Work Life Balance

Work Life Balance

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…………

Who is he?

The Urban Ascetic

Who is he?

He sits beside you , works with you, laughs with you, faces similar trials and tribulations, applauses and allegations, and shares the same physical time-space-reality as yours but a gaze into his eyes would let you know he is in a universe apart………….
His own mind is the jungle, his commitment to himself to finding his own depth, his own self is his sanyas (renunciation), he bears through the emotional weather changes and storms(within him) undeterred, he is continuously attempting to scale and go beyond the mountains of limitations and comfort zones to discover his ever expanding greater self, his refuge is the cave of his belief in himself, his interactions with people give them a glimpse of their own power and capacity, his response to situations illumines the circumstances with love and bliss, he is the self-full ,so merged with the self that the others who perceive him call him selfless.

What is it about?

What is it about?

Like the colors of the rainbow as violet cannot be termed to be more correct than blue and as orange cannot be deemed more optimal than red “The urban ascetic” is one of the multitudes of rainbow color point of views of life.
Yes one can have a preference or affinity for one color greater than the other colors but that does not make the other colors wrong or incorrect or inferior etc they just are……..
And so it is with point of view it just is. If you like it use it, if you don’t then just forget about it and move on.
In our current times there is this tendency towards a linear approach to life where almost everything can be fit into an “if-then-else” kind of an algorithm. Without any negativity pertaining to it or an intention of correcting it (because your love for color blue does not imply your desire to eliminate or “correct” all the other colors it’s just a personal preference) what is being done here Is a gentle proposition of a different point of view towards self and life as a whole.
A more organic perspective of life with a much much lesser emphasis on knowing and more so upon feeling and experiencing.
Knowledge is like a seed it requires the right soil and a multitude of correct conditions to take hold to germinate. Feelings and emotions on the other hand are like saplings and plants (may be even trees depending entirely upon their depth and intensity) within us. They already have a foot hold in our being and are more real to us than any word or statement or assertion.

The urban ascetic’s point of view is multidimensional instead of being linear ……….it’s kind of hard to make sense of as it does not comply with the sensibility of the current simplistic and effective linear “if-then-else” algorithmic point of view.
But is worth looking into as it is not a generic “one size fits all” point of view but a very specific “tailor made to your measurement” point of view. ……….

And herein lays its boon as well as its bane. The boon it offers is a more congenial, a more pleasant, friendly and enjoyable psychological milieu to the individual within himself. A sort of portable “emotional-psychological resort cum retreat” goes with you where ever you go……. A personal portable heaven.

But its bane is its specificity itself …….its “tailor made to your measurement” nature implies your active participation and we have become so used to the “ready to use” , “ the instantaneous”, “the immediate” that the concept of slow organic growth out of which we all and all that is has emerged has become alien to us.
This point of view begins at you, proceeds with you until it has become you.
And so it begins where you are (no matter what that place is)……..by asking you “what is it that you want?” and immediately supplements it with a “why?” i.e. “why do you want whatever it is that you want?”

Answer by answer, thing by thing, person by person, place by place, position by position, situation by situation, layer by layer with your honest and untiring participation it relentlessly keeps asking you “but why do you want it?” until it has cornered you to make you understand, feel and clearly see the point in its next question that is

“What is it that you want to feel in the having of that particular person, position, thing, situation etc …?”

And once one can develop the patience, persistence and stamina to reach up to this question to an extent that this question becomes as pertinent to him/her as the person, position, thing, situation etc that incited this process in the first place he/she has become ready to begin the journey.

The journey of life as “The Urban Ascetic”

THE URBAN ASCETIC SERIES

THE URBAN ASCETIC SERIES