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Part-time Job. Full-time Work

By Soshimsa

I used to have a job at a muffler factory but, it was too exhausting. I also had a job at an orange juice company, but I got canned because I couldn't concentrate. I then had a job as a doctor, but I just had no patients. And so, I was exhausted. I couldn't concentrate.
I had no patience. That’s why I decided to become a Zen monk….I'm joking.

However, over the course of our life, many of us have had many jobs. Different kinds of jobs. Sometimes, multiple jobs at the same time. No matter what your job is, please understand, your job is always a part-time job. This part-time job pays so that we can rent things. We rent a car, you might say “No I own my car”. We rent a house, you might say “No I own my house”…

In reality, we rent a house. We rent a car.
Just like we rent the air.
Just like we rent the food. Just like we rent this body. Our job pays so that we could rent. When you breathe in, you're renting the air. You can't keep it.
You have to give it back. When you eat food, you’re renting the food, a little while later, you have to go to the bathroom. You have to give it back.

We rent the dirt. We rent the water. We rent the air. Everything in this life is rented.

And so, no matter how many jobs we have in this life every one of them is a part-time job.

What then is your full-time work? Carpenter, doctor, lawyer, psychologist….Those are just your part-time job titles. Your full-time work title is Human.
Your full-time work is to be human.

The part-time job pays for the renting of things, but we don’t own the rented things.

We walk around this earth, and collect things, we borrow, and we rent, we borrow and rent.


And when the time comes we have to return everything we’ve rented and borrowed.

That is your part-time job, not your full-time work. Your work as a human being is to make karma and make fortune.
These are our only true possessions. You cannot bring even a single one of your rented things with you when you leave this world. Not even the last breath. What we can bring with us is not what we earn through our job employment, but what we earn through our human work. Although it is in this world that we earn our fortune, it is not in this world where we can save it.

Even this Earth itself is borrowed from the universe. A day will come when even the tallest mountains are going to crumble and even this earth has to return its body to the universe. You cannot save your belongings there. It will all burn.

The bank account for our karma and our fortune is in another world. A storehouse where our true belongings are safe. No matter how raging a fire, it will not burn this. No matter how sharp a diamond, it will not cut this.

So, make sure to do your full-time human work.

Be compassionate,

be helpful,

be thoughtful,

be ethical,

pursue wisdom

and patience,

train your mind through meditation,

practice perseverance…

in short Su-Haeng. Buddhist philosophy teaches us how to get and save the things that are actually ours.
How to build your karmic fortune and save it in the indestructible storehouse of your true belongings.

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