The first suggestion received to be subjected to “The Urban Ascetic” view point is from a friend. Let’s discuss “work life balance” (the exact text that he sent). Obvious in these 3 lines is the underlying premise of the questioning or the core belief from which this question has arisen…………
And that is ……..work and life are two different things. So different and in opposition to each other that a balance needs to be struck. Else work may take over life or vice versa life may take over work…….
Life may take over work…….wait a minute …what does that mean?......
The subtle nuances of the mind and the various undercurrents that make it up become obvious only when a word by word dissection of a sentence is done along with the understanding of the underlying implication of each one of those words.
The seemingly innocuous “work life balance” actually implies something very deep operating within each of us i.e. the ego based construct of reality.
Ego implies resistance. Resistance to what is …..Is ego. Of course none of us were born with it. It was gradually implanted within us because of the interplay of two factors.
1> We were very naïve then (as children) and never crosschecked or introspected whatever thought and believes were being dumped upon us. We just assumed them to be the finality because most of them were given to us by people in position of authority in our lives.
2> People in position of authority in our live (and the entire society in general so to say) are/were themselves a part of ego based construct of reality so they themselves did not have anything better to offer.
And once created this ego has stayed with us only because of a singular reason
1 > our unwillingness to check its validity/reality.
And in essence that is exactly what we are attempting to do here. Just checking and trying to ascertain if our current view point of life serves us well or can we try something new ??.
A child is asked to resist failure or poor ranks (inspired to get better grades and leave the rest behind), he is expected to resist his natural inclinations towards play and experimentation (and conform to the prescribed syllabus and time table), he is repeatedly reminded that he as himself is not enough its only when he gets this degree or that job ,that pay check or position (via both subtle and overt programming) he would amount to something……
And it is via these and many many more implanted ideologies of resistance to what is and a sense of not being enough and hence continuously attempting to beautify and glorify the abstract ideological superstructure imposed upon him that the ego is born.
The life blood of ego are two things
1> Resistance to what is (it is an insurance into having a constant and permanent enemy)
2> A constant feeling of “not enough-ness” the need to do something about “what is” to fix it, to make it better because egos premise is that “what is” is never enough it needs to be beautified and glorified with something else, some effort to make it better.
The simple and innocuous 3 liner of “work life balance” has both its egoic components.
1> Choose either work or any other area of life the ego has already created a polarity and will resist whatever it is you do. It has created its constant enemies i.e. if you work it will say you are neglecting your life you are letting the beauty of love and relations be lost in the daily grind of the mundane (it will become a philosopher then). And if you choose to take it easy and be a little laid back the ego will admonish you saying that you are lazy, incompetent, a coward who is hiding behind the family excuse because he is not capable enough to keep up with the competition (it becomes your boss cum pseudo-motivator then).
2> A constant feeling of “not enough-ness” has easily been accomplished now. Since, if you work you will be reminded of loses of precious time and memories at family front and if you take it easy you shall be reminded of how far you could you could have gone and how much more you could have accomplished just like the others (who of course are dumber than you, already have)
It is egos catch 22…………
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