Fate and Effort

Fate and Effort

It’s a usual advice to young people that one must strive towards your goal.We can definitely give a good try to whatever we are doing but the result is never in our hands as there are so many variables in life which remain unforeseen however we may try. “Try and try again boys you will succeed at last” is one such stupid dictum. Nobody knows when is this “at last” going to happen. Only if you succeed then only you have tried enough if not then you haven’t. This makes people unaware as to the direction of their efforts and the means they are using. Thus somebody may be trying to empty the sea with a sieve or trying to turn a donkey into a horse by repeatedly cleaning and trimming it. Here efforts are not going to succeed. The sea is going to be there and the donkey will go on braying.

A speck of effort is needed if you rely on fate and a speck of fate is needed if you rely on effort then only you are skilful. Some may work like a honeybee and then rely on fate or some may wait and rely on fate like a python till the prey is close by and suddenly spring and swallow it. Some may be aware enough to strive and wait or wait and strive as the situation demands. There are many ways of doing the same thing; evenso there are many teachers who stress that theirs is the only way. What should I do now? Should I wait and watch or should I go ahead and fight? The answer to this question needs an equipoise, which emerges if one is aware.
If the life is becoming too difficult and one is getting bogged down by adversities a clever person will know that the time is not yet ripe to follow this way. He will wait, review his efforts. He will appreciate if his internal environment and external environment are complementing each other and then either resume his efforts or abstain from doing so. If a river is blocked the level of water starts rising behind the dam. Then one of the two things happens; the dam breaks or the water finds a way to circumvent the dam. One who likes to strive must have this kind of attitude. However efforts are praised in the society to such an extent that anyone who succeeds with little effort but great skill is looked down upon. People who believe that life means struggle and hardships cannot appreciate that and dub them as simply being lucky. Effortless life is seen as irresponsible and lazy life although this is the only way to conserve your vital energy.

Great artists are wont to eulogize their great hardships during their formative years. They almost always forget to mention that little stroke of “luck” which altered their course of life. This, of course is the problem of ego. If you say everything has happened simply because I am so lucky. Then ego gloats that of all the people I am lucky. Ego may enjoy the hardships and gloat because I strove so much that I am successful. However if one understands that effort and fate are the two sides of the same coin then one cannot have such a gloating ego.
Some people may just be really lazy and say that if it’s in my fate I will get it. Actually we have got everything without any effort on our part. We are born; somebody looks after us in infancy and childhood. Parents feed us, clothe us, and educate us without any effort on our part. Its very easy to continue in this vein throughout our life and instead of effortless efforts the life become lazy and dull.

We read about people getting out of their cozy homes to seek their fortune. This is a paradox only Tai Chi can explain. Getting out of the comfortable house is some effort but what were they seeking? Fate!!! People can strive in the hope that some day the fate will smile on them. In this game of effort and fate, sensible perseverance is very necessary. Waiting for an opportunity in an alert but non-agitated fashion is vital.

Once it dawns on us that effort means fate and fate means effort we reach a state of equipoise in which one appreciates that the breathing which keeps us alive started without any effort and we have practically nothing to do for it to continue. This is our fate. We are going to fight all our battles depending on this fate. Whether we win or loose it was all because the breath was going makes us humble.

Tai Chi shows us how efforts turn into fate and fate turns into effort. If whatever work we undertake is in the universal flow it faces almost no obstacles. Work undertaken out of great ambition, great ego faces obstacles from the beginning. It can succeed but takes a very heavy physical, mental, spiritual and financial toll. The ego gets further strengthened. Work that happens in universal flow touches everybody deeply.

Thus in our normal life we have to be extremely alert in making an effort or leaving the effort. Hamlets lead a miserable life. If we appreciate that to feel that its time to leave efforts is a kind of fate an alert person will be luckier in his life.
One tends to let go of things almost as second nature. One does not bother about the fruits of labor. Quality of work improves because the question “What will happen?” is not in the mind to drain precious energy. “Things happen and we are not the cause” is well appreciated.

Those who have read “Seven Summits” will appreciate the interplay of fate and effort. Two rich Americans decide to scale all the highest peaks on all the continents. They are around fifty years of age. How they succeed is exceptional in this interplay. Mountaineering really teaches the relationship between fate and effort. After doing great efforts to climb the peak, it takes great courage to leave the effort when in sight of conquest and turn back.
Once we understand effort and fate we strive with full faith in our fate, and we never fail because there is nothing like success.

Indian Classical Music

INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC
Music is architecture of sounds. Any architecture needs space. Lao Tsu says by the presence of things we profit and by the absence of things we are able to use them. He gives example of a utensil. The material is there but the space in that material makes it usable. Thus in music the sounds follow silence and silence follows sound. There is also a suggestion that there is silence in sound and sound in silence. Indeed Indian Music recognizes a sound called "Anahat" which means unstruck sound. It is believed to be the primordial sound out of which the world evolved.
The Indian classical music is spontaneous. There is no sheet of paper before the performer and there is no conductor. The conductor is inside and the form of the melody is also inside. One cannot take liberty regarding the form of the melody. However within the given rules it is improvisation from beginning to end. This improvisation is regarding the arrangement of the templates of a given melody. These templates form the core of the melody. If the arrangement of the template is spontaneous the melody reaches heights in unknown dimensions. The listener is enraptured.
However the quality of silence between two sounds is what makes or mars the music. Indian Music is always accompanied by an instrument of rhythm which sets a kind of canvass on which to paint with the help of sounds. The sound of the playing instrument, the instrument of rhythm is tuned to an instrument which provides the drone. All the three sounds must merge within each other.
The tempo is determined by the cascade of sounds and this cascade is also pieces of silence interspersed with sound. The player is reaching the silence inside to bring out pieces of sound architecture. The silence produces the sound and the sound produces the silence.
The musician begins without the instrument of rhythm. Only accompaniment is the drone instrument. He or she produces unhurried sounds with lot of silent spaces for the listener to contemplate the nature of the melody. The listener is liable to get surprised by a sudden combination of sounds which is heard when least expected. This is called alaap and can last any length of time depending on the capacity of the performer to improvise.
Then enters the instrument of rhythm with a formation of slow beats. The performer then improvises with unending combinations of different sound templates from simple to complex to very complex. These combinations always end on the same note of the rhythmic instrument. This provides a kind of relief to the listener who appreciates by various exclamations. In live performances there is a kind of dialogue between the performer and the listener which is absent in Western concerts.
Then the performer increases the tempo on a cue and the rhythmic instrument follows. They can play with each other with various complicated sound structures to the great delight of the audience. The playing reaches a crescendo and the performer stops. After performances of great virtuosity there is a kind of pregnant silence for many seconds. The audience forgets to appreciate by clapping. Then suddenly everybody comes to senses and there is a great cacophony of clapping and exclamations.
Indian Music can be compared to a great and mighty river only the direction of flow is reversed. It begins where the river ends. To start with it is expansive slow and low. The river starts at a height and is turbulent. When the music ends it is in a fast tempo reaching a crescendo. When the river ends it is slow and low.
Musicians train to produce sounds but the training to develop perspective of silence between the sounds is seldom emphasized. In fact this is the quality which separates great and mediocre musicians. In fact one must learn to build castles of sounds around silence. Then only it is enjoyable.
Our breathing leads the way in understanding this Tai Chi of sound and silence. When we breathe in there is a sound. Then we stop for an instant. Then there is the sound of air which goes out. Then again we stop for an instant. These stops provide the silence. Musicians must therefore appreciate space between sounds. This helps them in improvising different structures of the same melody. There are infinite combinations of sounds and their templates in Indian Classical Music which makes it sound new every time you hear it