Someone asked: my boss has indirectly told me to leave my job because of the bad economy — how should I settle my mind so as not to suffer too much?

Everything Depends on the Wheel-Turning Force and Merit-Power Within

Everything depends on the 'wheel-turning' force (chakraphat) within us. Whether we have much or little, whatever salary we earn, depends on that force arranging things for us according to our merit-power. A career isn't the only thing we must do forever; there are many other flourishing paths, many channels — unless we're lazy, or simply can't yet see the channels.

Being Pushed Out May Be a Signal to Step Out and Rely on Oneself

That the boss speaks indirectly — consider why others aren't spoken to the same way. When pushed like this, the time has come to step out of the zone where we depend on someone else's 'channel of merit' to sustain us, and to rely on ourselves. A bad economy is bad for some but good for others. If we abide in the wholesome system, it's good regardless.

Rely on Careful Reflection to Find Channels

Life has many paths. Some people have many channels but can't see them. If, while pursuing right livelihood, we also reflect on channels for making a living, we'll see them; but if we work without looking, we won't. Everything depends on reflection — what is called 'applied and sustained thought' (vitakka-vicāra). A student who reflects becomes clear in the lesson; a researcher who reflects can devise new innovations. When we reflect on any matter, merit flows in to purify, the inner knower points the way, and once we act, the work succeeds.

Don't Adopt Others' Words: Whether the Economy Is Good Depends on Our Own Work

Don't take others' words for it. They say the economy is bad, and we accept that it's bad — yet everyone still has to eat and spend. Pra Ajarn recalled that as a young man at work, every year the Chinese merchants greeting one another would say 'hang seng mor' — the economy is bad — every single year, never once saying it was good. So don't adopt others' words. If others aren't doing well, that's their affair; our own work must be good. Because if we abide in the wholesome, the wholesome will help — unless we pay it no mind and place no trust in it.

Provable: Give Time to the Wholesome by Training to Sit Eight Hours a Day

Pra Ajarn has a way to prove it that can change a life: try sitting in meditation for eight hours a day, and the economy will improve for you — because sitting like that draws merit in for the wheel-turning force, rather than living off old merit. A day has twenty-four hours; divided among the three natural forces, that's eight hours. Give the wholesome system eight continuous hours, and watch the wonders that follow. Sitting with eyes closed is the easiest thing there is — nothing to carry or haul, just sit at ease — but it still takes training. In his own working days Pra Ajarn used this very principle, turning a bad economy into a good one; the customers came on their own. This must be tested, and can be done alongside one's work — but it takes training, and without training it can't be done.