At the age of the so-called "35-year-old crisis", what is it like to completely withdraw from the secular workplace?
Fan Seven, 35, made his own choice.
In November 2021, after 13 years at Liansha, she decided to quit her job naked from a major player in the advertising industry, a top international advertising agency, to a place where she could lie flat.
A Taoist believer, she carried 2,000 yuan from Beijing to chengdu's Hemingshan Taoist Temple to volunteer.
The iftar meal at the Sichuan Taoist Temple was delicious, which was one of the important reasons why she chose Heming Mountain. There is no complicated system of superiors and subordinates, and there is no pressure of promotion and assessment. Every day in the mountains to practice writing, play tai chi, drink tea, you can also eat the hotel's breakfast buffet.
She shared her Taoist temple on Douban every day, which attracted the attention of a large number of young people.
Some people envied her freedom, some people inquired about the food, clothing, shelter and transportation of the Taoist Temple with curiosity, and some people also ran to the Taoist Temple for a period of time under her influence.
We found Fan Zi Qi, and asked her to share her life in the Taoist Temple. She said, "If you can solve things when the cost of trial and error is low at a young age, don't delay it until middle age." ”
Here's her statement.
1. The Taoist temple is also rolled in? Calligraphy, tai chi, classical instruments, proficient in everything
It's like stepping back into the student days.
The Taoist temple has a strict schedule of work and rest, which stipulates the time for three meals a day and the time for morning and evening classes for each Taoist monk. The so-called morning and evening lessons are to follow the Taoist elders to chant the sutra, just like the Great Compassion Mantra of Buddhism, but the Taoist rhythm is more difficult, and the Taoist elders need to take everyone to recite it together.
Here, people don't care about your age, whether you're married or not, whether your assets have ever been fought by people of the same age.
We don't ask each other's identity information, we are all referred to as brothers and sisters, and we don't even care whether you are older than me or younger than me, even if you are underage, you will be called in the form of "surname + brother".
The Taoist temple I am in is divided into two Taoist temples, the old Taoist temple is on the mountain, the new Taoist temple is at the foot of the mountain, I live in the old Taoist temple, I have to get up at 5:30 according to the schedule of the old Taoist temple, finish the morning class around 6:30, and then go down the mountain to the new Taoist temple to eat breakfast.
Image source: Network
Next to the new Taoist Temple is an elderly resort health hotel, which is equivalent to this health resort hotel built on our Taoist temple, so whether it is a Taoist, a layman or a volunteer, our breakfast is provided by the owner of this resort, and the hotel restaurant provides a buffet.
The new Taoist temple requires everyone to recite the offering before meals and the closing prayers after meals. Before the meal, when everyone has finished eating, they should sit down, clasp their fists, and begin to chant the mantra. When more than half of the people at the table have finished eating, they can recite the fasting mantra, and then continue to eat those who have not finished eating, and run to the temple after eating.
There is a hall in the new Taoist temple, and each hall needs to have two people who are in charge of the temple, one is the Taoist chief, we call him the temple master, and then we volunteer to help the temple master do chores. The hall where I am is is the Wenchang Hall, which is the hall where Wenqu Xing is, so every day many people will come to ask for the exam to come ashore, and I am responsible for lighting lamps and incense for them, and then guiding them to worship.
In addition to the daily temple, I also need to use my professional skills to help the Taoist Temple, because the Taoist Temple does not raise idle people, so usually I will write some public accounts and write some manuscripts to publicize the Taoist Temple. We are the president of the Taoist Association, and if the Taoists hold a meeting, I also need to do some clerical work.
There will not be much demand for volunteers here, but the Daoist leader of the new Taoist temple will be more stringent than the old Taoist temple, not only requiring each volunteer to attend morning and evening classes, but also requiring wearing a layman's uniform during class, so that the whole dojo looks very solemn. The Taoist elders of the old Taoist Temple are older and are practicing on their own, so they don't care much about what our volunteers are doing, nor do they care much about our dress, as long as they do their part and tie their hair into the dojo.
Therefore, it depends on everyone's self-discipline, some brothers and brothers will practice words, and some brothers will chant the scriptures until lunch at 11:00.
Chef Saido made a pot of meat, courtesy of the interviewee
Lunch and dinner are what the master of the Taoist Temple does, we eat, and there is no malnutrition or physical discomfort. Instead, the brother who lived in a building lived in the Taoist Temple for several months, and the fatty liver that had been plagued for many years was incurable and healed itself.
In such an environment, we no longer need to measure ourselves by the evaluation standards of workers, no longer need to consider the complexity of society, but only need to adapt to the evaluation standards of the Taoist Temple, and each cares about our own inner and spiritual world.
Of course, there will still be some "peer pressure" here.
For example, many brothers and masters know calligraphy, and writing brush characters here is standard; for example, the brothers who study kung fu together play boxing better than me, and usually do not seem to practice; even almost every Master brother of the Taoist master will have a Classical Chinese instrument, Ruan Qin, Dong Zhen, Bamboo Flute, Erhu...
The words written by the master brother vs the words of the interviewee
Everyone here has their own way of practicing, no longer playing games and brushing short videos like people in modern society, but climbing the mountain after dinner to watch the sunset, following the sunset into a state of flow, and the day of happy and early bed ends happily.
2. Filled in the basic information, handed in the vaccination certificate, and I resigned naked
In 2008, after graduating from college, I engaged in food quality testing in the system, and every day I looked at the experimental data, which was particularly rigid, and felt that my life had reached the end of the day. At that time, we were not as transparent as today's children, willing to take the exam to get an iron rice bowl, but felt that the iron rice bowl had the freedom to be important? So I insisted on it for four years, and in 2012 I left the advertising industry.
For several years, the spinning life rarely gave me time to calm down and think about whether my choice at that time was right. Or am I being rolled in? Am I creating value? Because I feel that I have feelings for this industry, those works and industry awards are affirmations of myself.
It all starts with that face in 2016.
That year, in order to take care of my high-blooded father, I returned to Beijing from Shanghai. I have a netizen, very good-looking, is also a Beijinger, or a peer in the advertising industry, usually talk about some work and the like, just come out to meet.
Talking about the fact that I was recently reading the history of Chinese philosophy, she told me that she was a Taoist. Because I was also more interested in philosophy, I chatted with her and found that she was particularly transparent in her reading and did not care about the evaluation and opinion of the outside world. Is this the Taoist idea? I was particularly interested at that time, so I worshiped her as a teacher and wanted to learn from her, and it can be said that her personality charm had a great influence on my faith.
Cats and cats in the Taoist Temple, courtesy of the interviewee
However, Taoist priests are relatively high-minded and self-cherishing, and she feels that she can't teach me anything, so she suggests that I read books and teach myself.
I read some books like the Tao Te Ching, and the more I felt that my previous ideas were a bit superficial. It struck me so hard that I even had doubts. Because our line does not create and produce value, it is to give customers more premiums, to help them sell products to higher prices, and then to make money. As a B who has no right to speak, I feel particularly unworthy. It felt very empty.
After 10 years in this line, I found that everyone is framed in life - our company is very close to Tiananmen, the daily 007 schedule, sometimes working overtime until the early morning, looking at the watch, everyone will say: "Just ride together to Tiananmen To see the flag raising." ”
Our salary is not comparable to that of large factories, but the degree of liver explosion is comparable to that of large factories, and high-intensity overtime makes the advertising industry suddenly die every year, which also leads to fewer and fewer young people in this industry. After almost 35 years old, the state of our industry is unclear, whether it is a practitioner or a consumer, women after the age of 35 have almost disappeared from the advertising group.
This helplessness made many colleagues around them who were about 30 years old decide to flee the industry, and even many colleagues went to graduate school.
I really don't want to roll up, and I'm tired of preaching consumerism to young people to let everyone buy and buy, so I want to rest.
I asked Master if he could systematically accept Taoism for a period of time.
Taoist temple on a rainy day, courtesy of the interviewee
Because the system of the Zhengyi (one of the two major schools of Taoism and the other being the Quanzhen Dao) that I belong to was not particularly perfect, Master said that I could go to the Quanzhen Taoist Temple for a while, because they were very short of people, and I could learn the taoist norms from others.
As a Zhengyi disciple, I couldn't go to the Quanzhen Taoist Temple to practice, and it just so happened that the Taoist public account I had been following at that time sent a push saying that I wanted to find volunteers, so I signed up as a volunteer to go to the Quanzhen Taoist Temple.
I reported a Taoist temple in Chengdu, one is because Sichuan's Taoism is still quite prosperous, incense is more prosperous, and the other is that girls are recruited here, and there is no need to pay money, because some Taoist temples need to pay fees, I feel very magical, have already volunteered to work, but also to post money? Most importantly, the Iftar in Sichuan was delicious.
After signing up, a taoist chief contacted me on WeChat, asked for some basic information about me, filled in my occupation, and asked for my two injections of COVID-19 vaccination certificates. I don't know if the Taoist Temple has a screening mechanism for volunteers, in short, after meeting the criteria, on October 31, 2021, I resigned naked.
3, there are the elderly, there are also young people, there are self-cultivation, there are also "lively" ones
On November 1, with a nucleic acid report and 2,000 yuan of deposits, I flew from Beijing to Chengdu, and landed without slacking off in arriving in Dayi County, the county seat in the western suburbs, and lived in Heming Mountain.
Sunset over Crane Ming Mountain, courtesy of the interviewee
Before I came, because there was so little information about the Taoist Temple on the Internet, even my local friends in Chengdu had never heard of this Taoist Temple, and they asked me to contact them in time if I was deceived. My parents were also more worried, and I could only assure them that this was not a pyramid scheme.
I almost didn't think about anything, such as what to do if Beijing's social security was broken for five years, such as how to return to Beijing after I didn't have any savings at all.
I bought a lot of things, warm babies, warm fans, heating table mats and even leg warmers... Anyway all the warmth I could think of brought with me. Because there is no heating in the south, and the Taoist temple is in the mountains, it is definitely colder than in Chengdu.
After all, after living in the city for a long time, I will also worry that the conditions here may be very poor, there is no way to bathe, dry toilets, and it is impossible to have very convenient living conditions like in the city. But I thought, I'll stay for a month, survive a month, I really can't hurry up.
Unexpectedly, it was pretty good here. There are water heaters, there are bath masters, there are public toilets with flush toilets, or with cubicles.
Taoist Temple at night, courtesy of the interviewee
Although there is no financial subsidy, whenever the Taoist Temple undertakes some festivals, volunteers will be arranged to maintain the quietness of the dojo and stand aside to prevent some tourists from breaking into the dojo and maintain order. At the end of the day, the chief will also symbolically give 50 or 100 pieces.
In order to facilitate management, the Taoist Temple requires volunteers to stay for as little as one month, in addition, there is no time limit, or even a lifetime, I see that many elderly volunteers and old residents will stay here for a long time. It may be that you come here for the elderly, because you don't need to spend anything. If you have social security, it is good to retire and live here, and it is good to recuperate.
Many young people without religious affiliation also come here to volunteer and simply relax for a while. Some time ago I asked my roommate why she came here, she said that she usually lives alone, and her commuting to and from work makes her feel too lonely, so she wants to come to the Taoist Temple for the New Year, there are many people, lively.
She thought completely differently from me, and I said that almost everyone in the city now can only face themselves alone in the bathroom. Maybe the nature of her work is not the kind of people who don't deal with people, she said that she thinks that there are many Taoist people, everyone is very friendly, and she can learn a lot of things, and she is very happy here.
Therefore, the Taoist temple is really a very diverse place, there are old people, there are young people, there are self-cultivation, there are also "lively".
The Taoist Temple shattered many of my traditional impressions.
I used to think that every Dao Chief was a Fairy Wind Dao Bone, but the Dao Chief was actually a human being, and they had to eat and drink Lasa, and they also wanted three meals a day, which was not a particularly serious kind.
The leader of the Zama step, courtesy of the interviewee
Our Taoist leader is relatively young, is a highly educated 985, 211 graduates, every time he teaches us to play tai chi, he also explains to us from a very scientific point of view, performance and kinetic energy, and how to play. He said that playing tai chi itself is not a hard work, but a matter of using the brain.
At that time, I thought that if I wanted to take refuge in the future, I must worship him as a teacher.
I only planned to stay in the mountains for a month, but now I have been in the mountains for more than three months. Over the past three months, I have slowly learned how to live in peace with myself.
Every time at two o'clock in the afternoon, when the taoist leader came to give us a lecture, and everyone chanted the sutra together and expressed their thoughts and feelings, it felt like they were in class.
We will have a debate of thought, and I will ask the chief, "The dao is there, why should we realize it?" "He would tell me that the trajectory and laws of all things, including what I am thinking and thinking now, what I say and do, are all in the avenue.
I learned that practice is not how to do it in the Taoist temple, but everything you do every day in your daily life, bit by bit, all the time.
Every time he will use a new angle to give me some scientific explanations, this kind of collision of everyone's thinking, there will be some mutual motivation.
I feel that I have come into contact with living people here, and every time I communicate with my brothers and masters, through the understanding and dissemination of each of them, I will no longer have the same discriminating mind as before, and I can treat myself and others more peacefully.
Master suggested that I go down the mountain, and she said that it is not good to stay in one place for a long time, and where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and there are complicated interpersonal relationships. But I don't really want to go at the moment, and I'm not sure when I'll go down the hill.
But what is certain is that maybe we will not live such a life, will not engage in such a profession, but the world is very large, in a variety of ways to contact and understand, to see more is always good, but also a process of long insight.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Houlang Research Institute" (ID: youth36kr), authors: Yang Xiaotong, Wei Weizi, 36Kr is authorized to publish.