KARMA #8

Never judge in a condemnatory way, never with disavowing and lack of love. 

You must support emotionally without condoning.

 

JUDGEMENT

 

The judgment of the 99 neither validates nor invalidates the worth of the one.

The many and the few do not speak to value – only to popularity.

Popularity is not to be equated with value.

 

With social media, popularity is now evaluated by how many 'friends' one has and how many 'likes' one gets. However, often the subscriber has no idea who these 'friends' really are – good or bad. Some are getting depressed and are even suicidal about the opinions of others that; cannot even find the door to their own lives.

 

“When you talk to people do not "weigh," a soul that weighs suffers harm.” Talmud

When you no longer need to be right, the purity of your soul will shine through.

It is almost impossible not to judge. We are taught to distinguish right from wrong but we are not always right in our judgments.

Never judge another human until you have walked a mile in his moccasins.” Native American proverb

 

Actions arise from conditions. Do not judge then the former until the latter is well understood. If you have eaten what the judged one has eaten, and worn his clothes, and thought his thoughts, and felt both his joy and pain then you may say you have stood in his place but only briefly compared to the length of his stay. So still you may not know the past or present plights that plague him.

We would not be able to see fault in another unless it was already part of our own shadow.

Our judgments are frequently fraught with error and usually tainted with arrogance. Compassion and love are our salvation and joy.” Hillel

 

When we judge, and point fingers at another there are usually three fingers pointing back at us. We project our shadow onto others so that the ego can feel better about its little self.

 

“When you see a worthy person endeavor to emulate him, when you see an unworthy person then examine your inner self.” Confucius

 

Discernment and discrimination may help us to take our judgments to a more enlightened level. The Ancestors teach us to

sweeten our judgments.

Judge the action rather than the person.

We all do bad things and we all also have the potential for the divinity within us. Maybe we can temper our judgments with kinder words such as he is different, she is intense, he is extra ... 

Gossip and especially slander, where there is malice, can be the toxic consequences of judgment. The Talmud adds that when you slander you metaphorically 'kill' three people; yourself and your Karma, the one (or ones) that are listening and whoever is getting character assassinated.

Sometimes the judgments we make that cause harm have onerous consequences that we cannot even imagine. The rules of accountability beyond the veil are much more severe than we may realize.

 

“Judge not that you not be judged, for what measure you judge, you will be judged, 

and for what measure you mete, it will be measured to you again.” Matthew

“Do not covet your neighbor or anything that belongs to your neighbor...”

...With what measure you mete will be measured unto those again, will apply to those who have an ever increasing degree of covetousness and ...

The Evil Eye

The Evil Tongue

The Evil Inclination

Take care not to give scandal nor to do harm.

Witchcraft and Sorcery arise from a heart of envy and are the ultimate evil rendered by covetousness. The witch and the sorcerer have all three of these venomous attributes as do some others not necessarily in these professions but often in positions of power.

When we judge vindictively we may gossip, slander and character assassinate or covet what someone else has.

Covetousness may lead one to want what someone else has, or prevent them from getting what they want, or even destroying what they already have.

Greed arises out of Covetousness and vice versa.

Greed at its worst craves Power and ...

"Greed is not stilled with money any more that thirst is by salt water." Ksemendra

Greed seeks Fame and even Infamy.

Fame puts oneself above others, even to the extent of enjoying Infamy.

"Power corrupts and complete power corrupts completely."

Lord Acton

When we look at the autocratic leaders that have imposed themselves on the world's order and that we many have mistakenly voted for, many are disobeying three of the Ten Commandments but may claim they are in line with God's will.

You shall not take My Name in vain.

You shall not bear false witness against you neighbor (and certainly not a whole nation.)

and

You shall not covet.

Concerning the three deadly sins of Karma; self-Cherishing, Desirous Attachment and Judgment - the latter is the most challenging.

"See yourself in others, then whom can you hurt, what harm can you do." Osho Dammapada

 

 

KARMA #7

 

DESIROUS ATTACHMENT

“More possessions – more worry.

More generosity – more peace.

There is nothing wrong with possessions, only to being possessed by them.” Hillel

Its not the need that is our spiritual enemy but the want!

There are many aspects of self-cherishing's desirous attachments which are often driven by greed: 

“Greed is not stilled with money any more than thirst with salt water.” Ksemendra

The ego is never satisfied, the more it gets the more it wants. Gratification is only temporary, until ego's next attainment. The more 'stuff' we have - the more the need to maintain it which detracts from our spiritual work.

“Give up owning things and being somebody. Quit existing.” Rumi

The other faces of ego enhanced by our

Possessions

are

Persona, Pride, Prestige, Power

“There is no room for God in him who is full of himself. The sages tell us concerning the proud man; God says; “I and s/he cannot dwell together in the world.” Talmud

"God cannot be realized if there is the slightest trace of pride."

The Upanishads

and the most toxic

Power, Fame or Infamy

"Power corrupts and complete power corrupts completely."

Lord Acton

Greed can lead to harmful behavior patters; malice, hatred, anger, rage and scandal or vile speech. When we look the autocratic leaders on the planet we note a total disobedience to several of the Ten Commandments.

Thou shall not covet...

Thou shall not bear false witness...

Thou shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain...

Given full power, greed becomes an enslaver of the greedy – fear becomes first a bully, then a torturer and then a killer.  

... and even 'stealing' from their subjects and soliciting murder.

Yet they get elected!

“By attributing worth to tangible objects humans becomes attracted to them; attraction brings desire for them; desire leads to competition and dispute. These create anger and the result is delusion. Delusion completely overcomes man’s sense of right and wrong.” Srimad Bhagavata

There is nothing wrong with desire but being attached to the object of one's desire has karmic implications.

Sometimes one can actually 'become' the object of one's desire. Embracing the nature of impermanence is the remedy for this dysfunction. We need to attend to our needs rather than out wants.

Moreover, the one who dies with the most toys does not win but loses spiritually. The fewer the attachments we have the easier it will be when we eventually cross the veil between the worlds and face a spiritual tribunal who will evaluate our karma.

Karmic merit arises out of attachment to spiritual transformation and non-attachment to the material.

We are given the challenge of being in a sentient body and now more than ever the limitless temptations of technology and its offerings. Steve Jobs once instructed his employees that their task at Apple was not to give people what they needed but to tell them what they wanted. Many entrepreneurs follow this mantra.  

The Ancestors teach that ulterior motives are greatly under-rated. It is good to donate money in order to build a hospital or anything else that can help humanity but if it is attached to an agenda it may be karmically neutral or negative depending on the intention. It is better to give charity than not to give it, but the act may not have spiritual merit.

 

Emperor Wu asked, “I’ve built temples and ordained monastics; what merit is there in this?”
Bodhidharma replied, “No merit.”

 

It depends not only on what we do, but why we do it, how we do it, and when we do it.

 

There is always enough as long as one is free from the compulsion for more. Narrow mind is about having – Spacious mind is about being.

“  … Abundance is not an achievement of the acquisitive but rather a legacy of the perceptive – a realization of plenty – not an acquiring of more – a delight not a desire.” Hillel

Karma also dictates that we have to find equanimity, inner peace and happiness with our basic needs and to focus on Self Realization rather than actualization of the little self. This brings true happiness.

 

Of all the teachings of the sages some most agreed upon as being both fundamental and elemental were those about abundance and delight.

 

Desirous Attachment is antithetical to the principle of impermanence. We cannot take 'it' with us. At the end of the day the only thing we can take is our karma and our experiences.

Moreover, material attachments can hamper the soul’s journey during transition after death causing the spirit to either become earth bound (lost between the worlds) or to inherit a lower vibration in the Astral.

The only things that live on are love, truth and the soul.

Non-Attachment is not the same as detachment which implies denial, resignation, desperation, a giving up, rather than a giving in to a higher vibration and something much bigger than oneself.

 

Concerning detachment, one of its paths leads to a lifeless world without enthusiasm or hope, a place of indifference where one could become ensnared in hidden traps of dejection and despair, where one no longer cares to love nor dares to trust.

 KARMA #6

“Behind my work was ambition, behind my love was personality, behind my purity was fear, behind my guidance the thirst for power. Now they are vanishing and I drift. I come Mother, I come, in your warm bosom – floating where-ever you take me – in the voiceless, in the strange, in the wonderland. I come a spectator, No more an actor.”   Swami Vivekananda

SUBORDINATE EGO TO

THE HIGHER SELF 

(Ego’s Triad on the Tree of Life)

All must be done for its own sake, not for reason of any outcome.
All is a journey not a destination and it is a continual arriving.

We need to do things for their own sake and not because of any ego driven agenda – hidden or otherwise.

If rewards were always immediate there would be a huge incentive to always perform correctly because of the gratification we would expect from our actions. We would be like a well trained animal driven by a Pavlovian response.

Karma depends not only on what we do, but how we do it, why we do it and how we feel about it. If the last is grudgingly or because it benefits us materially there will be a karmic consequence or it may be karmically neutral. 

 “The Light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed… the shadow of shadows, on the deed alone.” W.B. Yeats

Do you listen with your heart or are you hearing with your ego. The possible peril is not a punishment, it is a consequence. Choice is not enough, action must follow.

 

Karma is the law of cause and effect. The Creator does not micromanage. Karma is built like a default into the soul.

“Chitragupt

who is supposed to be writing out our deeds in an account book is no other than the conscious and unconscious parts of our mind. The Lord of Law, to whom we have to render the account is the Soul within us.” Gopal Singh

Everything we do is registered in the Akashic records or the Book of Life. We do not get away with anything. One's lawyer cannot help us when we are taken to account before a spiritual tribunal at the end of our days.

“The last temptation is to do the right thing for the wrong reason.” 

T.S. Eliot

 

“Give all thou canst; high heaven rejects the lore of nicely calculated less and more.“ W. Wordsworth

1. Ego or self-Cherishing (as in the small self)

2. Desirous Attachment

3. Judgment

Although all three below are derived from ego and overlap, it is helpful to distinguish between them.

 

Ego – self Cherishing the Persona

“God cannot be realized if there is the slightest trace of pride.”  

The Upanishads

 

The search for the Real, True or Higher Self or Soul is at the core of all spiritual motivation whether we know about it, believe it or do anything about it or not. We are made in the image of the Divine and are all searching for the 'light' even if subconsciously.

The Higher Self or Soul cannot be realized in the presence of a dominant ego.

 

“To know the real Self to be one’s own is the greatest attainment… To know wrongly the non-self, such as the ego, to be the Self is no attainment at all. One therefore should denounce this perception of taking the non-self for the Self.”

Sri Sankaracharya

 

Ego (together with Monkey Mind and the Shadow) get in the way of our connection with the Higher Self. 

Although Ego is essential for self-mastery and necessary at other times, as a rule it gets in the way of spiritual growth. Non-Attachment to the ego is commendable.

Attachment to the search for the Self or one’s Soul is essential.

Attachments to Ego, Desirous Attachment or Judgment will become the conditions for tying us, according to yoga, to the "yolk of ego" and inheriting more lifetimes.

 

The challenge is relief from ego, how to be free from its tyranny.

The way is relief from ego, surrendering and releasing one’s instinct for protection and cultural conditioning; subduing its tyranny but with respectful and grateful acknowledgement for its appropriate worth.

The “prize” – the place of arrival – is relief from ego and a true sense of the pleasure of its place.

 

Jung doubted that the Western Mind could ever completely get rid of Ego although this is suggested in Eastern teachings on enlightenment. It occurs, but only temporally, in the Oneness Experience or Unity Consciousness. This is when the Knower, the Known and the process of Knowing fuse into one thing. Maslow called this a Peak Experience which occurred among other things during childbirth, orgasm, unravelling a scientific mystery, extreme sporting escapades, partaking in drugs or entheogens, dancing (when one becomes the dance,) in nature and other circumstances. It cannot be anticipated or programmed and usually comes for most of us through grace. However, there are some advanced practitioners who can induce it. 

Ecstasy or oneness can occur during these rare events.

Ego is necessary in its rightful place. We need to discern carefully when that moment presents itself.

“In the samadhi that comes at the end of reasoning and discrimination no such thing as “I” exists but it is extremely difficult to attain as “I” consciousness lingers so persistently. This is why humans are born again and again.” Sri Rama Krishna

 

Whatever the stimulus, the rapture is fleeting and we soon return back into a sense of duality. The challenge is to be aware of this duality and still be able to see the divinity and our oneness with others.

For some it is a life changing experience, others may rationalize it away, trivialize it or forget it. However, it can give one a sense of the other 99 percent world that we usually cannot access. The Zohar teaches that we live in a one percent world.

 

God does not measure results, only the trueness of intent and the fervor of effort. This is why there is such joy in daring one’s best.

If God were after numbers he would have made the way to him abundantly apparent and attractive – enticingly so, ego free and forever lasting.

And of course, the Creator has also granted us our own lens for seeing and our own will for choosing what we see.

Intent, willingness, openness and trust – if you want it all you must offer all.