Be Nobody (26 page)

It was John Lennon who famously said, “Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.”
¹²
We become oblivious to the possibilities inherent in each moment of our lives when we're preoccupied with what
will happen
instead of centering on what
is actually happening
.

There is a spiritual technique to help us concentrate mindfully on what we're doing now. It is to act, not to gain some future reward, but simply because the task is there to do. This is the essence of what in the Bhagavad Gita is called
karma yoga
, the “discipline” (for this is what “yoga” really means) of action.

To do this sort of yoga there's no need to get a high-performance mat or buy expensive attire made of free-range organic cotton. A practitioner of karma yoga is defined as “one who does what needs to be done while remaining unattached to the results of this action.”
¹³

Most of our actions, most of the time, are carried out as a means to achieve a desired end, expedients for reaching a desired goal. To be sure, every action will achieve some result—there's a beginning,
middle, and end to everything. But being “in the flow” puts our full attention on the action as it's happening—on the middle bit, in “real time”—and not on trying to arrive at an outcome as quickly as possible.

Losing oneself in the activity at hand is by definition not “goal-oriented.” This is not to suggest that there isn't an end to be reached or a result to be eventuated. But in karma yoga, the means and the ends collapse so that the focus is on the action in and of itself.

This attention on the task at hand rather than on some projected result we hope to bring about is what we might call
action done for its own sake
.

“Action done for its own sake”—it's the very definition of being “in the flow.”
^III
And while we are all happiest when we're
mindfully unselfconscious
and in the zone, the compulsion to act in order to attain a future objective tends to rule nearly every aspect of our everyday lives.

It's the inner angel and devil locking horns once again. We long to submerge ourselves in an activity and go with the flow, but at the same time we tell ourselves that such action for its own sake is somehow
irresponsible
. Given our desire to improve our own lives and the lives of those we love, we may think that losing ourselves in our present is somehow reneging on our obligation to try to create a better future.

Here's another way to put this apparent quandary: There may seem to be a contradiction between action for its own sake and what we've talked about above in terms of “karmic management.” Can we simultaneously be fully and unselfconsciously absorbed in an activity while at the same time be working to create a better life for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for the world as a whole?

We observed in chapter 5 that according to the laws of karma every action will definitely have a corresponding reaction—good
acts bring pleasant consequences for our sense of self and happiness, while bad acts bring unpleasant results. The self-improvement enterprise—which we've also argued is the best and really the only method for helping others (summed up in the formula
change you, change the world
)—depends on wisely manipulating the karmic system.

But laboring to create the karmic causes for a better future might seem to be inherently goal-oriented; indeed, the whole concept of “self-improvement” might seem so. And neither would appear to mesh very well with a vision of “action for its own sake.”

To resolve this apparent contradiction, we'll need to review a few things about karma and then introduce some new observations pertaining to how the system really operates. And perhaps we will see that effective karmic management and action for its own sake turn out to be two sides of the very same coin.

We've already encountered one reason why there is actually no real conflict between creating new good karma—acting in the present in order to create a better future—and karma yoga, acting without attention to the fruits. The “good” acts we do are “good” to the degree that they are motivated by a selfless intention. The more we are motivated by self-interest, the less “good” that act is, and therefore the less pleasant will be the result.

To really work the karmic system, we must silence the demonic inner voice that always asks,
What's in it for me?
It is only a seeming paradox that the more
selfless
the intention behind any particular action the more beneficial that action will be to
oneself
. It's actually the very principle for generating good karma. It is intrinsic to the most effective management of karma that one
loses oneself in action
.

Perhaps the easiest way to take the selfishness out of any activity is, as we've seen, to
do it for someone else
. Compassionate and empathetically inspired action—
What can I do for you?
—is a very effective
surgical instrument for performing the ego-ectomy, extracting the self-interest out of the act.

When we take our self-centered motivations out of the equation, we are able to concentrate more fully on the action itself instead of diluting it with futuristic projections of what we hope to personally gain from it. So from this angle we can see that karmic management—directed by altruism and empathy—entails the self-forgetting necessary for action done for its own sake. We can act
unselfconsciously
because our
attention is focused on another
.

•  •  •

But there's another dimension of why action for its own sake is built into the very system of karma. It is not the perpetual dissatisfaction with the present—“I'll do
x
so that I'll later obtain
y
”—that lies at the heart of the karmic enterprise. Creating the karma for a better future actually necessitates an opposite assumption.

The most effective karmic management assumes some version of contentment
, and with contentment we have the possibility for pure action—action done truly for its own sake.

What goes around, comes around—this is Karma 101. But for “it” to come around, “it” must go around first—and herein lies an important secret when it comes to karma. We have to have some kind of sense that we already have “it” sufficiently before we become comfortable enough to give “it” away.

Let's take one example. The feeling of prosperity or abundance—for it is indeed a “feeling” and not a quantifiable commodity—is the karmic result of generosity. Give and you shall receive, right? We may not always believe it, but we've heard the maxim plenty of times, from plenty of sources.

The example is a salient one, for generosity is one way of describing the whole karmic program. It is the willingness to give to others—not just money and things, but also time and energy, love and compassion, respect and protection—that lies at the very core of the care and maintenance of one's karma.

Karmic management assumes some awareness of
present fulfillment
. Before we can even think about giving to others, we must believe we have enough to give—enough material things, enough time, enough emotional gratification. We know that there will be future rewards—that it will “come around”—but even in the present there must be a certain sense of sufficiency, even excess, for us to first let it “go around.”

Even the most self-interested, naïve, and mechanistic understanding of karma has some degree of this sensibility that
I have enough already
. Even karma simplistically regarded as a kind of investment scheme—“I'll give this so that I'll get that in the future”—has some element of the notion that
I have something I can afford to give right now
.

And a more informed understanding of how karma really works will bear an even deeper appreciation of this underlying secret: It is the feeling of plenitude and abundance, not the constant craving for more, that makes for truly efficacious karmic management.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
. Because I believe I have adequate material prosperity, I feel free to donate my money or things. Because I think I have enough time, I share my surfeit with others. If I feel a basic contentment within myself, I then feel able to give others the love and compassion that might help them feel more contentment too.

Such a recognition of self-sufficiency also helps us restrain ourselves from generating bad karma—
do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you
. If I feel safe and secure, I have no interest in harming others. When I am content with what I possess, I
do not think of stealing. Because I feel enough love within, I am not tempted to infringe on others' relationships. And when I am satisfied with my own life I am not inclined to be envious or resentful of what others have.

Karma yoga, in one sense, simply means disciplining one's actions in order to do good instead of bad, to be kind instead of cruel, to be other-oriented instead of egotistical. But we've also noticed that this method presupposes the latent assumption behind all karmically beneficial and unselfish activity. It is encapsulated in our contentment mantra:

Om, I have enough, ah hum.

Action done without expectation of personal reward presumes the recognition that one has been rewarded enough already. According to the Bhagavad Gita, “No one becomes a yogi” or true practitioner of karma yoga “who has not renounced expectation of selfish advantage.”
¹⁴

Because we don't need or expect recompense, we complete the action with the purest intention and the fullest attention on the act itself—which, as we've repeatedly underscored, is the most powerful way to ensure that the act will have a positive karmic result.

•  •  •

There is no contradiction between karmic management and action done for its own sake. In fact, we do the former best when we are doing the latter. But, needless to say, we have a resistance to engaging in either.

The mental afflictions—all of them revolving around egoistical self-cherishing—militate against relying on the self-sacrificing principles
of karma in our actions. The Big Smackdown, the Rage in the Cage, recurs over and over again as we fight our selfish inclinations in our attempts to live more wisely and joyously.

And because of this same clinging to the self we resist, even while we yearn for, the experience of losing ourselves in an activity.
Who would I be if I weren't somebody?
—a question we'll actually attempt to answer in chapter 7. But some part of us fears the very unselfconsciousness that brings us the euphoria of being in the flow—of doing what needs to be done selflessly, efficiently, and with attention to the act itself and not to the fruits.

Karma yoga as a
discipline
requires repeated practice. Our battles with the inner demon of egoistic self-centeredness are ongoing and arduous. And so in our quest to lose the self-consciousness and get into the flow of things when it comes to our everyday actions, we'll need to recall, over and over again, the benefits of doing so in order to strengthen the inner angel.

To reinforce our desire to act without selfish intention, we must remind ourselves how much pleasure there is in being in the zone, in the bliss of
mindful unselfconsciousness
, the exuberance of acting
as nobody
.

Karma yoga, or action done for its own sake, is a revolutionary method for living one's life. It is a radical procedure for removing the self-interest from our daily activities and becoming more attentive to what we're doing while we're doing it.

One of the principal ways of practicing karma is to replace the drone of
What's in for me?
with
What can I do for you?
Already this inverts our usual self-centered motivation and begins the revolution in our thinking about our everyday acts.

Understanding the deeper principles of karma, we tune in to our own sense of self-sufficiency in order to give to others. Willfully suspending and foregoing any future personal rewards of action, we do what there is to do to the best of our ability, but for its own sake—just because it's given to us to do.

And there is another way of describing karma yoga that further highlights its revolutionary implications: Action done for its own sake is
purposeless action
.

Every action comes to an end and serves as the cause for a future effect. But action done for its own sake is focused not on the result but on the action itself. When the means and ends collapse, there is no particular purpose for doing something, other than that's what there is to do. The activity is enough in and of itself, not for what it achieves or brings about.

Purposeless
action does not imply that the activity is
meaningless
, and it certainly does not suggest that it need not be done at all or without giving it our full attention. If you're like me, you're accustomed to associate “purposelessness” with indifference and apathy.
If you say there's no purpose, well, I guess there's no point
.

Action done for its own sake is purposeless but not pointless. To better understand this aspect of karma yoga, let's turn to two familiar examples of purposeless action: play and artistic expression.

•  •  •

“This is the real secret of life,” declares Alan Watts—“to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”
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