活法 The Practice — Nishkama Karma

The Practice An archer's hand at the instant of release — string still shaking, arrow already gone, target faint and dotted at the far edge.

01 Nishkama Karma निष्काम कर्म nish-KAA-ma KAR-ma ↖ yours · not yours ↗

shadow · earthlinc.earth

The Practice One line of handwritten Devanagari verse, its last quarter fading away to nothing — the fourth part nobody quotes.

02 The verse nobody finishes ↓ the fourth part nobody quotes

shadow · earthlinc.earth

The Practice A bow on the ground beside a chariot wheel, a man sitting with his back turned — he asked to stop; the answer was no.

03 He asked to stop ↙ he asked to stop · the answer was no ↘

shadow · earthlinc.earth

The Practice Someone sweeping a path, leaves already falling back onto the swept part — sweep it anyway; they are already falling.

04 Sweep it anyway ↙ sweep it anyway · they are already falling ↗

shadow · earthlinc.earth

the release is yours 01 You are entitled to the doing. Never to what the doing earns. 做那件事，做完为止。结果不归你。 — the release is yours

the fourth part is never quoted 02 Krishna to Arjuna, Bhagavad Gita 2.47, inside the Mahabharata; most scholars date it to the 2nd–1st century BCE. It was pressed into a named doctrine much later — Tilak, writing in a Mandalay prison cell, published 1915. 《薄伽梵歌》第二章四十七颂，克里希那对阿周那说的。它嵌在《摩诃婆罗多》里，学界多定在公元前二到一世纪。把它立成一条道理是很晚的事。提拉克在缅甸狱中写的注，一九一五年出。 — the fourth part is never quoted

said to a man who wanted to leave 03 Pick one thing today. Do it as well as you can, then stop checking where it landed. 今天挑一件事，认真做完，然后不去看它落在哪儿。这话说着容易。 — said to a man who wanted to leave

not caring is a different thing 04 The verse has four parts and quotation always drops the last one: nor let your attachment be to inaction. It was said to a man who wanted to walk off a battlefield, to keep him there. Used as permission to stop, it is the one thing the line names and forbids. 这颂有四句，被引的永远是前三句。第四句是：也不要执着于不做。它本来是说给一个想撂下弓走人的人听的。拿它当放手的理由，正好撞在它自己禁的那条上。 — not caring is a different thing