“Draft:Karma Yoga (The Practice)”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Introduction: Through the practice of karma yoga one attains Union of outer and inner aspects of personality. Simultaneous Union of inner peaceful contentment occurs along with outer desires and the actions they seed. Desires occur on the surface level of the mind. Deep within desires no longer occur and one resides in lasting inner contentment while engaged in dynamic activity. The key to practicing karma yoga and acheiving Union is naturally and effortlessly renouncing one's own desires to serve the desires of others.

Karma means action.^[1]^[2] In the context of the practice, karma means right action. Right actions uplift one to higher levels of spiritual and material wellbeing.^[3] Selfless acts of service to others are right actions. In serving the desires of others one naturally renounces their own desires to find happiness and contentment in objects of the senses — and finds lasting inner contentment deep within.

Yoga means union of lower and higher aspects of personality, ‘self’ and ‘Self.^[4]^[5] The lower self is finite individuality; the lower self carries out all desires and actions. The higher Self is resolute, unbounded, and infinite. The lower self acts within the unbounded equilibrium of the higher Self. Through the practice of right action (ie, karma yoga) one identifies with unbounded inner contentment. In contentment one realize the higher Self, and the lower self’s union with it. Desires occur on the surface level of the mind (self); deep within (Self) desires no longer occur.

One's attention flows everoutward away from lasting inner contentment, the very goal sought.

Liberation:^[10] Renunciation of desires through the practice of karma yoga holds the key to liberation.^[11] Acts of selflessly serving the desires of others — the practice of karma yoga^[12] — liberates one from the binding influence of action. In serving the desires of others, the outcome belongs to those one chooses to serve. In the moment one acts to fulfill other's desire to achieve their outcome, one breaks the cycle of impression-desire-action at the level of one’s desire to achieve lasting contentment in objects of the senses. By selflessly acting to serve the desires of another, one naturally and effortlessly renounces their own desires, breaks the binding influence of action (ie, the cycle of impression-desire-action) at the level of desire, and achieves liberation from the bondage of karma.

Through unbounded inner contentment one realizes the unbounded Self and through unboundedness, achieves union of the lower self with it. Contentment is unbounded and infinite. The Self is unbounded and infinite. Infinite is infinite: contentment and higher Self are one and the same. In the experience of contentment, we identify with [what is real and true through the intellect] contentment, ie, the Self.^[16] The infinite nature of higher Self — which being infinite, includes everything — necessarily includes the finite lower self. In realizing the higher Self by way of contentment, the lower self immediately unites with it.^[17] In union one simultaneously maintains never-changing inner contentment (Self) while engaged in outer activity (self).^[18] Desires occur on the surface level of the mind; deep within desires no longer occur.^[19]

Wrapped in the unbounded contentment and security of higher Self, the lower self excels. The equanimity of contentment fosters balance in pairs of opposites: success and failure, ups and downs, progress and reversal…all the dualities of life.^[20]^[21] One acts freely without consequence of loss. This is living in Union: unique dynamic and skillful action (self) based on balance of mind nurtured by unbounded inner contentment (Self).^[22]

Conclusion: No effort required. Actions to serve the desires of others naturally renounce one's own desires. When one acts to serve the desires of others, one immediately realize one's true nature: resolute, unbounded, and infinite Self. Higher Self is a state of steady intellet and awareness, transcendent of effort and action. Deep within, Self remains content and freed from desires and actions; this is complte renunciation accomplished through actions of service to others. On the surface level of the mind one fulfills desires to achieve spiritual and material wellbeing through right actions based on steady intellect and a mind balanced in success and failure.

Establishing Union through practicing karma yoga requires intellectual understanding and direct experience. Understanding how through selfless acts of service one naturally renounces desires, enlivens, supports and strengthens the experience of contentment achieved during acts service. Stronger experiences of contentment verify and reinforce understanding. In time, one identifies with inner unbounded contentment; the individual aspect of personality (self) unites with its universal aspect (Self).^[23] Union established.

References

1. ^Sargeant, Winthrop. 2009. The Bhagavad Gita: Twenty-fifth-Anniversary Edition. State University of New York Press. Albany, NY. [Book III.9, karma: actions, deeds.]
2. ^{{Cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma|title=Karma|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}
3. ^Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. 2013. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the Bhagavad-Gita : A New Translation and Commentary, Chapters 1-6. Maharishi University of Management Press. Fairfield, IA. [Ch 4, v 16 & 17].
4. ^Yoga: [...according to Baba Hari Dass. In that context, "yoga (union) implies duality (as in joining of two things or principles); the result of yoga is the nondual state", and "as the union of the lower self and higher Self.]
5. ^Sargeant. Ibid. [Forward by Houston Smith: Purpose of Life: Union of "Apparent Self" (lower self), "Real Self" (higher Self)].
6. ^Johnson, Charles. 2007. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: The Book of the Spiritual Man. Barnes and Nobel.
7. ^Maharishi. Ibid. [Ch 3, v 34: The attachment and aversion in each sense are located in the object of that sense. ...]
8. ^Maharishi. Ibid. [Ch 2, v 50; Ch 4, v 19: Commentariies.]
9. ^Sargeant. Ibid. [Book II.39]
10. ^Johnson. Ibid. [Introduction: Let no one imagine that the true life, the true powers of the spiritual man, can be attained by any way except the hard way of sacrifice, of trial, of renunciation, of selfless self-conquest and genuine devotion to the weal (wellbeing) of all others (ie, serving others).]
11. ^{{Cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_yoga|title=Karma yoga|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}
12. ^Karma yoga ["...Karma yoga is the spiritual practice of "selfless action performed for the benefit of others".]
13. ^Maharishi. Ibid. [Ch 2, v 45: ... Be without the three Gunas (actions), O Arjuna, freed from duality, ever firm in purity, independendnt of possession, possessed of the Self. And commentary. And commentary.]
14. ^Egenes, Thomas. 2010. Maharishi Patanjali Yoga Sutras. 1st World Publishing. Fairfield, IA. [Chapter on Transcendence: (1) Now is the teaching on Yoga; (2) Yoga is the complete settling of the activity of the mind; (3) Then the observer is established in the Self.]
15. ^Maharishi. Ibid. [Ch 2, v 39: ... Your intellect established through it (the practice of Yoga), O Partha, you will cast away the binding influence of action.]
16. ^Maharishi. Ibid. [Ch 6 v 20: That (state) in which thought, settled through the practice of Yoga, retires, in which, seeing the Self by the Self alone, he finds contentment in the Self.]
17. ^Maharishi. Ibid. [Ch 6, v 6: He who has conquered his self by his Self alone is his own friend....; v 7: For him who has conquered his self, who is deep in peace, the transcendent Self is steadfast in heat and cold, pleasuer and pain, in honor and disgrace.]
18. ^Maharishi. Ibid. Ch 5, v 8 & 9: Commentaries.
19. ^Katz, Vernon and Egenes, Thomas. 2015. The Upanishads: A New Translations. Penguin. [Introduction: When the Self is realized through direct experience, the individual enjoys a state of contentment in which desires are no longer experienced as unfulfilled needs.]
20. ^Sargeant. Ibid. [Book II.45: ...indiffernet towards the pairs of opposite, eternally fixed in truth....]
21. ^Maharishi. Ibid. [Ch 2, v 48: ... Established in Yoga ... perform actions, having abandoned attachemnt (ie, having broken the bondage of karma, the cycle of impression-desire-action) and having become balanced in success and failure, for balance of mind is called Yoga.]
22. ^Maharishi. Ibid. [Ch 2 v 50 - 53: Commentaries.]
23. ^Egenes. Ibid. [Chapter on Special Abilities: (10) Through the repeated expereince of settling, a continuum of calmness develops.]