The word yoga has been thoroughly squished under rubber mats and spandex pants. Nowadays, (at least here in the West) the word yoga almost always conjures up images of people doing stretching exercises. The other image it might bring up is that of a fierce eyed Indian hermit–a yogi. The second image is more uncommon, but not unknown, thanks to photographer Steve McCurry.
I grew up in India surrounded by Indian culture and philosophy, obviously, so yoga means something else to me. Without going into a full discourse about its philosophical underpinnings, let me just say yoga, the word, has several meanings but it’s strongest usage is to signify discipline of the mind. Discipline so that it does not go on uncontrolled freak rides on the rollercoaster of emotions. Discipline so that we are in control of our minds and not the other way around. This discipline can be brought about in various ways, through work–yes everyday mundane work, but done with mindfulness–through philosophy, through meditation and what not. The method of disciplining this mind through work has a special name for it: karma yoga. Yoga, I already explained. Karma–yes the same word that is also used in a different sense all the time–means work, or action. Karma Yoga is prescribed in Indian philosophy as a method to calm, direct and finally discipline one’s mind.
What has all this got to do with Art? Well, what has zen got to do with motorcycle maintenance?
You see, I had this discussion with my wife, Beth, a few days back. She is engaged in a pursuit of her own. It is different from photography and not visual. It is tedious, long, hard work and the final product isn’t available quickly and can’t be consumed (for lack of a better word) quickly either. In photography, the longest part is developing a film and then scanning or printing it. The shutter is quick (assuming it is not an ultra long exposure at night). The consumption is quick. You look at it and at a glance you’ve seen it and formed a judgement. If you liked it in that first glance, you linger and relish. You seek out details, perhaps come back to it later again. But still, all of this is very very quick. It’s a matter of minutes, if not seconds. But some things take longer, both to produce and to consume. The question was, what should the motivation be? Do you seek wealth? Recognition, fame? Are you trying to impress people? As you can imagine, it spilled over from one subject to the broad category of art and any kind of work in general.
The central tenet of karma yoga is that you must not focus on the results of your work, but on the work itself. This is not to imply that you do a shoddy job and end up with a poor result. Quite the contrary. The principle is that you focus on your work, only your work and nothing else. May the world come to an end, but do not let your focus, your concentration waver from the task you are involved in. Give it your very utmost best effort. Give it everything you’ve got. Lose yourself in your work. But do not wonder what you’ll get out of it. It could very well be so that at the end, everything is destroyed and all your labor was for naught. But that phrase right there is the wrong way to look at it. You shouldn’t labor for aught, then your labor will never be for naught.
@Dev, I think I understand this “central tenet” of karma yoga (and perhaps I could even defend it logically). But I can’t easily *relate* to it! Perhaps because of the conditioning I received through the study and practice of chess.
Most often, in chess, victory or defeat is determined by what the board looks like in the “endgame”. That being the stage when only the kings and a handful of other pieces and pawns remain. Thus one’s opening and mid-game moves are dictated by what one wants the board to look like in the game’s final stages. You can play brilliantly in the moment. But if your opponent is playing with a compelling end-game in mind, you’ll lose, all else being equal.
I find this outlook carrying over into most of my work. If I work with a particular result as my goal, that “end-game” changes everything I do. This forward focus doesn’t distract or take away from the work itself. Rather, it intensifies the effort that goes into it. Seeing the end in the beginning gives meaning to the journey.
Please forgive my obtuseness! I’m pretty sure there’s a deeper level here that reconciles these perspectives. But I’ve tried and failed in the past to find it. Please help me figure out the missing piece!
Well first of all, thanks for visiting Gary.
Second, perhaps you can begin your reconciliation with the fact that chess also came from India, which is where yoga came from…? Indian traditional chess has a few differences, rule wise, but otherwise it is very similar to international chess.
Third, before going into anything else, let me ask, how do you play with an endgame planned ahead of time? You can prepare for many different endgame strategies, you may have a preference for a particular type of endgame and you may even try to steer towards that preferred configuration as it approaches the end–there is a transition from middle game to endgame. But you cannot play in the beginning or in the middle with a particular endgame in mind. You may think about it, you may go over in your head the strategies you have practiced before but you cannot open the game thinking that “I will get to this endgame scenario”. Not in the beginning, not in the middle. Opening and mid-game moves are emphatically not determined by what one wants the board to look like near the end. You can only do that if your opponent is extremely feeble and you can manipulate the game very easily to your preferred configuration. If you are equally matched then there is no way ahead of time you can determine the endgame. Thus playing with a certain endgame in mind from the very start is going to end in defeat. But I’m no GM so who knows, may be you know a secret…
Fourth, to the actual point, karma yoga doesn’t say don’t work towards a result. It says, don’t fixate on it. A good Biblical counterpart is the statement “for the love of money is the root of all evil”. It doesn’t say money is the root of evil, but love of money is. You said the end result changes everything you do. So let’s say you are writing a book. It will take another 4-6 months for you to finish it and then publish it. Now imagine, today, as you sit down to write the next chapter, an angel or some being appears and says, Gary Matthews, this is your last day on earth for tomorrow I will escort you to the another realm. Clearly, you won’t have time to finish your book. What do you do? Do you still stay calm and keep writing to the best of your ability? For now you know there is no end result to look forward to. The answer to that is the resolution to your question. If you said yes, then there is no confusion for you already practice karma yoga regardless of what you think.