I am a professional Perl programmer by trade. I recently was fired from a job because of low performance and poor attendance. Why did this happen? Because the job made me feel locked inside a box. It hampered my creativity and insulted my skills set. Just to give you a small example, the company forbids the use of grep and map in the Perl code, saying that everything should be written with foreach loops.
I was ready to quit this job almost as soon as starting it, but felt guilty about leaving before a year because of the money they had put into hiring me. Also, I kept telling myself, this company has been around for 10 years. I need a stable job, I don't have any right to consider myself good enough for a more challenging role. I have to stay focused on where the real spiritual life lies and be less concerned about computer programming.
The longer I worked here, the more pain I endured. I dreaded going to work. And over and over the question kept surfacing: where does the real happiness lie? The opinions on this vary greatly. This article presents a number of points on which one has decide one's spiritual orientation
Some spiritual paths see planet Earth as a place we have arrived at as a result of fallen or base thoughts. These paths would further assert that any attempts to seek pleasure here or create a heaven on earth are vain and futile and will only lead to greater suffering. The real heaven, they assert, lies within or beyond what you can gain on Earth through its work or play offerings.
Other paths see Heaven as Earth. While there are plenty of atheists who might see this, this article is about people who think of spiritual growth. Thus, although planet Earth is over-run with materialistic pleasure seekers who do not give a second thought to any of their acts as long as they gain pleasure, the actual number of people seeking Heaven on Earth but with spiritual growth also in mind are very low. The Pagans and Wiccans are the primary spiritual groups with this focus.
For some who think Earthly life is supposed to be hell, they would have no problem with a stable bug agonizing job. They would simply continue their "inner work" and all the hell at work would simply corroborate their suspicions that life on Earth is hell.
One thing you hear a lot of people say about their spiritual path is: "Oh, our path goes back X number of years" as if that makes it more valid than a contemporary spiritual path. However, the earth and man have been here for millions of years and no path dates back that far.
Further, there are certainly cases where modern things are better - computers, cars, athletics. In fact, the only place where people seem to think that older is better is wine and spiritual paths.
So, in software development, you always have the issue of whether to use the older technology or trek out with the latest and supposedly better. Each has its benefits. The older technology is solid and has a track record. Not only that, but many people probably have training on it. Never technologies benefit from hindsight and fix the weaknesses of older technologies.
Some people see man as the Curse of the Earth. All his inventions are not essential for life, but most people feel they are. Money and the things it buys occupy most of a person's time and energy. These people would continue by saying that God gives all to all creatures, we have no need to toil in the fields.
Following one's dream can have one end up in the gutter (literally). There are countless cases of those whose passions have misled them into failed careers and homelessness and a miserable death.
Stable jobs allow one steady income and a chance to really become calm because of solid financial income.
Last updated 17-May-2006 10:42:22 EDT