Work and peace of mind

Some people can enjoy happiness in daily life, but they often suffer anxiety at work. There are lots of reasons why you do not like the job: You may find it too hard and feel overloaded, you have to deal with difficult colleagues, or even because you are not in the good mood during that day.

 

In case you have got a quarrel with your wife/husband or someone else before going to work, this would be easy to overcome. Just think, "(s)/he" is not here, there’s no need to bring family's pressure to work. In case of sickness with symptoms such as depression, headaches, back pain, tiredness, it is even not worth  bothering with it. Just accept such health condition . Moreover, there is no need to force it to perform beyond its reality. Instead, you can recite the name of Buddha Amitābha to keep peace in mind; or tell yourself: I am having an unpleasant cold, so I just need to work dedicatedly, accept the situation, then things will be OK, and peace will come!

 

If the problem is from your colleagues, just think: may be (s)he is not OK! There may be some problems with his/her family. May be (s)he has got some troubles or disadvantages in his/her mind that (s)he cannot unload yet,  hence (s)he has such unpleasant appearance. Or just simply it is his/her habit of unconsciously performing such uncomfortable face.

When understanding such objective and unavoidable circumstances, you will not feel insecure, will you?

 In fact, lots of pressure at work comes from “requirement”. We set out  some requirements on others, imposing pressures on them. Then it’s their turn asking us doing something, putting us under pressures back. Another reason is the "comparison" among peers, and competition between enterprises in market. Whoever cannot show their strong points,  they may fail in a fierce competition in the market.

We often see some work environments where workers do not perform well and many enterprises are coping with knock-out competitive pressure. In such cases, pressure will be more likely to spread as domino effects on us.

It’s terribly hard to keep our mind undisturbed in such work environment. Hence what is the best way for us to keep peace and bliss in our mind?

Firstly, try our best in  improving ourselves to manage the job and adapt ourselves to the work environment as best we can; then we will acquire proficiency and ease at work. It is more likely when you live with someone else, if (s)he does not understand you, then manage to understand him/her. If you are a boss, it is necessary for you to realize that business is like a battlefield. Situation can change in just a blink of eye. It is necessary to learn and accept advantages and disadvantages in business.

 

It is advisable that we should mentally prepare to cope with both of them. Advantages and disadvantages are two inevitable sides of life. Disadvantages  are not always bad. Even when we always have to encounter them, we should not condemn it, the flip side of things. Thanks to difficulties, we can learn precious lessons from life. We just need to see them as the price we have to pay for success in life. If after passing hardship and getting the full-fledged experience but the success does not come, it means to say we haven’t accumulated enough merit through lives to enjoy the sweet fruit this time.

 When playing sports, for example, while we are busy considering if we should get the ball, in just a blink of eye, others get it. In such situations, some people may badly blame themselves for dullness. If you have such inherently slow reaction, you need to think how to develop it. Change means finding new method, new solution. Therefore, I recommend that you should try to change the position and have a bright outlook to evaluate and deal with the work better. Actually, there is also someone who does not care about right and wrong and just eagerly try his/her best to pass up things to get what (s)he wants until exhausted or  blindly gamble his/her life on success and just receive bitter failure.

Rude behavior just for going forward without stepping back are the greatest defects of human.

 

Venerable Master Sheng Yen.

 

Translated by Dieu Lien Hoa