KARMA #1

We are meant to coexist with but not assimilate the dark. The only way to overcome evil is with good.

The light and the dark each exist. We may choose to go towards either and will always be pursued or lured by the other.
The ambushes, the side paths, the pot holes are all clearly marked and may be guarded against if you choose to read the map, scope the terrain, plot the journey.

THE EVIL INCLINATION OR SHADOW

Before discussing Free Will with the benefits of the Ancestors' prose it is important to share their teachings on the Evil Inclination. They say it better than I can paraphrase it.

While it is true that “Evil Inclination” (Shadow) is a collective name given to the drives and attitudes of our baser instincts, these instincts are necessary for our physical survival and while they can interfere with our spiritual growth and closeness to God, it is God Himself who has put within us this inclination just as it is S/He who put within us the Inclination to do Good.

 

It is not the task of our Good Inclination to do away with our Evil Inclination nor to overcome it, but rather to balance and guide so that our drives, attitudes and instincts may support our soul’s purpose. Drives toward power, acquisition, sensory pleasure and self-oriented experience are not evil in themselves but can lead to evil when they go unchecked or are put to solely selfish or wrongful use. 

However, when they are controlled and properly channeled by our Good Inclination they can lead to responsible actions, to good purpose and to sanctified relationships. 

All are important to experiencing lasting and meaningful pleasures and satisfactions as opposed to hollow and transitory gratifications. 

We have free will to decide. Nothing determines or compels our moral choice although we may be influenced by circumstances and by persons that either strengthen our will or weaken it, help us or deter us. Their influence is also a choice.

 

Most are unaware of the wiles of our “Evil Inclination” who is a master of disguises, all appealing to our lesser self. His job is to make the rigors of spiritual growth seem wearisome, dull and drearily repetitive rather than exciting, adventuresome and cherishingly ritualistic.

Credo Mutwa a renowned Zulu prophet (sanusi) described the soul as having two worms within us that are both constantly moving. The one is blue, representing good, and the other red, representing evil. He adds that if there is only a blue worm the soul will have to struggle to survive (i.e. spiritually - there is no tension for spiritual growth.) If there is only a red one that person does not deserve to survive. Our Tricksters, Ego and Monkey Mind help the Evil Inclination aggravate our unskillfulness.

“He who has no Evil Inclination at all cannot give perfect service. 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

There is a Native American story about a grandfather talking to his grandson about the Evil Inclination and saying within everyone there are two wolves fighting for domination; the one good and the other evil. His grandson asks him, "which one wins," and his grandfather answers; "the one you feed."

 

This is what gives it birth and sustains its life. We have both a dark and a light side to our nature., When we choose God’s revealed will the consequence is good – “his” (the Evil Inclination) – is an instinctual and immediate gratification which is why "he" can be an inner challenger of great value if you choose to appropriately engage but do not let him convince you that obstacles and difficulties need to be cleared away in order for you to transform.

 

With right understanding and action, we can create the conditions for transgressions to become merits.

 

Everyone can be redeemed regardless of our Shadow. For those that have reached rock bottom but manage to emerge like a Phoenix out of the ashes, their efforts are particularly worthy. They will be looked on favorably from above and will often be more powerful spiritually than others that may have had lesser challenges.

The Talmud teaches that someone who has sinned in the worst way but then repents or “returns" to his or her Higher Self gains tremendous karmic merit in the spirit world. 

 

“… This person stands higher in heaven than a righteous one. Their degree is above the degree of those who have never sinned because it is more difficult for them to subdue their passions than for the others.”

“This is what God asks of you, only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah

“Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill, keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt, chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench, care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back, the only way to serenity.”  Tao Te Ching

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

 

Karma is about spiritually attaining merit. According to both Eastern spirituality and Kabbalah everything we do is recorded in the Akashic records or the Book of Life. We get away with nothing on the other side. 

The higher we get up the “rungs” to God, the more the challenges that we will encounter, not only from the shadow, ego and monkey mind but also the tricksters appointed to sabotage our path. To the tricksters spiritual transformation is a reproach to their mission which is to sabotage anything of the light.

The sages teach that without the sacred there is no mundane and without the mundane there is no sacred. They are different sides of the same reality. They are unique but not separate from the whole.

Without light and dark, good and evil, the sacred and the profane, life would present no challenge. If everything was sweet and good, life would be spiritually insipid, boring and deadly. There must be tension for perfection. The challenge is to find the balance between the polarities of negative and positive. Peace of mind can often be a measure of one’s karma.

Karma is built in as a default into the soul. God does not play favorites – S/He loves us all and hopes like the prodigal son or daughter that we will all eventually be redeemed and return to the Father/Mother. Karma is a single individual’s test concerning love, for his/her own soul’s sake.

 

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

 

We build on the experiences of our past incarnations. Without the sum total of all our prior life time experiences we could not be where we are now, in a sentient body, hopefully facing the challenges at a higher level. This also resides in the Buddhist concept of our Store Consciousness and in our "Soulular" memory often in the form of de ja vu. We know much more than we think we know and are much more than we believe ourselves to be if we tap into our "Store."

Karma occurs as a template to free will and impermanence. Free will determines our choices and our actions and nothing lasts. We need to be in the moment with all the gifts given to us with gratitude. We can only take our karma and how we handled our experiences with us when we eventually cross the veil between worlds. The Ancestors live in the moment and teach that we should take only what we need from the past and leave the rest behind.

 

The contest is fiercest when the stakes are high and so we may expect to be challenged, tempted and dissuaded in any and all manner of our weaknesses – be they physical, mental or emotional – all of which are attributes of the spirit.

 

In addition, ego, our shadow and our tricksters can tempt us to do the right thing for the wrong reason. Karmically, the means never justifies the end.

 

“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
                                                                                                            Karmic merit depends on whether we subordinate our Evil inclination or Shadow to our Inclination to do good, Monkey (Narrow) mind to Spacious mind and Ego to the higher Self. Tricksters or dark forces need to be subordinated to our Good Inclination, Spacious mind, our Higher Self, all with the help of our guides. 

Christianity teaches that Jesus died for our sins and that everyone can be redeemed. This confirms that everyone is worthy of redemption no matter how heinous their action/s. We, however, have to do due diligence on our own behalf in order to be released from our malignant actions.

We need to see ourselves as the Creator wants to see us rather than those who may be more interested in our persona than our soul. The sages council that it often gets harder as we advance with our practice.