What is Karma Yoga?

As a group we have been discussing this question - "What is Karma Yoga?" We were searching for a brief explanation to put on our new bulletin board at BYH but had a hard time narrowing it down to a sentence or two. Katie Zonoff teaches at Bainbridge High School and is a member of the BYH community. She is well versed in yoga philosophy so I asked her for her thoughts on this and she very kindly took the time to write the following - I thought people wanting some background about this Karma Yoga thing would appreciate her response - I sure did:

So all the yogas (Hindus talk about 4 main paths of yoga) are a path to unify with God. God for hindus means an ultimate, infinite reality that we can become completely absorbed in. This reality exists around us and in us at all times, but trapped in this human form we are separated from it. We are finite, limited. Our goal through these many, many cycles of reincarnation is to actually become free from this cycle, to re-unify with God.

The biggest obstacle to our re-unification with God is our ego. We focus constantly on improving ourselves, getting things for ourself - this human body that we occupy for a relatively short time. If we could perceive the true reality, we would see that there is in fact no separation from other people, other animals, plants, whatever. A great Buddhist metaphor to describe this is of waves on the ocean. A wave is made of the same substance as the rest of the ocean, is completely connected to the ocean, and is moving based on the activity in the rest of the ocean, and will soon be completely absorbed back into the ocean. To think of it as separate doesn't really make sense. When we feed our egos, we are like waves trying to be separate from the ocean. Its meaningless. Its a trap we are stuck in. Like believing the world is flat.

So...you can meditate to lessen the grip of ego, or stand on your head, or sing songs about God, or pray - or you could do Karma Yoga. The yoga of work. Since all humans have to work, we can find ways to harness this activity for spiritual growth. So when I teach, I shouldn't teach to get the Teacher of the Year award or to be popular, but to focus all my thoughts and energies on my students. What do they need, even if it makes me unpopular. I just do it and don't worry about the results to me. When I cook for my family, I change my mindset from feeling that its unfair that I'm doing all the work, or making unhealthy things to be popular, and I selflessly take lots of time to cook something healthy for others.

So you can do Karma Yoga with the regular work that you do every day. But doing service work, like cooking for a family in need, is a really clear way to practice lessening ego. I'm clearly taking my time that I could use to seek pleasure or success, and giving it to another. I matter less, they matter more. The more that I forget myself, the closer I am to God. Which is really what I want in the end.

Here's a couple of quotes:

"Everything I do for my private wellbeing adds another layer to my ego, and in thickening it insulates me more from God. Conversely, every act done without thought for myself diminishes my self-centeredness until finally no barrier remains to separate me from the Divine."
Huston Smith, The World's Religions

"Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life. Do your work with the welfare of others always in mind. It was by such work that Janaka attained perfection; others too have followed this path.

What the outstanding person does, others will try to do. The standards such people create will be followed by the whole world."
Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 3 v. 19-21, transl. Eknath Easwaran

Thank you Katie.