Death approaches,
Work harder, be crabby…
Clutter, clutter, clutter,
That’s what you need!
That’s worldly advice talking,
Telling you to accumulate
useless things,
things that vanish,
terrible stupidity, like
Remaining distracted,
Staying obsessed with
worthless tasks, remaining
engaged with
endless nervousness
motion, leading to
material, status, stress,
turning you into
a real crabby jerk, a jerk
who has no clue, and
that’s what makes you crabby…
That’s what the world wants
from you,
taking away your precious life;
It doesn’t want you to become
Enlightened or even wise,
wise in the ways of reality;
It wants you flustered,
avoiding all those things
you really need,
It wants your compliance,
Never questioning, not in the least,
leading to deluded devotion,
blind faith, distraction, clutter,
leading to your eternal demise;
It wants you to be very confused,
Concerned about what cannot help you
in the least, not in the least,
fortune and destitution,
pleasure and pain,
praise and blame,
fame and disgrace,
truly useless endeavors;
Death approaches, death approaches,
Have you spent
even a minute preparing?
If you must work hard,
Work hard to go beyond,
Let go of useless endeavors,
Open your heart and mind,
To what is, as it is,
Become fully Enlightened!
Let go of worry,
Let go of crabby!
Let go of all your useless tasks!
A poem by Robert Aho © 2026
Speaking as a recovering workaholic, I can tell you for sure that it is not worth it to work so hard that your health and personal life suffer, especially if it is only to gain a little clutter in your life. The only thing that you really gain from working extra hard is being extra crabby all the time. It’s simply not worth it.
Early in my working career, it became obvious that I was being manipulated by management into this notion of working harder, while accepting greater responsibility and a measly salary that didn’t keep up with my own value, nor the cost of living. Along the way, I was promised promotions, bonuses, acclaim and many other carrots that never materialized. So, while still believing in this materialistic paradigm, I kept working hard, very long hours, even though I started feeling like a fool for doing so. This made me crabby. People in my life suffered.
The world will tell you that you should work harder, that all your dreams will come true if you only work much harder, there’s a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. People with two or three jobs know just what I am talking about, as they plod along sinking slowly into greater debt. We think that this carrot is obtainable, that all we will have to do is one more useless task before we can breathe easily. This is pure fiction, pure futility, something that makes old people rather bitter, especially when they are fortunate enough to see where that materialistic path actually led. If you buy into this materialistic scam, you will waste your precious human life. If you wish to work hard, dedicate yourself to the Spiritual Path.
One recently retired person looked at me with tears, exasperated, crying, “Is this all there is?” I shook my head, “that’s all there is.” This is why the Spiritual Path means so much more than anything you can attain in this world. Even if you have just barely taken the first step, you’ve attained more than this world can ever give you.
With the Spiritual Path, we embark upon a journey that makes us happy almost at once. We’re no longer accumulating useless trinkets, deluded hopes for status, praise, fortune and fame, as well as other worldly rewards. Instead, we’re accumulating wisdom and merit. This is something that we can actually take with us when we die. We see that this is true shortly after making our commitment to Awakening. It makes us happy.
When we disrupt our own progress on the materialistic path with eternal treasures on the Spiritual Path, we’ve finally done something very kind for ourselves. The Spiritual Path creates avenues to reality. It has nothing to do with empty promises or any of the concerns of this world. It’s not useless clutter, at least not unless you apply materialistic values to it.
When we step onto the Spiritual Path, we are at last onto something that will actually bring benefit. Of course, we still need to take care of our health and our wellbeing; however, we only need a small amount of this stuff the world tells us we want. We could even take on the values of Yeshua and walk away, which is what he actually advocated. We live with love and compassion, becoming devoted to this notion of discovering who we really are, and we don’t need much.
Working harder so that we can be crabby becomes a fool’s mission. We discover that our human life is far more precious than we had realized. We’re not born in sin, we’re born with the Kingdom of God within us. We are perfect from the beginning, and this world asks that we soil ourselves. It’s exactly what keeps us trapped in cyclic existence, this tendency to become obsessed with what is neither important nor real.
Blessings of Source,
Rigdzin Robert Aho
Robert Aho is the author of Timeless Luminosity and The Frog: A Spiritual Autobiography, Spanning Many Lifetimes. Both books, written after his death experience, give advanced spiritual advice regarding the complete Spiritual Path, inspiration for living each day and words of encouragement, with the intention of helping people to stay committed to their Spiritual Path, as well as preparing for death. This ultimately leads to discovering your own unlimited power within, which leads to Awakening. Both books are available on Amazon, Zenith Bookstore, as well as various other sources.