The Great Work of Your Life

I heard about this book when I went on a yoga retreat a few months ago. Many of the people on the retreat had read and enjoyed the book. While I am not on some quest for a new career or life make-over, I was moved by the testimonials I heard.

The book begins with a quote by Thomas Merton

Every man has a vocation to be someone: but he must understand clearly that in order to fulfill this vocation he can only be one person: himself.

The book uses the struggle of the central character of the Bhagavad Gita as a guide to illustrate the work necessary for human transformation. He also follows the lives of a few historical figures: Thoreau, Beethoven, Harriet Tubman, Susan B Anthony, and Walt Whitman as well as a few people the author met during his time as the head of the Kripalu Institute.

There is a lot of wisdom in the book but here are a few passages I liked

-- Our understanding of dharma is obscured by the narcissism of our time

-- again from Thomas Merton:

We cannot master everything, taste everything, understand everything, drain every experience to its last dregs. But if we have the courage to let almost everything else go, we will probably be able to retain the one things necessary for us-- whatever it may be. If we are too eager to have everything, we will almost certainly miss even the one thing we need.

--Do your daily duty, let the rest go.