Q: My question is about a job. I don’t know what kind of job is right for me and I’m always wondering what it is I want for my life: where to go, what I need.
John: The deeper levels of you are not able to even relate to a job. The deeper levels of you do not need a job.
Q: They need money!
John: The deeper levels of you do not need any money. The deeper levels of you don’t need shelter, don’t need food, don’t need water, don’t even need physical life.
Q: I want family, I want children and I want work … it’s my life and I love it!
John: The responsibility of having a job and being active in this world belongs to the surface level of you. It does not belong to the deeper levels of you. There are many of you, and having a job belongs to only one of you.
What really matters is that this one of you that’s responsible to have a job, does a job and has a job for all of these other levels of you. Then it’s clean. But if you have a job for the surface level of you, you separate because there isn’t just the surface level of you: everything that you do on the surface belongs and is given to what’s deeper. So when you do your job – and it doesn’t matter what job you do – you go to work and you’re at work for all of these other deeper levels of you. When that’s genuine, all of these deeper levels of you live and shine in your job.
What shines of the surface level of you in your job is that you are there for all of these deeper levels of you. In your job, the surface level of you is in a love-flow of givenness: not givenness to the job but givenness to everything that you’ve awakened to while you do your job. If you look to the deeper levels of you for what job to do, all of these deeper levels of you would look at you and, in a sense, they would all be saying that it makes no difference what you do. It doesn’t matter what job you have. It doesn’t matter what career you have. It doesn’t matter how much money you make. It doesn’t matter whether you like your job or not. All that matters is: have a job and do your job. Do it given to what’s deeper.
Q: I don’t know if this is my life.
John: It’s not your life. You’re drawn to this being your life just as long as it doesn’t cost you too much. You’re drawn to this being your life as long as you can also, on the surface, have the job you like, be comfortable and have everything else that you like. But that can shift. You can be a flow of givenness to this deeper life while you’re comfortable and uncomfortable, so that it doesn’t make a difference to you anymore. You could have a job that you don’t like, or you can have a job that you really like. Either way, you are equally given to this deeper life within, while you do your job.
It’s a simple life. It’s a life of givenness. It isn’t a life of getting and having. It isn’t a life of keeping. It isn’t a life of personal ownership. It’s a life flow of givenness.
