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IceCream Wrote:ｍａｙｂｅ　ｙｏｕ　ｃｏｕｌｄ　ｔｒｙ　ｔａｋｉｎｇ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｔｉｍｅ　ｏｆｆ

I think I'll do just that... I was considering quitting RevTK lately. I'll have to As soon as I was out of this last Vipassana course I knew I had to quit all my projects and try something completely different... but very soon I started reasoning myself again.

Volunteering is a great suggestion. I've thought of joining a local "time exchange" system, try teaching a few things, see how it works. About a year ago I started thinking of quitting programming and teach it instead. A lot of things I never really take the time to look up.

Taking time off was on my mind... but your comment was very helpful.. the idea that my next step is really in the off time. Part of my reasoning was switching my priorities but it won't be enough. I need to quit totally what I'm doing now, and for a good while.

*signs off from topic*

Volunteer Website Designer
Move into a monastery or rent a room dirt cheap near by. This is a small task they are looking for, but volunteers with specialized skills are continuously in high demand.

Volenteering? I'm not sure where your living at the moment, but why not try WOOFING certainly made me think in a different way and the people I met I will never forget. It may be a bit of hard work but it certainly doesnt feel it when surrounded by fantastic people.

When you come back from it you feel so energized and up for anything! Maybe even doing Revtek!

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Wow, do you have other links like that? You can email me with the link under my avatar. I've looked before at a website about helping on organic farms around the world, but that's about all I found..

Do you think it's possible to volunteer like that around the world without interruption because if you interrupt your career you have no income And you still have to pay for the flight there, which in itself is a big budget if you go to India, or Japan or Tibet and so on... hmmm I guess there must be some forums out there dedicated to volunteering.

Thanks!

@BabyRat thanks, I heard about WWOOF and was tempted before.. but I thought I wouldn't do this repeatedly. If I volunteer outside of Europe, man I'm gone for 6 months at least

You can get a 10 year visa for India, so there would be no worry about returning to the real world again until you wanted to. I don't think they would run out of computer related tasks for you. If they do, there are many other interesting projects like:
Tibetan Children's Village

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Lol you opened a big can of worms there

Cause I wanted to teach too .. and the best part... after my last Vipassana course I really wanted to do one in India. In fact there's probably one right there in Dharamsala.

If you know good forums where I can get info for volunteering can you send it to me via the contact page (or my email here)? Thanks!!

Quote:When you come back from it you feel so energized and up for anything! Maybe even doing Revtek!

In fact I'm just realizing.. especially if I help with computer related tasks I must have access to internet anyway. Maybe not as often as I'd like, but I might be able to keep maintaining the Open source project, only with a lot more energy than I have now.

I'll post more on that in the sitenews when things start moving..

I went for 6 months! Knew some people on a working holiday (1 year) that did it also so you could do it for that long! If you decide to do it I can drop a name of a place that im sure you would love, in a rural area run by a grumpy but great to rip the piss out of young man!

do it do it do it! you will come back a changed man, and certainly a thinner and sun tanned one!

The only other computer related volunteer work I know of is with Tibethouse Japan but it requires that you be fluent in Japanese.
Like Ice Cream said, most organized volunteer sites require that you actually pay to volunteer. It is often best to talk to the charity directors directly and explain you are looking for something long-term.

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What do you mean by paying, paying the service for accessing the directory of volunteer positions, or paying for food accomodation and so on?

The first one seems rasonable, you pay for a service. In the second case then I guess I need to find work where at least accomodation or food is provided, otherwise I can't do this for long, certainly not a year. I don't have that much savings, less than 3000 euros :/

Even when less than 3000 you are really rich, in the worse case you will have 1500 euros to expend in 6 months -> 250 euros/month . More than enough.

BTW, please everyone, post publicly any interesting link or personal experience, I'm interested also. My current job ends in October and have no idea of what to do next.

Lots of English teaching volunteering. Someone knows of any other teaching field apart from English?

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trusmis Wrote:(...) 250 euros/month . More than enough

True, I just checked some organizations and the costs in India is anywhere from 10 € to 300 € a month. If I'm abroad part of that could be supported by the site sponsors and donations actually

Because you have a technical skill and want to volunteer long term, you can most likely find a situation that gives you room, board and even a small stipend for toiletries and such.

Having volunteered unofficially for both Catholic and Buddhist projects most of my life, I understand why an organization would want to charge a fee for the privilege of volunteering. A majority of candidates don't have a very strong work ethic and can be more of a drain on time and resources. Unfortunately this seems to be especially true with Buddhist volunteers for some reason. Though I have never met a corrupt Buddhist charity and have run across a few Catholic organizations that seem to enrich the organizers more than the intended recipients of donations.

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Thanks bodhisamaya.

Well the costs seem pretty low, except the plane ticket

I just glanced at the Indian embassy website in Belgium and the tourist VISA is "up to" 6 months...I don't think I can get a 10 year VISA here, let alone a 1 year. Found a forum post from another Belgian apparently he had to hide the fact that he wanted to volunteer and use the term "trainee" to get a 1 year, and that was for a NGO. But ah well... I'll email the Tibetan site to see how/if they can sponsor the VISA in any way.

Ah, I just looked it up. Ten year visas are only available to US citizens due to a bilateral arrangement. Though I have known of others who have stayed years so I am assuming it is like Thailand where you just have to cross the border and come back every time the visa expires.

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True, I guess 3 to 6 months is a good start. Well I fired an email to Volunteer Tibet to ask a few questions.

Working from home? What's the point? I want to do it for personal growth.. to connect with people, get out of this little box.. :p

Re your original post: I'm sorry to hear that!

I like my self-management pretty lean (just a smart list and a calendar, both electronic), and it helps keep my mind clear, but you've presumably thought about and experimented with these things a lot already anyway.

So I guess my tip would be to check out some pop-scientific books about happiness -- there's plenty of scientific results around the topic, and I think most people will find new insights (I certainly did). I liked Klein's "The Science of Happiness" and Gilbert's "Stumbling on Happiness". (As an atheist, striving to understand happiness is what I call spirituality, or at least an important part of it, if that makes any sense.)

Edit: On the topic of "keeping your mind clear", you might check out the book "Getting Things Done" if you haven't done so already. Much of its methods are overblown for me (since I'm not a 40-year old CEO with kids), but its insights are quite valuable.

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bodhisamaya Wrote:Volunteer Website Designer
Move into a monastery or rent a room dirt cheap near by. This is a small task they are looking for, but volunteers with specialized skills are continuously in high demand.

Thanks again. I'm about to send an application. Do you know of other volunteer opportunities (Buddhist or Catholic) elsewhere in the world?

And wow, there is a Vipassana center in Dharmasala. If I get a positive reply I'll start believing in "synchronicities" and become a real New Age Hippie!

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Babyrat Wrote:If you decide to do it I can drop a name of a place that im sure you would love, in a rural area run by a grumpy but great to rip the piss out of young man!

I sent you an email!

Vipassana is the foundation practice for Tibetan Buddhism. Next comes insight meditation where the real progress occurs.
I would kind of distance myself with the New Age hippie community in Darmasala, especially the drug use and reputation for laziness. Showing you are serious about improving yourself and the community will open more doors.

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Yeah it was a kind of joke. So I see the hippies are well and alive

Hey Fabrice, you might find this interesting:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2...021810.php - New study shows vacationers not happier after their break

"Jeroen Nawijn concludes by looking at possible implications from three points of view. From an individual point of view, he suggests that people are likely to derive more happiness from two or more short breaks spread throughout the year, rather than having just a single longer vacation once a year. From a policy perspective, in order for families to be able to stagger their trips throughout the year, the school system would need to become more flexible. And lastly, from a managerial point of view, the author would advise tourism managers to provide vacation products which are as stress-free as possible."

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Thanks nestOr. I'm not planning to go on vacation. What I realised is that I'm stagnating in my life and need new experiences to grow.

I don't think going on vacation, the old fashioned way ("sea sex and sun") will have any long term benefits, neither will changing jobs. Regarding my job, I love hacking away at javascript and there's tons of it right now. All in all I wouldn't say I'm truly at peace and content with the way my life is going, but I'm not unhappy either (I guess that applies to a lot of people ). Most people in my situation I think would say they feel good and fairly happy. Because I'm a little introspective (perhaps too much at times), I tend to reflect more negatively on it. I spend enough years of my life running from one distraction to another that I know I won't fool myself too long anymore

I just realised I'm stagnating in my life spiritually. I want to connect more with people and do something more meaningful with my skills.

So sure, going on vacation isn't an answer. But going on a volunteer trip is an experience that can help me grow at a deeper level.

I read some more Eckhart Tolle yesterday (his second book) and there were very interesting quotes in there. In particular he was explaining how positive change doesn't arise out of dissatisfaction. A timely reflection. It made me realise I do have some dissatisfaction with my job, mostly that I build websites that have no meaning to me (tobacco, pharmaceuticals for $$$, soft drinks, ..). Thankfully we're on a cool project now that is to last for many more months, but each time I had to work on "meaningless" material (from my pt of view), my mood were just roller coaster.

So I guess another definition of happiness would be to go with the flow.. some say "to be who you are". That's way too abstract a quote to be helpful for a lot of people imho. A less abstract definition may be "to be congruous with your beliefs/deeper motivations".

So in that sense, especially if I can continue to use my web design/coding skills I am not trying to change everything, or to run away from my current life. I'm looking for new experiences, and continue to work but use my skills in more meaningful ways. Then I may as well do this abroad. In fact since I work 4 days a week I'll end up working more

Volunteering in Asia, or for other organizations around the world can be a way to make more meaningful use of my skills. It is also an opportunity for deeper change because of connecting with more people, different mindsets, and especially getting outside of one's "box" for a little while. After that I guess it's down to each person to make it what they want to make of it. As bodhisamaya pointed out, it seems Dharamsala (to take one example) is a popular trip for "hippies". But people go there also to volunteer and do meaningful work. I don't think the Tibetans themselves spend the day smoking pot So each person's journey is different..

And thanks again, these posts helped me precise my "feelings" for lack of better word. Though one big danger is to reason myself out of it. I have done this in the past many times. Reasoning just comes out of fear. I won't fall into the trap this time.

I got a reply from VolunteerTibet with a .doc file. Probably a more detailed application form.. I'll have to install OpenOffice to read it Even if this doesn't succeed, I've got more ideas.

The best opportunity for me right now is to use my web coding skills. I could also teach english and so on, but it would feel more like an escape (perhaps in the sense that nestOr pointed out). Whereas to use my web development skills I feel like I'm not escaping but going on a tangent with mor opportunity for personal growth (rather than career expectations).

Yeah that's totally what I meant by posting that article. ^_- I think your proactiveness in this matter is very refreshing.

And people often don't realize how the 'web' isn't as democratic and equalizing as it seems, it actually mirrors real life economic differences, so web coding emphasis is valid in that general respect as well. (Obligatory theory reference: I am recalling a paper by Saskia Sassen called 'The Topoi of E-Space': http://www.sarai.net/publications/reader...saskia.pdf).