Work is your privilege, not the fruits thereof. Never cease to work.
Coming from a capitalistic country,
Work is what you need to do in order to receive money, which pays for shelter, food and clothes.
For us, work is not our privilege.
It is our obligation.
And if we can cease to work sooner (retirement), better than later.
1. Work is your privilege, not the fruits thereof
This quote has completely changed the way I see work.
You shoudn´t work just because you have to, in order to get money.
You should work because it´s what you have to do, it´s your duty, it does good to you and it´s your service to the Lord.
Let´s say that you are like me and have doubts about the existence of God. Then your work is your service to the Universe, to Nature, to the universal Consciousness. And if you don´t believe in such a thing, then work is your service to your family, to your spouse, to your community, to your ancestors who gave their lives so that you are here now, to your kids or to your possible future kids.
Whatever you believe in,
Try to get yourself out of the equation.
You are not that important,
You are just doing your work and are happy because of that.
You feel productive and it is the right thing to do.
Just do your work, and do it the best way you can.
* I admit that the idea of getting detached from the fruits of work is one of the hardest parts of the philosophy of yoga that I have read until now; I will speak about it in future posts. My mindset as a citizen of a developed country says that money is necessary and I should get paid for my work.
2. Never cease to work
This second part of the quote connects with the mindset of abundance.
We believe that work is something that you do temporarily, for some years. And when you have worked enough, then the Estate has to pay a pension to you because you deserve it and because, due to your age, you don´t have the capacities anymore to work.
But if you believe this quote,
Then you will always be able to work.
Then work work is a pleasure, something that you will happily do for the rest of your life.
And therefore you will keep being paid for the rest of your life, simply as a consequence of the energy that you are constantly putting in. Then you don´t have to save money.
I myself have been for long time trying to skip work, trying to get the biggest results possible with the least amount of effort and time. As smart as that is, it can also lead to a spiral of wanting to work each time less and less, making you fall into the trap of lazyness.
I have also entered the mindset of FIRE (Finantial Independent, Retire Early).
But again, it can easily lead to a mindset of scarcity. The idea of Never cease to work puts you in a position of being able to work forever, of having energy forever, of being able forever. That´s abundant.
Love your work and do it happily.
Even if you don´t love your work, just do it happily. It´s your privilege.