Entrepreneurship as Spiritual Practice

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Dear Friends,

A Tibetan Joke

There is a Tibetan Buddhist teaching that is also a joke:

The great Buddhist teacher Atisha was visiting Tibet for the first time, and he was told that Tibetans are the nicest people on Earth. Concerned that he wouldn’t be able to practice patience and compassion in such a wonderful environment, he brought along his infamously irritating tea boy.

This story is a joke to Tibetans because they know they are not the nicest people on earth. Tibet is just like any other place. There was no need for Atisha to bring the irritating tea boy!

Friends, entrepreneurship is *my *irritating tea boy.

Entrepreneurship as Spiritual Practice

I can feel my heart pound and stomach shrivel when I think about how to make money. I behave in odd ways unbefitting of someone who is devoting her life to Buddhist practice–irritable, easily deflated, comparing myself to others. Some of you are subjected to this side of me through endless DMs. I am especially grateful to my honeyritual tea co-founder Christine, who had to put up with it all.

My friend Corey Wilk’s course on Intentional Life Design helped me confirm money as the primary driver of my four horsemen of fear. That’s the good news–it’s quite a specific trigger! I feel peaceful and centered in other arenas of life. Especially in comparison to writing–it used to trigger me similarly, but I have developed a body of strategies to keep me writing in a grounded state.

A friend had, out of kindness, suggested that I avoid entrepreneurship altogether since it’s a known trigger.* But “tapping out” didn’t sit right with me.

Here’s another Buddhist story. There was a queen who wanted to protect her feet from thorns on the ground. So she ordered her kingdom to be entirely covered in leather, until someone suggested putting the leather around her feet instead.

So I see no way out but through, because I don’t want to “spiritually bypass” the issue. Much of my practice is about untangling myself from kilesas, a Pali word that can be translated as entanglement/fetters/defilements. Nibbana or enlightenment can be defined as the uprooting of all our entanglements. So what better practice is there, even though (or because) it’s so painful?

Buddhist Practice Is About Understanding Cause and Effect

For the longest time I thought, “what the hell is wrong with me? Why can’t I be like everyone else? And how can I be a spiritual care provider if I am so unstabilized myself?”

If I tell you what I realized, it will seem obvious in hindsight. In fact, let me communicate memetically:

My family was almost killed for money. Several times, different occasions. Both for being too rich, and for being too poor. I didn’t go to school for several years because my parents couldn’t afford it. (Yes, I more than made up for it. That’s why I’m so good at school–the hunger to learn is always there from deprivation.)

If I was my own friend, I would be like…well, of course you’re triggered! You’re so brave to even try here. Yet, I never gave myself a break. Instead, I became my own tiger mom, comparing myself to an imaginary perfect Asian daughter. Someone with mastery over the financial domain, bouncing from one success to another. Maybe a viral tweet or two, with hooks like “I made $X in Y days and here’s my secret…”

Writing Practice as a Gift for the Giver and the Receiver

Putting the two-and-two together, I can practice the kindness and compassion I preach to my writing students. Even as I type this story, I feel an overwhelming sense of relief. I no longer fear being judged by myself or others, when I lose my inner peace over entrepreneurship. So what? If I were my own friend, I would be protective. She’s trying her hardest here! And she’s seeing it as spiritual practice. How meaningful! Paradoxically, seeing the cause-and-effect allows me to reclaim the inner peace, or recognize that it’s been there all along.

And I did it all through writing this newsletter to you. That’s all there was to it. I’ve been simmering this piece for several weeks in my head, documenting the pain in snippets of phrases that float by throughout the day.

The kind part of myself encourages and trusts me to figure it out. Recognizing this issue has also allowed serendipity to emerge–a friend recommended her business coach who specializes in helping women of color with mindset and tactics. I’ve also been keeping a “business journal” where I document all my triggering thoughts and resolutions, so I can help someone else like me in the future with their entrepreneurial path.

To me, writing practice is a gift towards awakening that magnifies its benefits through the giver and the receiver. By having someone to write to, I have a reason to examine my life, and unfetter myself from suffering. Perhaps a reader can benefit from seeing writing practice in action, or the content might help them with their challenges.

So to all you writers out there–thank you. Thank you for the time and effort you take to understand yourself, and for gifting it all to the rest of us.

Warm Wishes,

Christin

*There’s nuances to what he advised. He wasn’t saying that I should “give up,” but perhaps adopt a different identity that is less triggering. I abbreviated it for the sake of the story, thank you for understanding!