It’s been said that an evenness of mind is the height of yoga. What does this mean? To achieve a state of balance and peace in one’s thoughts and actions, despite the results. Achieving this stillness of the mind, without the worry of winning or losing, is the ultimate aim of yoga. This philosophy — oftentimes referred to as ‘perform your duty and abandon all attachment to success or failure’ — is central to the path of yoga.
What Is The Meaning Of Perform Your Duty And Abandon All Attachment To Success Or Failure?
This yoga philosophy fundamentally is about living with presence. It is believing that life always works out. It means to put your best self forward in any given situation, striving hard with the best intentions, yet not stressing out about what the outcome might be. Doing your best in any endeavor is key here, but without the clinging onto a particular result. It’s about detaching from expectation, so if the outcome does not turn out as you had wished, you are still okay.
Bhagavad Gita 2:47: “You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.”
So the idea here is to focus on the process and not get hung up on the results. As long as we are honest with ourselves and put in the effort then that’s all we can do. We can’t or shouldn’t care if things don’t work out exactly as planned.
The Benefits Of Detachment To Success Or Failure
This concept requires a good amount of trust and faith that things always work out. Few people can make it through life without ever feeling sadness or disappointment. At the same time, when we detach our happiness or success to an external outcome, we experience greater emotional freedom.
“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
– Lao Tzu
We begin to realize that if an outcome does not match our expectations, this doesn’t necessarily have a negative connotation. The outcome might be the best in the grand scheme of things. Who knows what opportunities might present themselves in the future exactly because of the present circumstance.
As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Once you understand that life has its own reasons, then you let go of preferences. You take joy in life, bringing your own energy and enjoyment to the job. You don’t want the result; you want the job. Just doing it brings joy.”
Finding Balance
The idea of detachment doesn’t mean becoming apathetic. On the contrary, it is an active attitude. It’s about channeling your energy and willpower into your doing your best, yet also understanding what is and isn’t within your power to control. In this way, stress releases because you feel secure in the fact that you are doing your utmost and you feel content if the desired result doesn’t come your way.
To get to this point, first it is important to know what is within your control. Epictetus, a Greek philosopher, said “People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them”. That’s why it’s essential to become aware of our patterns of thinking. We can use meditation and mindfulness to gain a quiet mind where we can watch our thoughts without getting triggered by them.
The next step is to feel the feelings without getting too attached. This is about feeling and acknowledging our feelings without bottling them up, or letting them take us down a rabbit hole of more thinking, like rumination or catastrophizing. When we observe our feelings from a place of non-attachment it is possible to re-frame any situation and free ourselves from righteous or judgemental mind-patterns.
Final Thoughts
Performing your duty and abandoning all attachment to success or failure, is an effective way to approach life and create balance in our lives. It is about enjoying the process and doing the best that we can, while believing that the consequences will always work out. When facing challenges or difficult circumstances, this perspective of detachment helps us navigate these situations with more clarity and composure.
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