Meaningful Work

by Gregory Allen Butler

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art." -- Leonardo Da Vinci

How fortunate we are when we receive professional service from someone whose spirit does work with their hands; a doctor or nurse, an architect, a mechanic, a teacher, an artist, a musician. We are lifted up into a higher realm of energy.

But how did these professionals get to that exalted way of working? How can a mundane experience for some be a transcendent experience for others? To get to that level of work that Leonardo describes requires an ability to be free of the dictates of mind. It requires Presence, a connection to your source of being.

With that connection, we can make choices that are conscious. Then we are not following the herd of sleepwalkers following other sleepwalkers down busy boulevards. We can take the road less traveled. We then have the capacity to discover meaning, inspiration, creativity and true purpose. Joseph Campbell would describe it as the hero's call to adventure. We rise up. George Bernard Shaw said, "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one…" Ah, the rapture of experience. It makes life worth living.

We cannot expect success in our inner life if we compartmentalize our life's activities into good and bad. Nobody can have a career conducive to inner life where the most important fact of the day is in the number of remaining hours of work. Such is the lot of the sleepwalkers.

To reach our inner goals of life, we have to attend to the outer dimension of life with attention and consciousness. If it is true that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience, then there must be a purpose in everything we do. If we are spiritual beings then our inherit nature surely must be bliss. And we don't have to wait for weekends and vacations to experience it. It's available as our experience no matter what we are occupied with.

Joseph Campbell said "We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about."

So be alive around the clock. If the work we do is meaningful, then the inner life is nourished, not neglected. We can follow our bliss day and night. The mystical poet Rumi states it concisely: "Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart."

I remember seeing a Jungian archetype based astrologer about 25 years ago who told me that I would never feel happy in my work unless I was writing. I've written freelance on and off since then, but never full time. And it turns out she was right. I have had so many numerous careers since her words of advice, a restlessness of spirit. Now that I write full time I know what she meant. I'm fulfilled.

So was Rumi right? If the desire for a particular work has been put into the heart of everyone, how do we find it? Blog writer Steve Pavlina recently pondered on his blog, what would happen to our society if everyone became awakened at the same time, and there were no more people to work at Walmart, or dig ditches?

I don't worry about too many people being awakened at once. But the more people who are following their bliss, the more positive energy there is to make this world a better place to live. Inspired work inspires others. It can be contagious. When I have done my work to the best of my ability, and know that it is useful and helpful to people, I feel energized and uplifted. I'm a better person for having done it. And others feel that energy.

Be useful. Do what you are made to do. When I worked at the Los Angles Times Syndicate, a colleague of mine had a quotation hanging above his desk: "A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. -- John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic (1928)

What are you built for? Are you going to sail out into the oceans of the world? How are you going to be useful? What can you take from your inspiration and turn into action? What idea can you translate into form?

Do yourself a favor and don't do your work out of guilt or fear. Do it out of a genuine desire to be of service. Work done in any other way is counter-productive to life.

Mother Teresa would tell the people who came to help her, "If you can't do it with love and cheerfulness, don't do it at all. Go home.

I agree. Go home. But when you get there, take the time to find out what is meaningful to you, what motivates you. Act on that. Be happy.