The Yoga Of Uniting Effort With (Com)Passion

Yesterday I wrote about the 'Yoga of Work' and how that can be a manifestation of the potential for human transformation: that surrendering to work can be an act of devotion that literally remakes us as a person. Now, I know that me saying that can seem at odds with the experience that a helluva of a lot of people have when it comes to 'work.' I understand. I have had my fair share of jobs that I was not at all thrilled with.

I have also been involved in work that I absolutely adored, but for various reasons became less and less thrilled with my involvement in such work. Sometimes there are circumstances surrounding the 'following of our bliss' that make the experience of bliss less and less frequent. We may love our job but find ourselves surrounded by what the magus from Carlos Castaneda's books, Don Juan, termed 'petty tyrants.' Suddenly our love and passion for our work may ebb. We may find our enthusiasm waning.

Perhaps it is not that we don't enjoy our work as much as we don't enjoy those whom we work with. This is why I have mentioned that work and intimacy--work and love, our vocations and our relatedness--are congenital: they are forever joined at the hip. We can't really separate out relationship issues from work issues. The two are... well, as a Vedantic sage might put it, 'not-two.'

My experience currently is in keeping with what I was just written above. I play professionally in a rock-and-roll band. I LOVE MUSIC! And to me it is all about the music. That is why I play. Not to be cool. Not to be 'seen.' Not to be 'big-man on campus' or any of that other adolescent crap that masquerades as authenticity. I just love to be a channel through which Muse-ic comes: Muse-ic that moves people and allows them to process their own life experience in a more genuine way. I, in a way, live for those moments.

There is a problem with my 'working situation,' though. My problem currently is that I am not at all sure I am playing with others whose intent and interest are the same. The truth is that my impression of my fellow band-mates is that they are not in it for the same reasons. And because there is growing tension and conflict between us, I am left tp reason that it is the result of a what I would call 'a divergence of intent and interest.'

If we are involved intimately with someone in a romantic way and there is a divergence of intent and interest (what are we trying to get out of the relationship? what is our vision for the relationship? where is our heart really at in the relationship? just some sex? a life-long commitment? etc. and so forth) we tend to comprehend how such a relationship will eventually unravel. It will come undone sooner or later.

If we are not united--yogically speaking!--then we are moving in different directions, and that movement will cause tension in the same way that stretching a rubber-band in at least two different directions will cause tension. Eventually something (or someone!) snaps!

People inevitably quit jobs that they love--the path of their bliss takes a little detour--for no other reason than that the direction that the work is going in, according to those they are involved with, is at odds with their authentic self. 'To thine own self be true,' Shakespeare once wrote. To wit he also added that if we are true to thine own self then we can be false to no one. Sure, people may not always like us--but at least we will be legitimated by the absence of internal conflict within us, i.e., we won't be a liar to our Heart. Thus, we will be spared the consequences of living a peaceful little lie, quietly resigning ourselves to a life of unspoken desperation because we know we are not where, or with whom, we envision ourselves to be.

Am I saying I am going to 'quit the band' or 'fire the drummer?' Maybe I am. I don't know at this point. I do know that I am not going to 'sell out' on a matter so close to my heart as to be the very life-blood of any being I am blessed to have and hold. Just as I understand that sometimes 'following our bliss' may put us at odds with others from time to time. Which is a a profoundly good thing. It is good to know where our differences lie. It is good to know where there is a divergence of interest and intent; for then we can be honest with each other. And if we can be honest with each other we can beTrue... and if we are True... we shall also be Good... and if we are Good... then we shall also be Beautiful.