Q: You said something yesterday that haunted me, you said, one of the main reasons for burnout is ego investment; not that I must succeed but I must do my best.
Dick: That is right. I don't have to succeed. I merely have to do my very best. And of course this success is possible, but (your value is) not tied to success. That is the teaching of the Bhagavadgita, I don't know if you've read that or not, but you might be interested in that. It is part of the teaching of a much longer Indian poem, and the gist of that is, to be committed to the action, and to be unattached to the result. In other words, I do this action as if everything, the whole universe depended on it, but if the action is successful or unsuccessful, that is none of my concern, my concern is only with the action. Now that is what it is to be mindful, to be one pointed in your activities. And as Alan Watts used to say, It is just as important for you to be doing that, washing dishes, for example, to wash them in that way, as it is if you are performing a delicate operation. Now that is not to say that performing the outcome of a delicate operation is not more important. I am talking about the state of mind of the person who is doing it. And the person who is capable of washing dishes, one mindedly, one pointedly, and one heartedly, will have very little trouble doing the same thing with a very delicate operation, on which so much depends.
Q: That relates to giving up control?
Dick: That is correct. Giving up control is not just going to pieces. And not just able to use this hand and that hand. Giving up control is letting go of the outcome.
Cl: You lost that because you were trying to protect yourself. The urge to protect yourself makes me really vulnerable, makes me really easy to hurt.
Q: Doesn't that have to do with losing connections? What you did was help her connect to everything, to the universe.
Dick: Sure, yes, "That's correct.
Cl: And the connection is through love, rather than through pain.
Dick: Compassion. That is correct. You cannot be unconnected. With anyone toward whom you feel compassion, and you feel connected in a way that doesn't make you feel vulnerable. The heart of compassion is not a soft place that is easily damaged, it is a place of invulnerability.
Next: Dick toots his spiritual horn (story)