Out of curiosity I would like to see what you yogis and yoginis do in the world. I am an actuarial analyst for a consulting firm. The hours are long (50+ a week) and on top of that I need to study for a series of exams that usually take 8 years to get through 
The work itself is pretty interesting but I’m currently looking for the same type of position in an insurance company where the hours are more typical (40 hours a week). That way I’ll more time for asanas and practices, things won’t be so rushed all of the time.
What do you do? Do you find it aligns with your practices? Do you sometimes feel it takes too much time away from your yoga or other worldly activities?
I live and work on an organic fruit and vegetable farm.
Hunter, you inspire me! I’d like to go work on a fruit and veggie farm… sigh Was thinking of going wewoofing for a year or so, to be able to go deeper into practices.
I’m originally a researcher in public health, but quit to work as a teacher/coach at a special school for adults (from 16-17 to 60) with different difficulties to enter the labour market (immigrants, gypsies, former drug addicts and criminals, people with ADHD, dyslexia, mental health problems etc etc - often very intelligent people with lots of resources that has never been detected). I have 3 hrs a day on the train to get back and forth to my job, so there’s not much time for practices. Much of my meditation is on the tube or train, but there are lots of changes on the way, so only short sessions are possible. I always feel I would need more time for practices.
However, on my job, I get plenty of situations where I practice yoga. 
There’s a lot of challenges to stay in silence/witness mode during emotional storms (mine or others), there’s a lot of giving without asking for anything in return - outpouring divine love, there’s a lot of spontaneous healing and cleaning of energy entitities in the room (these people bring lots of heavy energies), there’s a lot of opportunities to tell about meditation and tantra, when the students ask about my ability to stay so suprisingly calm all the time! 
And it’s a place where the staff is into self-inquiry, where it’s seen as something positive to self-reflect in order to improve. We are allowed to make mistakes and we support each other very much. It’s a great place and I’m priviliged to work there.
But… I might change my work situation soon anyway… feels like I’ve learned what I had to learn there. Something else is coming. Just don’t know what or when…
I’m a soldier who is trying to finish college, but keeps getting pulled away.
Scott, please perservere. My son is in the same position as you are and I know how hard it is.
I design software systems. I am currently trying to envision a new career for myself, service oriented in some way, that I can train for while still working in my current occupation… As EMC says, “something else is coming…Just don’t know what or when…”
Kathy
I am a freelance software programmer, self-employed and one man company
Professional Golfer/ Independent Businessman
Excluding my wife and son, my daily Yoga practice is by far the most important thing in my life, thanks to AYP.
Guy
Same as Wolfgang except for freeman, substitute serf.
I just saw this topic and wanted to respond. For years I have wanted to get away from what I do. I work as an implementation Project Management consultant. Sometimes the hours are long, sometimes not. The work can be stressful as you are trying to get everything done on time and sometimes trying to get people to do things they don’t want to do.
I first started spiritual practices about 15 years ago. It wasn’t long after that I started to think, “I should be doing work that is more in alignment with my spiritual beliefs. I should be doing something to help people, rather than spending all my energy helping companies to put in new systems.” Yet the Universe seemed to ignore my requests. I tried a few times to get away, but I would keep getting sent back to this type of work (too long to describe it all here).
Now after many years I see the wisdom. Sticking with my current work allowed me more time to focus on my practices than I would have if I moved to more of a healing type of career. It also gave me more opportunity to look at where I was not healing myself by the interactions I had with others.
I also have noticed that as I have cleared my stuff and the more calm I become with my meditation practices, the more enjoyable my work is and the more pleasant my co-workers seem.
Blessings,
Lila
Hi There
I have been in the medical industry (scrub nurse), MLM Sales
Manager, Title Closing Officer and Manager, became a Mortgage Broker & opened & closed my own company, as well as opened & closed a retail store at our local Shopping Mall.
I have never felt “comfortable” or that I was in the right place. I have climbed the corporate ladder, received substaintal income, and walked away from it all a few times, not understanding then, quite why?
As I approach my 2nd year on being home; I have realized that “the something more” has nothing to do with the work we do. We are not our work.
Its the restlessness of our inner beings desperately seeking our truth, we allow the MIND / EGO to take over, and blame work or conditions and look else where to find peace and serenity and perhaps a path that will possibly give insight or assist us to finding our truth. So in essence we just created more mind garbage to hide behind and have to work even harder now to purify the new belief system we gave our mind power of.
Our mind is the dark soul we all have in us, until we can kill the mind/ego and be still in pure stillness we will never “feel comfortable” regardless of what we “do”
Living in light and love
Nancy
Hi Nancy,
The mind/ ego is not our enemy that needs to be killed. Being adversarial to the mind will only serve to perpetuate the very thought patterns we no longer want to identify with. Make peace with your mind, it is simply a thought machine, echoing the common thoughts of this earth that we all “hear”. We suffer when we identify with these thoughts and believe they are true. The mind/ ego is actually serving a great purpose and that is to show that peace and happiness are not found “out there” in the many ideas of the mind, no matter how great they seem at first.
There is no need to kill the thoughts that the mind repeats or the ego we believe we are. All that is required is to stop identifying with our thoughts and beliefs and to identify (know) our true nature of inner silence instead. When this happens, we switch to knowing ourselves as the witness and the thoughts can come and go as they please, they no longer matter.
Just wanted to post this link, because you seem to think about the same issues I am…
http://www.megagenius.com/mega_genius_intelligence_briefing_no_39.htm
Insideout(if I could call you that way), to comfort you a bit, let me tell your 50+hours-a-week job really mean nothing in Hong Kong!!
Th norm here is 9am to 7pm. About the same as you I guess, but it’s oly the norm! It’s much longer for any reasonably good job (“good” as in the collective value here, though I myself won’t call them good for the hardwork), at least for the first few years.
An financial analyst working in major banks works roughly 11-12 hours a day, but it could be 13-15 hours in investment bank. An accountant working in a major accountant very often call it a day beyond midnight. Many work from 9am to 2am or 3am.
Indeed I don’t mean that some’s worse than you will make you feel good. Only that I think it a kind of privilege working as an actuarial analyst like you, that some people are willing to work for 80+ hours a week. You could enjoy the same privilege in your country with 10-30 hours more for yourself each week!
It’s already a blessing that you enjoy it. When I entered University, I almost chose the same path as you, fortunately I didn’t since I know I won’t be enjoying it too much. It’s very personal.
After doing mathematical research for 2 years, working as a teacher for one year, and a freelance for some months, I started a new career path, the only one I could think of that will give me enough money and time: airline pilot. The catch is the high amount of cosmic radiation passing through me each year!!
…or to quote Pantajali - “Yoga is cessation of identification with the thought waves of the mind”. At least that is the way my teacher used to translate it.
I also study the Pathwork material and it teaches that we need to strengthen the ego so it is strong enough to allow us to let go. A weak ego is afraid to let go.
Another way i have heard it put is that they are not our thoughts. they come to us from the outside.
Interesting about strengthening the ego. That fits in pretty well with my belief that the ego is a useful tool. You just need to know when and how to put it back in the toolbox and close the lid.
I’m a master electrician specializing in troubleshooting. I love my job because it changes every day, and is very challenging. I have to use intuition a lot to figure out how things are put together that I can’t see, and try to construct a model in my head of what could be happening. I just look around and collect clues, and without thinking much, the model pops into my head, then I test it to see if it’s right.
It can be very stressful because people are paying a lot of money for me, and they aren’t comfortable with me just wandering around waiting for intuition to give me answers.
So I have to impress them with my knowledge, and explain things in a way that makes it seem like there is a solid, unwavering method. But I know that’s a lie, and often other technicians have been there before me failing with those methods.
So I start explaining things in such technical detail that they gain confidence in me while realizing that they are wasting time. Then when they leave, I can solve the problems with intuition.
Meditation has made it possible for me to continue what I love doing even though I wanted to quit because life is too short to endure a lot of stress. I decided i needed to get rid of the stress and keep the rest, and that’s what I did with AYP.
Isn’t putting the ego to rest or empowering it to ALLOW us to let go, and knowing when to put the ego back in the toolbox, not a form of “killing” the ego when need to the same? (yes a rather harsh term)
Nancy
Day job: software engineer at a major computer company
Night job: non-union actor on stage and television
Round-the-clock job: remembering Ram
Yes it’s different ways of talking about the same thing. the only reason people object to certain terminology is because the ego is so tenacious that if you go after it to try to kill it, you will probably not be successful.
Instead, if you don’t concentrate on it, but continue daily practices in the main lessons, the ego will just start to fade away on its own.
It’s like trying to “kill” a big oil company. It’s impossible. But if you start using alternative fuels, it will just go away on its own.
I think it has something to do with actions taking volition, like hunting and killing needing an ego to perform them, and the ego being very devious in being able to trick us.
Wow, that sounds a lot like my job. I also encounter situations where I am not certain how to resolve them. My customers also pay a lot of money for me and want results. I give them a technical explanation that assures them I know what I am doing, but in reality more of my answers come to me through intuition.
Yes it’s different ways of talking about the same thing. the only reason people object to certain terminology is because the ego is so tenacious that if you go after it to try to kill it, you will probably not be successful.
Instead, if you don’t concentrate on it, but continue daily practices in the main lessons, the ego will just start to fade away on its own.
It’s like trying to “kill” a big oil company. It’s impossible. But if you start using alternative fuels, it will just go away on its own.
I think it has something to do with actions taking volition, like hunting and killing needing an ego to perform them, and the ego being very devious in being able to trick us.
I would actually disagree. The ego is never "killed", it needs to continue to exist and is what drives you to find the god within. However, it needs to give up total control in order for the real self to emerge and ultimately the ego merges with the real self or the god within.