"Return to the Heart" column
The whole universe is "one"
In the midst of all things
There is only the self-nature of "one", the existence of "one"
--Swami Vivekananda
01 Karma Yoga
Karma Yoga, translated as karma yoga, is also known as action yoga. Dr. Yang Dingyi's "Whole Life Series" refers to it as service yoga. Although the names are different, the kernel and meaning are exactly the same.
Karma, translated as karma. Many people misunderstand the word "karma" and are even a little scared when they mention it, always believing that it is the retribution of all the bad things that have been done in the past. This is a misconception. Karma is a very neutral word, and you can understand it as a way of moving like Newton's third law, forces of action and reaction:
Every action will leave an imprint on the mind, the so-called samskara, which will prompt a person to repeat that action. Good actions produce good karma, and bad behavior produces bad karma. A person's mind is the sum of all these imprints.
Karma yoga action yoga means taking action as yoga, taking "action" as a spiritual practice, and achieving unity through daily actions. One of the purposes of action yoga is to promote the good karma in our minds and purify our minds through good deeds.
When one takes daily action as a way of unity/connection, such action is service from the heart. Therefore, translating Karma yoga as service yoga is very accurate, kind, and a good reminder.
Because the works of discernment on the market are translated as "Action Yoga", this article uniformly refers to Karma yoga as "action yoga".
02 Yoga of Discernment and Action
When it comes to action yoga, we have to mention the famous modern yogi Swami Vivekananda, who spread this branch of the Vedanta philosophical system that originated in ancient India to the West and carried it forward.
Many Vedanta teachers believe that action yoga can purify the mind, but it does not lead people directly to the ultimate goal of spiritual life, namely liberation (Mukti) or freedom. Discernment was the first spiritual teacher who believed that action yoga could be independent and directly liberating.
Discernment says this about action yoga —
Don't stay away from the wheel of earthly machines, but take refuge in it and learn the secrets of your actions. By doing the right thing in it, it is also possible to be liberated from it. That is, through the machine itself to find a way out.
It is a system that attempts to achieve liberation through selfless actions or good deeds. The action yogi can ask no question of what a soul is, without thinking about any metaphysical theories, and his sole purpose is to achieve selflessness, so he must work selflessly.
One should work like a master, not like a slave. If a person allows selfish or egoistic considerations to dominate his own behavior, then he will become a slave to his own desires. One should want nothing.
The Buddha worked as hard as he could without any motive—neither for money, nor for fame, nor for anything else. As long as one can do this, one will also become a Buddha, and from him a force will be generated that can transform the world. Such a person represents the highest typical of action yoga.
03 Instead of renouncing the world, we renounced ourselves
Excerpt from Yoga in Action
Translator: Smell
The perfect self-renunciation is non-attachment
When I'm doing a good deed,
My mind is in a state of fluctuation,
Well, a mind with the same tension
It is very likely that it will be influenced by my heart;
And, the magnitude of the influence of this mind on the mind,
Depends on the size of the mental tension.
Just as light waves may travel hundreds of years to reach their destination,
Waves of thought can also travel hundreds of years
Only to encounter an object that can resonate with it.
So, most likely,
In this air around us,
It is full of the pulse of thoughts of good and evil.
Every thought projected by every brain,
It can be said that they are constantly pulsating,
until you meet the right object that will accept it,
Any mind that is willing to accept certain such fluctuations,
Will accept it immediately.
When he is willing to accept all the fluctuations of goodness in the air,
Its good deeds are thus reinforced.
Therefore, when we do evil, we are in a double danger:
First, to make ourselves easily receptive to the effects of all the evil around us;
Second, the evil we do affects others,
It may even affect people hundreds of years from now.
No action produces the fruit of both good and evil at the same time...
If a person who does good,
Knowing that there is also some evil in good deeds,
There is also a certain goodness in evil deeds,
This man understands the secret of the action.
You can act, act, act again,
But it will not be possible to put an end to this unavoidable interweaving of good and evil in the outcome of action.
Not to renounce this life, but only to renounce oneself
True happiness lies in the removal of selfishness.
Unless you renounce yourself,
No one can make themselves happy.
This is the supreme goal of all yoga
Although one has not studied any philosophical system,
Nor have they ever believed and will never believe in any gods,
Never even prayed in his lifetime,
But if the power of simple good deeds leads him in,
When you are willing to give up your life and all other realms for the sake of others,
He has reached the believers through prayer,
The same realm that philosophers reach through knowledge.
Philosophers, actors and believers,
They will meet in the same realm, the realm of self-renunciation.
Do not renounce this life, but dwell in it,
And accept the influence of the world as much as possible;
But if this is for your own enjoyment, it will have no effect at all.
You first have to let go of the idea of attachment.
Secondly, you cannot participate in the competition,
Instead, you should make yourself a witness and continue to act.
……
It's like a nanny taking care of a child,
For an au pair, leaving your child,
Take care of someone else's children,
It won't cause her the slightest pain.
When you treat everything you think belongs to you,
This attitude should also be taken.
You're like that babysitter.
And if you trust God,
Believe that everything that belongs to you actually belongs to God.
When you have become enlightened by training your mind and nerves,
The world doesn't depend on you or anyone,
You will not react to any form of suffering caused by your actions.
When you give something to someone without expecting anything in return —
Don't even expect him to be grateful,
Well, even if he is ungrateful, it will not harm you,
Because you didn't expect anything.
teach
No one can really be taught by another person,
Each of us must teach ourselves.
External teachers can only give advice,
It aims to awaken our inner teachers to act and understand things.
Then through our own perception and thinking
And make things clearer and clearer to us,
make us realize that the truth about things exists in our own souls,
And this consciousness develops into a strong willpower.
Action Yoga, Wisdom Yoga or Devotional Yoga,
Both can be used as a direct and independent means of achieving liberation.
The world will be filled with the breath of blessing,
Everyone's face shone with the radiance of God.
This is the ultimate goal of action yoga,
This is the perfect state of action yoga in real life.
Namaste
04 Discern who is joy
Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivécananda (1863-1902), formerly known as Narendranath Datta. Born in Calcutta, he is a member of the Castilly and is known as a modern Indian philosopher, social activist, and Hindu reformer.
He graduated from Kolkata Provincial College in 1883 and entered Calcutta City College the following year to study law. After graduating from university, he served the Hindu reformer Ramakrishna. In 1893, he went to Chicago, USA to participate in the Assembly of World Religions and preached the Indian Vedanta philosophy, which caused a sensation. He returned to China in 1897 and in the same year established the Ramakrishna Missionary Society, named after his teacher, in Calcutta. In 1899, he founded the "School of Non-Duality" in the foothills of the Himalayas to promote and study the Indian Vedanta philosophy. He died in Calcutta in 1902 at the age of 39.
The journey of discernment in life is like a shooting star, short, but shining brightly. He was the first pioneer to introduce traditional Indian philosophical thought and yogic practice to the West, and his writings have been translated into more than a dozen languages and are widely revered in the Western world.
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