Work a Concentration Meditation; Retirement an Open Awareness Meditation?

     There are interresting parallels between the relatively narrow focus of working life and concentration forms of meditation; and then a broader opening up to life in general when one retires (or is on a retreat) and open awareness forms of meditation.
     If one can sense the totality of life as one living organism, and resonates with Valera's understanding http://www.johnlovas.com/2014/06/appropriate-behavior-health-depend-on.html that communication between all parts of this one massive Self is essential, then we can appreciate the relative tunnel vision of work-life to be potentially problematic. Also, after a lifetime of specialized work, when (if) people retire, they may well find it challenging to open their mind-hearts to the big picture.
     The capacity, indeed the seamless, effortless ease of connecting deeply & being congruent with LIFE is always, throughout life, critical, IF we are to perform our small, individual, specialized roles in harmony with the one orchestra.

Venice, Italy, June 2014

Dukkha - AND YET - All Manner of Things Are Well ...

     Near the end of my professional career, I'd like to be taking it easier at work, sorting through my large collection of clinical cases and putting them into a suitable format to serve as teaching material, writing a few papers for publication - essentially summing up my career. Instead, I'm taking on more and more routine tasks. Part of the reason for this increased busyness is serious illness of some of my colleagues, forcing them to retire prematurely. So I'm "sharing the load".
     I feel fortunate being able to help, rather than having to retire early. Soon enough, I'll be the one who can no longer provide help. Then I hope to have enough humility & wisdom to accept help gracefully - something with which I, like most health-care professionals, have minimal experience or skill.
     This is a unique part of life, when one's fully aware of life's fragility, yet healthy enough - ever so briefly - to have agency. 

     "Once you feel in your bones and throughout your awareness the emptiness of your mind, you are at peace. Even when problems and difficulties arise, there's still the thread of peace woven in at the heart of them."      Norman Fisher 
       Shambhala Sun January 2013   http://www.shambhalasun.com/

Photo: RuthC   www.dpreview.com