Karma

As a person acts, so he becomes in life. Those who do good become good; those who do harm become bad. Good deeds make one pure; bad deeds make one impure. So we are said to be what our desire is. As our desire is, so is our will. As our will is, so are our acts. As we act, so we become.

-Bihadaranyaka Upanishad

Freedom

Inwardly be free of all hopes and desires, but outwardly do what needs to be done. Without hopes in your heart, live as if you were full of hopes. Live with your heart now cool and now warm, just like everyone else. Inwardly give up the idea "I am the doer," yet outwardly engage in all activities. This is how to live in the world, completely free from the least trace of ego.

-Maharamayana

True Self

If we could completely identify with the false self, it wouldn't cause us distress--it would just be who we are. The pain it causes arises from something deeper within us that feels constricted by this identity and suffers when we are not living fully. This deeper intelligence within us feels the pain of being caught in a web of stories and beliefs, scripts and behaviors that cuts us off from our true nature and potential. If we do not realize the expansive possibilities that are our birthright, we suffer.

-- from John Welwood's Toward a Psychology of Awakening,
(Shambhala, 2002, 140).