Mr. Makiguchi taught that there are three kinds of value: beauty, benefit and good. In the realm of employment, the value of beauty means to find a job you like; the value of benefit is to get a job that earns you a salary so that you are able to support your daily life; the value of good means to find a job that helps others and contributes to society. Mr. Toda once said, "Everyone's ideal is to get a job they like (beauty), that is financially secure (benefit), and where they can contribute to society (good)."
Personal take: I have come to believe that this guidance is actually a solution for all our desires including a life partner, or a dream home. Likely said, Buddhism is logic, a strong foundation of nothing but basic principles and no matter what question we have, this is the only answer.
Beauty: job you like, person you like, home you like (physical characteristics, and qualities and so on)
Benefit: Good salary, Supportive companion with a proper understadning, respect and trust or Comfortable home (resulting into day to day peaceful life)
Good: Job that contributes to your and others happiness, relationship where 2 people grow together with extending that happiness to family and friends, Home that can be a place for kosen rufu like meetings or kaikan or just a place where anyone who comes to your place find themselves calm and happy
Mr. Toda explains, but not many people are able to find the perfect job for them from the start. For example, someone may have a job that they like, but it isn't putting food on the table, or their job pays well, but they hate it. That's the way things go sometimes. Then there are some who discover that they're just not cut out for the career they dreamt of and aspired to.
Personal take: It is as if one can find a home and realize that it has some old water pipe or electricity issues or no elevator for old parents and so on. In case or relationship, a happily in a love couple is not having fights everyday while they discover how they are so different in day to day life or one has grown in his or her own life and now two of them are no on same page anymore as if falling out of love.
Mr. Toda said that the most important thing is to first become an indispensable person wherever you are. Instead of moaning over the fact that a job is different from what you'd like to be doing, he said, become a first-class individual at that job. This will open the path leading to the next phase in your life, during which you should also continue doing your best. Such continuous efforts will absolutely land you a job that you like, one that supports your life, and allows you to also contribute to society.
Personal take: We all want big things, but we all shy away from working for it. When we want to become a CEO of a company we need to remember it is not happening overnight. One passes college and then gains experience over years to reach to that level. We will be making our own mistakes and we will be learning through our own unique mission. Similarly, right now when that dream home is not built we are working on by saving money, while thinking on how we would like to design it or what color theme one would like. When it comes to matters of love, we might think like where is he or she, i am so lonely or i miss someone to share my life with. Though if we want a strong companion we also need to work on becoming ourselves equally strong, or grow as an individual that our future partner would also feel like ¨ohh wow he/she is amazingly beautiful or a true inspiration or qualities that make us grow fond of each other¨.
And then, when you look back later, you will be able to see all of your past efforts have become precious assets in your ideal field. You will realize that none of your efforts and hardships have been wasted . . .
To conclude, we need to improve ourselves as an individual wherever we are right now while the effort we put today is actually like building a strong foundation for our future. It is like even though we don´t know what we want or where we would like to be but the best we can focus is on what we have in front of us and eventually we will reach where we want to be.
Very nicely put. But after practicing for 7 years I sometimes find it difficult to apply in the corporate culture of dog eat dog. May be it depends on the profession I don't know but I need to get an answer to this
ReplyDeleteSure i agree even in my case it is going to be 6 years and in my profession and especially with the people i am working at present for 3 years now it is very political at every step. Though what i can say is Buddhism is logic and it is basics we need to believe in as this is what makes us human. At time we need to play smart or talk smart but with our practice we can´t forget that at the end of the day it is our consciousness and it is our life that needs to be in union with law of universe. I think with increasing years of practice, major challenge is to use our brain less and keep our heart open. As we read a lot and time passes we become more like using mind to practice than our heart and so challenges and our victories seem to be out of our hands. Hope it helps
Delete