APN39 - Follow Your Bliss (& Your Grunt)

You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson, More Wisdom in Less time. This is a mini chapter from Brian's book A Philosopher's Notes. You can find it on Amazon.

Now we're ready to move on to the next section and next principle of optimal living action. As always, we will start this section with some quotes that capture the energy of this section. First, George Leonard. He says, we fail to realize that mastery is not about perfection. It's about a process, a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try and fail and try again for as long as he or she lives. Ralph Waldo Emerson tells us, good thoughts are no better than good dreams unless they be executed. And Vaclev Havel says, vision is not enough, it must be combined with Venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs. Ayn Rand tells us, you must be the kind of man who can get things done, but to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences. John F. Kennedy tells us the great French Marshal Leyte once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing, would not reach maturity for 100 years. The marshal replied, in that case, there is no time to lose. Plant it this afternoon. And finally, most importantly, perhaps, Yoda tells us, try not do or do not. There is no try. So action. As the Greek guru Nike tells us, at some point, it's time to just do it, eh? Indeed it is. Diligently, patiently, persistently, and playfully, of course. So the first mini chapter in this section is follow your bliss and your grunt. Follow your bliss. Gotta love that classic line from Joseph Campbell. You know how he came up with it? Among many other things. Campbell was a Sanskrit scholar, and as he was editing some stuff back in the day, he came across the Vedic notion that there are three jumping off points into enlightenment. Sat for beingness, chit or consciousness, and ananda, bliss or rapture. Campbell said that if he was honest with himself, he didn't know what proper beingness was, nor did he know what proper consciousness was, but his bliss, his rapture, that he could trust. Enter. Follow your bliss. Of course, it's easy to get all geeked up about such an inspired idea and see it as a license to do whatever we want, whenever we want. Which is why later on in his life, Campbell once joked that he wished he had said when. Follow your grunt. As it turns out, there's actually a word for that in Sanskrit. As well. It's called tapas, the idea that hard work and disciplined effort can burn away the impurities that keep us separate from the divine. Powerful stuff. So I hereby preach, follow your bliss and equally importantly, follow your grunt. So pick this big idea up from the Power of Myth, the great book that captures some of the wisdom that didn't make it into Bill Moyers interviews by the same name, which, if you haven't watched that yet, is a must. Google the Power of Myth Joseph Campbell Bill Moyers Great DVD series I think you'd really love. And I want to add a shout out to Russell Simmons, the coolest and perhaps only vegan hip hop mogul yogi out there who introduced me to this idea of tapas in his great book.

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