Defying the Puritan Work Ethic

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Defying the puritan work ethic

Engrained in the American culture is the puritan work ethic. If you work really hard, God will bless you with success and abundance. And I, like most Americans was raised with this ethic. Work hard, and you’ll be blessed, successful and everyone will love you.

There’s a problem with the puritan work ethic.
It doesn’t work.

You see, I’ve known people who have worked like rented mules all their lives, and died in harness, no more wealthy or successful than they were when they started out. And the problem isn’t limited to just our material concerns, it also extends into Buddhist meditation practice as well.

Many well intentioned people have held similar beliefs in regards to their spiritual practice. If I work hard, if I take my vitamins and say my prayers and if I am really good, then maybe just maybe I’ll achieve enlightenment a few lifetimes from now.

These well intentioned people have worked like the proverbial rented mule all their lives and have not achieved enlightenment. Some have become so disillusioned that they no longer believe enlightenment is possible. Many who start out with beginning meditation practices give up, exhausted, after trying again and again the same old meditation practices that just don’t work. Still others stubbornly adhere to the old ways, and end up dying in the harness, still pulling that rusted out plow of faith and belief, hoping that if they just work hard enough, they’ll succeed. Others are baffled as to why they haven’t accomplished the path, a path so simple that Buddha himself said it could be completed in as little as a week’s time.

Is it because, “the age we are in has degenerated so much that it’s no longer possible to achieve enlightenment”, as a Theravadan monk once told me? Is karma’s wheel of sharp weapons come back upon me, over and over again so that it makes my fate impossible to cleanse?

Nope.

The answer is simpler than that, and it’s right in front of us, but we’re so busy pulling that plow of our limiting preconceptions that we just don’t make the time to see.

The key is found in Buddhas mental yogas of
Devotion
Awareness
Love and
Letting go

Master these and the path is complete.

Are the meditating tips you’ve been given not working for you? Have you become exasperated, worn out, and disillusioned because no matter how hard you try, enlightenment seems too monumental a task? Have you tried everything you can think of, and yet fail again and again?

Don’t work harder, work smarter! The key is NOT reinventing the wheel. Find a NEW teacher, one who can teach you how to accomplish full enlightenment during the next calendar year; with out leaving job, spouse, child or even pet. Find a teacher who puts his money where his mouth is and can give you profound changes after only one week of homework. Let’s face it, if you’re teacher can not shift your experience after just one lesson and on week’s worth of application then the poor boy is just shooting blanks!

Once you’ve checked out the next series of weekly webinars you could sign-up for FREE dharma supplies. Enlightenment and Buddhahood are there for the taking. Come join us.

-Patricia Snodgrass