Do you want to know about Karma?
October 30th 2010 00:08
Link: www.eckankar.org
The spiritual Law of Karma is often seen as a way of God punishing humanity for doing the wrong thing, which is yet again, humans attempting to understand the Divine in their own image and via their own physical laws. So I am going to make a strong personal statement here; feel free to totally disagree with me. You know I don’t mind.
I cannot accept that God is in any way, shape or form remotely human. I do not accept that God sits on a golden throne, dispensing wisdom or punishment as suits his whim. To be completely honest, that whole notion is completely ludicrous to me. I see this to be an interpretation of spirituality that comes from a time long ago, in certain cultures, when priests were mostly male, who wanted to exert control of the unruly masses, and using the idea of a God of thunder and lightning as a tool of power through fear worked. I know there are a lot of enlightened people in the modern world whose religions may have roots in such attitudes but hold different beliefs. They know God is love incarnate. But there are some who have a need to cling to the original teachings. I don’t understand this, probably because I believe in personal responsibility for one’s actions. But it could all be karmic.
I don’t know what God looks like. I have a sneaky suspicion that is because my limited human based mind would not actually cope with that understanding at the present time, and I am not unhappy about it. Maybe I won’t really know until this lifetime comes to an end; I transition to the next stage and all might be revealed. Maybe I will get a few more glimpses and insights before that. I hope so. I have got past the point in my desire to know divine truth in needing to actually create an image of God for myself. It is literally and metaphorically beyond me. And that doesn’t concern me at all.
If you want to know about karma, you just have to look at how people live. We know it is all about cause and effect. What a person does, thinks or says causes an effect somewhere else. Equally, a person who reacts to something is the effect of a cause. This has been thoroughly discussed in a previous blog, and you may have done your own research about it.
Here is a story about karma that you can interpret as truth or fiction.
Many thousands of years ago, a woman called Mary lived in a prosperous city with her father. She had been raised by him to take over the family merchant business. Mary’s mother had died when she was a young child and her father could not bring himself to remarry and have more children, preferably, sons. Mary turned out to be an intelligent and brilliant business woman and what’s more, she had negotiation skills unsurpassed in the city. The business thrived to the extent that father and daughter were considering expansion into the outlying areas. He had already broken with tradition and taken her to Merchant Guild meetings. This was tolerated by the majority but a few were angered by it.
Then Mary’s father developed a fever and died within a week. Mary was 27, unmarried and alone in a strongly male dominated society, and now owner of a thriving business. Although seen as a little too old for a wife by most of the younger men, she was still hotly pursued. Mary was not a pretty woman nor into female frippery, but she was tolerably attractive, healthy and strong and very rich.
Two brothers in particular, Jacob and John, courted Mary. Jacob was the older brother and he saw a merger of their business with hers would give his family compete domination of all the other businesses in the city. He envisaged an empire. He didn’t care if he or his brother married her. He had plans for Mary to be tied down by pregnancy and many children, and who knows maybe even an early death like his mother. It didn’t occur to him that unlike his three sisters, Mary had no desire for children or marriage. She was content to run her business, take good care of her employees, trade as honestly as her father had taught her and live a good life.
Jacob and John did not take it lightly when she firmly and politely turned them both down. Their revenge was cold and calculated. Over some months Mary’s business went into decline. The wine was unfortunately soured in the vats. The corn meal became infested with rats. A few of her trading vessels mysteriously sank out at sea, some very close to port. People began to turn to other merchants. Mary began to lose heart and thought perhaps she was not capable of running the business as well as her father. The sharks were circling.
A servant came to her door with an invitation to meet with Jacob and John over an evening meal. They had heard of her business problems, so sad things had not gone well since her poor father had taken ill and died, but they were willing to make her a good offer on the business and help her still have enough money to live on. Mary’s suspicions were awoken. This pair was not seen as kindly or philanthropic in the city. She set her mind to considering when the first problems had arisen in her business. She had conversations with a few of her father’s friends who knew about these dishonest and manipulative merchants. She reached the conclusion that somehow, the brothers had poisoned her wine, put rats in her cellars and found a way to sink her ships. Without evidence, the courts would not listen to a mere ranting woman.
Mary, never a weak minded person, was enraged. They would pay for destroying what her father had built over his lifetime. They would not get away with it. She sent them a message: why not have a quiet supper together, just the three of them, no need for servants hanging around, give them the night off, and she would come over and talk business. Jacob was rubbing his hands with glee. Maybe they could let her run the business since she was quite good at it, but they would take most of the profits, leaving her a paid employee.
She arrived alone in her own horse and cart, dressed demurely, seemingly ready to talk a deal. They had a cold supper and she let the brother believe she was broken in spirit and ready to be compliant. Mary had brought with her three gifts for the brothers: a bottle of her best wine from her private cellar, a medicinal draught she had been given for her father when he was lying very ill and her father’s golden dagger. They only found out about the second and third when it was too late.
John fell asleep very quickly but Jacob put it down to too much wine. John had a reputation as a drunkard and wastrel. Jacob became concerned when he found he was losing control of his speech and felt his limbs getting heavy. Fear set in when he saw Mary produce the dagger from her left boot. Jacob watched as she calmly slit his brother’s throat as she might butcher a goat. She then turned to him and stabbed him twice in the gut; his was to be a slower and more painful death.
Mary left the house and steadily drove the cart with her bloody hands, intending to take the rest of the draught and additional poison at home. She knew she had committed a terrible crime and God would punish her. There was no point in living to suffer a human punishment first. However, the ground began to heave as smoke and ash billowed from the mountain that was above the city. Mary died on the streets with all the other citizens who had rushed from their homes when the volcano erupted.
Over many lifetimes Mary, Jacob and John met and fought and did terrible deals in business, one destroying the other and taking each other’s riches. They played different roles, males, females, on many continents, Jacob and John always together against Mary, until the 20th century when they all met up again. None of the karma had been resolved. It had been recreated and rebuilt again and again.
In this lifetime, there was no business, there was only treasure. In this lifetime, Jacob and John were mother and son and Mary did marry John. Mother and son bullied and harassed Mary for 9 years of her marriage to John. In this lifetime, Mary bore two children, the treasure. John was again a wastrel and drank and hit Mary. The bond between him and his mother was very strong and Mary gradually realised her husband loved his mother more than she.
The marriage ended when Mary left the family home one night with a split lip and broken nose. She left everything, even her precious treasures, and ran. Mother and son quickly got a lawyer while Mary ended up in hospital. She had a breakdown and by the time she had gained sense and sensibility, they had taken everything and she was branded the mother who had left her children. They tried to destroy her reputation but most of their friends knew John for what he was.
Mary was unable to forgive herself. All she could offer her children was love, pure unconditional love. Still the mother and son harassed her, even though they had control of the treasure and had finally won. Mary made sure she saw her children regularly and maintained a strong relationship with them, despite all of the unpleasantness with the mother and son. Somehow she knew this was right and she had to suffer through it. She lived with guilt and shame for over 20 years.
None of them knew this was karma. None of them remembered the pre life agreement that this time around, in this lifetime, they were to share the treasure and learn about love.
Mary began to study reincarnation and karma. Gradually, she began to get answers and insights about life and why she had done what she had done. Her children grew up and began to ask her questions about what had happened all these years before, because they had been told one story but wanted to hear from their mother. It was very difficult to discuss this for all of them. Mary told her story and constantly reminded them that no matter what, they should not judge, just remember that they were always loved by everyone in the family.
But Mary didn’t fully understand. She was still taking the blame on herself, only seeing the karmic links between herself, her ex-husband and his mother. It took many more years for her to realise that there were also karmic bonds between the children, their father and grandmother. They had chosen to be born into this family. The karmic business they had to deal with did not include her. There was another situation happening within this family without her. The anger and aggression that was occurring amongst them as adults was not her fault. The original brothers were still trying to exert power and control but with 2 other Souls. And these 2 Souls had Mary as a balance and loving support in their karmic journey.
This is only a tiny example of what karma can be. All of the Souls in this story also interact with other Souls in other areas of life. It’s like the ripples in the pond effect. Three of the Souls in the story are beginning to understand the reason for life is quite simple, to understand and live through giving pure unconditional love. Love with conditions is a sham in comparison.
Harold Klemp puts it very neatly in “How the Inner Master Works”.
‘...the Law of Karma is the great teacher. As you sow, so shall ye reap. It’s not a vindictive law; it’s a law designed to open the heart to love and understanding.’
Here is a spiritual exercise you can try if you are in a difficult situation in your life right now with another person, or even if you just feel like sending love to someone, like your sibling, children, spouse, or a good friend who may need a bit of support right now.
It requires two things: use of creative visualisation and giving away the result to the Divine.
Sit in a quiet space by yourself. Do whatever practice you do to find calm and peace within yourself. Open yourself up to divine love. You know that I would be singing HU.
Visualise the person with whom you are having issues or to whom you want to simply send love. See yourself sending to them pure unconditional love. You can say it to them in the visualisation.
Then close your visualisation and say ‘May the blessings be’. This gives the result away to God to find the right solution. Some people call this surrendering the outcome. It's a good one to do before settling down to sleep at night. Sometimes it brings interesting dreams.
I wish you well on your journey.
I cannot accept that God is in any way, shape or form remotely human. I do not accept that God sits on a golden throne, dispensing wisdom or punishment as suits his whim. To be completely honest, that whole notion is completely ludicrous to me. I see this to be an interpretation of spirituality that comes from a time long ago, in certain cultures, when priests were mostly male, who wanted to exert control of the unruly masses, and using the idea of a God of thunder and lightning as a tool of power through fear worked. I know there are a lot of enlightened people in the modern world whose religions may have roots in such attitudes but hold different beliefs. They know God is love incarnate. But there are some who have a need to cling to the original teachings. I don’t understand this, probably because I believe in personal responsibility for one’s actions. But it could all be karmic.
I don’t know what God looks like. I have a sneaky suspicion that is because my limited human based mind would not actually cope with that understanding at the present time, and I am not unhappy about it. Maybe I won’t really know until this lifetime comes to an end; I transition to the next stage and all might be revealed. Maybe I will get a few more glimpses and insights before that. I hope so. I have got past the point in my desire to know divine truth in needing to actually create an image of God for myself. It is literally and metaphorically beyond me. And that doesn’t concern me at all.
If you want to know about karma, you just have to look at how people live. We know it is all about cause and effect. What a person does, thinks or says causes an effect somewhere else. Equally, a person who reacts to something is the effect of a cause. This has been thoroughly discussed in a previous blog, and you may have done your own research about it.
Here is a story about karma that you can interpret as truth or fiction.
Many thousands of years ago, a woman called Mary lived in a prosperous city with her father. She had been raised by him to take over the family merchant business. Mary’s mother had died when she was a young child and her father could not bring himself to remarry and have more children, preferably, sons. Mary turned out to be an intelligent and brilliant business woman and what’s more, she had negotiation skills unsurpassed in the city. The business thrived to the extent that father and daughter were considering expansion into the outlying areas. He had already broken with tradition and taken her to Merchant Guild meetings. This was tolerated by the majority but a few were angered by it.
Then Mary’s father developed a fever and died within a week. Mary was 27, unmarried and alone in a strongly male dominated society, and now owner of a thriving business. Although seen as a little too old for a wife by most of the younger men, she was still hotly pursued. Mary was not a pretty woman nor into female frippery, but she was tolerably attractive, healthy and strong and very rich.
Two brothers in particular, Jacob and John, courted Mary. Jacob was the older brother and he saw a merger of their business with hers would give his family compete domination of all the other businesses in the city. He envisaged an empire. He didn’t care if he or his brother married her. He had plans for Mary to be tied down by pregnancy and many children, and who knows maybe even an early death like his mother. It didn’t occur to him that unlike his three sisters, Mary had no desire for children or marriage. She was content to run her business, take good care of her employees, trade as honestly as her father had taught her and live a good life.
Jacob and John did not take it lightly when she firmly and politely turned them both down. Their revenge was cold and calculated. Over some months Mary’s business went into decline. The wine was unfortunately soured in the vats. The corn meal became infested with rats. A few of her trading vessels mysteriously sank out at sea, some very close to port. People began to turn to other merchants. Mary began to lose heart and thought perhaps she was not capable of running the business as well as her father. The sharks were circling.
A servant came to her door with an invitation to meet with Jacob and John over an evening meal. They had heard of her business problems, so sad things had not gone well since her poor father had taken ill and died, but they were willing to make her a good offer on the business and help her still have enough money to live on. Mary’s suspicions were awoken. This pair was not seen as kindly or philanthropic in the city. She set her mind to considering when the first problems had arisen in her business. She had conversations with a few of her father’s friends who knew about these dishonest and manipulative merchants. She reached the conclusion that somehow, the brothers had poisoned her wine, put rats in her cellars and found a way to sink her ships. Without evidence, the courts would not listen to a mere ranting woman.
Mary, never a weak minded person, was enraged. They would pay for destroying what her father had built over his lifetime. They would not get away with it. She sent them a message: why not have a quiet supper together, just the three of them, no need for servants hanging around, give them the night off, and she would come over and talk business. Jacob was rubbing his hands with glee. Maybe they could let her run the business since she was quite good at it, but they would take most of the profits, leaving her a paid employee.
She arrived alone in her own horse and cart, dressed demurely, seemingly ready to talk a deal. They had a cold supper and she let the brother believe she was broken in spirit and ready to be compliant. Mary had brought with her three gifts for the brothers: a bottle of her best wine from her private cellar, a medicinal draught she had been given for her father when he was lying very ill and her father’s golden dagger. They only found out about the second and third when it was too late.
John fell asleep very quickly but Jacob put it down to too much wine. John had a reputation as a drunkard and wastrel. Jacob became concerned when he found he was losing control of his speech and felt his limbs getting heavy. Fear set in when he saw Mary produce the dagger from her left boot. Jacob watched as she calmly slit his brother’s throat as she might butcher a goat. She then turned to him and stabbed him twice in the gut; his was to be a slower and more painful death.
Mary left the house and steadily drove the cart with her bloody hands, intending to take the rest of the draught and additional poison at home. She knew she had committed a terrible crime and God would punish her. There was no point in living to suffer a human punishment first. However, the ground began to heave as smoke and ash billowed from the mountain that was above the city. Mary died on the streets with all the other citizens who had rushed from their homes when the volcano erupted.
Over many lifetimes Mary, Jacob and John met and fought and did terrible deals in business, one destroying the other and taking each other’s riches. They played different roles, males, females, on many continents, Jacob and John always together against Mary, until the 20th century when they all met up again. None of the karma had been resolved. It had been recreated and rebuilt again and again.
In this lifetime, there was no business, there was only treasure. In this lifetime, Jacob and John were mother and son and Mary did marry John. Mother and son bullied and harassed Mary for 9 years of her marriage to John. In this lifetime, Mary bore two children, the treasure. John was again a wastrel and drank and hit Mary. The bond between him and his mother was very strong and Mary gradually realised her husband loved his mother more than she.
The marriage ended when Mary left the family home one night with a split lip and broken nose. She left everything, even her precious treasures, and ran. Mother and son quickly got a lawyer while Mary ended up in hospital. She had a breakdown and by the time she had gained sense and sensibility, they had taken everything and she was branded the mother who had left her children. They tried to destroy her reputation but most of their friends knew John for what he was.
Mary was unable to forgive herself. All she could offer her children was love, pure unconditional love. Still the mother and son harassed her, even though they had control of the treasure and had finally won. Mary made sure she saw her children regularly and maintained a strong relationship with them, despite all of the unpleasantness with the mother and son. Somehow she knew this was right and she had to suffer through it. She lived with guilt and shame for over 20 years.
None of them knew this was karma. None of them remembered the pre life agreement that this time around, in this lifetime, they were to share the treasure and learn about love.
Mary began to study reincarnation and karma. Gradually, she began to get answers and insights about life and why she had done what she had done. Her children grew up and began to ask her questions about what had happened all these years before, because they had been told one story but wanted to hear from their mother. It was very difficult to discuss this for all of them. Mary told her story and constantly reminded them that no matter what, they should not judge, just remember that they were always loved by everyone in the family.
But Mary didn’t fully understand. She was still taking the blame on herself, only seeing the karmic links between herself, her ex-husband and his mother. It took many more years for her to realise that there were also karmic bonds between the children, their father and grandmother. They had chosen to be born into this family. The karmic business they had to deal with did not include her. There was another situation happening within this family without her. The anger and aggression that was occurring amongst them as adults was not her fault. The original brothers were still trying to exert power and control but with 2 other Souls. And these 2 Souls had Mary as a balance and loving support in their karmic journey.
This is only a tiny example of what karma can be. All of the Souls in this story also interact with other Souls in other areas of life. It’s like the ripples in the pond effect. Three of the Souls in the story are beginning to understand the reason for life is quite simple, to understand and live through giving pure unconditional love. Love with conditions is a sham in comparison.
Harold Klemp puts it very neatly in “How the Inner Master Works”.
‘...the Law of Karma is the great teacher. As you sow, so shall ye reap. It’s not a vindictive law; it’s a law designed to open the heart to love and understanding.’
Here is a spiritual exercise you can try if you are in a difficult situation in your life right now with another person, or even if you just feel like sending love to someone, like your sibling, children, spouse, or a good friend who may need a bit of support right now.
It requires two things: use of creative visualisation and giving away the result to the Divine.
Sit in a quiet space by yourself. Do whatever practice you do to find calm and peace within yourself. Open yourself up to divine love. You know that I would be singing HU.
Visualise the person with whom you are having issues or to whom you want to simply send love. See yourself sending to them pure unconditional love. You can say it to them in the visualisation.
Then close your visualisation and say ‘May the blessings be’. This gives the result away to God to find the right solution. Some people call this surrendering the outcome. It's a good one to do before settling down to sleep at night. Sometimes it brings interesting dreams.
I wish you well on your journey.
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Comment by Anonymous
Sometimes I notice karma comes back around very quickly, and other times not so, taking many lifetimes as in your story. Then people often don't realise what is happening and get into the victim consciousness. But as we become more aware of our actions and take responsibility, we get a greater perspective of how things are tying together in our lives.