Good Works and Industrial-Sized Kudzu

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Lots of us are familiar with the concept of karma – action and its consequences. Or to put it in bumper sticker fashion, what goes around comes around. But the Hindu concept of karma isn’t just a tit for tat, moralistic concept – its really a much deeper description of how we create the reality that we experience, including what we experience across multiple lifetimes.

Generally our actions bind us to the world. We weave ourselves into the warp and woof of what we see around us by wanting, always wanting – be it things, people, attention, fame, love, whatever – and our actions moving us toward those things go out and create a net that comes back and wraps us as tightly as a chain. We are trapped in a destiny of our own making. Think of each desire as a tendril of industrial-strength kudzu: a tree might grow strong and beautiful in the sunlight; then one tendril of desire-kudzu begins weaving up the trunk, then another, and another and another, each growing wildly, until the tree is totally covered.

That’s you, Mr. or Ms. Tree, encased, enclosed and totally encumbered in your desire-kudzu. The question is, how do you get unencumbered again?

Karma yoga, the spiritual path to which Krishna calls Arjuna, is all about unencumbering. It’s about taking control of our destiny – by letting go of our desires. Ironic, huh?

Each yogic path has a primary action or focus, and for karma yoga it is about being active in the world through doing good. But here’s the catch: you do this with the understanding that you, little ol’ karmicly screwed up you, aren’t doing the good work here: it is Brahman, God, working through you. No credit at all to you; i.e., get your ego out of the way.

Every selfless act, Arjuna, is born from Brahman, the eternal, infinite Godhead. He is present in every act of service. All life turns on this law…

                                                Chapter 3.15-16

You do the good things, the right things, because they are the right things to do, not because of anything good that you’ll get out of it. Not a “my, aren’t you a wonderful person,” not a cosmic pat on the head, not the promise of spiritual treats, not even necessarily a good feeling.

Act selflessly, without any thought of personal profit.

                                                Chapter 3.8-9

Gives a whole new meaning to “Just Do It”, doesn’t it?

In doing all of this you work 180^¡  away from where you’ve been in terms of gathering karma. In fact, karma yoga is all about undoing karma, slowly but surely pulling off those strands of kudzu you’ve been using for lifetimes to bind yourself to this world:

Those who live in accordance with these divine laws without complaining, firmly established in faith, are released from karma.

Chapter 3.31

Like I said, taking control of your destiny by learning how to let go of your desires.

More next time on how undoing karma and acting selflessly helps us take control of our destinies.

Image found at 

http://www.jjanthony.com/kudzu/sculptures.html

Alive Beyond Wisdom

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Continuing our look into the Bhagavad Gita’s description of the 4 paths of yoga.

Last time we noted that one of the traditional areas of concentration for the person traveling the path of jnana yoga is the seemingly-simple-yet-annoyingly-frustrating-yet-amazingly-productive practice of continuing to ask “Who am I?” This practice can lead past layer upon layer of character, identity and ego – and yay for that – but this is far from the only area where the jnana yogi seeks wisdom.

With the “Who am I?” question, we start with something seemingly solid – the self – and by degrees we realize how ephemeral our hold usually is on the truth of the matter. With another jnani question, we start with what seems ephemeral -  “Who is Brahman/God/Ultimate Reality/the All?” – and discover that we have hit the bedrock of all creation. Speaking of his own ultimate nature, Krishna says

“it supports the whole universe and is the source of life in all beings…The birth and dissolution of the cosmos itself take place in me. There is nothing that exists separate from me, Arjuna. The entire universe is suspended from me as my necklace of jewels.“

Chapter 7.6-7

Brahman is at the heart of everything, every single thing, but very few people realize this. Most of us simply see the surface, how this world is full of things and ideas that dazzle our eyes and set our pulses racing. All the bright shinys that keep us focusing on the outward. But look inside the fancy car you’ve been craving, under the hood, inside the engine, beyond the level of frame and metal and computer chip, and you find essence, energy – Brahman. Just as you find inside every leaf, and volcano, and brick and face and piece of plastic blowing in the wind.

Spend enough time thinking about that, truly realizing what it means, and you are faced with another jnani-level question: What is it that you truly want – the fancy car or Brahman? A created thing, whether natural or built, or the Uncreated, the Source?

If ever you decide that it is Brahman, then you begin to realize that you have your desire already:

“Arjuna, I am the taste of pure water and the radiance of the sun and moon. I am the sacred word and the sound heard in air, and the courage of human beings. I am the sweet fragrance in the earth and the radiance of fire; I am the life in every creature…”

Chapter 7.8-9

Does this mean that the jnani doesn’t have to do anything, then? Well, let me ask you: when was the last time that you took a drink of water and realized that you were taking in the Source of the entire universe? Until you can give a full and unconditional yes to that, then you’ve got a ways to go. But if ever you get there, then you are alive in a way that most people never are, because you are alive within an all-consuming truth:

After many births the wise seek refuge in me, seeing me everywhere and in everything.

Chapter 7.19

It is this aliveness which goes even beyond wisdom, this living within Brahman, that the jnana yogi seeks.

Quotations taken from The Bhagavad Gita, trans. Eknath Easwaran

Image found athttp://www.virtualsynapses.com/2012/06/ramana-maharshi-all-is-brahman-but.html#.Ua615esj6ZI

Who Am I?

Continuing our look into the Bhagavad Gita’s description of the 4 paths of yoga.

Now that we’ve seen something of raja yoga, the royal path of meditation, let’s look at jnana yoga, the path of wisdom. “Oh good, wisdom,” you think, “I’ve got some wisdom, that’s easier than finding time to meditate.” NAH! Sorry, wrong answer. While raja yoga focuses more on advanced meditative stages and techniques than the others, ALL the paths are understood to involve meditation as a necessary part of the practice of being a connected, grounded, spiritual human being. So be ready to plant your behind right back on that floor/cushion/chair, no matter what path calls to you.

Jnana yoga, though, uses the conscious mind to move toward the divine, rather than overcoming or moving through it as we seek to do in meditation.

With your mind intent on me, Arjuna, discipline yourself with the practice of yoga…Listen, and I will dispel all your doubts; you will come to know me fully and be united with me. I will give you both jnana [wisdom] and vijnana [knowledge and understanding].  

Chapter 7.1-2

The most basic question that jnanis ask is “Who am I?” Sounds simple, right? But just try to hold onto an answer for

very long and you realize that it’s like building a sandcastle with the tide rolling in. Maybe you start with relationships, something like, “I’m a mother/father.” Okay, what if you didn’t have children? There would still be something you intended to call “I”, right? So that is not “I”, at least not all of it. Moving merrily along to what you do, you might try, “I’m an architect/accountant/aerospace engineer.” What if you could no longer design, add, or build anything? Would there still be an “I”?

So these nouns, titles really, aren’t working; maybe we can try adjectives. “I am creative and passionate;” “I am careful and steady;” “I am loving and kind.” Great, this seems to be getting closer to the you-ness of who you are. But then, the same old question comes slinking in: are you still you when you are not these things? Even the most creative and passionate person has times when she’s kind of boring; even a very steady person might get a wild hair; and even someone who is loving and kind can be mean and hurtful on occasion. But that person is still “I”, right? So who is the “I”?

Alright, nouns are out, adjectives don’t work, and you’re getting the sinking suspicion that going for verbs and what you do is gonna get you exactly nowhere. Maybe the answer isn’t grammatical at all. Who am I, if I strip away everything that I do, every title that I can give myself, every characteristic that I can think of – who am I then?

Now we’re talkin’ some jnana yoga serious-level kickass thinking. The kind that’s going to twist your brain, not your body, into pretzel poses, that’s going to lead you deeper and deeper into questions of spiritual knowledge until the mind breaks through its own barriers and moves into true spiritual wisdom. And then goes beyond that wisdom into oneness with the divine.

 

Unwavering in devotion, the man or woman of wisdom surpasses all the others. To them I am the dearest beloved, and they are very dear to me. All those who follow the spiritual path are blessed. But the wise who are always established in union, for whom there is no higher goal than me, may be regarded as my very Self.

Chapter 7, 17-18

 

Quotations taken from The Bhagavad Gita, trans. Eknath Easwaran

Image found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sand_castle,_Cannon_Beach.jpg