level knowledge in their respective field.
Ultimately it is all about how you create value to the  world , for which people will pay money to you in return in exchange of the value that  you can offer.
College is just  a  place where you can acquire  knowledge  and skills and be a much more valuable person, and you can trade the value you can offer for  money.
Do you live in a place where it is easy to conduct a business and earn money?
Do you have a rich family from whom you can own property?
Do you have special talent like music, comedy, acting, writing, beauty, directing etc, which you can sell to the world? And having them is also not enough, do you live in a  place where such talents  can be readily sold?
If yes then you don't  need a college degree.
There are many other variables by which to decide whether you will need a college degree.  
But even earning a living from college depends on whether you will get a job from your degree or not.

Answering your question-
It depends whether  you can manage food , shelter , clothing etc all by yourself while moving in a path to self mastery.
You can't do yoga, meditation etc without food at your table. 
Most people here at actualized.org do have a job or a source  of income. Buddha used to get food by begging door to door and in 3rd BCE India people considered such recluses holy and would easily offer them food and drinks, which now days may not be the case.
I suggest you use Maslow's Heirarchy of needs and move from bottom to top.
 

Edited June 16, 2019 by Ibn Sina

[Justincredible76]

@Ibn Sina interesting take, if i can find a monastery thatd provide my survival needs in order to meditate then i could stay there for a while. After a year or perhaps more i could come back having changed profoundly then get a job and find a way to make money; hopefully i could use some means of passive income to grow my finances because thatd allow me to make money while being away. If i successfully get to a certain point with passive income through most likley dropshipping then i can have good means to pursue sagehood full time and spend multiple years on it until i can open my own practice. 

[Justincredible76]

@DivineSoda i love the asia idea, excites me just thinking about it. College just doesnt seem like the route i want to take. 

[universe]

Yes. search for these places. Maybe research some gurus that travel from city to city and hold retreats there. Maybe search for vispassana retreats. Im sure you will find one that is willing to cover your cost of living in exchange for helping them.

In the meantime maybe learn and work in a tech field, as a gardener or as a cook? Always good to have some practical skills and you dont even need college for that!