The word “karma” is from the Sanskrit language, and it just means “action”.
This word has become pretty popular world over, and it’s usually used to indicate that your “past affects your present” – what you did in the past will come back to influence your present is what its conversational meaning seems to imply.
The implication is that if you do a bad deed you will have something bad happening to you, in this lifetime or near next lifetime, and if you do a good deed then good things will happen to you. The focus being on the “deed” or “action”.
The truth however is that life has no dictates, or standards, on what a good deed is or what a bad deed is, and hence to imply that you will be punished for a bad deed is to imply that life is judging you – but if you look deeper, it’s not life that’s judging you, it’s your brain that’s doing the judging.
Your brain is the one that has the judgment on good and bad (based on its conditioning), and of course it’s easy to convince people to agree on certain standards by putting fear in them – but that does not mean that life has those standards, it’s just a brain created standard.
Getting over “holy ideas” about life
Life creates a lion as a physical expression, and the lion’s brain/body is designed to hunt. The lion predates the deer (the deer being another physical expression of life), kills it in chase, and rips into its flesh for a meal.
A human watching this action feed on discovery channel may feel that the lion is the villain, that the lion did something bad, and may be cry at the brutality. But did the lion really do something bad? Did the lion really have a choice?
The lion, like any physical form, is an intention in life, created by life, for a specific expression – and its hunting prowess is one of the intended expressions. So life as the lion, kills life as the deer, and it’s part of its play of physical experience – the very purpose of physical reality is so that life can experience the nuances of physicality, all nuances of it.
If you put yourself in life’s place, and not see things from the perspective of your personal ego, you will see the innocence of its play – if you were an invincible energy, that was eternal, unchangeable, “fun loving” and wise, with the ability to create anything you want through “thought”, and experience the creation, you would definitely want to have diverse experiences, even if it means the experience of being predated and killed.
If you are not able to wrap your thoughts around this understanding, it just means your brain/ego just wants to cling to what it finds convenient (and have some naïve holy idea about life), and is not willing to look at life as it is.
No matter what your brain/ego thinks about physical life, from life’s perspective it’s just an unending adventure and play.
If your brain has any narrow ideas about life judging good and bad deeds, just realize that the crocodile that snares, and eats, a calf is also an expression of this same life. Life is not judging the crocodile, because this crocodile is life-energy in a physical form (God in form, if you understand God as a label for life-energy), so is the calf, and its just life interplaying with itself for this experience.
The crocodile does not earn “bad karma” for killing the calf, it’s just living its expression as intended by life.
Don’t we need standards for good and bad?
Humans are an unique expression of life, and the human brain is designed to think more deeply and hence is more “civilized” than animals. The human brain has the capacity to perceive the environment, and it creates some conclusions about what it feels is “bad” and what it feels is “good”.
As humans, we’ve come up with an ordered way of living, called “civilization”, where it’s expected that people be civilized so that there is some law and order.
Civilization requires laws, and laws require the definitions of good and bad. So some choosen leaders, in the society, get together to create some standards for what is good, and what is bad, and they are passed on to the common people through the dictates of religion and dictates of law.
Morality is the code dished out by religions, whereas Legality is the code dished out by law offices.
Of course, fear is needed to control people, and hence most religions attribute these “human made” standards of morality to be commandments from God, citing that people not following these standards would carry “bad karma” and will be punished accordingly by this God (who is supposedly sitting up there keeping tab of your activities here). Hopefully people reading this blog have a deeper understanding than to be holding on to such fantasy based ideas.
We do need standards for good and bad, right and wrong, to have a functional society. Law and order is required to ensure that people can enjoy a sense of protection. However, these dictates are “human made”, they are not dictates given by life. So the idea of good and bad is created from human perception, not from life’s perception.
Life is just creative energy, it’s not sitting in judgment of its own creation. Judgment requires hatred, and the natural vibration of life is pure positive akin love/joy, so it’s not capable of perceptions of hatred. The mind of course has the dimension of hatred (as part of its design) and hence has the capacity for judgment, and this mind tries to project its judgmental nature onto to life-energy or God, thus creating an idea of a punishing God.
So is there no such thing as bad karma?
Negativity is personal. Things that you feel negative about may not be the things your friends feel negative about.
When you do something and feel negative about it, you are basically creating negative energy within you – this is what I would call a bad karmic load or negative karmic load. Though, I would not even call it “karmic” because it’s not your external action that created the negative energy but what you “thought” about the action, it’s your negative thinking that’s creating the negative energy – but then since thinking is also an action, so in that sense it can be called karma.
As long as you understand that it’s your “thinking” that creates the negative energy, not the external action itself, you have a better perspective on karma. Also when you perceive in a negative manner, your thoughts create a negative energy in your body space, which get stored in your cells as cellular memory – this again is a “negative karmic load” that you carry, I would rather just called it momentum of negativity and stored-up negative energy.
The negative energy that gets stored up will pass on, through your cellular memory, to your progeny, because it’s stored up energy and it has no way of release unless it’s consciously released.
For example, if you have a certain negative thought in your mind, and you keep believing in it, it becomes part of your cellular memory, and its essence is passed on (in the form of genetic/dna coding) to your progeny – by essence I mean the negative vibration/energy. So in that sense you can say your unreleased “negative karmic load” (created through your thinking) keeps getting passed on, unless it’s released consciously.
The way some dictates (like religions) use the word “karma” is to tell you that you need to do good deeds and keep away from bad deeds, and they give some standards of good and bad. The implication being that good actions win you brownie points with God and bad actions put you in his bad books.
But life is not responding to your actions, it’s responding purely to your vibration – so if you feel negative about something you did, your negative thoughts about it create a negative vibration in you, which in turn attracts a negative reality, which you then call your bad karma. If you did not feel negative about what you did, you would not create a negative vibration in you, and hence will always be privy to well-being inherent to your life-stream.
You are not being judged by life
Follow your inner wisdom on what’s right and wrong for you, but also understand that you are not being judged by life, only by your own mind.
Wisdom dictates that we don’t do something that would land us in trouble, and if you have access to your inner wisdom you would always avoid the wrong and align with the right, as governed by your wisdom for that situation.
Your guilt creates more negative energy than any action you will ever take. If you can let go of being identified with negativity, you will automatically stop creating a negative energy load in you. There is no better way to attract a positive reality than to let go of creating a negative energy load in you, and release your past negative energy accumulation.
Stop living through conditioning meted out to you from the outside, and use your own wisdom to determine what feels right and wrong to you, and live out your expression in accordance with this inner wisdom.
For example, there are people who believe that adultery is “wrong”, but it’s their perception and belief, you don’t have to use that as the guiding principle for how you live your life – but also remember that you can’t bluff yourself, so be clear/honest within yourself about what feels right and wrong to you, and be aligned with it.
If something feels wrong for you, despite having an open mind about it, it’s a sure fire indication that it’s something you are better off not doing. If you ignore this wisdom and go ahead with doing it, there will be an inner conflict, and this inner conflict will create an external conflict. This is where it helps to have a strong/stable awareness so that you can be very clear about what feels aligned with you and what feels off to you, while also being free of the fear of , and being a prisoner to, an external dictate, moral code, belief, societal conditioning or commandment.
Just because someone has a high awareness and understanding of life doesn’t mean that they have no moral standards in them.
For example, someone who is very awakened in their mind can still have a preference for being loyal to a relationship, of being monogamous, it’s purely their “principle” of living, as per their natural preference/makeup, even thought they understand that there is nothing “bad”, or wrong, about being polygamous. When you choose something from a place of self-knowing and alignment, rather than from a place of force, you are free of inner conflict and hence are not creating any negative energy within you.
Live through wisdom but stop living in fear of being judged by some higher power, there is only life and you are that life, life is not judging life.
There is just pure joy while reading. Amazing expression of Life itself 🙂
Sen please, If we are having ocd thoughts what can we do to slow this momentum? do we just watch the thoughts when they come up without allowing ourselves to be pulled in? what if the thoughts have a very strong pull and it is very hard to resist being pulled in by them?
Abet, it just means you are yet to gain a stability in your awareness. It takes time as awareness keeps becoming more and more stable, and the mind keeps losing momentum of its pull, until you reach a point where you no longer feel any disturbance from the mind’s pull.
Greatest blog I have ever followed. Seriously..
Wonderful article ……. Sen, If you have come across dvaita & advaita policies, can u brief us how different both of these siddhanta’s are…? Thanks
Sat, life-energy is non-physical and it’s all there is (that’s what advaita refers to, the onenes of life, the one consciousness), but it can condense into physical forms creating a sense of division (this is dvaita talks about the duality/division present in the one life). It’s such an obvious thing to see that the one life-energy takes multiple forms for it to move into relationship with itself. The one life-energy implies “non-dual”, or advaita, just one. The multiple forms implies the one take a from of duality, or dvaita.
Interesting article Sen and great insights. If an abuser of trust, of the innocent and vulnerable (children and animals), commits what we as society collectively term as crime and feels no remorse or negativity about it ..there is no negative cellular energy created in them nor their progeny. But because of their actions, the victim now carries with them pain, loss, and negative energies and transmits the same to their progeny, if left untreated. In the eyes of life both the criminal and victim are experiences and it does not judge and everything in the perspective of life is a fair game. The victims are hit with double whammy…they suffer and their suffering makes their progeny suffer. While the criminals and their progeny who inherit their remorseless genes continue on the path of creating pain and not feel bad about it. If the dimension of life is love how does life move the remorseless to love, or if one loves causing pain Ok in life’s eyes? And is there a connection establishes between the crime perpetrator and the victim, regardless of how one feels about the crime?
I am not sure if have made myself clear here but i have a lot of things popping in my head.
Thanks
Chetana, you need to ask yourself if you are ready to see life beyond your present knowing of it, beyond what feels convenient to your brain. Knowing the truth is liberating, but to get to the truth one needs to be willing to see reality as it is instead of seeing it from a vantage of what feels convenient. To cite the example I gave in the post of a lion and deer, they are both expressions of the same life-energy, and in this context the lion kills the deer for its food – so the deer is the victim and the lion is the predator, the deer’s fear obviously enters into its cellular memory and is passed on to the progeny, and their life continues this way, and its part of nature. But neither the deer nor the lion have a high level of awareness, they are just like “robots” living their primal nature. In the same, there are humans who have a low level of awareness, and just live out in a primal manner acting out the play of exploiter and victim, in a totally unconscious way – and this is part of expression of life, an intent in life to have this experience. The value this experience serves life, is that there comes a point where there is an “awakening” owing to the suffering that’s created in the victim. This awakening is basically an experience that allow life to know itself, and it’s actually a big part of why life even took the form of physicality – for self-realization.
Suffering is usually the biggest wake up calls, and hence life does understand the value of suffering. If you see, it’s easier to wake up when you are having a night mare, than when you are having a pleasant dream. Your brain might say that it’s highly selfish on life’s part to enact a play of suffering in order to wake up – but from life’s perspective, this is the only way it can wake up. Gautham Buddha, who had an awakening, went through intense mental suffering when he saw disease, old age and death, and this suffering caused him to question life and in this introspection he came to wake up to his truth, to life’s truth. It’s all a play of life, for its own self-realization. The ego may find it unfair, but this is not ego’s domain, this is life’s domain – life creates life for its own expression, experience and self-realization. Even ego is part of life’s intention, so that it can have the experience of losing itself in a wrong identity, and then wake up to its truth – if you never leave paradise, you can’t know what paradise feels like, can you?
Thanks Sen. It is sometimes easy and convenient to see things within a certain framework, even when you sense there is a bigger perspective. Your insights are great for this looking beyond and seeing within.
Thank you!
Favorite point: “There is no better way to attract a positive reality than to let go of creating a negative energy load in you, and release your past negative energy accumulation.”
Thank you, Sen for providing more insight on this topic.
I wish the kind of thinking, as expressed in this blog, could be “installed” like a software. I have been able to be in a total inner balance and feel at peace – the restlessness was gone for the past 3 weeks….at the Beginning it was more conscious to “let the thoughts” come up…then it became easier and easier…..this last weekend, my gf and me had some differences and we have hurt each other….and the unease and pain and feeling nervous and stressed is back! 🙁 I did not expect to lose my calmness “so early”. I will continue to apply the recommendations from this blog. Thanks Sen.
Hello Sen, as this working with the mind continues and awareness grows the pull of the mind into negativity can be extremely uncomfortable. Your articles not only teach but come as guidance at a time when I am feeling trapped in such deep negative conditioning that it feels like there is no way out. Then I wake up in the morning, open up the computer and see if you have posted anything. This morning, as with other mornings, there you are with a pointer to the exit door. My question is in this article you point to the ego and the pure life energy that has no preference. What about the 6 dimensions of the mind that are a natural part of our wiring? Instincts, thoughts, emotions get all bunched up and confused. It feels like my primary imbalances are with love and hate which I feel are two sides of the same coin and I think feed on each other. As you mentioned, this negativity is in our DNA which is a powerful force and some have more than others. There has been a lot of suffering and I appreciate what you say about its purpose in waking us up. Sometimes awareness seems no match for this force.
Kay, the mind comes into a balance as the momentum of negativity ebbs away in force. It’s normal to feel that the negativity too “overwhelming”, but as you keep stabilizing in your space of being, and as the mind momentum keeps reducing, you start coming into an place of wholeness. It’s true that the momentum can feel really strong, more so as you start opening up and allowing the suppressed energy to be released, that’s usually when you need to not buy into your mind’s negativity when it says “this is hopeless”, because when you are in the eye of the storm you may not know when it’s going to end, but it does end.
How can we move past decisions and or actions that are againsts our belief systems and are making us judge ourselves because we went againsts our own standars of good of bad, how do we cope with the anxiety and mental noise created by this.
Aimee, when we lack the ability to see beyond our beliefs, we become a prisoner to them. Have your beliefs, but also realize that they are only your “personal” perspective, and not an absolute perspective. When you have this balance in your mind, between your personal perspective and absolute perspective, you stop being so hard on yourself – in fact you stop making life so serious, and start connecting more with your sense of present joy. Instead of judging your past, just see the value that was provided to you by those experiences – the growth, the maturity and the understanding that those experiences served to provide. To judge your mistakes is to have an “inhuman” outlook, as humans we are prone to failures and mistakes, and this is how we grow in many cases. A higher awareness ensures that there are lesser mistakes, and more wisdom, but still it does not mean that you become some idea of “perfection”. Whatever you did in the past, was done from your level of awareness back then. What you are in the present is a different person, with a deeper understanding and maturity – so to judge yourself from the image of past is purely illogical and a waste of energy. The anxiety which you are talking about is mostly just “guilt” and the fear of doing something “wrong” again – this just means you are being too hard on yourself and you are taking life too seriously, when you do that your life stops being an adventure, it stops being a play of expression, and becomes some effort at perfection which was never the point of life. Life is an endless journey of growth, so you are never going to reach a point where you have no capacity to grow – so your past was just a platform for growth, so is your present.
There are not enough words to Thank you Sen for this wonderful Blog!
I will support this blog in all possible ways, because it has helped me a LOT!
We need to support this fantastic work, either financially or sharing this with others!
Keep up your good work! You are spreading a good deal of peace into other peoples Lifes!!!!
I share this sentiment completely. Thank you Sen. Something “clicked” within me about a year ago after starting my journey to self discovery about 5 years ago. After stumbling upon this blog last month, I realized now that the “click” was the beginning of the slowing down of the negative momentum. With the support of your inspired words, I feel like many loose ends have now been tied. What you write resonates so deeply, Sen, that I FEEL/ KNOW it as truth. I am very grateful to you for helping me get my life back. The funny part is that I am back where I started but with an openness…I cannot really describe it. However, a zen proverb comes to mind when I think about my journey, ” before enlightenment, chop wood carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” I understand, of course, that enlightenment here really is just being in a place of wholeness, of complete allowing. Your blog has really help me see this. I could write an essay on how my life has changed and how grateful I am to have resources like your blog. Again, thank you.
Senji,
I have understood about the karma you have explained but one thing is for sure…in the past when i read about this karma for the first time in book….i kept those fear and suspicious feelings about the consequences of karma. But now after reading your posts iam relieved of the fact that my mind has analyzed and got connected all those readings of karma due to the conditioned brain because of total negativity. for years i have the habit of analyzing my opinions and feelings …now i could understand that for everything the main reason is negativity deep inside which iam trying to slowly let go of it…. Thank you so much you are guiding so many lives into enlightenment.
what if you have horrible thoughts and visions come into your mind, even if they repulse you, will you believe in them eventually even if you dont now?
Kenny, the whole purpose of developing a sense of awareness, where you see yourself as the observer of your mind, is so that you are not a prisoner to your mind’s negativity based thoughts – its about being free of the pull of mind’s negativity, while enjoying/engaging in its creativity. You can read this post for some related insight – Why do we fear the mind
Hello,
Amazing article Sen,
You talk about watching your mind, can u explain me what u mean exactly? DO i watch my thoughts but not react to them. How is it possible? I want to learn but am struggling to do that.
Just to take 1 example: I close the door of my house and walk away and a thought pops in my mind that the i forgot to close the door, i know i locked it but my mind starts racing and i achieve some calmness only when i check the door to find it locked! My mind is always thinking the worst case scenario and it is tiring me. What should i do? You seem like somebody who can help me, please help. Can u please show me a way to achieving awareness of mind?
Jack
Jack, the practice of watching the mind is to just so you develop an awareness of your own mind, the unconscious state is to just be lost in the mind and thus living a life of being “reactive” as per the mind’s movements. For a while just practice being aware of your mind’s negativity, even while acting it out, just observe how your mind’s fears operate – don’t try to get rid of the negativity, and don’t try to fight it, for now just observe it. If you continue observing in this manner, you will reach a point where you sense that there is a gap between your mind’s negativity and your reaction, in that you are not “reactively” responding to it – this is when you know you are gaining some inner stability. From this place of inner stability you can start allowing your mind’s movements, without attaching to its negativity – it does take some initial courage to not be a prisoner to your mind’s fear, and this courage is a question of your attitude, it’s not a technique, however the more inner stability you gather the easier it is to not be reactive to the mind.
To dissect the specific example that you gave about of locking the door, you say that you “know” that you locked it but had to go re-check. The truth is that you were not really “aware” while locking the door and hence there was uncertainty in you, and your mind simply played on your uncertainty. If you were aware while putting the lock in place, you would be certain in your being about locking the door and hence you would not be privy to a doubt about locking it. Being absent-minded is again a symptom of being lost in the mind, without any real awareness of your activities as you do them. The more aware you are, the less dominant your mind is.
You can read this post on how a state of deeper awareness is achieved
http://www.calmdownmind.com/reaching-a-place-of-total-allowing/
Thanks Sen,
The example of the door i used, i am sure that i locked the door but my mind says that i did not. Thoughts appear in my mind that if i don’t re check the door some bad thing will happen like somebody will steal everything i own. For me its all about FEAR. I know that i will never be free of fear but i just want it to stop effecting my life. How to know which fear is real and which is just a trick of mind?
Jack
Jack, you may get insights on how to deal with this fear on this post – why do we fear the mind
Hi sen!
first of all thank you very much for this wonderful blog. I’ve been struggling with obsessive thoughts and anxiety for few years and this is the best advice i have got so far. my question is, what is the difference between intention and thought? because i have heard that intention is what creates karma. is this true? or can the thought itself create karma?
thanks again and keep up the good work.
lekha, intention is just a “thought” of creation. So intention has the power to create a physical reality because a thought of creation when focused on starts condensing/attracting a reality onto itself. In that sense, intention obviously creates “actions” or karma, but when your intentions are aligned with your natural expression you are basically just creating a positive reality.
i really like this article and it makes so much sense….i just want to understand a bit about guilt ….for eg…we do something and then feel guilty about it….the action is done on an impulse and then guilt takes over….how would you analyse that. like suffering stems when you are not in alignment with life or not following life s natural calling. What is guilt a factor of ?
Suna, the mind can feel guilty, or can be made to feel guilty, about its actions and when one is lost in the mind the tendency is to get identified with this guilt and thus keep re-fueling it, causing its momentum to grow. When one has a space of awareness, one can simply watch the guilt produced by the mind without becoming identified with it, and use this space of clear observation to see if there is a “learning” present in the situation, if there is a growth/maturity that’s required, instead of wasting your energy on staying rooted in guilt and self-bashing. So, a person who has a strong awareness, would be able to keep growing/maturing/learning from life and thus keep getting more aligned, instead of using his/her mistakes as a club for self-bashing.
just to add to my previous comment …for eg if you say something you shouldnt have on an impulse and then guilt takes over ..how to deal with that? ignore the guilt or not repeat the action
Really amazing your article is . It is very interesting and I find/feel it to be absolutely correct.
Mr Sen,
I am Amit and I am diagnosed to have OCD for last 3.5 years and it has had serious effects on my life. I need some correct guidance and very soon so as to maintain my health which is showing the effects of stress that i am under for last 3.5 years. Please let me know the procedure for interacting with you.
I will be waitng for your reply.
Thank you.
Amit Das
Amit, you may want to read the below posts to gain some insights on dealing with obsessive thinking
http://www.calmdownmind.com/freedom-from-the-grip-of-negativity/
http://www.calmdownmind.com/reducing-mind-momentum-is-the-key/
http://www.calmdownmind.com/overcoming-obsessive-thoughts/
http://www.calmdownmind.com/allowing-the-release-of-suppressed-energy/
In fact, I would suggest that you take the time to read through all the posts in this blog (they are all aimed to releasing the hold of negativity), this would allow you to gain a well rounded understanding of the mind and negativity which would allow you be free of the influence of your mind’s pull. Understanding is the key.
You can always interact through comments, contact form or personal chat
Hi Amit! I do too suffer from Obsessive thoughts. If you like you can contact me at facehappy18@gmail.com.
hi Amit,
I have suggled with OCD for last 10+ years and I know how painful/debilitating it is. Believe me I do.
Then I came across Senji’s web site and my life has been turned around. I am making progress every day. I live in USA and have access to all kind of medications/counselling but nothing helped as much as Senji’s writings.
Sorry to keep rattling here, but based on my personal experience I can tell you, take your time to read through the posts here and you will be free of OCD(mind with high momentum) in due course of time. OCD is nothing more than mind with high momentum
thanks,
Anu
Sen ,
Tell me , is eating non vegetarian food a bad karma . Is touching non vegetarian a bad karma.
Amit, by bad karma you are just talking about “negativity”, and nothing is negative on its own – negativity is created by the mind. To say that eating non-vegetarian food creates negativity is like saying that the lion that needs to kill a deer, and eat it, is creating negativity for itself by following its natural preference. If eating non-vegetarian food feels like your preference then go ahead and enjoy it, don’t eat it from a place of guilt or worry. The guilt/worry is what negativity is. Inherently everything is life-energy, be it a plant or an animal, and food always implies that something needs to be consumed or dissolved, there is no negativity in it, unless you are eating from a place of fear.
Thank you very much for the reply Sen
Sen, while I understand the point you make in this post, it seems to miss something. That is, one can be truly convinced that an act is good and feel no guilt or any negative feeling – but the act is negative.
For example, a zealot will kill people in the belief that it is actually good. Life does not judge this, as it is another type of expression. However, the dead resulting from the act are now unable to continue their own expression of life. Karma, in this sense, is created for the zealot because he snuffed out other conscious expressions of life. Yes, they can be reborn to continue on the path. But the impact of the act disrupted their growth and altered the experiences of those involved in the victims’ lives. The victims and their kin now have trauma to release that was not there before – all owned by the zealot. The ownership of this disruption, and the work to release the resulting energy – however moot in the scale of eternity and everything – can be called karma. So maybe ‘responsibility’ is a fair way to describe it.
Markus, the basic pointer in this post was that there is no “judging entity” that’s appraising a being on the basis of strident rules of “good and bad” and awarding punishments or brownie points, rather every being (or stream of consciousness) lives/experiences the outcome of their imbalance or balance owing to the fact that life-energy works on the principle of attraction in that imbalance attracts imbalance and balance attracts balance. This “zealot”, as per the scenario you’ve painted, definitely comes across as someone is imbalanced (either being too selfish in pursuing personal joy at the cost of “wholistic” wisdom or just being imbalanced in hatred) and this imbalance will show up in his/her external reality in a matter of time – it can’t be escaped, and once this imbalance starts showing up in this person’s reality it can prompt an awareness which can lead this person to become more balanced, however it can take a few lifetimes for this learning. The people who got victimized by the zealot, have their own imbalance to deal with, if one is attracting victimization it refers to an imbalance (an imbalanced towards light nature, which causes meekness and fear-based living) also – so these people would also attract an imbalanced external reality until they consciously bring a balance within in their mindset. A victim is as responsible as the exploiter for the condition – they are both in an imbalance, the exploiter will face the consequences of the imbalance as much as the victim, not because he/she is being judged by some “higher power” in terms of good and bad, but because it’s just the nature of life to attract it own vibration, a vibration of imbalance attracts imbalance – it’s the science/physics of life-energy, rather than an emotional judgement by a higher entity.
Thanks for the explanation, Sen. I think I was looking at the scenario from an external view, while your reply looks from the internal view of those involved. That is, the zealot’s belief cannot mask the truth of his actions (which are based in imbalance), even though his awareness is not open to see this. That makes sense.
Thanks for clearing up.
Is it not so that, karma, like from so called “past lives” is just that the subconscious mind is programmed to attract things that matches the expectation of it ?
I think that is the actual reason, that willpower as such does not work, because the turtle is actually going to win the race.
In your article you mentioned that connecting to stream of your life is way to achieve mental stability. I really agreee over that. In fact my mind is just getting relieved of that negative momentum by doing that.
First question: why don’t we just straightly go to the method of “letting go” without going to pointers which you mentioned like bring awareness etc. i have gone straight away to the art of letting go without going to your pointers & i found that i am just releasing my negative momentum. Is that okay to go straightly to the art of letting go without going to pointers
Second question: I have practising te art of letting go but sometimes some questions comes which challeges the validity of the art of letting go. For e.g. in the question above i have asked which is as follows -An exploiter & victim are both in state of imbalance. If that is the case, then if an earthquake happens & many people dies in that earthquake , then how is the victim in the state of imbalance as it is nature’s fury [earthquake being the exploiter in this case].
Then my mind gets suddenly tensed & starts searching for justification for the question which has popped up in my mind & my mind has just to give justification for that or validity of the art of letting go is being challenged by mind. On one hand, my mind feels that I should continue as it is giving a sense of mental peace & on the other hand my mind also feels I should stop doing it as i am not able to answer that question with rationality . This creates continous friction in my mind creating stress which eats my energy, concentration & makes me lethargic.This vicious cycle continues as even if i silence that question may be another day another question comes. This is not the case in this scenario but there are different scenarios which this type of thing has happened to me.
What should be done in such situations?
Harry, the term “awareness” describes the capacity to observe and it also describes a state of “understanding”. The state of unconscious living is hallmarked by the lack of awareness towards oneself and towards the reality of life. The pointers relating to providing an understanding of life, and the pointers relating to working on one’s capacity to be aware of one’s inner space, have their value in terms of allowing for a growth in one’s awareness. Even the understanding about the “state of allowing/letting-go” is a growth in awareness. The process of releasing the past-momentum, gathered during the state of unconscious living, requires an “understanding” and it also requires an “openness” – one cannot be expected to simply become “open” without any basic understanding of what the state of openness entails. For ex, as you mentioned, in your case, there are some doubts popping up in your mind which captures you, which causes you to get closed-down and thus causes you to enter into a mode of resistance (which is exhibited externally in the form of “tensing up”) – though you’ve started connecting with the attitude of allowing, you can see how the mind can create resistances that can pull you back into the momentum. The understanding you need to have here is that you will have to develop an openness to allow the feeling of confusion/uncertainty instead of constantly finding assurance through answers. If your sense of freedom depends on resting in a “clarity” you cannot truly feel free within, because you will always be afraid of confusion, and will enter into a state of tension the moment your mind pops up a question that you can’t answer. The attitude of openness includes being open to the feeling of confusion fully, without constantly seeking answers as a means of assuring yourself. You can find answers over time for some questions, but your sense of freedom cannot depend on you finding answers.
In my own journey I realized that if my motivation towards finding an answer comes from a place of desperation, the answer that I find will also reflect some form of imbalance/bias/rigidity. That’s why I always talk about finding “inner freedom” first, and making it the foundation towards then working with the mind, finding solutions/answers – when you have inner freedom you don’t seek answers from a place of desperation/bias, rather from a place of a relaxed curiosity where you are okay with “not knowing” as much as you desire a knowing.
With respect to your specific question about earthquakes and “victims” of the disaster, you would have to take notice of the fact that you are assuming that “dying in an accident” is an imbalance and the person dying is always a victim – so according to you anyone who dies in an accident, or natural calamity, died because he/she was imbalanced. Such an assumption is quite “black and white” and is not really aligned with the reality of life – the death of a person is not always instigated by imbalance, rather it could be a natural path for the soul/body as per a certain pre-choosen destiny or as per its personal requirement of experience or as per a requirement in the collective intelligence. It’s just a fact that life is a collective force and no individual has “complete” control/autonomy over all the events that happen to him/her. In most cases you can’t really know why a certain event happened in the life of a person, you can only “assume”, at best, because you can’t really know all the dynamics that were involved in the life-stream of this person – death can sometimes be the most balanced, or most required, thing that can happen to a person at a certain point in his/her journey. A large part of the attitude of openness stems from the realization that you can’t ever understand something completely in a black and white manner, and that you always need to let-go of the need to be fully certain – wisdom is rooted in an openness to uncertainty, it’s the ignorant who is very sure.
Hi Sen,
In one of the replies above you mentioned that one can be imbalanced due to being too selfish in pursuing personal joy at the cost of “wholistic” wisdom. So, how can one know if he/she is imbalanced in selfishness? For example, when a person is imbalanced in one of the six dimensions of human mind, he/she might suffer from it due to the suppression or over-identification. And this suffering can be an indication of the imbalance. But what about selfishness? As I understand, selfishness is not an emotion, rather it is a kind of behavior. Then how can a person be imbalanced in selfishness, when he/she cannot be suppressing it or be over-identified with it, as it is not an emotion? If selfisness is a behavior, that is actions of a person, then how to tell if the behaviour of that person is selfish or not? For someone it may seem selfish, for others it may not seem selfish. Even that person may be assured that he/she is doing a good deed, and not feel selfish at all, whereas other people may think that what he/she is doing is quite selfish. So, can you tell me how to know if one is being selfish or not, and how to know if he/she is imbalanced in selfishness?
Thank you.
Michael, an imbalance of selfishness can arise from an imbalance in the dimension of love, joy, hatred, fear, boredom or sexuality. For example, a person who is imbalanced towards boredom (and thus deeply lethargic) would selfishly avoid required responsibilities and may try to escape into some the cave of detachment, another example would be that a person who is imbalanced towards love can become overly-possessive and hence become imbalanced in selfishness. So an imbalance of selfishness is simply a behavior arising from the imbalance in the six dimensions/influences of the mind/emotion (of your being). The evidence of your imbalance would always be reflected in your reality, and in your experience, so if you decide to become aware you can always ascertain which dimension(s) of your mind/emotion is fueling the imbalance.
Sen, well,if I do a “sin” (like ,killed a person or looted him etc), but don’t think that I have done a wrong thing and therefore don’t feel guilty about it, then, my so called “sin” will have no effect on me and I will continue to live my life happily?
Also, can other people’s vibration can have effect on us like if somebody has killed someone, then his/her dear one’s strong feelings that criminal should also not deserve life and happiness, since he has snatched it away from them will have any effect on criminal (I mean the negative vibrations (or bad wishes) send by the victims towards the criminal. Here, the criminal think he has done the right thing and has absolutely no guilt and regret, then will it effect him or not? Also how does our brain gets conditioned and that conditioning becomes our nature?
Shivani,
karma is just a way that life makes sure it keeps its balance (or balances out imbalances).
It doesn’t really matter if you think you have done a “wrong thing”. Wrong is just a concept and right is just a concept. What’s deemed as a “wrong” action usually makes us feel bad (and vise versa for a right action) because that’s how we are conditioned usually as we grow up. Even if you look in different societies and communities the concept of wrong and right differs on certain actions and behaviors. Overall though, it doesn’t matter whether you think you are wrong or right in your actions, because at at some point you are too aware or the pain murdering someone (etc.) will cause, and are thus forced to either experience the sin on yourself, making amends in some harsh way (also a form of karma), or forgiving yourself (http://www.calmdownmind.com/a-perspective-on-forgiveness/).
Life also works on the whole level, which includes the collective consciousness. So if you are having imbalanced actions towards the outside, you are bound at some point to experience the fact that you have to change. You can usually see people who grow up with a destructive value system and don’t understand or feel bad about the pain they are cause to the outside, and eventually attract their own wake-up call (http://www.calmdownmind.com/heeding-your-wake-up-call/).
Part of the brain’s functioning is it being a learning tool. You can and will usually get conditioned when you aren’t conscious of your conditioned mind. Conditioning can also serve a useful purpose such as when young and learning math, you get conditioned on how to best do your math problems (like counting on fingers). Also, in most negative conditioning situations usually the more intense the pain in the mind or the need to cling, the more intense the conditioning (because more momentum gets added into the mind). Through the phase of release you are able to gain inner freedom to work with your conditioned mind.
I would guess that people can only create a reality for you when you are in an unconscious state and thus allowing others to create your reality. When you are more conscious, others cannot create your reality, because you are more focused on creating your own reality and being more responsible for it (which life would take as the main point of attraction). However, when you are creating your own reality, your actions and behaviors must also still be aligned with the collective.