Karma Yoga: A Labor Of Love

These are Spiritual Mind Power Affirmations. Today's topic is Karma Yoga, also called Karma Marga, which is one of the four spiritual paths in Hinduism and based on the "yoga of action." To a karma yogi, right work done well is a form of prayer. "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others" - Mahatma Gandhi.

Transcript

Welcome to another in the series of mystical perspectives.

I'm your host Reverend Cindy Palos.

Happy to be with you here today.

We've got a very important subject.

We're gonna be talking about karma,

Yoga.

These are different talks from a book called Spiritual Mind Power Affirmations.

They're practical,

Mystical,

And spiritual inspirations applied to your life.

And I read the affirmations that are written here in this book by Dr.

Pauli on masters.

It's available at metaphysics.

Com.

And you can also find it if you go to Amazon.

And I've been doing it a year now.

So I have quite a few of these available that you can listen to at mysticalperspectives.

Com as well for free.

I take one of the pages and I read it and meditate on it.

And I have to say today's subject is really a deep one that affects a lot of what we do.

The way we look at life,

The way we look at work,

The way we look at service is the key here.

And also having no separation between all of that.

So let's start first with the affirmations.

The first one is karma yoga.

I understand that karma yoga can lead me to achieving consciousness,

God union,

By achieving a union of my daily work with God's presence within me.

Now,

We usually talk about how you can achieve union with God in meditation.

But we have never really in this last year talk about how you can through your work,

Achieve consciousness,

God union.

So this is one of the highest practices of service and learning how to put yourself into that position of using your life for service and seeing it all as a connection to God.

So repeating that,

I understand that karma yoga can lead me to achieving consciousness,

God union,

By achieving a union of my daily work with God's presence within me.

Now,

Sometimes we can get very frustrated at work and the last things we're thinking about is actually God's presence.

We can get very stressed out.

We can be trying to achieve certain money goals and we don't think of that as service sometimes.

So this is such a key practice.

Now,

I'm gonna go through three affirmations here that take you through affirming this morning,

Midday and evening.

The morning's probably the easiest for me because I get up early,

I meditate.

But then by midday,

I'm kind of sometimes in a spin and wanting lunch and I'm not thinking about that same mindset.

And evening is really important as well because it's how you look back and how you think about what you've achieved.

So starting with the morning dedication affirmation.

As I awaken and prepare for my workday,

I dedicate the entirety of my work to God's presence within me.

Okay,

You're not dedicating it to the boss.

You're not dedicating it to your bank account.

But you're dedicating it to God.

I go to this nail place,

It's a Vietnamese place and I'm always amazed there.

And you see this in Bali and many Asian countries where they have little altars outside their workplaces.

And the man who does my nails doesn't speak great English,

But I was always admiring,

Every time I go in,

I admire his beautiful,

In front of his little Buddha that sits on the ground,

He does an offering of fruit.

And it's always so creatively done.

And I was mentioning how beautiful it was with bananas and oranges and then some special boxes of mints on tops.

And I said,

That's so nice that you do that offering.

I said,

Why do you do the offering that way?

He says,

Well,

I wanna make money,

Don't I?

I said,

Yes.

He says,

Well,

If I don't do that,

I mean,

If I'm not doing that,

How can I make money?

I have to do that because that's where I'm giving,

That's what I'm giving to to get my money back.

I'm sure it was partly broken English,

But obviously that's a dedication there.

So here's the midday affirmation dedication.

At midday,

I dedicate all that has happened in my work in the morning and all that will happen in the afternoon to God's presence within me.

This is very simple and very powerful.

You're just refocusing on God's presence,

Right?

Repeating that at midday,

I dedicate all that has happened in my work in the morning and all that will happen in the afternoon to God's presence within me.

And then there's the end of the day work one,

Evening dedication.

At the conclusion of my workday,

I dedicate all that has been a part of my work to God's presence within me.

So that's again saying,

Okay,

It wasn't me,

It wasn't my ego,

Good or bad,

Whatever it was,

I dedicating all that that has been part of my work to God's presence within me.

And then just to seal it up right,

You go before you go to sleep,

You do a pre-sleep dedication.

Just before going to sleep,

I dedicate all my day to God's presence,

Giving thanks for what I feel was good and releasing to God's healing presence.

All I feel was not.

So again,

It's not you,

Right?

It's not you that do with the good,

It's the Father within you.

And you give thanks to that and release it to that presence.

Repeating this just before.

Going to sleep,

I dedicate all my day to God's presence,

Giving thanks for what I feel was good and releasing to God's healing presence all that I feel was not.

And of course,

As we know,

We have sometimes more opportunities by the stuff that we feel was not good,

Because that's where we learn.

The next affirmations on meditation.

Through my daily practice of meditation,

I attune my outer mind to God's presence at the center of my consciousness within me,

That God's presence may be the true doer of my work.

Okay,

This is setting your intention in the morning,

Which is so key.

Again,

Repeating through my daily practice of meditation,

I attune my outer mind to God's presence at the center of consciousness within me,

That God's presence may be the true doer of my work.

And intuition is the next one here.

Through my practice of meditation,

God intuitively directs me throughout my workday and in all areas of my life.

Now just think about the power of intuition.

When is the right time to call someone?

What should I do?

Where should I focus?

All of that can be worked with through intuition.

So repeating this one through my practice of meditation,

God intuitively directs me throughout my workday and in all areas of my life.

And the last one is work.

Whatever work I do each and every day,

It is God's will that lives through my body,

Mind,

And soul.

So repeating that,

Whatever work I do each and every day it is God's will that lives through my body,

Mind,

And soul.

So we're obviously taking the ego out of this situation.

We're removing the ego from it.

And when we do,

We're tuning into the one great boss,

The boss that can get you what you need accomplished,

Right?

This is important.

There's a great quote from Mahatma Gandhi.

And he said,

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Think about that for a moment.

Think how powerful that is.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

They say that karma yoga is the highest path.

It can be the hardest path.

But what it does is it keeps you from being separate.

It gives yourself as service.

Your work as service is not for you.

You're doing it for the world and for God and the presence of God.

A karma yoga is also sometimes called karma marga.

It's one of four spiritual paths in Hinduism.

It's based on that yoga of action.

And right work done well is indeed a form of prayer.

A form of prayer,

Now isn't that a beautiful thought?

Think about it.

Have you ever thought of your work as a form of prayer?

What a beautiful way to do that.

I learned when I spent time at a Zen center that you don't just sit in Zen,

You do work.

What you do in your work is supposed to be a form of the Zen,

It's supposed to be a form of what takes you to that highest place within.

You're not supposed to separate your sitting practice from the work you do.

So that's what is important to learn.

And you're supposed to do the work with the same dedication and love as you do as you're sitting in your meditation.

Karma is both action and the result of action,

Of course.

So we all know about what we hear is bad karma,

Right?

And we even hear about good karma.

But whatever we experienced today is the result a lot of our karma,

Both good and bad,

Created from our previous actions.

And it's basically cause and effect,

Right?

But that cause and effect can be really mitigated by karma yoga.

Fighting that fire with fire,

We use the sword of karma yoga to stop the chain reaction of cause and effect by disengaging that ego from the work process,

Right?

It's not you,

It's yourself.

It's the highest presence of God working within you.

And then by offering up those results to that higher presence within.

And this is such a key to be able to learn this.

I really recommend trying this and see what happens.

In the Bhagavad Gita it said,

Whatever your action,

Food or worship,

Whatever the gift that you give to another,

Whatever you vow to the work of the spirit,

Lay those also as an offering before me.

And again,

I'm thinking of those beautiful offerings that you see if you've been to Bali or a lot of these countries,

You'll see these beautiful,

Right outside the street in front of a business.

Oh,

The place I went to,

The Nihl place,

Had it inside.

But it really is a wonderful way to remind you that your work is an offering.

And you know what,

Many of us,

We work for money or we work for expectations.

We want to be promoted,

We want to be approved of,

We want our ego fed.

We hope that people will really praise us for the work we do.

But there really is more to it than that.

I like to travel a lot.

And I go to the LA,

I fly on United,

So I have the VIP lounge since I've flown a lot.

And I go to the VIP lounge and I'll be waiting there.

And people are pretty stressed out,

You know,

And they're pretty messy.

And I'd always see this wonderful cleaning lady.

And she was this beautiful black lady who had always,

She's elderly,

I would say she's around 65,

But she'd always be singing as she worked.

And she'd always have a smile on her face.

And about the third time I was there,

I saw her and I said,

You know,

I have to ask you,

I always see you singing and looking so happy.

I said,

How do you do it?

She says,

I have the Lord in my heart.

She actually said that,

She had the courage to say,

I have the Lord in my heart and I'm just praising the Lord.

And I thought,

Well,

How amazing is that?

What a lesson there.

That this wonderful woman was able to be so happy in her work,

Cleaning up after people.

And a lot of them pretty messy,

Noisy,

Egotistical people,

Just by being able to sing and praise the Lord in her work.

Right?

I mean,

This is really a key.

Can we be that happy in our work?

You know,

No matter what we're doing,

Can we look at it as service,

You know,

As if we were laying flowers or as if we were burning incense or lighting a candle and worshiping.

Can we do that with our work in the same way?

The Bhagavad Gita also said,

A yogi sees me in all things and all things within me.

What a beautiful thought.

Really,

What a beautiful thought.

You're seeing no separation.

You're seeing all of your work,

All of the people that you work with,

Everything as that presence of God with no separation.

Now,

Isn't this an amazing way to live your life?

You know,

If we don't separate ourselves like,

Okay,

This is me meditating,

This is me being spiritual,

This is me working,

But just leave it as one beautiful oneness that it's all in the spiritual.

You know,

A lot of people,

You know,

Go to work seven hours a day and that time can often be just resenting or disliking what you do or feeling like you just are burdened down and having to do it.

It's funny,

Because you know,

We're all in this spiritual practice,

But years ago I went to this convention,

Radio convention in Las Vegas,

And this room was for people who wanted to make $100,

000 or more in sales.

Now,

I've never made $100,

000 more in sales.

So I went to this convention and this was before you had a lot of female motivational speakers,

But this woman came on and she's a very well-paid,

Famous speaker.

And so I was very interested in hearing her talk.

And the basis of everything she was saying was positive thinking.

Positive thinking,

Setting goals,

Believing that you could make it happen,

Having a positive attitude,

You know,

And a good intention.

I mean,

The whole talk was really,

I was very amazed that it was basically metaphysical in nature and based on positive thinking.

So they work,

You know,

Of course,

If we take what we've learned,

We all know how important it is to be grateful,

Right?

If you just stop in the morning when you're doing your positive affirmations about work and setting your attention,

Be grateful for the job you have.

And at the end of the day,

Be grateful.

And turn it over to God,

Right?

Being grateful can really get you out of a bad mood.

So you can actually let that be your mantra when you're having a hard time at work.

Just be grateful for being able to have that job and be able to do that job.

The power of intention and affirmations are so powerful.

So do those in the morning,

Set an intention,

Maybe write down what your goal is,

And then remind yourself of it and look at it.

You'll be amazed once you set a goal down and you actually write it down and look at it how many times that goal actually can happen because you're turning it over to God.

So you're saying,

God,

This is my goal.

This is my affirmation.

This is what will be accomplished,

Right?

And so that is really an amazing,

I'm amazed at how many times I set a goal and it becomes,

And even when I don't even know how it happens,

It becomes possible and it becomes true.

So also think of all the people you're helping when you're doing your work.

You know,

It isn't just for you.

When you're doing your work,

You're interacting with people and you have the ability and the chance to be of service and do great work and help them.

And also on top of that,

See yourself always getting back to that higher presence within yourself.

I mean,

There's gonna be times when you get stressed at work,

But if you know that you don't have to stay stressed,

You can breathe,

You can let it go,

You can go and turn it all over to God and you can bring in God's presence,

You'll be amazed once you bring that energy into your work,

How it changes you from being stressed out to being blissed out.

It's truly possible.

Another amazing key,

And again,

I think this was given by the lady that was paid so well to do a workshop at this convention,

Communication.

How do you communicate with people?

Do you really listen to what they want or are you trying to sell them something or you kind of change their way of thinking?

Listening is an amazing thing.

And when you listen,

You can really understand and you can really get deeper into what they're about and you truly can help them.

So let's just take a few moments here and just kind of go into a state of meditation.

Take a few deep breaths here,

Just breathe in.

Breathe in the light,

Breathe in gratitude,

Breathe in understanding of what service is all about.

See yourself as not separate.

Your life isn't separate.

It's not this is me at play,

This is me meditating,

This is me at work.

Just a moment,

Just see yourself all as just one amazing energy field and vibration.

And bring that vibration all into a place of harmony,

Deep,

Deep harmony,

Aligned with your true purpose.

Now go deeper and deeper within and let yourself be aligned with that soul purpose and with God.

Be still for a moment.

Breathe that stillness in so you can make a space for spirit and the spirit of presence to come within.

Align your whole life and your life purpose with that presence.

Give thanks for all that you have and all that you will have,

Knowing in advance that it all will be given to you.

Feel your heart expanded,

Be grateful knowing that it all is good.

It all is good for God is good all the time.

Be this for a moment,

This goodness,

Feel yourself as part of this pure good energy that is God's energy.

Merge with the essence of that goodness.

Feel it transforming all parts of your mind and your body and aligning you with the one purpose that you have in life.

That purpose is to love,

To serve,

And to merge with that goodness in life.

Embody that highest essence within you right now.

Breathe it in,

Give thanks for it,

And know that you can always return to that place,

Renewed and restored and transformed.

Gonna close today with a Aramaic Lord's Prayer Translation by John Markheimer.

Father,

Mother of the cosmos,

Shimmering light of all,

Focus your light within us as we breathe your holy breath.

Enter the sanctuary of our hearts,

Uniting within us the sacred rays of your power and beauty.

Let us all be the light within us,

Your power and beauty.

Let your heart's desire unite heaven and earth through our sacred union.

Help us fulfill what lies within the circle of our lives today.

Forgive our secret fears as we freely choose to forgive the secret fears of others.

Let us not enter into forgetfulness tempted by false appearances,

For from your astonishing fire comes the eternal song which sanctifies all renewed eternally in our lives and throughout creation.

We seal these words in our hearts,

Committed in trust and faith.

Amen.

Today's talk was based on Spiritual Mind Power Affirmations book,

There are affirmations and they're written down in Dr.

Paul Leon Masters second book.

His first book was Mystical Perspectives,

I take it back.

His first book was Mystical Insights and his second book was Spiritual Mind Power Affirmations and his last book has been Meditation Dynamics.

So you can get all of these books at metaphysics.

Com.

They're also available at Amazon.

Com but if you get a chance to go to metaphysics.

Com,

Look over all the information there that's available including courses that you can take on metaphysics,

Some interesting things available there.

I also have all of these talks available at mysticalperspectives.

Com.

That's mysticalperspectives.

Com.

I have a whole year's worth of talks available there for you and you can listen to all of those for free.

I wanna thank you so much for listening today and I hope you were able to really enjoy what you heard and that it'll change your life for the better.

God bless you and have a miraculous new weekend.

I'll see you next week here on Mystical Perspectives.

Reviews

excellent, thank you!