Lessons from: The Great Work of Your Life

Name: The Great Work of Your Life

Author(s): Cope, Stephen

MASTERPIECE

One of THE most influential books I have read this year is The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope. I was moved in so many places and so powerfully by this book in how every idea ran true with what I have experienced in my own life. I don't know if its serendipity or design but it almost felt that this book had been written FOR me, and I will practise the lessons I learnt till the day I die.

So, going into this review, please bear in mind that I might be a bit biased here. but don't let that deter you from reading the many great pieces of wisdom contained in this masterpiece.

The book is based on the ideas propounded by the Bhagavad Gita and tells us how those ideas are not impractical musings from a bygone era but an authentic way of life that is more relevant today than ever, when there is so much that is not within our control. You might know that the Gita is really a song (Bhagavad Gita literally means "Song of God"), sung by charioteer Krishna (who is actually God in disguise) to warrior/archer Arjuna when the latter is sitting dejected, paralysed by indecisiveness on the floor of his chariot in the middle of the great battlefield of Kurukshetra, just about when the war is about to start between the Pandavas (and allies) and their cousins the Kauravas (and allies).

What a grand setting for what is really a very simple situation that all of us face every day: not knowing the right thing to do, and the resulting indecisiveness, lack of action and waste of time.

Arjuna (paraphrased): "I cannot kill my own cousins! They are my family! This is wrong!"

Krishna (paraphrased): "You are a warrior, your duty is to uphold justice, this is a just war, do your duty and leave the fruits of your work to me (i.e. God)"

And that is essentially what the Gita is about, of course when you unpack terms like "wrong (and right)", "duty" or "justice" you can expand this into the whole song, but the big idea is that the way to live one's life is to truthfully and honestly do one's duty without expectation of reward. Stephen Cope tells us why this is true and should be followed.

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you; if you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

According to the book: Yogis believe that our greatest responsibility in life is to this inner possibility—this dharma—and they believe that every human being’s duty is to utterly, fully, and completely embody their own idiosyncratic dharma.

Dharma is a whole story unto itself, but for the purpose of our discussion can be defined as work that you consider your sacred duty. Sacred in the sense that no one imposes it on you, that you do the work because you feel it is the "right" thing to do and that you have no expectation of getting anything out of it.

The larger the gap between one's dharma and their actual life, the larger the chance of disillusionment, unhappiness, chasing after the wrong things, frustration, disenchantment, anxiety and so on.

In the past (say 200 BCE), especially in India, it was easy to know your dharma, as it was determined by the caste/family/tribe you were born in. Born to a shoe maker, then shoe making was your dharma, born to a warrior, then fighting and protecting was your dharma. Of course this is inefficient as every individual has unique abilities, but at least people sorta kinda knew the lay of their land.

Today however, the story is different. not only are there many more vocations than before but people are increasingly free to pursue their own career paths. And our mind, being the thumb rule following, heuristic generating machine that it is, looks at the most popular/glamorous/loudly proclaimed career there is and decides: "yeah, I want become a <insert most alluring career here>".

That is why we see so many people being unhappy in their jobs or chasing after money/power instead of the work - They never took the time to really figure out their dharma. And although society tells you that you should "follow your heart and carve your own path", it never really gives you the time for it. The world might be divided in many things today, but it is united in one thing for sure: It wants to progress. And the definition of this "progress" has been put into some really tight boxes - since childhood we're told that its "progress" that matters and that you are "progressing" when you have a better "standard of living" than your past, which in itself is defined when you have more conveniences and even luxuries. Of course, conveniences and luxuries cost money, thus "progress" is when you have money. And so when these children grow up into adults they think that they should tread the path of the most money. Dharma takes a back seat as they choose the career that allows them this, whether they like the work or not. I can personally testify to this.

Dharma on the other hand, is informed by society but is not formed by it. The individual looks at society as a source of knowledge, to understand the context where he/she lives in, to explore the myriad possibilities that society has to offer. But the final decision on whom to become is based on their own dharma - what they feel is a right use of their talents, that the world needs, that they can add value to, that they like doing. Many of us know this, at least in parts when we feel fulfilled while doing a task, when we reminisce about the past and what we used to do all the time, when we have a few moments to ourselves - we get a glimpse of our dharma. But seldom do we explore it further.

Why is this? Why don't people live their dharma? According to the book, the reason is doubt.

It is doubt that prevents us from realizing our dharma. Many of us KNOW that we'd rather be doing something else, yet the doubt and fear of the unknown that we harbor makes us exchange the possibility and risks of a fuller life with the certainty and mundaneness of a sub-optimal one.

According to Seneca: Aren’t you ashamed to keep for yourself just the remnants of your life, and to devote to wisdom only that time which cannot be spent on any business? How late it is to begin really to live just when life must end! How stupid to forget our mortality, and put off sensible plans to our fiftieth and sixtieth years, aiming to begin life from a point at which few have arrived!

And in some cases, it's not even about the money: well to do people, who don't really have debt, who don't really have dependents and who can sustain themselves through savings, are equally afraid of taking a year off to try their hand at their dharma as is someone with debt and 4 mouths to feed. Both of them are thinking: "What if I fail?" - it's a state of mind more than a state of your bank balance.

Doubt leads to inaction, when confronted with the realization that what they are doing is not really what they want to do, people will often freeze and say things like "I am thinking about it". And they do, they do think about it and mull over it and ruminate. But the problem is that "think" is all they do. They never take action. Doubt paralyses us into inaction where we think that just by biding our time the right path will magically reveal itself to us and we'll automatically develop the courage to tread it. This is exactly what happens to Arjuna where upon seeing that in order to perform his dharma he must kill his own cousins (modern version: in order to follow my passion I must quit my job).

Krishna immediately points out the problem with this “do-nothing” strategy - “No one exists for even an instant without performing action.” - When we choose to do nothing, we are still choosing to do something (which is doing nothing). And this is a sub-optimal way to live. 

According to the Krishna, the way out is a 4 step path:

1. Look to your dharma - Discover your dharma through learning about/experimenting with the many paths the world has to offer, take time in choosing but stick with it once chosen
2. Do it full out - Devote your entire being to the pursuit of your dharma
3. Let go of the fruits - Do the work for the work itself, success or failure in the eyes of the world are not your concern
4. Turn it over to God - Dedicate your work to whatever higher entity/cause you believe in, whether it be a God or a mission (eradicating ignorance, spreading wisdom etc.)

Cope then tells us about the Gift: Our unique abilities and inclinations that make us not only skilled at certain tasks but also where the tasks themselves enchant us, where its hard for us to get distracted while doing them. This Gift is not itself dharma but a pointer to it, if cultivated and encouraged it can lead us to it.

This is a slightly deterministic view of life I'll admit, that you have some "unique abilities and inclinations" that you did not choose or hone on your own and which make you skilled at particular tasks seems to tell me that we have limited agency over what we do with our lives. But Krishna stands behind this statement, according to him we cannot be anyone we want to be, we can only be who we ARE.

It is better to fail at your own dharma than to succeed at someone else's.

While we can technically pursue any career path these days, according to Krishna if the pursuit is without cognizance of our dharma than it will lead to "extreme spiritual peril". What does "extreme spiritual peril" mean? It means that we will end up choosing a path "motivated by obligation, by hunger for the external rewards of accomplishment, or by strongly reinforced ideas about who we should be in this lifetime. But none of these motivations has the authentic energy required for mastery of a profession ... Without the balm of real fulfillment there is a growing emptiness inside. Finally, it requires a heroic effort to simply go on with life in the face of this emptiness."

I heard recently: if you are not careful, your talent will take you places where you character cannot keep you. After reading The Great Work of Your Life and through my own experience, I now get it.

"As we get deeper into life, we become more aware of life’s finitude. We discover the truth taught by Krishna: You cannot be anyone you want to be. Your one and only shot at a fulfilled life is being yourself—whoever that is.

Furthermore, at a certain age it finally dawns on us that, shockingly, no one really cares what we’re doing with our life. This is a most unsettling discovery to those of us who have lived someone else’s dream and eschewed our own: No one really cares except us. When you scratch the surface, you finally discover that it doesn’t really matter a whit who else you disappoint if you’re disappointing yourself. The only question that makes sense to ask is: Is your life working for you?"

The Great Work of Your Life is a masterpiece, a seminal discourse and in parts a user manual to living a life worth its name. And in my humble opinion a must read for all.

But hey, you've got to pay bills and put food on the table. All this dharma is great, but what about when you are facing unemployment, poverty, crisis, challenges, adversity ... what then? Yes, it's not easy. These and many more are real challenges that a modern human of today has to deal with. But the big message here is not that we ignore our problems here and now, quit our day jobs and start on our path to our dharma - rather that we always remain cognizant of our dharma and slowly but surely take steps (albeit small) to realign our life to it.

Because the fact is, when life takes a turn for the worse - and if you've had some experience in life you know that it inevitably will (just like it also will improve, but that is for another time) - it is only this understanding and resolve to just focus on the task at hand, our Great Work, doing it the best you can and leaving the rest to destiny/God/karma/whatever which will be our redemption. 

And therefore, the most important question you need to ask yourself is "Who am I?"

Answer the question, truthfully, completely and courageously.

And then start chipping away, slowly if you must, day after day on becoming who you are.