I’ve been trying to compose some type of post on my last two readings – the Bhagavad Gita and Plato’s Symposium, but every time I sit down to write I just stare at the blank screen and wonder how I can begin to capture what these two works are about. Also, I wonder how I can say what I think without attracting the fervent rage of devotees. Time will have to further cure my thoughts before they are fit to scatter in the ether. That being said, there is something about having read a whole bunch of work about self-control that is starting to have an accidental effect (hopefully this won’t also occur as I read Hamlet, Frankenstein, and Lolita!!). I’d hazard that the infiltration of my mind with a series of directives about right living, the importance of focus, and the great value and importance of non-attachment, is almost complete.

I work in a job with an uncertain future, frequently at the sway of work politics and complex interpersonal dynamics that are far beyond my knowledge or experience. I frequently walk into conflict situations unwittingly, and just as frequently (and naively) am showered with praise and support that has other motives opaque to me. Add to the mix personal ambivalence about remaining (1) working, (2) working in the public service, and (3) doing admin-related work instead of academics, and you have a stage set equally perfectly for self-sabotage or success. How to deal with this?

The Bhagavad Gita suggests that through a combination of mystic practice, mental concentration exercises, and existing in a state of active non-attachment as I move through this life, I will increase my chances of transcendence over several lifetimes.  Krishna also advised Arjuna that inaction is as bad as, or worse than, wrong action.  In addition, I am to act in compliance with both my prescribed archetypal role in society and in accordance with the tradition of my foremothers.

Plato’s Symposium suggests that practising moderation in all things and, wierdly, also being unaffected by fame or flattery, being impervious to danger or safety, and using logic to dissemble the skilled rhetoric of my companions, will lead me to a greater understanding of the mysteries of life and love.  Apparently reaching Platonic transcendence will enable me to, like Socrates, drink anyone under the table and keep debating until dawn. Platonic transcendence also requires mental focus, non-attachment, and attention to social roles and traditions.

Machiavelli prefers a more strategic approach to the same questions, and stresses self-control as the first step towards world domination.  Considering the field, developing and manipulating interpersonal dynamics and the power relationships, while keeping one’s own personal impulses and emotions in check, the Machiavellian transcendence is squeezed out from under the oppressor, like the surprise victor of a thumb war. For Machiavelli, it is crucial to avoid being controlled by fortune, and instead to write one’s own future with sheer will.

So as I face this increasingly uncertain and rocky experience of employment, I find myself detaching, keeping my eyes about me for the best options from both a strategic and an emotional standpoint. I am well able to do the job without investment and may be required to as decisions are made and directives passed down. After all, my goal according to the three Masters I’ve recently read, is to transcend this situation and move on to the next. It is the power of my own mind, my own discipline and my own acuity, that will determine to and from what I shall transcend.