After your morning meditation, have breakfast and set off for work. How are you going to further extend your practice and Dharma at work?
First, try to remember the kind heart and the motivation you cultivated in the morning. Throughout the day, continually remind yourself that you don’t want to harm anybody, that you want to be of service to them, and that you seek to do all actions for the ultimate enlightenment of yourself and others. To remind yourself of this, you can use a frequent event as a trigger to call you back to your motivation.
For example, every time you stop at a red light, instead of being irritated and thinking, “Why is this red light so long? I’m late for work!” think, “Today, I want to have a kind heart towards others.” Thus the red light becomes an opportunity to remember the kind heart. When the telephone rings, instead of rushing to pick it up, first think, “May I be of service to whomever is on the line.” Then answer the phone. Every time your phone goes off, calmly come back to the kind heart, then respond to the call.
Throughout the day, try to be aware of what you are thinking, feeling, saying, and doing, instead of living on “automatic.” When we live on automatic, we go through life reacting to things but never really experiencing what life is about. Yet a lot is going on and this influences how we feel about ourselves and how we relate to other people.
One of the greatest joys can be found by applying yourself with confidence and wisdom in your workplace, working hard for the sake of a fulfilling life and the well-being of your family. Doing so extends us beyond merely a job or paycheck.
The important thing is to be proud of your work and your capacity and to live true to yourself. Activity is another name for happiness. What’s important is that you give free and unfettered play to both your unique talents and work requirements, that you live with the full radiance of your being. This is what it means to be truly alive.
Peace and Love, Jim
