But an enlightenment philosophy that can help a father of 3 with a hard marriage and a fulltime job or two...?
Hmm, maybe the enlightment philosophy project will take a few thousand more years...
Vimalakirti proceeds to chastise them for how useless their 'enlightenment' is when it doesn't help anyone in the real world, and is only a self centered quest to save one's ego from suffering.
Note: Find a translation that works for you. Specifically, the word 'duty' meant something very different than it does today.
I recommend : https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1586380192/ref=as_li_tl?ie...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita
EDIT: For a more western take, I'd also recommend the Bible's knowledge books: Ecclesiastics, Proverbs, and Job. Again, a good translation is essential here, but I'm not about to recommend that.
But it would help you worry less about things that can't be helped, and focus on this that can. It would help lessen the mental strain that we have for not being able to do more, or help us deal with the marriage problems in a way that it affects you less during your work hours.
You still have to work, still have sickness, marriage problems. But being better at separating those things, and suffering less because of the problems, is really beneficial
The ending scene is magnificent.
Do you find it easy to confine yourself to a monastery with a bunch of dudes and no responsibilities but to "chop wood, carry water"?
If so, why don't you take this "easy" path?
My combo is bringing together stoic philosophy, perennial enlightenment philosophy (it's all one, man) with a design thinking and new thought mentality (manifesting reality). That's what works for me.
Parts of the video on resonance reminds me of this one: "This equation will change how you see the world (the logistic map)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovJcsL7vyrk
Some other parts on design remind me of videos by Charles and Ray Eames.
You might want to consider adding Dialogue Mapping using IBIS to your design process if you have not already? http://cognexus.org/id41.htm
It is not that our complicated lives prevent us from enlightenment. Quite the opposite, it is our lack of enlightenment that make our lives appear complicated.
But what do I know, my only zen knowledge comes from C64 game Usagi Yojimbo I played some 30 years ago :)
But as a continual process - you can't just experience that once and go right back into old habits.. Or you can bring it into everyday interactions with the world. Business, family, politics, science, technology - all the hard stuff.
And it manifests as a cultural phenomenon as well an individual experience.
They describe awakening as an actual, irreversible natural process that can be triggered by concentrating your awareness onto bare experience for a long enough time. Doing this intensively enough will bring about a "discontinuity" / cessation of space-time experience called a "fruition" (nirvana). Coming out of that discontinuity goes with a blissful "what was that?" feeling and some level of understanding of "ultimate reality", meaning a permanent perspective shift (instead of "I am seeing" and "I am hearing": in seeing there is merely the seen, in hearing the heard, etc...).