Karmic Yoga and Charity - Being the Compassionate Warrior

A long time ago I did a lot of social justice work. We used to call it transformational work, because it helped to transform the society. Other work that often fell under the category of social justice work was charity. Charity was providing help to those in need. It was dealing with the immediate problems of pain and suffering, without really working to change the institutions in our society that made poverty possible.

In the social justice world there was always a battle between the charity camp and the transformational camp. When one does Karmic Yoga though, it doesn’t matter if one is doing charity, or doing transformational work. Karmic Yoga is a spiritual practice. It is the giving of oneself to a project for the betterment of the people in which you come in contact. The foundation of Karmic Yoga is love. This love can be seen, readily, in Mathew Fox’s example of the greater work as expressed in the biblical concept of compassion.

The definition of the biblical concept of compassion, according to Fox, went through a slight change during the development of the Christian church. In the biblical sense, compassion meant two things. The prefix meant with other people. Working for the people that you are helping creates and imbalance of power, and makes them seem weaker and more needy. It also makes you seem superior, like a little king or queen who is being kind to the poor peasants. The volunteer is often satisfied because she is helping poor people. The problem is that this satisfaction can perpetuate poverty and oppression, because the identity of the helper will be threatened when the people don’t need help anymore. This often happens. Anger and resentment occur when the helpers are no longer needed. It creates very unhealthy relationships. Many of the charities that work for the poor will only exist as long as poor people exist. That is why it important to work with those in need, not for those in need.

The biblical verse in the book of Micah explains what was meant by passion. In this book all of the people are arguing with the prophet asking what God wants from them. He comes up with a line that is the basis for the whole Judaic faith, not law, tradition.

“Thou hast shown me, oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee, but to do justice, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.”

To do compassion was to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. The Hebrew concept of justice, at the time, was not like the Greek concept of scales and the balance. The Hebrew concept was more like a river where everyone moved together in one direction. This is the biblical idea of compassion. If one does social justice work as charity or transformational work without compassion, one only becomes part of the problem and positive transformation can’t take place. The only type of transformation that will take place will be the objectification of both the helper and the ones being helped, and the entrenchment of the two apposing positions in the system.

If one works with other people, which implies a relationship which breaks down social, economic, racial, and class walls, transformation occurs immediately within oneself, the other, and the system. Spiritual growth then occurs, because the oneness and wholeness of humanity presents itself before both people at all times. When one is compassionate one does social justice from the goodness of one’s heart, not to relieve guilt, not because of a need to be a good superior person, or because of shame, but from a pure, clean heart. This is the different between Karmic Yoga and Charity Work. Karmic Yoga comes from a place of deep abiding love for humanity and from compassion. Charity comes from a need to relieve the pain that one experiences as he watches others suffer. Sometimes the two look very much the same, but there is a difference. The main difference is that Karmic Yoga is good for the soul in the long run. In the long run charity just perpetuates and maintains social injustice.

John Gilmore, http://www.dswellness.com (source: ezineArticles.com)

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