The Yoga of Life & Work

The Yoga of Life

Life is for Giving. Enrich the Lives of Others.

Life is a trust, and each of us is a trustee to use the assets entrusted to us for the greatest benefit to all. None of us are unemployed. We always have a job to do, motivated by love and not by profit. Work to enrich the lives of others. Anybody who lives taking from life without giving is a thief, stealing time, energy, education and talent. Society has to function at a higher level, manifesting "love in action" which every human being responds. The fruits of giving include loyal friends, security, faith in human goodness, and increasing the capacity to give more.

Don't be anxious about results: Chose the right work and means and all that is left is to do your best, with enthusiasm and concentration. Don't worry about how you want the results because it's part of a larger system that's not in our control. Worry about what we want only agitates us and those we work with. The work develops in phases and steps.

When we work for ourselves, we may feel driven, but we burn out when working for prestige and power. Don't get too excited about success or too depressed about failures. Don't let the results shake you: just do your best with whatever comes. This is living in freedom. Personal motives are dissolved in the overwhelming desire to be of service.

What and who we are—what we have thought, done, and desired—has brought us to that job and to those co-workers, and that makes it just the situation we need to grow. With growth will come a new context to work in, new people, new challenges, greater opportunities for service. If any job 100% perfect? Does your work benefit others? Are you giving it your best?

The Yoga of Work

“You have the right to work, but not to the fruits of your action.” - Gita.

In other words, choose a selfless goal and selfless means to attain it. Then give the job your very best. Use your skills in the most beneficial way. Even if our occupation does not make much of a contribution, there are many opportunities for selfless service where we can offer our time, energy, skills, and enthusiasm to a cause bigger than ourselves.

It's the complete integration of character, conduct, and consciousness. Work in the spirit of selfless service becomes flow meditation and a type of worship. Our work, and even our recreation become yoga.

The purpose is the attainment of wisdom. The higher purpose of work is self-purification, to expand our consciousness to include the whole of life by removing obstacles to love. Yoga integrates this way in our relationships at work and at home, by being patient, being kind, working in harmony, never failing to respect others, and never seeking personal aggrandizement.

All of life is Yoga. Our food, work, relationships, recreation, and even our sleep are activities, when practiced in a spirit of love and service, helps take us to wisdom, to the ultimate experience. It's free from personal motives for profit, pleasure, prestige, and power. The real yogi lives in freedom; whole; in joy whatever life brings.

See:  The Yoga of Work: Love Your Job, Love Your Life! by Eknath Easwaran,  Yoga International
See: The Yoga Sutras (Amazon) (Wikipedia)