One of the most widely known words from India is the Sanskrit word ‘karma’. It gets used in the English language when something bad happens after acting in a negative way – “That’s karma getting you.” Or it’s used much in the same way morality and sinning are used: Do something good, you get good karma; Do something bad, you get bad karma. While there’s an aspect of truth in the usage of karma in this way, it’s definitely an over simplification and reductive. Let’s dive into this word to understand the depth of it and some practical ways to use the concept of karma in calming the mind, as well as increase self-understanding.

KARMA YOGA

First, I want to talk about Karma Yoga. There is an entire path of yoga, i.e. path of self-realization, focused on karma. 

Karma means action. Karma Yoga is a spiritual path focused on using your actions to connect with the Divine. The practice helps one to move from simply using life to seek enjoyment and be self-focused, to using actions for a higher purpose and meaning. The practice is performing daily actions in life with a focus on something higher or greater than ourselves. This practice helps to let go of outcomes and use our actions towards a higher resolve. Even deeper, it serves to loosen the bond of the ego’s ownership of action and understand that what we define as ‘I’ isn’t permanent or absolute.

MINDLESS ACTION

Every day we take millions of actions. Actions which we do over and over on a daily basis become automatic or done without much thought. Like when you drive to the grocery store you’ve driven to many times. You get in the car, press down on the gas pedal and drive the familiar route. Yet your mind is thinking about your grocery list, when you have to pick up your child, the conversation you had with a co-worker that is still upsetting you, or remembering a task you forgot to do yesterday. Then all of a sudden…

You’re at the grocery store. And you can’t really remember how you even got there. The action of driving has been done with complete mindlessness.

Then there are close relationships with loved ones and people we spend much of our time with. Over the years we develop patterns with them. Some of the patterns have to do with expectations of roles like who takes out the garbage, who pays the bills, etc. Other patterns have to do with assumptions in how the other person will react in certain situations. We end up playing out these roles from these ‘stories’ of how both people ‘should’ and ‘will’ behave instead of being present to the moment.

When we are in these ‘mindless’ states, the mind is usually ping ponging between the past and future, rarely in the present moment. There’s no awareness that what we do during each day is dictated by programming from the past or trying to control the future. We are so far from being connected to ourselves and the present. Then, when a significant change happens (loss, transition), that disconnection to self can create an identity crisis. This creates a sense of feeling lost or feeling stuck. “How did I get here?!”

CULTIVATING AWARENESS AKA MINDFULNESS

The shift out of this mindless state in relationships is becoming aware. Specifically aware of yourself: your thoughts, your emotions, your body sensations, your reactions. Please note the emphasis on ‘your’ here. Becoming aware of what’s happening within our personal reaction, shifting away from the other. It is our disconnection from ourselves that keeps us stuck and feeling lost.

In mindless states, basic biological survival is running the show. That is our initial reaction. It is designed to keep us safe and alive. It’s important and there for a reason.

But as human beings, we have this huge brain and extensive mind that is capable of much, much more. And access to it requires inner awareness. This means when there is a reaction in your mind-body system, instead of going outside of yourself to ‘fix’ or control things, you turn inward and observe yourself. That inward awareness is key to being able to shift the focus to something higher/bigger than your material existence.

Karma Yoga is the practice of taking action with focus on a higher purpose rather than focus on material outcomes. A Karma Yogi performs actions that ‘must be done’ with their mind focused on Wisdom of Truth.

SHIFT THE FOCUS TO A WIDER VIEW

I love hiking and climbing mountains. Growing up in Anchorage, Alaska and it was a priority for my parents to get my brother and I outside to experience the mountains. I resisted it for a while, but the seed was planted. When I was in high school, I finally caught the mountain bug. My adult life has been centered around how to spend as much time as possible outside in the mountains.

When I stand on top of a mountain, it’s a spiritual experience for me. I am humbled by my insignificance to the vast landscape around me. Looking up to the night sky in the wilderness – I am aware that I’m just a speck of dust in the seemingly endless universe. It calms me. My mind needs to be reminded of its place in this expansive, impermanent world. Otherwise it gets too full of itself.

This is where Karma Yoga comes in.

Using any and all of my actions throughout the day to connect to this sense that there is something much, much bigger and all-knowing to myself, actually helps me to understand the essence of who I truly am. I don’t have to climb a mountain or find an area of dark night sky to be able to connect with this. It’s always available.

One of the underlying principles of Karma Yoga is that Truth is in everything, including within each of us. When we are acting, that Truth is acting through us. Each action we take can embody a higher purpose, from waking up in the morning, cleaning the toilet, making a meal, performing tasks at work. It doesn’t need to be grand actions. All we need to do are the actions we already do each day, just with a different mindset and focus.

THE DIVINE ACT OF DOING THE DISHES

I grew up learning that whomever cooked the meal didn’t have to clean up. My mom cooked most meals, so my dad, brother, and I took turns cleaning up and doing the dishes. I saw this same schema happening in a lot of my friends’ homes too. My mind took this schema as ‘what is done’ in regards to cooking and doing the dishes. This was my belief.

Then I met Greg. When we moved in together, I cooked most dinners. Most of the time I enjoy cooking. I like fresh meals that feel nourishing to my body. It’s also part of what I give to people. I love having people over for dinner and sharing a meal. But I quickly noticed that Greg didn’t always clean up. Or he’d do a little bit and walk away. In the morning, the kitchen was still a mess with dishes in the sink. Not every time…but enough that I started to react and feel frustrated.

That frustration came from taking his behavior personally. I interpreted it to mean that he didn’t appreciate my gift of a delicious meal. Since I cooked, he was ‘supposed to’ clean. I became resentful and would get upset. We would argue. I focused more and more on what he wasn’t doing, not seeing all the things he does to contribute.

ENTER KARMA YOGA

As I noticed my reaction and Greg’s push against my belief that if you cook, you don’t have to clean, I began to wonder if there was another way. I enjoy cooking and I also enjoy a clean kitchen. Most of the time Greg will clean up, though I wasn’t seeing this through the hurt and frustration. I decided to experiment, since I was committed to the outlook that ‘I’m 100% responsible for my life’:

 

CHANGING PERSPECTIVE

 

1. When I started to notice frustration, hurt, and resentment happening in my reaction, I practiced widening my view. Gratitude is what I chose because when my mind is connected to gratitude I feel connected to a higher Truth. I stopped and observed what Greg does in our relationship and at home. When I did this, I noticed that cooking and doing the dishes could be done as a gift. I could let go of my belief system and see all the things he does as thanks for the meals I cook. He said ‘thank you’ in other ways.

2. I turned my attention to the dishes. These dishes had come into my life for the sole purpose of holding the food I cooked. They were part of supporting this nourishment our bodies need. Cleaning them was a way I could thank them instead of taking them for granted. 

3. Letting go of control. I have to admit, I also held a rigid view of how the dishes should be done. Part of what created a frustrated reaction in me was how Greg did the dishes. Once I reminded myself that there are many paths to an outcome, I would walk out of the kitchen and go do something else. I let Greg do the dishes his way, which was his gift… if I could just allow it to happen. This is part of a practice called vairagya – detachment from limiting attachments, i.e. letting go. In this case, letting go of a belief in how dishes should be done.

4. I used this situation as a way to practice more non-violent communication, an Ahimsa practice. Because I saw all he did outside of the kitchen and felt grateful, I could focus on my needs. I could empathize with him and start sharing my needs as well as a request for his help. When I communicated from a place of understanding, rather than anger, many times he could hear me instead of getting defensive. Instead of falling into our typical pattern.

KEEP PRACTICING

I still work on all four of these practices. The moment I stop having any reaction to cooking and doing the dishes in my relationship with Greg is the moment I can stop practicing. I’m not quite there, so I keep using it as an opportunity to practice.

In summary, one aspect of Karma Yoga is simply using your daily actions as opportunities to deepen understanding of Self. This is done by acting from a mindset that the Divine is in everything. Also, by letting go of the fruit of your actions (outcomes) to focus on a higher intention and actions toward that intention is another practice of Karma Yoga.

KARMA IS THE ACTION OF THE MATERIAL WORLD

Action itself is a series of cause and effect. So, Karma Yoga also means accepting the innate cause and effect of the world. That acceptance helps to learn how to play with the everchanging material world to get closer to understand ‘That’ which is beyond cause and effect. There are two important concepts that are fundamental to almost all paths of Yoga: Asat and Sat (Prakriti and Purusha).

Sat, or Purusha as it’s named in Patanjali Yoga Sutras, means Truth, That which is permanent and unchanging. Some of you might know the words: sat chit ananda. These words mean Truth, Consciousness, and Bliss and represent being in absolute reality, our True Self. These words could be a higher intention to cultivate in your daily actions.

Asat, or Prakriti as it’s named in Patanjali Yoga Sutras, means not Truth or not absolute reality. In Sanskrit, when ‘a’ is placed in front of a word, it means the opposite meaning of the word. Asat entails everything that does change and is impermanent. ‘Unreal’ is also a common translation because that which changes, in the end, is not True Reality. 

Everything that changes is in the realm of asat. Take a moment to look around you. What is asat and what is sat?

What did you notice?

Chances are everything you noticed changes. The material world is all asat. The Yoga process is to sift through asat and discover sat. Not an easy task!

The mind itself changes (beliefs, emotions, thoughts) so it is not Truth (sat). The ironic aspect of Yoga is we use the mind, which changes, to understand who we truly are, which doesn’t change. This is why asat  is not bad or negative. We need it! We have to learn how to skillfully use the material world and our mind to gain a deeper understanding of our True Nature and the Nature of the world.

ACCEPTING CAUSE AND EFFECT

Before I practiced Yoga, I took my reactions seriously and as truth. Someone would say something to me that hurt and I took it personally to protect myself. I lost a number of friendships this way by shutting others out when I felt hurt. It took me a long time to move through that hurt because I clung to it like a shield to keep from being hurt again. The thing is, this way of protecting myself created a lot of unnecessary suffering for me, despite the fact I was doing it subconsciously to try to reduce suffering.

When exploring my own reactions and taking responsibility for them, I started to understand the effect of the reaction was coming from a cause within my mind. Usually from a past experience that was influencing how I viewed the situation or a belief that was no longer serving me.

Another important aspect of Karma Yoga is understanding cause and effect. Everything that changes (asat) is part of this cause and effect process. What is an effect, becomes a cause. Every cause, except the Original cause, has been effect before it became a cause. Knowing this can start to loosen the grip of taking things personally and judging. It opens up the opportunity to get curious and explore this relationship of cause and effect.

All change is part of cause and effect. As someone who has a history of strong reactions to change, realizing that change isn’t a bad thing, even if it does cause pain, opened up an entirely new way to view change and the effects of both pain and pleasure, instead of staying stuck in a reaction. 

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH CHANGE

The empowering aspect of accepting change as part of the material world can help in several ways:

1. Our reactions (thoughts, emotions, body sensations, beliefs) can change. They aren’t Truth so we have the power to examine them and consciously decide how we want to move forward and address a situation. I call this moving from reaction to responding.

2. The other person’s reaction towards me can also change. Most likely their reaction actually has nothing to do with me. Like me, they too are reacting from a place of protection from pain and suffering. 

3. Everything in the material world can and will change. Get a flat tire – of course that will happen at some point. Relationships will have ups and downs – definitely, it’s part of being in the realm of asat. Belief, thoughts, emotions…they will all change. Our bodies, yes, they will age, decay, and die. By remembering the principles of asat (prakriti) and  sat (purusha), it can help the mind remember the reality of change that’s happening. Instead of fighting it or avoiding it, we can face it.

These perspective shifts that can come from accepting the reality of cause and effect gives us choice in how we meet the world.  I don’t know what is more empowering than that!

EXPLORE CAUSE AND EFFECT

Here are a couple of concrete ways to start exploring cause and effect in the material world and come to your own conclusions.

👉 First, take time to sit in silence and observe the world. I personally love doing this outside but it can be done anywhere. Take a moment to breathe and bring your mind to the present moment. Then open your eyes, if they aren’t open, and watch the world. Get curious about where cause and effect are happening in front of you.

👉 Second, when you have a reaction – it can be positive or negative – get curious about the cause of that reaction. Get curious about the effects of that reaction.  This data is ‘relative reality’, i.e. what is happening right now. What is happening right now is what you have control or agency over. That means you have a choice when you are aware and accept what is happening right now. Then those choices you make are based in relative reality. Not based on the story or what you think should or shouldn’t be happening.

EVOLUTION OF NATURE

Alright, let’s take this one step further and let’s explore one more idea around Karma Yoga. The idea of the actions we take affect what may happen to us in the future. In Yoga, one aspect of this is the idea of reincarnation and transmigration of the soul. This happens because of past karma or action (cause) that creates seeds of potential effect (samskaras), which will become a future cause.

Like an acorn seed that holds the potential for a massive tree which will only manifest if conditions are right, samskaras may become active when the conditions are right. That tree then produces more acorns. It was an effect of that acorn and right conditions, and now it becomes the cause of more acorns. Some acorns become activated right away, others take many, many years. Samskaras (the seed of a cause) may be activated right away, later in this life or not until a future life. The circle of cause and effect continues on and on, until a soul (purusha) knows its True Nature, which is beyond cause and effect. It is said that once one completely knows their True Nature, all samskaras are burned and no longer able to sprout. 

There’s a lot to unpack in this, so let’s start with a concrete reflection exercise: 

Take anything you see right now and take some time to reflect on the origins of that item. Trace it back to all of its evolutes’ until you identify the very beginning. In other words, reverse engineering that objects cause and effect from present to its beginnings. What do you discover?

Join me for our live talk this month on July 21st and we’ll dive more into this aspect of Karma Yoga, as well as share and discuss anything else that comes up from reading this blog post.

Shanti.