Hinduism.

The Bhagavad Gita presents teachings on action and the spirit.

Primary text

The Bhagavad Gita is a dialogue. In Chapter II, Arjuna and Krishna speak.

Krishna teaches that action should be performed without seeking its outcome as motive:

"Let right deeds be Thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them. And live in action! Labour! Make thine acts Thy piety, casting all self aside, Contemning gain and merit; equable In good or evil: equability Is Yog, is piety!" — Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, from sacred-texts.com

Krishna teaches that the spirit is eternal:

"Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never; Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams! Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever; Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!" — Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, from sacred-texts.com

What must not be mashed

People: Practitioners of a tradition are not the text.

Doctrine: The text is not the lived experience.

State: The state's actions are not the text's teachings. Theology as lived faith is not a desk verdict.

Related reading

For how religious terms carry hidden claims, see Load-bearing terms.

For the mash between doctrine, community, and state, see Religions as objects.