Pursuing a true vocation (passion)

J. Krishnamurti was a philosopher, speaker and writer. Born in India and destined to lead the world to greater awareness, he renounced it all to travel, speak and write. "Truth is a pathless land", he said. No method, structure, creed or organization can lead you to truth. It is for each of us to find. Krishnamurti was avidly focused on education. He believed it was a fundamental way to bring about human transformation. He started schools all over the world, many of which are unique places where children blossoom not just intellectually but in their very essential goodness.

Speaking of education and how it might lead to a lifelong vocation (aka a lifelong passion) he said: You know what `vocation' means? Something which you will love to do, which is natural. After all, that is the function of education, of a school of this kind, to help you to grow independently so that you are not ambitious but can find your true vocation. The ambitious man has never found his true vocation. If he had found, he would never be ambitious. Is it not the function of the teacher, of the Principal, of the Manager, of the Trustees of this place to help you to be intelligent – which means, not to be afraid – so that you can choose, you can find out your own vocation, your own way of life, the way you want to live, the way you want to earn your own livelihood. This means really a revolution in thinking because, in the world, the man who can talk, the man who can write, the man who can preach, the man who can rule, the man who has a car, is thought to be in a marvellous position; and the man who digs in the garden, who cooks, who builds a house, is despised. Have you noticed your own feelings, how you look at the mason, the man who builds, who mends the road, the driver of a taxi or a rickshaw, how you regard him with absolute contempt? To you he does not even exist; but when you look at a man with a title, an M.A., or a B.A., a little clerk, a banker, a merchant, a pundit, a minister, immediately you respect him and disregard the tongawala. But if you really found your true vocation, then you would break down this system completely; because then you might be a gardener, a painter, because then you would be doing something which you really love with your being. That is not ambition, to do something marvellously, completely, truly according to what you think; that is not ambition; in that there is no fear. But it is very difficult, because that means that the teacher has to pay a great deal of attention to teach each one of his boys to find out what he is capable of, to help him to find out, to help him not to be afraid but to question to investigate. You may be a writer, you may be a poet, you may be a painter; and if you love that, you have no ambition; because, in that, you want to be, to create; it is a thing which you love. In love, there is no ambition.

This passage makes me pause. As an educator focused on education that stirs each child's innermost being, I have wondered about ways to support children in the search of and pursuit of a passion, a vocation as K calls it. I am struck by this statement – "if you love that, you have no ambition; because, in that, you want to be, to create; it is a thing which you love".

It is easy to assume that if you do what you love, you will have ambition even in that — you will aspire, strive and "achieve". K is saying something totally different. I think he ascribes a different quality to the act of doing what you love. In ambition, there is aggressive achievement, even competition to achieve over someone else. In vocation, there is love, a deep pursuit of what you love. The results of your tireless pursuits are not the focus. The focus is not on achievement. Its on deeply loving and fully doing what you are meant to do. As it happens, often deep pursuit of a vocation leads to two things — excellent work and "worldly success" but the vocation-seeker doesn't even realize that until someone lifts his head and forces him to see his success. To him success is secondary. Excellence is ingrained in the process of pursuing a vocation, in his sheer love of his vocation. What a sweet, savory feeling that must be. What a real taste of a life fully lived. One that is truly worth living!