New Nile Orchestra
I play in an Ethiopian rock band called New Nile Orchestra. It’s pretty great, and something I never thought I’d musically end up doing after growing up in white, rural Wyoming. Anyway, the band has been together for 15 years, and at this point we only play once every couple months. We used to practice relentlessly to figure out how to play this crazy African music. There were even times when we’d practice, go to a gig, and then come back and practice somewhere…we were hardcore. Now we are old, we have white hair, and our practicing ends up to be during a gig. Which, in regard to getting the music together isn’t so effective, but in regard to giving an edge to a gig, it’s very effective!
So, with that as a background, I had a great yogic moment at a gig we played last Saturday night. We all got there on time, did our soundcheck, talked about our lives (since it’s rare we get together, when we do it’s like a family reunion), and then without any warmup, went on stage and started the gig. What’s great about this “technique” is that it gets you focused on the playing of music and makes you really present. What was interesting for me is whenever I lost that focus of the music and started thinking about the success of what we were doing, I lost the great feeling of the music itself, and the music actually didn’t sound as good. But, when I was completely with the music for the sake of the music and nothing else, that’s when everything was great.
That brought to mind for me a great quote from the Bhagavad Gita – “The truly wise act without scheming for the fruits of their actions, and are therefore without inner turmoil.”
The real joy in life comes when you focus on work for the sake of the work and nothing else. But, if you forget about the work and move your focus to look for the fruits of your work, then things fall flat. The real joy is in the work – inner turmoil comes from looking beyond the work for some reward.
Think about that is you go through your work this week…let me know how it goes. 🙂