Dreamed I was on a Survivor-type dating show, except we were all dressed as Vedic deities. I was Hanuman. A few of the people were discussing the nature of disinterested action, and coming upon them I declared (authoritatively, as you might imagine) that the essence of disinterested action lay in not trying to be disinterested. Disinterested action was the most important thing, I said, and it was imperative that it be properly understood. To try to be disinterested was to act selfless but to secretly serve the ego.

Then I woke and remembered the case of George Washington, who tried harder than (perhaps) anyone to embody the ideal of disinterested behavior in order to establish and preserve his fame. He would not have risen to my dream standard of truly disinterested action, but still, when the time came he surrendered his sword to the Congress and returned to private life – a disinterested act that made him famous around the European world.

This reminded me further of the rules put forth by the sufi Naqshbandi, the preamble to which states that the Wise are constantly encouraging us to make a study of the sayings and deeds of the Wise, in order to feed those parts of ourselves to which these sayings and deeds correspond.

And so finally I arrived at the system of alchemy described by Liu I-ming, according to which striving, the development of capacity, is fulfilled ultimately by non-striving. To strive for disinterestedness after the kernel of true disinterestedness has formed damages this truth; yet to strive before it has formed encourages its development.