J. Krishnamurthi, known in the Theosophical circles as Alcyone, whose life and works have revolutionized many a western life, lectures in London and says
Fundamentally the division exists because we think of work and family differently. We think of the work we do to earn a living as separate from the work we do in our family life. For us, training our salesman is different from training our two year old to read and write. We view maintaining social relationships at work different from maintaining social relationships in our family. This is because work and family for us serves two different purposes and goals. Therefore, we have two different identities at work and in our family. We build these identities according to the goals that we want to achieve.
This division of our identities brings about conflict. Conflict within ourselves and conflict with our co-workers and family members. We then expect our co-workers to understand our family problems and then expect our family members to understand our work related problems. We then complicate the matters further by trying to find out a "Balance" between work and family life.
I think it would be worthwhile to spend this evening in trying to find out if there is a way of living - not theoretically or intellectually but actually - a way of life, in which there is no division whatsoever; a way of life in which action is not fragmented, so that it is one constant flow, where every action is related to all other actions.Go throught the quote once again and you will find it interesting and worthwhile to think about. We live many lives. Most of us live atleast two different lives. Work Life and Family Life. This division exists because we define work and family separately and think about work and family separately. But are work and family separate? Is the division valid?
Fundamentally the division exists because we think of work and family differently. We think of the work we do to earn a living as separate from the work we do in our family life. For us, training our salesman is different from training our two year old to read and write. We view maintaining social relationships at work different from maintaining social relationships in our family. This is because work and family for us serves two different purposes and goals. Therefore, we have two different identities at work and in our family. We build these identities according to the goals that we want to achieve.
This division of our identities brings about conflict. Conflict within ourselves and conflict with our co-workers and family members. We then expect our co-workers to understand our family problems and then expect our family members to understand our work related problems. We then complicate the matters further by trying to find out a "Balance" between work and family life.
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