Terms

Bhagavad Gita 4.17–18, where Krishna tells Arjuna:

"karmaṇo hy api boddhavyaṁ boddhavyaṁ ca vikarmaṇaḥ / akarmaṇaś ca boddhavyaṁ gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ"

"One must understand the nature of action (karma), the nature of wrongful action (vikarma), and also the nature of inaction (akarma). The way of action is profound."

"karmaṇy akarma yaḥ paśyed akarmaṇi ca karma yaḥ / sa buddhimān manuṣyeṣu sa yuktaḥ kṛtsna-karma-kṛt"

"The one who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction — that one is wise among humans, is a yogi, has accomplished everything."

Terms

• Karma — prescribed/right action (one's svadharma, duty consonant with one's nature and place in the larger order)
• Vikarma — wrong/forbidden action (acts driven by craving, ego-gratification, or contrary to dharma)
• Akarma — inaction, but in the Gita's deeper sense, action performed without the doer-sense, leaving no karmic residue

Here is a longer list of Sanskrit terms that are generally resonant with me.

Insight

Action is gahana: There is no external rule that tells you which action is karma, vikarma, or akarma. Discernment must be cultivated phenomenologically, from inside.

Other philosophers on the similar

Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (1887, I §13):

"Es gibt kein 'Sein' hinter dem Tun, Wirken, Werden; 'der Täter' ist zum Tun bloß hinzugedichtet, — das Tun ist alles."

"There is no 'being' behind doing, effecting, becoming; the 'doer' is merely a fiction added to the deed — the doing is everything."

Goethe, Faust (Part I):

"Im Anfang war die Tat" — "In the beginning was the deed."