On Work

I remember well how I felt 5 years ago when it dawned on my that I wanted to become a spiritual writer. My children were very young, we had just moved into a new house; actually the house was quite old, but I was a house owner novice, which is not a good combination. The house and appliances needed to be fixed, the children wanted attention, the yard and the pool needed to be taken care of and I wanted to write my book. I only had one question at that time: 'Why me and why now?'

I also remember an insight a couple of years later when I first had a hint of what an afternoon for myself could feel like. On those days I actually felt quoted bored. As the years went by I realized that writing is a creative process that just comes to you; you don't need free time, but you do need creative tensions. So it turns out, in a weird way, that work is actually there for you. Embrace it wholeheartedly and good things will come your way.

So today I have a vacation day and I was pruning trees, fixing structures and moving furniture and I smiled because I remembered that 5 years ago I would have been really grumpy whereas today I was just looking forward to sharing this note with you in my free time. Work is good when it is there and one day you will grow out of it and then it also will be perfect.  Everything is perfect as is, so enjoy!

Karma Yoga

"His Voice still calls you to return, and He will be  heard when you put no other gods before Him."
(A Course in Miracles)

What is your idol? Is it power, wealth, status or sex? There must be something because if the Course in Miracles is right and there is nothing left that lures you, you would already be home in which case you would be unlikely to browse my blog. In my experience there are two stages in the homecoming process. First, you must recognize what exactly the force is that drives you away from your center. But once you have understood it, you can't wish it away, you can't meditate and you can't pray it away.  You certainly can't hate yourself over it, I mean you can, but I hope you see that this isn't going to help you along your spiritual path either.

 I chose the title karma yoga because in my experience that's the second step that gets you finally home. Create something, use the tension inside you to propel you along a healing path. Find the work and the hobby that gives you the spiritual meaning. For many of us our family is a path of healing. Just explore and you will find your creative outlet. You have the right to work, Lord Krishna says in the Gita. This world was made for you to find yourself, so your creative outlet is something that always will show up in your life once you look for it. Yes there will be sweat and tears along the way but only until the blessed day when you discover that you have a choice in this too. How do you know if you are on the right track? Well, it is joy and laughter. Once people around you smile and are joyful you know that you are on the right track. Of course that has to include you. So enjoy!

 It will be easy for you to find out whether you are on the right track. Your joy and the joy of others will show you the direction. 

Arbeit macht frei

You may remember the expression 'Arbeit macht frei' from your history class; it translates into 'work sets you free', and was written on the entrance of the German concentration camps. How come that it so often happens that we humans take holy concepts and throw dirt on it. Karma yoga is a concept that the Bhagavad Gita emphasizes and it was thought up a few 1000 years before the Nazi's made a mockery out of it. The Gita's point is that if you you spend every moment of your waking life in the spiritual service of others, and if you tackle your personal mission statement that life dictates you with every fiber of your being, your devotion will set you free. Live the Tao happens to be my battle cry. If you perfectly merge with everyone and everything the Tao throws at you everyday, you have no choice but to live in the now. Along the way you are bound to be exhausted every night when you fall into bed, but you will also lose a piece of your personality blanket every day in the process. The sages of old India were onto something when they discovered that work shall set you free; unfortunately we now need a new way of expressing this idea given its loaded history.

Four Journeys Home

There are spiritual path travelers who maintain that you cannot think yourself into Heaven, that is, the path of wisdom yoga is a waste of time. The wisdom folks think that you can sit in a room meditating as long as you like, enlightenment is unlikely to strike that way. Then is the path that is now considered as old fashioned, the path of love, a limitless devotion to the face of God of your choosing. As a German, I would say there is also the path of work, that is working off your drives and karma by completely losing yourself in what you perceive is your life's mission. 

Truth of the matter is, on a spiritual path you are likely touch on all aspects of the four yogas in one way or another. Meanwhile energy will steadily rise up your spine and will make you more sensitive along the way as your energy centers, the chakras open up. Keep on climbing my friends, the top of the mountain will soon be reached. Of course you know what that means, the next mountain awaits you.

Karma Yoga

Life has its round-about ways to get you to your destination. I saw my mission to observe my profession and it's people from a distance and accumulate enough material to write books about how one can be Zen at work and manifest exactly what one wants by just walking the Tao. While this might be right, and in the end probably will be right, the signals I have been getting at work recently are quite different: work is sucking me in 100 percent, while my work as a spiritual writer is just simmering in the background.

Karma Yoga is about doing your job to the best of your abilities. It is about looking fear into the eye and saying 'I feel the fear and do it anyway'! It's about seeing that relationships and situations are broken and about repairing them. Sometimes I wonder when I observe our top management put in these insane hours and work commitments, or seeing our portfolio manager living in a pressure cooker day in and day out and I am asking myself what force drives them; after all, they are all swimming in money, they could stop working any moment. But  I understand that, besides their love for power and recognition, Karma Yoga drives them. They just have, very much like me, a drive to work off, and we are doing it to the best of our abilities.

Once you get rid of the 'me' perspective and you are being drifted by the Tao like a leaf in the wind, you actually have only one mission left: healing. Put your best foot forward such that every day becomes a flawless exchange of energy, care and attention. You sometimes feel if something is off, very much like you can feel when fear is creeping in. Look for the learning opportunity, reposition and do it better next time. As you know, James Bond was given the 'License to Kill', but he has disappeared for the time being, killed by the global financial crisis as irony has it. Well, I am giving you the 'License to Heal' instead. You can do it right here, at your job, with your family or whatever else you might be doing today. Perhaps Karma Yoga is your spiritual path home as well.