His answer for my life

I was fortunate enough to ask Thay a question, one question important to me during his Q&A talk. As you may or may not guess, it was loaded. My question about life. I'll try to repeat here. . .

I would like your advice, I said. I have experienced one career in life and just quit another. I am not happy with my life. I quit everything and am traveling for a year in search for my purpose in life - my passion. However, I find it even difficult to do this. I have a hard time making decisions, never feel grounded, where should I go to next, etc. I come from a family that is very money oriented and it is scary for me to choose a career that I like that may not make me a comfortable living. I feel very lost. How can I find what is right and true for me and that makes me happy and stop worrying about money or feeling it's influence?

Something like that but hopefully a little more elegant. Well, once I asked my question, he sat there pondering for what seemed like enough time to grab lunch.

Finally, he answered and his words were well spoken. I could easily tell he gave an incredible amount of thought and attention to his answer. He first spoke of perspective. He looked out over the crowd, pointed and said, I see that.
pause.
I see that over there.
pause.
Pointing at me, "but you do not see the same thing because you are sitting over there." It is the same thing we are looking at but we do not see the same thing because of angles. But to see the same thing we should not move the object of which we are trying to see. We simply change our angle and then we will see it differently. He also said that we do alot of worrying about the future. He mentioned IRAs, investment, security for the future. But we do not do anything about the present. If we cannot find happiness now, we will never find it in the future. I should challenge myself that with every step I make that I should be happy. If I am not happy I should find out why - why am I not happy. i must enjoy the here and now to find happiness. Every breath I take I should breathe deeply. Every step I make should be mindful. It will come to me if I allow myself to stop worrying and thinking about the future and be happy now.

I know this sounds strange to some of you but when you think about it and learn more deeply about the concepts, it makes sense. The day after my retreat was the happiest day I've had in a long time - and truly happy for myself. Not because something happened to make me happy. I truly felt at peace and an incredible amount of happiness, compassion and love. Now it is difficult to maintain this every day in the real world. Traveling to strange lands doesn't make it easier either.

So since they record all of these talks and discussions, I bought the DVD and have shipped it home. I can't wait to see it.