Karma Yoga
The secret to enlightenment is kindness and selfless giving. Without that, it's just words, isn't it?
Selfless giving is the art of living.
This is what Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita -- Karma Yoga. If you can't avoid action, you might as well act.
Whenever you engage in a selfless action that contributes to the welfare of others, this will create a vibratory pattern that will lead you into higher states of mind.
Selfless actions create a higher karma, which brings you into higher states of mind. When you are in higher states of mind you will see things that you never saw before.
Karma is engendered by states of mind. If you are in a happy state of mind, that will engender one kind of karma. If you are in an unhappy state of mind, that will engender another kind of karma.
A saint is someone who has been very selfless and, over a period of lifetimes, generated a tremendous amount of good karma, which has caused them to enter into very lovely states of mind.
There are different pathways - be it Zen, tantra, karma yoga, or jnana yoga.
Different ways have been devised to do the same thing for different types of people, according to their temperament.
One thing I have seen, regardless of the method of aprehenesion of the dimensional plane one is in, is self-giving and how effective it is.
Selfless giving presupposes something -- that there is a lumunious reality.
We have two choices in life: One is to fulfill ourselves. The other is to take the time and energy that we would utilize in fulfilling ourselves and use it to make others happy.
You suffer because you try to fulfill yourself. You think of yourself in a limited way.
If we look further, we see that we actually contain all of existence. Everyone who has ever been or will ever be, is in some way contained in our awareness. Our awareness is like the sky, it's endless.
We try to fulfill ourselves, even though our inner voice tells us to become all that we are -- still, we run from it.
We hide in relationships. We hide in material possessions. We hide in ambitions, secret desires, hates, frustrations, jealousy, self-ptiy, in our insecurity -- and more than anything our vanity and our egotism.
If your nature is infinite awareness trapped in a body, suddenly there's a lack of happiness, a lack of freedom. No matter what you get you'll never be happy, because these are all trinkets.
If a bird is used to flying and you put in a a cage, it won't be a happy bird; It wants to fly; that's its nature. Your nature is infinite awareness.
You have no fixed self. This is only an illusion that causes you to feel pain and suffering.
You suffer because you try to fulfill yourself. You think: "I am this; I am that; I am not this; I am not that ... ."
The reason why we're not happy is because we believe consciously and subconsciously that we're separate from god, eternal awareness.
We define a world. We build a house, then after building the house we enter into it and we never leave it.
Whenever we just try to please ourselves, all we do is cover up another window in the little house we're stuck in.
Whenever we do something for someone else, we affirm that we are not simply in it for ourselves, that our self is someone else, is everyone else.
What you do affects your awareness field. When you do something selfless your attention feild is more clear, more lucid.
When you do something "selflish" you'll feel constricted and restricted. You won't be happy.
Those who pursue a worldy life -- who try to get others to do what they want, to peform for them, who use and abuse in the name of their own happiness -- are miserable.
Feeling "comfortable" is the short path to annihilation.
If your life is based around your being comfortable, you're not very comfortable. You suffer quite a bit -- becuase in the realm of the senses there is not only pleasure, but there is pain.
Karma simply means that whatever type of energy you project, or you allow to pass through your being, you will become for a period of time.
So, those who hate, those who are violent in nature, live in a world of hate and fear and violence inside themselves, inside their minds, inside their awareness.
Those who love and who have a sense of purity live in a very luminous band of awareness.
Selfless giving changes our concept of our identity. When we give to others our unselfishness removes the spot of "self" that stained our awareness.
We preceive that God is in all of those we give to.
Then we see that the same God is within ourselves.
Finally, we see that there is no one and nothing but God.
Selfless giving reminds us that there is an eternally present spirit in all of us, that when revealed, liberates us from both the transitory and the eternal -- both of which ultimatly can be attachments.
Everyone is part of you.
When you do something for someone else, it's for you.
When you do something for yourself, it's for someone else.
What motivates someone who's become wealthy to go out and work in the ghetto with those who are poor? What motivates one who has perfect health to go and work with the sick? If you understand -- then you understand the root and cause of all existence.
Eternity is selfless giving. Eternity sends forth all of the worlds, the very fabric of existence.
Eternity gives life to all and sustains all, transforms all on the wheel of dharma -- until all attain perfection.
Eternity does nothing but give.
Think of a star. A star burns its very substance to give light to others. You need to be like a star.
If you just keep giving constantly, if you don't really take thought of your own welfare and your own awareness, but just give, beyond exhaustion -- then your life will always be a constant progression.
Life itself is selfless giving. We're not given this life just for own amusement and pleasures.
When you practice selfless giving, you're in balance and harmony with everything.
Nature gives constantly to us. We as indendepent egos think we're important.
Selfless giving has to do with overcoming the ego. The ego makes us unhappy.
We're not aware of the joy of our own immortality. When we give to someone else it opens a doorway and gives us the vision to see those we give to are God. As we see this in others, suddenly we see it within ourselves.
We see the one light, the one unified reality that we see in others, is the same reality that is within ourselves. We are one with all of existence.
You can only be really happy when you become what you really are.
Having a tough time, things aren't working out no matter what you try and do? That's because you are spending your whole life just doing things for yourself. That's a very limited view of your being.
The best mantrum is selfless giving beause as you repeat it again and again, you change.
If your're not having a very good time with your life, its because you haven't done much for others. You may have done many things but you havent done much for those around you.
When you're going though a difficult time, forget about yourself for a while. Go do something for someone else. This is the fastest way to pull yourself out of a negative state.
You could sit around and feel sorry for yourself or you can go out and do things for others.
One day after many, many lifetimes, we get wise. We decide that the fun in life is to give.
We are inspired by the God that we see in others and suddenly we find ourselves changing. We find ourselves giving more. We find that our lives become rather amazingly beautiful.
There's always someone to help, there's always some way in which you can perfect yourself through service to others.
Selfless giving means forgeting about yourself. It means letting go and doing something crazy.
Have the courage to be selfless in a world were such qualities are not admired.
Dare to be differnt. Be crazy!
Everybody out there is just doing things for themesleves. So if you don't do that you've got to be crazy ... crazy about selfless giving!
Selfless giving is like putting on make-up. We're covering up a part of ourselves thats not very aware. The thing is when we take the make up off, the selflish part leaves us. We are freeer, clearer.
The short way to happiness is through kindness and sensitivity.
Selfless giving has a lot to do with what happens to you in the future. There is karma, both good and bad.
Your spiritual journey and your spiritual welfare are really dependent on two primary factors: One, your ability to meditate and two, your ability to give of yourself.
It is much more likely that you will attain liberation if you want liberation for others, than just for yourself.
It's a long journey and along the journey you'll get tired. But if, when you're very, very tired and you're about to give up and you think:
"Well, yes, I could give up for myself but no, there are others whom I will be able to help and they're waiting for me and if I don't complete my task, if I don't do this perfectly, then what about them? They'll suffer."
Then you will pick yourself up, no matter how tired you are, and go forward again and again and again, until you've reached liberation.
Meditation is the ultimate selfless act, because when you meditate you are sacrificing your puny personality for the universal reality.
Selflessness implies fun. Its fun to be free.
Freedom is inner stillness and not being haunted by your desires, your fears, your aggressive tendencies ... it's being cool.
The yoga of selfless giving is easy for anyone to practice. The key is detachment. The spirit is unattachment to results.
Do something nice for somebody. Do something nice for God. Do something nice for the earth -- and don't expect anything in return or you will suffer.
Selfless giving is love in action. Initially you will feel that you should help in a certain way, with a certain result. Do your best, but don't be concerned with results; do it for the infinite.
Self-giving means that we have to understand the nature of giving. When most people give, they give expecting a return on their investment.
If I give Susan a new Cuisinart then she'll be happy ... If she's thankful to me, my life will be better ... she will do something for me.
Very often people give to others to control them and dominant them.
The parent gives the child a new car, money. They know the child wants these things and has to do what they want; otherwise, they withdraw the favors -- manipulation, domination, no happiness, psychic sickness.
In real self-giving we are inspired. Whether they acknowledge us or not is not important.
Selfless giving is a choice. The primary choice we make is not what to give, how to give, where to give. What we are trying to do is become perfect givers.
If we give purely, it opens up a doorway in our heart and it gives us the vision to see that those we give to are God.
Selfless giving doesn't mean you let people walk all over you. You get a lot of footprints on your face that way.
If you burn yourself out in two years of intense selfless giving, what good is that if you could have given 20 years? Set yourself up well. Get the things you want -- God exists in the material and in the spiritual.
Selfless giving does not imply giving everything up -- it's simply having a good time.
There is a dharma to selfless giving. Dharma simply means the right thing in the right place, in the right space.
The key to selfless giving is that you feel good when you do it and you feel good afterwards.
Selfless giving is measured by how good you feel. Self giving should be obvious.
Selfless giving does not imply giving everything up; it's simply having a good time.
Selfless giving is a great time. It simply means you forget about yourself and go do something for someone else or something else. It's living life for the hell of it, in a really nice way.
I practice selfless giving not because I'm remarkable but just because I find that its terrifically fun!
If, when you give to someone you think you're better than they are because your practing selfless giving, you're not loving.
Selfless giving does not imply superiority. Selfless giving is about love.
Selfless giving is being nice and there are times we don't want to be.
You could go outside today and have a glum face, or you could put a smile on your face and go out into the world, even though you don't feel like it -- that's selfless giving!
If you are unhappy -- be that way in your bedroom -- but whenever you come out into the world, in real selfless giving we push all of that aside and we smile, love and give to others.
We can't allow ouselves to be depresses or discouraged. There are people who depend on us, things to accomplish. We only have a little bit of time in this world before death swallows us up.
We could be unhappy and discouraged for ourselves, but we're trying to be in a high vibratory state so we can be of service to others.
We must bring light to as many people as possible. Who has time to indulge in self-pity or guilt? In advanced self-giving you have no time for this. You just push these emotions out.
Granted, in order to give selflessly, one often starts giving selfishly.
As Tiresias said to Odysseus: "Honey ... you don't get through hell in a hurry"
It's better to do something, even if you're attached to the results.
Be kind; you're only here for a while. No sense of superiority, just do things for others. It's really fun.
Selfless giving involves time. It takes a bit of time to care and share yourself with the universe.
As you pass through this life, have you done all that you really wish to for others?
There are persons who elected to give their existence to God. They are happy, happy in their self-giving.
If we think of Albert Schweitzer, Ghandi, Lincoln, we feel that the people who were the most outstanding in the this world are those who have given the most of themselves.
Self-sacrifice is the highest of all qualities.
We see that love manifested normally in the soldier, in the parent, in the lover, and in the spiritual teacher.
In the soldier we see the love of country. When you are willing to go onto a battlefield and give your life to defend an ideal ... knowing that you may not live through day.
The soldier is willing to give their life, perhaps for someone they never even met in their country. That's a very high love.
It's always said that when one is a soldier who dies in battle, you go to a very high world. There's a great and good karma for the soldier who dies in battle because it's an extended selfless giving.
In the Bhagavad-Gita, a dialogue ensues in the middle of a battlefield, symbolizing the battlefield of life which we are fighting through our illusions.
Arjuna, who is the fearless waririor in the story is a very wordly indvidual, we assume with high past lives.
It's a civil war, and Arjuna knows a lot of people who are on the opposite side of the battlefield -- they've been his friends.
Suddenly they have to face each other down -- you've got to kill your friends.
Arjuna is a warrior of great renown, says he won't fight. He tells Krishna: I can't fight because I love these people. It's immoral. It's unjust. There's no winning.
Enlightenment is represented by Sri Krishna, who is said to be an avatar.
Krishna says, fight. He says, go out in the battlefield and kill those people whom it's your job to kill.
Whether they were your friends or not, you have to look at the big picture. In the the big picture, you can't kill anybody -- you can't be killed.
In the big picture we are all eternal.
Krishna suprises Arjuna. He says go fight, go kill. Do this because it's only play money. You can't kill your friends any more than they can kill you.
Kirshna says its better to be a winner than a loser. It runs counter to what a lot of people whould think, because they have watered down, quasi-religious ideas about that which creates in enlightenment.
The more talented the opponent, the luckier you are. You have draw a great deal of strength from your being.
The difficult opponent is the best.
So it is quite suprising when we find out that in order to become enlightened, we have to face life with a smile and take out our sword and start cutting -- and the more we hack down the illusions , the better we feel.
When you pick up a sword and you start to fight, a power comes to you. When you shy back from it, the terrible deadness of the human condition surrounds you.
Kirshna's message is eternal -- fight!
Yoga means we take responsibility for the tasks in our life. Whatever we are supposed to have karmically, life gives us. The question is: how do we handle it?
You don't need a special task. Every task is special.
The most giving souls are those who give when they don't have to give, who could just walk away from this world and its suffering and merge with eternal existence and bliss forever.
Some persons choose, rather than stay in immortal bliss all the time, to come back for others.
Christ didn't have to. Buddha didn't have to. They came back to teach. They came back to die, to suffer, when it was no longer necessary for them to do so.
If you are fortunate enough to meet such a being then you will really learn selfless giving. You'll see that every second, every moment of their awareness is directed towards others.
You can tell a person's level of spiritual devlopment simply by watching how much they give.
The true hallmark of how advanced a person is, is how they treat those around them.
Not simply what they say or what they preach, but the results they generate, how kind they are.
Selfliss giving rounds the edges in spiritual practice. Many people can meditate very well but they're still very egotistical.
Meidtation and selfless giving must always go together. They work together to create immortality.
Meditation without selfless giving is not enough. You may go into very high states of consciousness but the rough edges will still be there -- there may be lots of selfish motives lurking within the self -- that you don't see.
Selfless giving is friendliness. An attitude towards life, a reverence for life. It is one of the highest of all ways.
Be kind, be loving, be generous. Give of yourself, give of your time and you'll be free. It's the oldest secret, the one thats most often forgotten -- and that is to have fun through giving.
Each day try and go through the day with an attitude of being a servant to the world. You'll benefit the most -- and the way will be joyous.
"Eternity, I don't know what's right or wrong, good or bad. I may be doing what's right or I may be deceiving myself. So instead, what I'm going to do is give my life to you.
Giving my life to you may mean leading a very ordinary life or it may mean leading an extraordinary life. It may mean having a family and a career or it may mean going beyond all that to just work for others. It's hard to say. Rather than making a decision myself, I'm going to give my life to you, to do with as you will, because I know that you are my self, you are my very being.
When this life ends, I will be absorbed back into you. I have come forth from you . You are all good and you know all that there is. So please act in me and through me at every moment and every second. Let me be but an extension of your being. Teach me how to live and love selflessly, at all times."