Karma # 2

To the best of my understanding there are six main factors determining our karma and which challenge our free will. 

Fulfill your destiny

Correct injustice – heal the planet

Do no harm

Subordinate ego to the higher Self

Love

Be in joy doing all this

Destiny
(This week we will focus on destiny)

"The hunt for one's destiny is the hunt of one's life, stay on the scent, follow the spoor." The Ancestors

“Everyone has in him/her something Divine, something his own, a chance of perfection and strength, however small, a sphere which God offers him to take or refuse. The task is to find, develop and use it.”Sri Aurobindo

“In every person there is something precious which is in no-one else. And so we should honor each for what is hidden within them for what only they have.” Talmud

"The sages teach that all that happens; happens as it must.
What occurs cannot occur contrary to the conditions of its occurring or contrary to its nature.
A cedar tree does not spring from an acorn." The Ancestors

“… Each soul makes Two agreements upon entering the world. The First binds the individual to a distinct destiny that becomes the soul’s great project in life. The Second entangles each person in the limitations of fate and responsibilities for family and community. 
While all second agreements can be renegotiated, the first is non-negotiable.” 
Michael Meade

“It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”  
William Ernest Henley

Fate involves the circumstances surrounding us and our destiny mission. Fate is the cards we are dealt in life which may have a lot to do with our karma. It is said that one's fate may be determined by geography or one's Zip code and there can be truth to that. However, we need to rise above our fate and into our true destiny path. Destiny will be fashioned by our choices – skillful or not. Destiny is that illusive, but unique gift we were granted so that we could give of ourselves to the planet and all Beings. Most of us do not find it easily.

“All the talents of God
are within you.
 How could this be otherwise when your soul is derived  from His
genes!” 
Hafiz

We co-create with the Divine – His/Her creation cannot fully manifest without our help. God wants a personal relationship with each one of us. There is a direct link in the search for the Self and the Hero/ine’s search for his/her archetype or destiny path. They are shades of the same thing.

“Hold to your vision - be true to your myth.” J. Campbell 

“… put out to sea! Save your boat’s journeying soul, cost what it may.” 
Dom Helder Camara
You cannot separate the Soul from your destiny path.

“The outward work can never be small if the inward one is great, and the outward work can never be great if the inward is small or of little worth... All works are surely dead if anything from the outside compels you to work. Even if it were God himself compelling you to work from the outside, your works would be dead. If your works are to live, then God must move you from the inside, from the innermost region of the soul - then they will really live. There is your life and there alone you live and your works live.” Patanjali

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” Patanjali

Seligman the father of positive psychology would describe this as finding one's core or signature strength and meaning in one's life.

“Unthinking conformity no matter how piously enacted lacks meaning and as such is soulless.
One must be bold in questioning; that to just accept without inquiry is simply surface learning by rote not the deeper learning of thoughtful consideration.
Our deeds fashion our destiny so do our understandings fashion our deeds.” The Ancestors

There can be no copy-cat destiny path, we have to find our own way and our own spiritual path to assist us along the way. We cannot come to end of our lives with a mission that society or our parents have laid out for us. Yes, “Everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is given.”  Akiva.
We have the free will to do as we please but will have to come back later to get it right if we are misdirected. 
Frequently when I do a divination, the Destiny bone is mal-aligned. When I ask the person what do they do as opposed to what they would they have done, if they had had the choice - their heart's choice would often have been very different.

Of all the teachings the Ancestors have given us, there are a plethora around us being truly congruent with ourselves.

“Anything or anybody who does not make us more of who we are makes us less of who we are.” 

We have to be truly ourselves in manifesting our unique God given gifts.

"The focus is on becoming more of who you are. 

You must free yourself to be yourself.
Do not be captive to the demands of false duty.
Do not take on what is not yours to take on.
If you will not be you who then will be? 
Be patient with yourself, kind to yourself and release yourself from what you are not accountable."

"God most delights when you are most you, when you are being most yourself." 

"Look carefully to what you aspire, cherish and guard so as not to squander your gifts nor lose your heritage."

“You must free yourself to be yourself. Do not be captive to the demands of false duty.
Be attentive only to the responsibility of what compels.
Bestow blessings, refuse burdens.
What makes you beholden enslaves you.
What makes you grateful blesses you.
What you touch, touches you. What you let touch you, enhances or diminishes.” 

"The most dangerous distraction is the lure of beguiling but essentially extraneous information - be it false or true. More important, is it useful to you, does it inspire, support, advance and enhance who you are and your relationship with God or is it merely speculative, and appealing to your curiosity?"

Are you nibbling on the apples of the Tree of Knowledge or are you nurturing whatever proud plant or humble weed is your present entrustment? It is that which you are to make glorious."

"Whoever does not help you be more of you, lures you to be less of you and then neither of you blesses or is blessed. S/He who helps you be more of you well-serves both himself and you so that you each can bless and are blessed."

The Ancestors

Congruence: Emotions and their expression match and behavior arises from the root of their being. They sing their own song and do not do things for others’ approval. Soul, heart and intellect are congruent.
"Care about others' approval and you will be their prisoner." 
Tao Te Ching

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” C.J. Jung

“This above all, to thine own self be true.” Shakespeare

We may have found our destiny but it is vital to do it it within the integrity of the laws of spirit. 

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07 I Make the Future..>