Welcome back to the Daily Vedantic, where each day we have a daily reflection. Have I said day enough? Well, I bet I have now. Where each day is a daily reflection on something within this ancient philosophy of Vedanta.
If this is one of your first episodes to check out, I highly recommend you checking out the intro to Vedanta episode, episode 1, in this 365-day experiment of the Daily Vedantic. And today's episode is something that can grip all of our minds at times, and that is fear. Specifically, fear that some unwanted outcome might happen. So, within this philosophy, one of the core tenets is that we should not worry about the outcome of anything we're doing.
Rick Rubin was actually just on a podcast talking about this, and Rick is the famous producer behind people, everyone from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Johnny Cash, extremely, extremely talented music producer. Maybe the most talented of all music producers out there in the last 30 years. And he talked about how, when we think about the outcome, who's going to listen to this music? What's it going to do financially?
What's it going to bring me personally? As soon as you start to do that, the work itself suffers. This is straight out of the Gita. The fruits of your actions are not yours.
And just thinking about them diminishes your ability to act. Thinking about an outcome, and we all know this in our daily lives, you might be playing golf or you might be at work, and when you start thinking about, man, if I can get this done, I might get this massive promotion. If I can nail this meeting, I might get this promotion or this validation that I've been so desperately seeking. And if I get that, then, oh my God, the conversation with my parents is going to be so amazing.
My dad is going to be so proud of me. That thought flow completely undermines our ability to act. And fear is an emotion completely attached to the future, to a specific set of outcomes that you don't want to happen potentially happening. It can motivate you in the moment, but according to this philosophy, it will undermine the very thing you're working towards.
One of my childhood friends, his dad was a police officer, and he told us, we're sitting in his living room, about 16 years old, there's about six of us in the living room, and he said to us, you know, guys, I see road accidents all the time, and 90% of the time, the story is someone causing an accident because they're swerving to avoid an accident. They see something happening on the road, they overreact, they freak out, and they cause the very thing that they intended to avoid. That has sat with me for 22 years. The majority of accidents, almost all of them, according to him, caused by people swerving to avoid an accident, causing the very thing that they're so fearful of happening.
That fear that grips us in any moment for an outcome that we do not desire, that limits our thinking, quite literally, your blood flow constricts, you don't have all of your faculties to act. You make a suboptimal decision that actually makes the thing you're worried about more likely. That is the downside of worrying about what you're doing, instead of focusing on how to do it well. Within surfing, I see this all of the time, in fact, it's one of the most paradoxical aspects of surfing.
If you see a massive wave coming towards you, and you don't want it to land on your head, you go towards the wave. You go towards the wave, it pulls you over it, and you're in the clear. And people just starting to surf, they all make the same mistake of trying to paddle away from the wave, not knowing that all of the force that's creating that wave is coming from pulling water in towards it, and it's going to pull you in with it, pulling you right into the mouth of the very thing you're trying to avoid. So what is the upside of not thinking about outcomes, and being totally aware of the situation you're in?
Well, you might do this seemingly paradoxical thing of going into the fear. Arjuna has told this in the Gita, right before this major battle, the major battle of this great civil war. He's told to go into the battle, and he's doing everything he can to avoid it. Krishna, his charioteer, his guide, says, no matter the outcome, you'll be better off by going into what you're afraid of.
And if that stat of 90% of accidents being caused by someone trying to swerve to avoid an accident is true, then I'm not sure accidents is the right word. An accident implies some external event taking place that causes a disaster. And maybe that is a number of accidents on the road, but maybe it's far more likely it was a major mistake from one of the drivers. How many accidents around us do we cause out of fear?
How many disasters are not due to some external force or something out of our control, but actually created by us in our attempt to avoid it? Maybe it's like the stat around traffic accidents. Maybe 90% of the time, we create the outcome we're trying so desperately to avoid, because we're thinking about that potential outcome, instead of thinking about the work right in front of us. This has been another reflection on the Daily Vedantic.
We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Daily Vedantic. This reflection is part of a free, repeating two-year course in Advaita Vedanta, rooted in the timeless wisdom of the Upanishads, arguably the oldest philosophical text on earth. You can begin with episode one, which gives the 15-minute overview of the whole philosophy of Vedanta, or you can join the journey with any episode at any point.
But the critical aspect of this course, of understanding and mastering anything, is to study and reflect, even for 10 to 15 minutes on the timeless each day, preferably at the start of your day. As is said in this philosophy, reflection is 100,000 times as powerful as listening. So listen, journal, sit with, discuss these concepts, or ask questions at thedailyvedantic.com with our AI-powered chatbot informed by about 700 episodes here, as regularly as one can if you want to see clarity and peace almost effortlessly unfold in your daily life. And if it doesn't result in a near-immediate increase in clarity and peace, then toss aside and feel free to never listen again.
One of the things that you might notice is, after seven or eight days in a row, this doesn't feel like a discipline. This feels like a visit with a best friend to dive into the timeless with daily reflection. Within a few days, it becomes one of your favorite parts of the day. You can also find out more, including news about in-person events in Los Angeles and beyond at thedailyvedantic on Instagram, or through our weekly newsletter at thedailyvedantic.com.
Additionally, check out the links in our show notes for more resources like the books that are mentioned most frequently in the episodes, including Vedanta Trades, perhaps the simplest and most straightforward read on this philosophy I've ever come across. Until next time, and from the entire team that works on the daily Vedanta project, thanks for listening.