Through the Waves

Like a lot of South Africans, I am deep soaked in Righteous Indignation. I like that I have the capacity to get very angry, and am not willing to let that go. Yet, I also struggle with how ineffective and energy sapping regular rage can be. Overwrestling with how I think the world should be. A close friend, who had seen my anger, asked me how it was consistent with practicing to be a yogi. 

“Dharma” is partly understood as our purpose for being here. One of yoga’s key texts is the “Bhagavad Gita”. Ironically, for those who think yoga is just about bending and stretching, it is a story about war and a conversation between Arjuna and Krishna about “why should I fight?”. If everything is connected, an illusion, and it is so hard to make a difference as an individual... why bother? 

There is a point. Actions do matter, and have consequences. We do have responsibilities and obligations. We are building this world together. Part of that is learning about the reality of how we coordinate actions and consequences. That starts with a deep acceptance of the way the world is, because everything can only move from where it is. 

I am a very imperfect yogi. Full of aches and pains, and questions. Most of what I write is coaching myself to remember to come back to the basics within the complexity. Returning towards proper exercise, proper breathing, proper diet, proper relaxation and proper mental health. Practicing Tim Minchin style “micro-ambition”... small, achievable, goals that add up. There is a constant wrestle, and chipping away requires repetitive reminding that our actions matter. 

Waves, both positive and negative, keep coming. They are not malicious. They just are. The waves have nothing to do with who you are. Stillness comes from how we see these waves and whether they have the power to knock us off course. Stillness comes from finding a way to create meaning DESPITE the noise, through patience and time.

Waves of Interference

Are or Do

Paul Bloom says people are essentialists. Like Plato, believing that all things have an “essence” that define them. We “are” something. “I am angry” rather than “I am doing anger”. “They are a racist” rather than “they are doing racism”. 

We like the baseball that was hit by Babe Ruth, or the jersey that was worn by Kolisi, Smit, or Pienaar. The value (price?) of the jersey goes up if it wasn’t washed! Like there is a permanent spirit in the object. 

I had a coke can collection growing up that I inherited from my older brother, then expanded. I learnt that if you want a valuable can collection, you had to maintain the integrity of the can, unopened, and in its original state. Wasn’t going to happen... so my collection was just for me. 

We start believing that we can be weighed and measured by our essence. That some people are fundamentally better, with more merit, than others. The toxic view that you can gather data points on people till you can discard them because they are not brilliant outliers. The idea that once you have enough information on a person, you can pass judgement on them and decide if they are good enough. 

My view of privilege is that it is part of endurance. It is building up your ability to endure and strengthen your capacity to absorb challenges. Part of that has nothing to do with you and your essence. 

In stilling your money waves, you have to be aware of the impact you have on others, the benefit you receive from others, and the obligations that you have. Part of stilling waves is realising the waves don’t only affect you.

Waves of Life

The vast majority of people, even those earning a lot of money, live hand-to-mouth. One way to view meritocracy is that it shifts capital to where it is working the hardest. Another way to view meritocracy is that people who are "better", deserve to live better lives. That how much you spend should be in line with how much value you add to society. For that to be “true”, people need to spend what they earn, and be paid what they are worth. That is not how capital, money, or price works. 

One of the challenges of building capital is that there are always emergencies. There are always events that can stop you and set you back to zero and hand-to-mouth. 

In Australia, they have famously changed national saving habits and built huge superannuation funds. One of the philosophical questions is whether people should be able to access their retirement savings in emergencies. For proponents of Universal Basic Income, a key question stands around whether lenders should have a claim over those payments. Can you borrow against that guaranteed stream of money?

In the early stages of building capital, the waves of life can destroy any capacity to protect, cultivate, and invest in merit. It is hard to grow capital when it is being harassed. It is hard to see each other when we are living hand-to-mouth. 

Longing for Truth

There is a perception that if you are earning lots of money, you must have lots of natural talent. So you get respect. This is dangerous. In yoga, they speak of the seven stages of development of wisdom. Wisdom isn’t about skills and knowledge. Even though skills and knowledge, properly contained, is how we create wealth. Wealth itself is what the skills and knowledge get applied to. The problem with a directionality in seeing progress and meritocracy as “more” is privilege. The first of the yogic stages is longing for truth. You understand that you are connected to everything, but you still have work to do. Before you can get all philosophical, there is the stuff you have to do, and there is the stuff you want to do. The stuff of life. The experience of life. There are still actions required, but you have to want to get free from the waves of anxiety. That desire is the directionality worth valuing. 

The Directionality Worth Valuing

The Space Between

Earning £100,000 a year can still be filled with anxiety if you are spending £120,000 a year. If you are living on the edge of your capacity to borrow and pay interest. If you are pushing forward and up as hard and as fast as you can. Earning R100,000 a year can be Zen-like if you have the self-discipline of a Langa Gogo, spending R80,000 a year a putting some to work. Those are extremes, but the point is the only comparison necessary is spending and income, and the space between. Not other people. Vrittis, are the thought waves of the mind. Yoga creates a system to control these waves. A path of self-restraint that brings focus to the things that are most important. Creating the ability to move with intention, rather than being moved by what the world throws at us.

Stilling the Waves

Yoga is stilling the waves of the mind. You could consider Financial Yoga, stilling the waves of the connection between what we earn and how we finance our lives. Ideally you pay yourself a sustainable dividend. This dividend is financed by a combination of (1) your earning ability, (2) your cash buffer, and (3) capital working on your behalf. The cash buffer reduces the noise of (1) and (3). Your earning ability can be interrupted by business cycles, changing consumer preferences, new competitors, changing regulations, redundancy, job loss, reskilling, family commitment, unpaid work, disability, illness, or a dysfunctional economy that doesn’t have enough jobs on offer. Your capital can be interrupted by times of panic when the price people are offering for your engine reflects their fear that bad times will last forever. The cash buffer recognises that “This too will pass”. Yoga is partly a practice in not identifying with the temporary. Finding a more solid point of focus, so that you can let the temporary float in, sit, and float out. We need money. We don’t have to be, the way we earn money.