2. Non-Striving
In today’s business world, we keep our focus on doing whatever it takes to get things done, to meet a target and to hit a profit point. We believe if we strive, we will achieve. If we don’t, we’ll try harder.
Is it really so that we’ll achieve it by trying harder and doing more?
Lao Tzu, a respected and influential philosopher in ancient China, during the era of the Hundred Schools of Thought and the Warring States period (around 500 B.C.), witnessed the consequences resulted from the trying-hard mentality of the emperor and the government. The emperor was trying all that he could to control the people’s mind and behavior in order to suppress them and get them to obey the government. The result was just the opposite. Not only the people lived in fear and hated the government, but also there were non-stop uprising and wars. Lao Tzu felt the pain that the people experienced. What’s more important is that he realized this was not the way to lead a country and the people. In order to have the people live in harmony without any intention to upthrow the government, it was not done by trying hard to make it happen, but by non-striving.
How is it so?
His original words were: “无为而无所不为.” There are many literal translations as “Action through inaction.” This is totally mis-interpreted, funny and ridiculous.
What this meant is that, when you are not controlling, which looks like you are doing nothing, but you can make anything happen. It sounds like magic. What he really meant was that, to make anything happen, for example, people living in harmony, contributing to the country and no intention to upthrow the government, is not by striving to control people’s mind and behavior, but by setting policies and measures that made it easy for people to live in harmony, happiness, contentment and contribution.
It’s the same attitude for practising mindfulness. Working on your full voice is a practice of mindfulness.
Most people think that in order to project your voice to be heard, especially in a large room, you have to use a lot of effort. Many of my clients, in the process of working on their full voice, with all the exercises they were doing, they tried too hard to get it right.
Contrary to what most people think, working on your voice is a non-striving process. In this process, not only will you not need effort in voice projection, but also will the result, a full voice, be achieved through relaxation, instead of working harder. A non-striving process is not a process of doing nothing. Instead, you relax your body to make it open, relaxed and eventually conducive for the best sound to come out.
