What does Right Action mean?

Is it a moral code book we refer to from time to time or is it a book we each write within our hearts as we gain more clarity about life?

I have been questioning Right action for some time now, in terms of its application to our everyday existence.

One can associate Right action to “Karma.” The word “Karma” could be used in different ways. I am merely using karma to represent our actions in the world. For example, our decisions, reactions, or interactions with others. What informs our feelings and emotions?

In adverse situations, I would hear people in India say, “It is my karma, I cannot escape from it.” While I found it negative or an attitude of resignation, I knew there was some truth to that expression.

Even though all our lives, we have been advised about right action, be it our family, community, or organisations, in practice, right action is a difficult question indeed. The eightfold noble path in Buddhism includes Right action as one of the practices. But it is hard to know what is the right action under all circumstances. How does one choose? Or how does one act?

Reflecting on my actions these last years, I have started to seek the question “what understanding informs my action?” It’s not so much about the action itself but more about where I am acting from?

I discovered the idea of centering very useful to right action. We are as if acting from our center. It is quite hard to know what people mean when they use the word center yourself. I found the below definition of centering relevant to right action.

Centering, acclimatises the human mind and accustomizes bodily awareness to the experience of silence over an extended period without engaging the thinking mind actively in its usual modality of mental chatter and rambling thought patterns. In which the human ego or the personal sense of self is heavily invested.

I was also fascinated reading about Aikido, a Japanese martial art that uses centering as an ancient visualization technique of “spiritual harmony” to be stable and grounded within the body and the mind.

The “spiritual harmony” is to harmonize ourselves with the movement of the universe and bring ourselves into the accord with the universe itself. The harmony with the universe is the key to the right action.

The centering idea can also be related to the golden mean or golden middle way which is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of the excesses and the other of deficiency. Also referred to as virtue by Aristotle, the disposition to behave in the right manner and as a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices.

I have also observed that the challenges we face individually and/or collectively serve as a constant reminder of this principle of mean to choose the path of right action.

In a way, the universe is conspiring to center us all the time. Everyone on the planet is doing this to each other. Every so often you may feel in a situation that the way the person reacted was needed for you to discover the mean within yourselves. And you could be doing the same with another when they exhibit excess or deficient behaviours.

While in our society today, right action could be limited to a checklist, with a little bit of exploration of our body and mind we could learn to align ourselves before we act.

All the life lessons, experiences are in a way to bring us to our center where there is stability, peace, and grounding to our life. Being in sync with the universe is where we can find all the answers. To subsequently, inform our decisions, feelings or emotions, including our communication or interactions with the world.

Therefore, if you are facing challenges, confused, worried, or simply wondering about karma let us take a deep breath to find the mean or center each time we go into the world. Do give it a try you may find more clarity or a new perspective on life !