karma & lila
“When you’re hoping with expectation that’s Karma. Hope without specific expectation is Lila.” - Douglas Brooks
Since March 2020, I’ve been putting in a lot of effort towards creating structures and routines that support my well being. When I’m under a lot of stress my dominant nervous system response is “freeze” and I have a tendency to become immobile. Finding time to move a little bit everyday, eating three meals a day, and staying hydrated tend to keep me steady emotionally and energetically.
The concept of karma means action or the law of cause and effect. We can think of karma as the seeds we plant throughout the day until those seeds eventually ripen into the blossoms that create a sense of steadiness and attentiveness in our thoughts, words and actions. We hope that by tending to our seeds, our dedicated efforts will bare the fruit of a desired outcome. We all have imprints that might negatively impact our actions. Living the teachings of yoga is an attempt to replace a life negating habit with one that is more life affirming.
Karma is not based on some sort of points system where you are rewarded for the good that you do in the world. If only. However, we can say that your positive actions will most likely beget positive results, which might set into motion other actions or events will impact your life positively.
The cosmology of the Universe is not based solely on free will. We should remember the old adage, “Shit happens.” Everything does not happen for a reason, sometimes events are based on pure chance. In Sanskrit, the word lila means divine play or cosmic imagination. We do the things that we need to do, while also understanding that nothing can be taken for granted. We leave space for the unexpected sense of beauty and pleasure that Shakti manifests as well as the wild, ferocity of life that seeks to upend our ordered and compartmentalized worlds. So we are asked to take pleasure and delight in the pursuits that light us up.
Karma is the structure. Lila is the way we improvise within that structure. Karma increases the likelihood of getting what we want and need. We show up to our lives even while moving in the realm of uncertainty. We do the work, create, converse, love, act and rest while clearing the way for wild possibility.
Contemplation:
What are the structures or routines that keep you steady?
When you practice yoga on your own, do you prefer to practice with a structure, do you prefer to improvise or a little of both?
Do you include time for pleasure, play and beauty? Do you find it challenging to make time for those things? What would it be like to move from the delight of moving?
References:
Stone, Michael Yoga for a World Out of Balance: Teachings on Ethics and Social Action Shambala Publications, 2009
Harwood Rubin, Susanna Writing Your Practice: Online Course 2014 - 2015