Time travel back to Nepal 2007 with me, if you will. My hippy cousin and I went to the her Buddhist bucket list destination - Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu. She had known of this mysterious monastery on a hill in a far away country that opened their doors in the 70s for westerners to learn about the Tibetan Buddhist "way of the path" - presumably the stages in the path to Enlightenment.
When my cousin talked about it, the words came out like watching the Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie. Magical. Exploding colors. Minds blown with Enlightenment. All the things. I went with an altruistic heart, to be the well-seasoned travel buddy for my my sweet, older cousin who had never flown to foreign countries. Well, let's just say nothing about the trip from start to finish was on my vision board or derived from my practiced imagination. But hey, it was enlightening, if maybe not in the Lamrim way.
Detour in the story here to share that my husband says that I have an addiction to taking photos of toilets and bathrooms. Addiction or strong attraction?! Twelve step solution or Law of Attraction at its finest?
Back at Kathmandu, we were "encouraged" to sign up for Karma Yoga. The nun/monk said the signup sheet was posted somewhere in the common areas.
WHAT WAS THIS CURIOUS FORM OF YOGA? It certainly intrigued me until I saw the sign up sheet was a list of mundane "chores".
Sweep common areas
Clean showers
Scrub toilets
I felt like they had pulled some Buddhist trickery by giving mundane chores a fancy title of Karma Yoga.
Kopan Monastery planted many seeds or time capsules within me that would open up when my mind was ready for them at some later NOW moment in time. Years later, I would have "aha" moments of "Oh, I am able to now embody that teaching" or "Oh crap, that is what they meant by that!". Bit by bit like an egg cracking from a little chick inside, I spent the 30 days of the Lamrim learning the fierce grace lessons about myself, my mind, my body and my spiritual path. Even the weekly task of scrubbing toilets and showers - with um, no western mass manufactured disinfectants, were to become transformed into acts of service for the benefit of All.
Yogapedia explains Karma Yoga : The intention when practicing karma yoga is to give selflessly for the good of others without thought of one's self or attachment to the results of one's actions. Acting in this way is considered the right way to approach service and it is said to purify the mind.
Karma yoga is relevant to all yogis because, to some extent, everyone must undertake some actions during their lifetime. By practicing karma yoga, all of these actions, even the most mundane, can become part of one's spiritual path. Practicing karma yoga also means to fully accept one's dharma, or life’s duty, and to let go of selfish desires. In doing so, one sublimates the ego.
Volunteering one’s time and effort is often used as an example of karma yoga, but, actually, all of the actions one undertakes can be karma yoga. It is considered the attitude to the action, rather than the action itself, which makes something karma yoga. This means acting with the right motives, in the right way, to the best of one's ability, but surrendering attachment to the outcome. Some teachings recommend using chanting and mantras before and during the actions in order to develop the right mindset and approach to giving selflessly during one's service.
As I look upon the tasks, actions, or chores in my life, I can slip back into the ego structure of my personality matrix. This lower realm of my little self will tell me that I can't do things I have never done before, others will judge me on my performance or (heaven forbid) my appearance, I am not as qualified now as others are, this will be too hard, no one will want to hear/see/pay for this, some one else should do this because I am (insert fears). But when my big Self whispers to my little self that even this task, action or chore may be considered Karma Yoga, something magical, daresay, spiritual happens.
I get an intuitive thought. It sounds like something curious from within my own head. The action, if taken, will flow with a sense of ease and grace without resistance and effort. The time to task will be beyond the linear constructs. And I always gain something in return. What do I gain is beyond my vision board or practiced imagination. I will leave this here. I feel called to take another wonderful action now.
May we will listen to our big Self today and take action from a different attitude than before. May we find love in action as much as possible and more than ever before!
For the benefit of All. And so it is.
Thank you for spending time with me today. I always appreciate it. Leave a comment if you desire!