Vedic Karma Yoga

Today I’m going to talk about liminal people, people who move between different social groups that don’t belong precisely to any social one. 

liminal is a term popularized by anthropologists talking about rituals in society, especially the kind of coming of age rituals. A young person hunting a lion, in an African tribe, or going away and fasting for several days.

These anthropologists talk about the liminal space being the space between worlds.

The old world before the ritual.

The ritual, hunting the lion, fasting in a cave away from the tribe, and

Then post liminal, or return to the world. 

The liminal space is a place of becoming. A place between worlds. Between the old you and a new you. 

Some people live in that space. Always in a process of becoming.

This is fun, interesting, magical and creative.

But then this in-between space can make it hard for doing. 

It’s hard to project your essence into the world. When that essence is always in flux, and flow. You’re always in a state of becoming, you always see both sides of what people are talking about. 

For liminal people, those people who live in the in-between, it’s hard to build a clear and graspable reality, when you can see all the possible truths. 

This is the issue of liminal people, people in between worlds. People holding opposing ideas in the mind at the same time,often leads to a lot of thinking, but little concrete action.

From some perspectives, this is the issue of the Bhagavad Gita a vedantic Indian text. 

Arjun, the main character is between two worlds and just finding themselves in more confusion. 

There is a way out though, given by the playful, cheeky, ironic and wise character of Krishna.

A philosophy for those liminal people. And that from my perspective, is Karma Yoga, how to be IN the world, but not OF it. A way to Act in between worlds. 

So take that into your day. 

Do you find yourself in between friends circles? Do you find yourself in between social subcultures? Are you somebody who thrives in the in-between holding simultaneous contradictions in your mind at the same time? 

Chances are, you are one of these liminal people. And the chances are that sometimes you find yourself in confusion of how to act. And often liminal people find themselves just checking out, and not acting at all. 

Is there an in-between place keeping you from acting? 

Watch when you’re in that in between place, and see your response to it for the next week or so.

The world desperately needs people like you right now. The world needs liminal people who can act.

Who can live in that in-between place. 

There’s a philosophy for these people from the in-between, based on the ancient practice of Vedic Karma Yoga, and that’s Alt-Motivation™ 

But more on that next time …

Ed Vero