What is Karma ?

Everyone is familiar with the term karma. The term is usually used when someone does something mean and then something bad happens to them. We then use a phrase such as “Karma’s a bitch.” Karma however goes much deeper than the misfortune of a not so nice person. It is about one’s actions in life creating a sort of imbalance. Another way to think of karma is as a depository for all our thoughts, judgments, likes, dislikes, intentions and actions in each life. Think of all of these going into a large storage locker (our Akashic record.) As we live each life we must clear out a little bit of that storage locker until all that is left are the items related to love, compassion, unity and peace.

What is karma ? – definition from other sources

Jesus stated it simply as “A man reaps what he sows.” The Buddha also stated it simply as “We are the heirs of our own actions.” Walter Russell said “karma means whatever you do is electrically recorded in your seed for repetition in kind. When you break the law, the law breaks you to an equal extent at that precise moment – not the next moment. It starts immediately, even if it takes generations to void it. You are in balance or you are out of it. If you are out of balance with the universe, you have to get back into balance. Nature demands balance. Karma is an evidence of unbalance which must eventually be voided by balance.”  Russell defined Karma as more a process of balancing. I.e. he describes Gods mind as fully balanced. This can certainly be attested to with the fact that our universe is perfectly balanced. If anything were even slightly different, the universe would not exist as it does. (For more on Walter Russell see “The Man Who Tapped The Secrets of The Universe”)

When asked what is karma Edgar Cayce replied: “We only meet ourselves. Karma is a personal thing and only with God or the Creative Forces. It is not between individuals. Other people merely provide the means or conditions for us to learn our lessons and gain self-mastery. We must attain perfection through spiritual unfoldment so that we may become companions and co-creators with God the Father.”

The word Karma originates from the Indian Sanskrit language and it means “action.”

Now as a man is like this or like that,
according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be;
a man of good acts will become good, a man of bad acts, bad;
he becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds;
And here they say that a person consists of desires,
and as is his desire, so is his will;
and as is his will, so is his deed;
and whatever deed he does, that he will reap.
— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 7th Century BCE

What is karma ? – The law of karma

You get what you put out, as ye sow so shall ye reap, what goes around comes around, an eye for an eye, for every action there is an equal and opposing reaction, live by the sword, die by the sword, As you do unto others, it will be done unto you. These are the various terms that people have used throughout time to describe the concept of karma.

Another way to answer what is karma is through understanding the concept of repetition. In other words what we fixate on repeats in subsequent lives. We can almost think of this as the intensity of our thoughts and actions as a loud scream into an echo chamber. The more intense our action or thought the more it echoes throughout our subsequent lives. If we are an alcoholic in this life, we will enter our subsequent lives with the same propensities, urges, weaknesses and lack of self control. Whatever habits we acquire in this life are sure to show up again in subsequent lives. In all likely hood we are already experiencing habits of our past lives.

So what is karma when it comes to this concept of repetition? Let’s say we may have had an intense interest in music in a previous life, and therefor had a similar interest in subsequent lives. These interest we have need not show up in linear successive lives. We can go many lifetimes before it may show up again. We may have dedicated a life to playing an instrument, and perfected our musical ability.

What is karma as it relates to our mental themes? We each develop mental patterns through life which we repeat throughout our entire life. For instance we may think that people are out to get us and therefor we develop a somewhat paranoid view of others. Or we may think we are beautiful or handsome and act as if we are superior because of our looks. We may feel we are unworthy of love or praise. There are many mental patterns we repeat through our life and these become themes of untruth. The karma we will experience in future lives will be based on highlighting that untruth with lessons that teach us truth. What do we allow into our minds which affect our thought patterns? (See post: “The Source Of Your Anxiety“)

This law of Karma as Edgar Cayce put it, is forever meeting ourselves again. Perhaps the purpose of this karma is to insure we exhaust any material interest we have to a point where we become satisfied and lose interest. As we align ourselves to spiritual principles we lesson our need to keep incarnating in the physical plain. This alignment with spiritual principles is how we liberate ourselves from the cycle of birth and death. Similar to this echo effect, when we start to uncover our spirituality, it will continue to manifest in subsequent lives.

What is karma and how is it similar to the Law Of Attraction?

Karma in many ways is similar to the new age “Law of Attraction,” in fact it could be said it is one in the same. The Law of Attraction proposes we send out vibrations. These vibrations resonate with like thought forms and material items thus attracting them into our life. They can be either positive or negative in nature, the universe doesn’t distinguish between them. The law simply states that whatever we are putting out into the universal mind is attracted to us into our experience. Regardless of the label we put on it we are attracting to us our dominate thoughts, fears, intentions, desires and actions. Those that we attract to us in this lifetime would fall under the Law of Attraction or law of cause and effect. That which does not manifest in this lifetime is stored in our soul seed to germinate again in subsequent lives. Frequent thoughts of anger and hatred will attract the conditions for the same in subsequent lives.

The Law of Attraction seems to appeal to those wishing to acquire material items. People don’t often think of it as being the source of our problems but it is equally good at attracting misfortune. The thing that never gets considered is how the law of attraction works equally well in growing our spirituality. When we focus our thoughts, actions and intentions on our soul growth and the universal mind, we start attracting more of the same. When we believe and act from a sense of oneness with everything, we attract the knowledge and consciousness of that oneness.

What is karma and the purpose of karma?

Karma is not punishment, it is the souls contract with itself. There is no ruler in the sky standing ready to zap us when we misbehave. We agree to the terms of learning in order to be part of the creational life force. This can only be accomplished by the soul when it has learned how to be companion and co-creator with the spiritual source or God. What is karma as it pertains to learning? Karma teaches us the consequences or effects of being our own creator. (See “Understanding The Soul – Creator Laws“)

We have the ability to create anything we wish. If those creations are harmonious and benefit the whole, then we are in alignment with spiritual principles. If we create selfishly hurting others or altering the free will of others, then we incur bad karma. What we think, intend, say or do becomes a repeating pattern until we learn all there is to learn or we get tired of the material physical plane. At some point we will grow tired of pursuing our selfish desires. As we start to care more about the welfare of others in a loving and compassionate manner, we align ourselves to the spiritual. When we decide to use our free will to align ourselves with the creator, then we have chosen voluntarily to become companion and co-creator (See Soul Purpose.)

The creator has put in place all the laws necessary for his creations to learn and ultimately become companions. We can understand the laws of this process but since we are endowed with free will, we must first choose this for ourselves.

Think of karma as a seed we are forming in this life. From this seed sprouts a subsequent life. Whatever the essence is of this seed is what will bear fruit in successive incarnations. An apple tree bears the seed of an apple, it will not produce the seed of an orange. In the same way our attitudes, actions, intentions, thoughts, likes and dislikes will produce subsequent lives that are similar in nature. We will not all of a sudden have a life in which we are kind, loving and compassionate if these are not our current traits. The purpose of life is learning to choose. Like a seed we can eventually alter the fruit by the conditions of our environment and our subtle changes over time.

We are trying to learn how to become co-creators. We cannot co-create if we are creating on our own. All creation must be harmonious and this can only occur if there is a oneness with all other souls. If we seek our own creations, we are creating in a vacuum unaware of whether it is harmonious with that oneness. We indeed get to create whatever we desire. If we are only concerned about our own wants and desires then we must do so in isolation from the whole. Isn’t isolation and loneliness what we feel when we are not harmonious with others? (See post “Unity Or Isolation”)

Edgar Cayce is quoted as saying: “The entity must use the mind. The mind is the builder, the way in which one approaches either infinity or materiality.” We are stuck in this material world experiencing the cycles of birth and death due to our karma. We seek pleasure in material things and therefor are destined to experience them. Some may see this as good, in other words, fixating on money may eventually bring it into this life or a future life. Eventually however we learn all the money in the world does not bring happiness, contentment, love or peace. We can acquire a wealth of material items, but we cannot share our love with them, nor can they share a love with us. We learn money corrupts even the most noble of people. Money like anything else is an attachment. Karma continues to bind us to our attachments, actions, thoughts, deeds and intentions.

We may also derive great pleasure from our bodies, through sex, intoxicating substances, eating, or our physical beauty or strength. All our attachments to the physical body ensure our continued reincarnations in order to experience our desires. The body is nothing more than a vehicle for the mind, it is merely a tool for learning in our physical existence.

Karma ends when we transcend the physical experience. When we have learned how to be loving, compassionate, grateful and peaceful, then karma has done its job. As we align ourselves with the spiritual nature of our inner soul, physical desires drop away. The more we exhibit the attributes of love, compassion, gratitude and peace, the less physical we become. For some at this stage of their journey, just learning how to stop negative karma may be a vast improvement for the soul. The ultimate goal is to transcend the physical and this can only be done by detaching ourselves from the material aspects of life while gravitating towards the spiritual.

Applying the idea:

• Do you sense a sort of imbalance in your life?
  • Do you work too much? or are you too lazy?
  • Do you indulge too much in addictive or intoxicating substances?
  • Are your relationships strong or weak?
  • Do you procrastinate or avoid dealings with problems in your life.
  • Do you constantly blame others for your situations in life?
• Do you feel there are repeating themes in your life?
  • Are you always struggling with money issues?
  • Do you have problems getting along with people?
  • Have you had problems holding down a job?
• What have you been attracting into your current life due to your dominant attitudes or patterns of thought?
  • I.e. what are recurring questions you continue to ask yourself?
  • What are recurring statements or affirmations you tell yourself?
  • What is the dominant story you tell others.
    • I.e. recalling bad memories and things that have happened to you in the past?
    • Why you’re so great?
    • How other people are the problem in your life?
    • How it’s your parents fault?

If you examine these questions you might begin to understand what you are currently attracting into your life. These recurring themes are also being “packed away” into your storage locker, (Akashic record.) Do these recurring thoughts draw you closer to the universal life force and make you feel a sense of oneness with others, or do they leave you with a sense of loneliness and isolation? Are you developing your spirituality and seeking the deeper meaning of life, or is life only about satisfying material desires?

To continue in this series on karma click here to part 2

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