Friday, April 25, 2008

Reviewer endorses approach: To work is to pray

In The Hindu of India, D. Murali reviews Thomas Moore’s A Life at Work and concludes, "A book that can cut through all cluttered notions about work." Murali says,
"With modern technologies like email blurring the borders between work and home, the link between fulfilment at work and happiness at home is more important than ever, the author observes. Rather than solving the problem of work at a purely practical level – through new training, a different career, or a fatter paycheque – get to the bottom of your frustration, he urges.

Frustration commonly manifests as a feeling of getting nowhere. "Many people believe that you should always be getting somewhere, that you should always be on the 'up' escalator, moving forward in life." But sadly, 'people at the top of the ladder can also feel stalled.'
...
A simple and timeless prescription from the Bhagavad Gita is that you can win your freedom by being karma-yogic; that is, by doing your duty to your best while at the same time not being attached to the fruits of labour. As if in affirmation, a chapter title in Moore’s book reads, 'To work is to pray.'"

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