How did I choose between a higher-paying job and keeping the center open?

I ultimately declined the job. What I could not set aside was the promise to the Bodhisattva to teach and help beings. After only six months of effort, was I going to close the center? Despite hardship, I wanted to honor that agreement. Yet the decision was not immediate; I struggled with it for a long time.

Unstable early income made me consider daytime employment and evening readings. A divination-website company offered management, a base salary, performance sharing, and staff to lead. The trust and prospects attracted me, and I imagined substantial income if successful. That was a possibility I calculated at the time.

The owner offered a meeting room for readings but required closing my studio and small temple to focus on company work. I understood and appreciated the treatment, making refusal harder. Promising an answer within a week, I delayed until the tenth day before calling to explain that my commitment to the Bodhisattva prevented acceptance.

A later collaboration paid two hundred thousand dollars for organizing and licensing my chess-divination database. It used expertise I already had. I felt honoring the promise had been followed by this arrangement, strengthening confidence in divine care.

Revisiting it, I also recalled more calls and clients the day after refusal. It felt like a test of how strongly I trusted the Bodhisattva. Looking back, hardship had not made survival impossible; anxiety simply wanted more income. Hesitation and choice belong within that particular agreement then.