Best-laid plans…
I am a planner. Mid-summer, I get a surge of energy and insight as to what my work will look like across fall and winter. I spread out blank sheets of paper, jot down one month per sheet and build my calendar. I do all of this as though planning for the future is as easy as etching pen onto paper.
You can imagine how the joy of planning has been subsumed by this pandemic era. The truth is now glaring at us: nothing is predictable; nothing was ever really in our control.
Over the summer, I dove deep into studying karma yoga, or 'the yoga of action'. Its teachings pair perfectly with how we can approach navigating these wonky and inspired times:
- act without any attachment to the results of your labor -
If I am truly present in the moment that I am teaching a course, this means that I am NOT concerned with the results of my actions. The results belong to the future. And the future is something I do not have control over. When I share my work, I remind myself of this: be here now.
- let your actions be for the benefit of others, NOT for your own ego's satisfaction -
Intention matters. Am I offering a training or course because I enjoy the power that comes along with facilitating? Do I send feedback forms because the testimonials make me feel good? The karma yogis argue that any action has the opportunity to contribute to greater freedom for all. But those same actions can also bind us to our egos. So I ask myself, will this offering make me feel good, or will it inspire participants and create positive change?
- you are NOT the doer -
You've read that correctly. After all the instructions on how to act, we are taught that we actually aren't the ones doing any of this. Recall that a key tenet of yoga philosophy is that there is some part of us that is ever-constant and that is un-impacted by the temporary sway of emotions. By design, human beings experience emotions, but we are not our emotions. Let’s use this example in the field of action: By design, human beings are compelled to act, but this 'action' is a function external to our 'source Self'. What does this mean? That the actions I take are a necessary function of living, but that my 'source Self' is neither the doer of the actions nor the recipient of their fruits.
- when all else fails, let it go -
This is karma yoga’s final tenet and a pretty fitting one to end on. Because if I can act in a way that makes myself and others a little more free, I’m game. But I won’t be seduced by my ego into thinking I have control or ownership over the results.
So I will play the game of being a human being/yoga philosophy teacher and map out my fall and winter offerings. But I will do this with the insight that the future is out of my control. I will provide these offerings freely, knowing that it is my conviction in the present that is prioritized, rather than the rewards these actions might produce.
This is radical presence. This is 'doing' with freedom and care.