Is Being Philosophical About Our Circumstances A Luxury Or A Necessity?

by Robert Wilkinson

This started as an answer to a comment, but rapidly became what you're about to read. None of us need be trapped by circumstances. None of us need be poor, or struggle with life. All of us have skills to be developed we don't know about which could bring us relative wealth and the respect of our world. It all depends on being philosophical in the right way about the right things.

Since I can only aver what I know from experience, let me share with you why I came to believe being philosophical about our circumstances and karmas is a necessity.

Once upon a time when much younger I was extremely poor. I had a few skills and a lot of altruism, but I didn't have much other than the willingness to persevere. By the time I was in my 20s, though neither of us had any money, my wife and I still cooperated in raising our daughter the best we could, and made due with what was possible. We didn't have much, but we refused to consider ourselves poor, or allow life's troubles and challenges to make us defeatist in our attitudes.

Many complain about not having a mate to help them, either as a couple or a family. I have known many dozens of single parents who do the best they can, and with openness and willingness to improve their skills and way of life, also wind up in decent or even great circumstances. Some in fact do better alone than with a partner who is uncooperative, lazy, or nasty. Having a mate is no guarantee that one will do well, nor is being a single parent a sentence to poverty and ignorance.

We all have skills to be developed that could earn us a decent living at something productive. To cultivate them requires a degree of imagination and willingness to think outside our cultural box of what we've already been taught, opening to unknown possibilities. When we're tired of beating our head against the wall, then it's time to open to other things. Doors tend to open when we're not struggling against the tide of our own evolution.

"Being philosophical" may be the only hope we humans have, since it's where our imagination might stumble across that which could make us greater than we imagined. In just one instance of this in my life, in my mid-30s I was led within a relatively short time from a $5/hr word processing temp gig right into becoming a very much in demand television producer, director, editor and cameraman thanks to free on the job training. It took "being philosophical" for me to regard $5/hr as an opportunity rather than an insult.

We are NEVER supposed to be "objects of charity" or "poor in Spirit." We have the power to attract ourselves to the perfect situation, if only we stay open to being trained and willing to think outside our previous box of perception which got us stuck in the first place.

Here impatience and pride are real obstacles. This was true in my own experience, as well as the experience of many who I've counseled over decades. If we can be philosophical about worldly things, we won't fall into the traps of unhelpful feelings and thoughts. I've been ripped off many times, but it never put me down or kept me down, and taught me who my friends were and weren't.

There are many things we could do that this world will pay quite well for if we learn to do them well. If you are wondering what to do, or feel trapped in unfulfilling work, perhaps you could make your destiny as a chocolatier, or a paralegal, or a baker of breads and/or desserts, or any number of other things that the world needs, would welcome, and would pay quite well for your creative product.

Learn HTML programming, use your imagination, and you could create a video game that could make millions. Learn how to install drip irrigation systems and create gardens. Do a greenhouse and provide gardeners with the starts and sets they need each year. Learn to install gutters and save homeowners the pleasure of being flooded. Learn to install solar panels, solar water heaters, or solar ovens and help reduce the world's carbon footprint. There are many things to do in this world that could be fun and make you decent money.

Our well being entirely depends on our point of view. It's all a question of "being philosophical" and seeing that mental slavery is the true problem in any question of unfulfilled Dharma. Even a pizza maker could be fulfilling a great purpose, where people would love the product and would find fellowship and good cheer. I know, for once upon a time in my 20s that was me.

My main income at this time is as a personal counselor, but I also do this column as a labor of love. I have been a strategic adviser continuously for many decades for corporations as well as individuals. That has taken many forms over the years beyond whatever astrology I know. For example, my ability to type, edit, know elements of human nature, and keep confidences once allowed me to be a well-paid script consultant for a couple of the biggest Hollywood movies ever to hit the Silver Screen.

I have been self-employed for the past 43 years as a contractor in all the things I've mentioned here and many more. There have been no guarantees, no steady salary, no retirement plans, and that may be the best thing that ever happened to me, since it forced me to take the initiative in every way this life. I've had to take a philosophical approach to life with every breath I take, since no one but God and my Higher Self have ever given me anything beyond some basics.

That required cultivating skills beyond just what I offer here in The Aquarius Papers. Through my life circumstances I chose to be well-rounded in my experience a long time ago, since I came from relative poverty. I was in no way a child of privilege or wealth. Even if I was educated and had some degree of conscience, unlike so many in our world today, I still had to be philosophical about the changes, the gains and losses, and open to possibilities rather than cop a bad attitude about what I didn't have that others did.

Even though I believe I'm doing my part to assist the world to be a better place, I'm still learning, still improving my current skills and cultivating others. Now that I'm in my upper 50s, I have several things I do very well that the world would pay fairly well were I to do them instead of this. But I'll keep learning anyway, since life is an adventure in learning whatever floats our boat.

We all have potential we don't dream of. We all have skills that with a little training we could be great at. It all depends on finding the right point of view, and the willingness to learn. We are never trapped by circumstance. We are only trapped by our prerecorded bagism. And we can always "break on through to the other side."

It only takes being philosophical.

© Copyright 2009 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[JP]

Robert,

Wonderful piece.

"Doors tend to open when we're not struggling against the tide of our own evolution."

Perhaps there is no more important lesson than this!

[caliban]

Philosophy of life . . . As a youngster I saw a tv adaptation of a Eugene O Neill play, could have been The Ice Man Cometh, not sure. Anyway, alot of men getting drunk at the bar. One was babbling about his misery. He always wanted to . . . but he never did, and then he continued with the excuses. When I heard that, I decided that is never going to be me. So I have always followed my heart. That philosophy has taken me to many places and situations. I keep my lifestyle as simple as possible to allow my heart to take the lead. I am 53 years old and starting down a new path again. It is never too late.

I recently ran into an astrological twin. Same birth hospital, same classroom, different parents. Uncanny. What she was doing years ago, I am doing now. And what I was pursuing years ago, she is doing now. Must be some kind of housal difference. We have both forsaken the irresistable but elusive south node moon men. And we both got the itchy feet and the heart that can't say no to the go.

[anon]

I make lots of money (six figures) and am well regarded in my career. I think leaving such a career is almost harder than not having any real success at something and branching out. I'd like to do something less intense and time consuming someday. Maybe even making pizzas.

[J. Sue Gagliardi]

Hi Robert,

As usual, you hit me where I smile and say, "Right on!"

Being philosophical gets us where we need to go to be fulfilled.

[WarriorLady]

Thank you for this!

[Valerie]

Your story is indeed inspirational! It's so easy to lose perspective and become discouraged. There were several periods in my life when I was living on a shoestring or something similarly dire. My dad said when I was very little he didn't know where our next hot dog was coming from. He was in law school, my mother was home with three kids, the usual struggling young family. But I was not aware of it. I don't think we were really poor, overall, because we always had a nice little Christmas tree every year, and family and friends to love. We were kind of like the Bob Cratchets. Even if it would be great to have a ton of money, there is so much more to life than that. Most people don't really get it until they look behind and realize how much there is to be thankful for. As usual, thank you for your wisdom! :)

[Starlook]

Nice one! Thanks!

[Carson]

Thank you for the wisdom of your perspective and point of view, Robert. Infinite blessings in helping us move into a broader vision...

[Heli]

Thanks!

I am a happy single mother (but usually silent of that fact, because not all understand my happiness;)

It was sad to understand that a single is happier than a couple. But there is love out there, which doesn't need partnership: astrology, science, pet etc.

[kachina]

You are singing my tune, Robert, and I am smiling. :)

I awoke one day a few years past, and I 'heard': ~Every interaction(or situation,in context to your article), be it with Friend or 'Foe', is an opportunity to define One's Self.~

I have been living it ever since.

Thanks for sharing your wise reflection. kachina

[Maneesha]

Robert,

Signing in here to tell you I admire your perspective.

It takes maturity to understand life and its opportunities. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and insights. I am sure it will teach many of us to evolve into our higer selves.
I agree with you on being philosophical; I think it is a necessity to develop a philosophical attitude in today's times.

[Pepper]

Thank you again, Robert. What a lovely piece.

[caliban]

ah anon, you raise a good question about the measure of success.

In the meantime, I find myself asking, when was the last time anon made a homemade pizza. I see anon moonlighting and a company is born Moonlight Pizza.

I've know a couple of 6 figure people who got back down to basics and they still ended up making 6 figures again.

Good food for thought!

[Mariana]

Thank you!

[PSW]

Robert,
your philisophical clarity has been invaluable to me in the past few years now. Realizing that circumstances are only temporary and that one needs to claim a larger perspective and context to see there own value is essential. We all need others to shine a light and you shine a very bright one.
Thank You,
Namaste

[Wildhorserunning22]

This speaks to me at just the right moment...Thank you Robert.

Can philisophical also be optimism? That is coming up from the depths of my Scorpio
subconcious...of things that are getting thrown on the burning pile...a tendency in the past
to look/see things in a pessimistic/negative view...and then expect it....

I can feel a hairball coming up for "purging".....

[Robert]

Hi JP - Thanks. Much of life is like learning how to swim in quicksand. If we calm down we can find ways to move through the muck. If we struggle and panic we sink. I find most struggling is between the lower ego and our Higher Self.

Hi caliban - Perhaps there is much to learn from your astro-double who has mirrored your experience, since they took the road you didn't but still wound up in the same place. And it is true, that if it's in one's Dharma to be a "6 figure" type of person, then we'll find it regardless of the route.

Hi anon - It is true that it's difficult to quit that which seems to go well. Perhaps you're getting what you need to do something else at the right time, and so at this point you don't have to quit anything, but instead plan for the future to the extent that is possible.

Hi J Sue - I do believe that being philosophical about many things helps us to find perspective and some measure of peace even as the storms swirl around us.

Hi WarriorLady - You're most welcome.

Hi Valerie - Yes, I stopped being poor when I left the family home and made my life on my own terms. Then I may not have had much, but I ceased to be poor. And of course, I knew I had gifts and character qualities that I needed to make it in the world, so realistically, how poor could I be?

Hi Starlook - Sure. You're welcome.

Hi Carson - "And we all shine on, like the Moon and the stars and the Sun...."

Hi Heli - Sure. Sometimes single parenting can feel sad, but not as sad as living with someone who jams your gears, jams your child's gears, and is indifferent to anything other than their own appetites. It's nice to have a partner, as long as they ARE a partner.

Hi kachina - As I noted in "A Time to Remember" we must not compare ourselves to others, since we each have our own unique destiny to pursue. That self-definition shows us our higher Way.

Hi Maneesha - Glad you value maturity, since that's the confirmation that we have in fact learned from our experiences and have chosen to grow in wisdom rather than stay stuck in immature perspectives.

Hi Pepper - You're most welcome. I thought more than a few could identify with at least a little of what I've been through.

Hi Mariana - You're most welcome.

Hi PSW - We all can learn much from each other's experiences. That's why from time to time I eschew the technical astrology and just share some of my life.

Hi wild horse running - Being philosophical can lead to optimism, or resignation, or transcendent perspectives, depending. Negative expectancies often do yield negative conditions. That's why generating Bodhichitta, or "goodwill," or positivity, is one tool we have for turning away from unhelpful expectations.

[Is It Safe]

Thankyou so much for that piece - that's exactly what I needed to hear today :-)

[kaali]

Thank you Robert! You are absolutely right. I just found out how to listen my inner soul's calling and improving and using my skills. The results might be surprising sometimes ;)

[Robert]

Hi Is it safe - Sometimes when I get out of my own way an article comes that seems perfect for the times. Glad it was perfect!

Hi kaali - Listening to the inner voice is usually the best thing to do in order to get oriented to what really matters. Then it's all a question of techniques of externalization.

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