Karma yoga has as its central realm that of action. It is not, as is commonly believed, concerned chiefly with trying to do good on behalf of others. Instead, it’s the arena in which one seeks to transcend certain ego conceptions–two in particular.

First, karma marga invites one to become detached from any results–good, bad, or neutral. Hence, it seeks to show one what it’s like to be dispassionate and thus to dissolve any strong dislikes or strong dislikes pertaining to “mineness.” This, for many, is no easy task.

And, second, it urges one to erode the very idea of doership: of being the one who has acted, or can act, at all. In this connection, karma yoga may employ the conceptual metaphor (a temporary one, “a thorn to remove a thorn”) of instrumentality: you are, it will say, nothing but an instrument for God, the Divine Will.

It seems to me that for those of a highly intellectual nature, jnana yoga is a more natural way of approaching the realm of action. For instance, if there is a strong like (attachment) or a strong dislike, it can be asked, “Who is this one with the strong like or the strong dislike?” And if there’s any confusion, as there commonly is, over being the doer, it can be asked, “In my direct experience, where, actually, is the doer?”

More generally, taking one’s stand as witnessing awareness, one will experientially understand that all actions are simply agent-less movements appearing to awareness. They come and go while I, witnessing awareness, remain uninvolved.

And, sure enough, the Daoist view of wu wei will become clear: there’s just the flow of happenings, the graceful or, in any case, natural play of whatever is appearing, while one remains the light of knowing by which they are known.