FREE WILL AND KARMA # 4

IMPERMANENCE

Impermanence is the backdrop for Free Will and Karma. All we take with us when we die and cross the veil between the worlds are our experiences and our karma. Some live irresponsibly as if there is no tomorrow fully believing that we only live once. They immerse themselves in sensory pleasures and the material pursuits required to fulfill them, imagining that there is no reckoning when they get to the other side or even if there is another side of the veil between the worlds.

The three deadly sins of karma - ego (the self -cherishing of the persona,) desirous attachment and judgment have no hold over them. Judgment of others who have more than they do gives them impetus for gaining more "stuff," power, prestige, fame and the sexual favors that accompany these attributes. Some wear greed as a badge of honor.

"Know not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for you."  John Donne

If we want to cross over to the elsewhere easily we need to practice non-attachment and go into an existential free fall, letting go of everything without fear. Attachments to things, work, loved ones etc. or to the fear of dying can cause an unskillful traverse. One could land up in an undesirable vibration or even become earth bound, stuck between the worlds. Being earth bound impedes the journey of ones soul.

Once we cross over the veil we will all face a spiritual tribunal who judge our skillfulness or unskillfulness navigating samsara (the relentless cycle of birth and rebirth) and the challenges as well as the gifts of being in a sensory body. The consequences of disobeying the laws of spirit are immutable - karma is not negotiable - one's lawyer cannot help us there. Spiritual laws differ to those on the earth plane. These are binding whether you know about them believe in them or understand them or not. Being ignorant of them is no excuse. That is one of the reasons why the Ancestors say' "With all your strength get knowledge."

Everyone can ultimately achieve the spiritual perfection for which we are created. This can take many life times because of free will. 

But ...

"Free will is always neutral, motivated and catalyzed by desire. and

You cannot say, the devil made me do it."

The Ancestors

Free will is the cosmic law. We are free to screw up our karma as much as we choose or take heed of ancient wisdoms. 

"Merit on a judgmental level is the balancing of evil and good deeds. Merit is the credit we receive on the side of good."

"Consequences are neither reward nor punishment, they are simple consequences - natural cause and effect but always inescapable."

Karmic laws are similar to the laws of physics. If you jump out of a building you are going down not up.

"The results of cause and effect are often not immediate because that would influence free will. God wants us to do things for the right reasons, not out of fear or shame and because of what may result but out of love and justice."   

The Ancestors

 The Creator does not want us to do things because of the fear of hell and damnation. We must have right intention. Fear driven good intention is better than negative intention but will still have a karmic consequence. We need to do things for their own sake.

Disobeying karmic laws will earn us another life time. Buddhists practice to inherit a life time better than the present one, where they can continue their spiritual endeavors at a higher level or better still inherit the Pure Land of the enlightened. 

Those who misbehave often reincarnate into the family constellation that best suites them for learning the lessons of their past mistakes. This can be challenging and even more difficult that the previous incarnation depending on the karmic sins.

Nothing is preordained because of free will 

but;

"Everything is foreseen."

"A net is spread out for the living, free will is given, everything is on loan (impermanent) and all is preparation for a grand celebration." Rev Akiva

 The net is the net of samsara, being bound to the cycle of reincarnation that challenge us as sentient beings. If we are skillful  there will be a great celebration.

We are always free to change coarse. If we were not there would be none of the tension required for our victory and fulfillment. There can be no growth without conflict and everything is a test. The light or dark, good or bad, sacred or profane are all necessary and part of the conundrum. We are meant to coexist but not assimilate with the dark. The only way to overcome evil is with good.

"Remember that good prevails by being what it is, not by dispossessing, defeating or winning but simply being more and more of what it is."

"If you would dispel the darkness, seek the sacred."

"What you resist with persist, what you defeat, defeats you, what you destroy destroys you, what you sanctify, sanctifies you."  The Ancestors

All these polarities are a template for spiritual perfection. The Supreme Being doesn't not micromanage. Karma is set as a default into the soul.

We can think of it as enlisting for the "spiritual" special forces. The task is just as difficult although not life threatening. Everyone is welcome to enlist and each of us has the potential for success but it is not easy.

Once we pass over, most of us will go to one of the multiple vibrations in the Astral realm where we lose free will. Our karma is cut in stone but can be redeemed in certain circumstance by forgiveness by the living. Unfinished business is best resolved with forgiveness before someone departs. However, skeletons in the closet can still be released after death by those skilled in spiritual work but will require special rituals. Forgiveness, if sincere, will erase that particular karmic sin and make for a better reincarnation especially if the action was heinous.

Moreover, for the living;  

"with right understanding and action we can create the conditions for transgressions to become merits." 

The Ancestors

Everyone can be redeemed. Those that have reached rock bottom but then still emerge like the Phoenix out of the fire, their efforts are particularly meritorious. They will usually be more powerful spiritually than others that may have had lesser challenges.

"...what counts is to restrain the blaze in the hours of desire and let it flow into the hours of prayer and service." The Talmud

Below are the basic principles of what we will be asked when we cross over and meet with a spiritual tribunal. It is done lovingly. There is no judgment day as such but consequences are consequences.

DESTINY

Click, play and meditate on both messages

05 Crossing Over.mp3

08_Karma.mp3

 ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUL #3

Ancestral quotes are without any acknowledgement.

“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 renounce this perception of taking the non-self for the Self.”
     Sri Sankara Charya

The previous two "architectural" blogs attended the Breath and the Soul being Pure, the Soul's Destiny and the Senses 

This week's is on the Heart 

THE HEART AND LOVE

An open heart is the gateway to the soul

“To awaken the heart is to awaken the dormant soul.” M. Gandhi

The soul’s language is learned by listening with the heart. It has many sounds including that of silence. Its eloquence is universal.

 

When the heart is muffled the soul shrinks.

  

The rational mind often gets in the way of what the heart must embrace in order to coax the soul to open.

Our soul is made for joy and the more we truly love the more we will experience it and become its very essence.

You will come from doubt to belief,

from belief to understanding, 

from understanding to knowing, 

from knowing to feeling (being heart-felt)

This is the way.

The Ancestors

If one studies the "fallen gurus" we can see that they usually had profound knowledge, understanding and wisdom of spiritual principles but little heart. Possibly they began with a heart that was pure but then became corrupted by power, position, persona, and greed. Many abused their students financially, mentally, physically and sexually (their female devotees) using autocratic techniques and dogma as in; "I only can lead you to the truth !" They abandoned the heart chakra and lost the "feeling." This has dire karmic consequences for those that have manage to attain such a high level of vibration.

The heart chakra is one of the most challenging of the chakras to open and an easy one to close. Once they became reattached to the third chakra especially where power resides, they lost the way. Many probably knew what they were doing but the enticements were overwhelming.

 "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men...”               Sir John Dalberg-Acton

We are also now seeing this all around us. There are more autocratic governments in the world today than democratic ones.

It is astonishing and tragic that more and more leaders in the world today are power hungry and totally irresponsible. Some of the more diabolical ones, when they do a measure of good, delude their followers by saying the means justifies the end. This will never hold on judgment day. Sadly the world suffers in the interim.

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

Osho Rajneesh  the fallen guru who took us residence in central Oregon did not fall short of even trying to kill his opponents.

I thought this time I would include more songs with messages of love, to supplement the blog. Mostly the words are verbatim from the Ancestors.

04_Love.mp3

05_Learn_Love.mp3

Monkey (Narrow) Mind gets in the way of the heart. Spacious (Big) Mind, enhances it.

01 Heart.mp3

This song is more about all of our struggles in relationship and distinguishing between Love and lust.

09 Love is Blind.mp3

          

The Architecture of the Soul #2

To continue our journey from the Soul and its Breath are pure, to Destiny and the Senses.

DESTINY

We are made in the Image of the Divine

“The souls of people on their way to earth-life pass through a room full of lights. 

Each takes a taper, often only a spark to guide it in the dim country of this world. 

But some souls by rare fortune are detained longer and have time to grasp a handful of tapers which they weave into a torch. These are the torchbearers of humanity – its poets, seers and saints who lead and lift the race out of darkness towards the light. They are the law givers and saviors, the light bringers, way showers and truth tellers and without them humanity would lose its way in the dark.” Plato

The taper that Plato refers to may be our mission, purpose, destiny, archetype or core or signature strength (Seligman.) Those who are gifted with many tapers are fortunate but it is important to realize that 

only one of those is your prime "taper" 

and the other talents should serve the one. 

Many of the readers here, I am sure, have many gifts and it can be confusing as to which to choose for one's focus. Moreover, to whom much is given much is expected. Your way will be more difficult and demanding unless you choose to squander it.

 We are all given a destiny cup to fill. Some have an easier time since their cup is smaller. Those with huge cups may try to be "a jack of all trades and master of none" - gratifying - but not fulfilling in terms of our karmic requirement.

We are made in the image of the Divine. As above, so below, as without so within - as below so above, as within so without …

 

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

"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."    The Talmud

 

“Despise no human and consider nothing impossible, for there is no person who does not have his hour and there is nothing that does not have its place.” Talmud

 

One’s destiny is soul work. The second agreement Meade talks about below is ego work.

 

“…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

Fate is the cards we are dealt in life which depend somewhat on our karmic profile. Buddhist practitioners pray to inherit a next lifetime so they can continue their spiritual journey at a higher level. That may not be true for many of us. We are meant to rise above our fate in order to find that unique destiny gift we were given by the Infinite One. This gift is designed to enable us to help heal the planet and correct injustice. 

One of the key questions in my divinations that I do for others that often comes up is:

What is my destiny? 

Or alternatively the bones say, 

"you are not in line with your destiny."

 Because of this I am extending this week's meditation to those who choose to listen, to these three songs which embrace the Ancestors' teachings. The songs also come form the spirit world. Their essence is in the vibration and the words and not the singer (me.) For any others who choose not to dwell, proceed to the sayings on The Senses and maybe use the sound to enhance the meaning of those wisdoms.

Click, play and meditate 

02_Be_Yourself.mp3

“Be who you is, ’cause if you ain’t who you is, you is who you ain’t.” Brennan Manning

11 Run Away.mp3

07 I Make the Future..>

 

 THE SENSES

 We are Sentient Beings !

 

One of the gifts we are given when we are reborn is to be in a sentient body. When we die we lose this gift. Across the veil between worlds sensation can be imagined but no longer experienced. We are meant to enjoy and savor the senses while we are here, but responsibly. We will also be accountable to the extent that we did not enjoy those opportunities.

From my flesh shall I behold God.
The route to God is through our senses.

The soul's conversation is not of the mind. It is best heard with the senses.

     The soul's fulfillment is through the experience of the senses.

The soul’s essence should lodge comfortably in the body.

Our soul is made for joy and the more we truly love the more we will experience it and become its very essence.

 

“From the sound of my sighing has my essence (soul) cleaved onto my flesh (body).” King David

 

King David was first a shepherd. He was nature bound and communed with God in the Creator's masterpiece of wilderness. The “sound of sighing" is when we achieve equanimity and unity and we feel as one with our Self (Soul) and our body. This is why the Ancestors stress the power of sensory, active meditations.

The soul yearns to do the Creator’s will and clings to the body when all is well.
A body caught up in cravings and attached to sentient pleasures distances the soul.
The soul withdraws causing illness.
The body’s attachment needs to be broken so the soul (essence,) can return to the body. Sound is a powerful way to bring the soul back into the body.

Soul sickness or loss occurs when the soul which is pure separates from the body from the disgust of the persona reveling irresponsibly in sensual pleasures ("sex, drugs and rock and roll"). This can also occur from guilt, shame and humiliation as a result of severe abuse early or late in life. Other factors can also be responsible; such as severe grief from loss of health a job or a loved one, a lack of any meaning in one's human existence, isolation, addictions, burnout, illness, trauma, as well as spiritual diseases such as intrusive spirits, energetic pollution and sorcery.

The soul - made in the image of the Divine - is pure and whole. When faced with these toxic challenges the soul may separate from the body. Soul sickness or worse, soul loss is sickness in a body deprived of its soul's purpose from any of the above traumas. 

The soul is unified – it does not become split itself but can split with the body.  

Plato is mistaken according to the Ancestors. The ego (parentheses,) monkey mind and the shadow alienate the Soul from it's persona. The soul is not an accomplice, She just checks out.

Some thinkers describe the soul as being broken (or even split.) It is the Ego, Monkey Mind and the Evil Inclination or Shadow that overwhelm Big or Spacious Mind and our inclination to do good, discarding the Higher Self or soul. The heart also pays the price.

To follow in the next blog...

 THE HEART AND LOVE

KARMA

The Architecture of the Soul #1

We begin the blog with some critical aspects surrounding the soul. 

Apologies to the Creator, the Ancestors and other ancient wisdoms for my attempts to describe and simplify some of these mystical concepts. The Ancestors say that our mission is not to explain the mystery but to be in awe and in joy of the mystery. This first blog is more of a meditation with music to help. The words are from the Ancestors, as are all quotes with no name behind them.

The "Table of Contents" for this series are as follows

THE SOUL AND ITS BREATH ARE PURE

THE SOUL AND DESTINY

THE SENSES

THE HEART AND LOVE

KARMA

THE FIVE LEVELS OF THE SOUL

“The soul emanates from the Infinite One, … descends through the worlds leaving a root in each of the worlds, until it is clothed in a physical body. Thus, there are five levels of the soul or levels of God -consciousness, corresponding to the various planes of reality. 

Unity, Intellect, Mind, Energy and the Physical.

These five levels will be discussed in the final blogs 

according to Kabbalah and also to some extent, Patanjali.

Everyone will ultimately achieve the spiritual perfection for which we are created. This may take many lifetimes because of free will.

The search for the Soul, the Self, or the True or real Self is at the core of human motivation whether we know it or not or whether we believe it or try to achieve it or not. We could also call it the Buddha or Christ Self or that part of us made in the image of the Divine. 

The Creator does not micromanage and there are many polarities designed in a mysterious way in the soul's architecture that we need to master in order to allow us to reach this stage of "perfection." Without this tension there would be no challenge. 

"Kabir says, friend, there are very few who find the way."

The gates are wide but few will enter.

The fallacy of perfection is in thinking there is a point of such completeness beyond which there is no place to go, improve, strive for. This differs from excellence which is achievable, always desirable and often necessary but in varying degrees for varying tasks and purposes. 

One could also call "perfection" a certain level of excellence because spiritual perfection is a state of impossibility. Hence the Ancestors prefer the word "Becoming" to that of Self-Realization or Enlightenment which may assume a fixed point - there is always another level of vibration to realize above the one that we have attained. However, once a certain level of excellence is fulfilled, we are no longer required to continue on the journey of "samsara," the cycle of death, reincarnation, mundane existence, suffering and rebirth.

 

"Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth - look at the dying man's struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.” S. Kierkegaard

In spite of this we are told to savor each moment of existence between the polarities of light and dark, good and evil, the sacred and the profane. They are all part of the conundrum that gives us the qualities required to test our resilience on the road to Becoming.

In a sense this divine light may be the same light that we again experience when we pass on to the other side and the one folks who have had a life changing Near Death Experience also enjoy.

These four "Worlds" correspond to the Four Trees of Life through which the universe was created. 

Emanation - in the beginning was the Word (or the Song as we discussed in another blog.) 

Creation - the design. 

Formation - the components required to assemble the structure. 

Actualization - the structure coming into being. 

If we think of anything that we create ourselves, it follows these four stages. For instance an architect designing a building. 

Intention. The Plan. The Components required for the construction of the plan. And finally the Making of it. 

And it all begins in the imagination.

To think like God is to think with imagination.

Whatever cannot be imagined, cannot be fulfilled.

THE SOUL AND THE BREATH ARE PURE

“The soul is pure …” Rev Nachman

 

BREATH

 

Source of my power,

 the breath you have given me, the breath you have given me is pure.

Flame of the Infinite One is the Soul Breath of the human.

Click, meditate and play

06_Soul_Breath.mp3

 

The life breath of the human is the Flame of the Infinite One searching through the chambers of our core. 

Click, play and meditate

04_Life_Breath.mp3

“…What is God? The breath inside the breath.” Kabir

A river arose out of Eden forming Four Rivers and Four Winds   which animate all of creation. The Zohar

 Four Directions and the Four Winds 

 The Four Breaths of the Infinite one.

Click, play and meditate

01 Four Directions.mp3

 The Zohar maintains that the Breath of the Creator is constantly animating all of creation - the Still Beings, the Growing or Sprouting Beings, the Wild (and the domestic) Beings and the Talking Beings. All the other Beings are doing exactly what they we were intended to do by their Creator except for most of us. Our souls' architecture appears to be a unique burden of the Talking Beings by which we all have the potential to attain liberation.