Can I live a life where everything I do is a form of meditation while simultaneously being productive so I can afford to live?

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Sure, that’s what I do.

When I was in my twenties, I hit upon the technique of moving meditation. I started to take walks while meditating. Eventually I picked up on the trick of not stopping my meditation when I’m no longer walking.

Soon enough, I could no longer tell the difference between meditating and not meditating.

It’s called ‘clear mind’. I had it before I started meditating, and actually sitting down and meditating made that abundantly clear to me. It made me aware that I could actually order my mind the way I wanted to.

What do I do with it? Mostly push it away and engage with my ego. I like being human and accomplishing things and being productive. With a bit of effort, I can recall meditative states. I’ve only done this once in the past few years, I just went into a closet and laid down and communed with silence.

The world of productive engagement is intertwined with ego. It’s hard to be meditative when other people have all these stupid demands. It’s practically impossible to find a decent job that will let you shut out the outside world and just meditate.

These competing dynamics form the basis for the meaning I’m making in my own life. To be engaged and yet still aloof. I engage when it suits me and retreat when I feel like it. The further I get in my career the deeper this gets.

For example, I typically solve problems with websites, that’s what my work day consists of. I have a method for solving perhaps 80% of them. The remaining 20% I can’t fix easily. So I’ll put it on the back burner in my mind and go do something else.

It’s always interesting to see how the problems get solved. Does my subconscious do it, or does the solution spontaneously spring forth before my eyes?

When I was in my twenties, I didn’t bother with a career and just did different things to survive. Had lots of different kinds of jobs and interacted with and relied on lots of different kinds of people.

I recommend the career. Way better to have one person pay you all the time than to have dozens paying you once.