Friday, September 03, 2010

Karma Yoga

In karma yoga the word Karma means simply to work. Our work or goal in practicing karma yoga is the attainment of knowledge. We are not here on earth for pleasure but to acquire knowledge and thus wisdom. Pleasure and happiness come and go. Likewise pain and unhappiness. Pain and unhappiness have the ability to teach us as much if not more than happiness and pleasure. It is the striving for this knowledge that is the fundamental goal of life. It is achieved through the work we undertake throughout the course of our life.

As pleasure and pain past through our lives they leave different impressions upon our souls. This is what is known as character. If you look at the character of any person you will find that there are equal parts of pain and pleasure in the formation of the individual’s character.

If we were to study the great characters of the world, we would probably find that in the majority of cases, it was misery that taught them more than happiness, poverty more than wealth and setbacks did more to flame the inner fires of determination than did praise.

So although we tend to think of Karma as “good or bad”, karma is really just a result of the actions we take each moment in thought, word and deed. No life escapes without at least a little pain, disappointment, anger, sadness and fear. To transcend these experiences and turn them into character building is to practice karma yoga where we simply acknowledge the feelings and turn them into experiences that bring us knowledge about life and that knowledge is the stuff of wisdom.

Doctor Lynn
Follow my daily http://bit.lyDrLynnBlog