KARMIC PRINCIPLES
"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 peoples' opinion and you will be their prosoner. Do your work, step back, the only way to serenity." Tao Te Ching
Everything is a karmic test;
Without the mundane there is no sacred and without the sacred there is no mundane. They are different sides of the same reality. They are unique but not separate from the whole.
If you would dispel the darkness, seek the sacred.
We need tension for perfection. This lies between the negative and the positive, the light and the dark, good and evil. We can think of a striving for the Higher Self and enlightenment as enlisting in the spiritual special forces - its not easy. "The gates are wide but few will enter."
"Kabir says; friend there are very few who find the way."
All the same we must do our best.
God does not judge us by results but only intention and the fervor of our efforts.
FULFILL YOUR DESTINY
Destiny is what we give of our gift. Karma is how we behave to our-Selves and others in terms of accountability and how we handle our fate. We may be in line with our destiny but carrying it out in an unskillful way, not in line with karma. Our true destiny eludes most of us and is an entire subject on its own. A hero's journey and helping others for its own sake by practicing our core strengths may help to show us the way.
The hunt for our destiny is the hunt of your lives. Stick to the scent, stay on the spoor.
CORRECT INJUSTICE
Our role on earth is to correct injustice.
If the law does not serve love, do not serve the law.
This does not mean to disobey the law and be incarcerated but to maintain one's own opinions and do the best we can under the circumstances. Also to deepen our reltationship with the divine and to the conundrum of life's challenges. The law frequently is without compassion and not just.
"Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and render unto God that which is God's." Jesus
DO NO HARM
Doing good prevents us from doing harm. We cannot separate the love principle from doing no harm. In fact all these karmic tenets overlap and are ultimately governed by love. There is one single truth and that is love.
"What is hateful to yourself, do not do to others." Hillel
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
The Ancestors teach that we should do to others that which they would like you to do for them-Selves (without enabling and for their greater good.) They may not want you to do what you would want for yourself.
We ought to do unto others as they would have us do unto them - having their need and want rather than our own be our guide in our relationships.
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
does not mean you have to like your neighbor but to see the divinity in him/her - that we all have within our Selves. To practice random acts of kindness for it own sake.
"See yourself in others, then whom can you hurt, what harm can you do." Dammapada
Duality creates harm.
"The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose I am here and you are out there." Roshi
We all will return, dust to dust, ashes the ashes.
"Air we are, earth we are, water, fire and spirit we are. We are the children of the earth and seas and there is no part of us that is not of God." Celtic wisdom
We are all one though not the same.
"I am you and you are me. Isn't it obvious, we inter are." Thich Nhat Hahn
Buddhist practice demands that we try to do no harm to all Beings, no matter how small...
"It cost me never a stab or squirm to tread by chance upon a worm. 'Aha my dear' I will say, your clan will pay me back one day." Dorothy Park
HEAL THE PLANET AND ALL ITS BEINGS. SERVICE TO, AND HELPING OTHERS
More than ever because of the earth changes...
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty" G. K.Chesterton.
Karma yoga is the path of action and service to others with mindfulness.
"We are here to help others. What on earth others are here for I do not know." W. H. Auden
" The worship most pleasing to God is service to others." Leonardo Boff
"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." W. Churchill
SUBORDINATE EGO
"The light of lights looks always on the motive and not the deed... the shadow of shadows on the deed alone." W. B. Yeats
Do all for its own sake and not for reason of any outcome. All is a journey and not a destination and is a continual arriving.
Yoga philosophy maintains that any motivatrion bound to an ego motive has the potential to earn us another life time. Good deeds done for an agenda may at most be karmically neutral.
Emperor Wu asked; "I've built temples and ordained monastics - what merit is there in this? Bodhidharma replied; no merit."
Ulterior motives are underrated. Acting compassionately to do good for any reason is preferable to not doing good at all. But determine well your heart's desire for in releasing the power of your motivation its energies will actualize the holiness or unholiness of your intent.
LOVE
Transformation happens from how lovingly one attends. No matter how successful the outcome and skillful one becomes, no matter the satisfactions and rewards, fulfillment resides only in love.
"But I say to you deeds of love are worth as much as all the commandments of the law...not learning but doing is the chief thing." Talmud
"Love is the most formidable and mysterious of all the cosmic energies." De Chardin
Belief generated by a love vibration empowers the placebo effect.
"Only love can generate the healing fire." Agnes Sanford
Love channels Universal Healing Energy from the Field which in essence is the love from the Creator.
"If you want to be a good healer you must love the person no matter what you think of him/her." San Bushmen healer
JOY - GRATITUDE
Our soul is meant for joy and the more we truly love the more we will experience its very essence.
Gratitude facilitates joy. Joy is a powerful word and true joy eludes many of us most of the time. Joy has synonyms which sound less demanding and also are karmically relevant; happiness, equanimity, inner peace, serenity, harmony, balance, meaning, belonging ...
"I do not know what your destiny will be but one thing I know, the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."A. Schweitzer
Buddhism teaches us to take our suffering and make something useful out of it by helping others. This is a recipe for happiness - good karma yoga. The more self-centered we are the more miserable we become. This is set as a default into the soul.
" Joy is not incidental to your spiritual practice, it is vital." Rev Nachman
Any who bring joy to another, give God joy. Any who act with love for the other's good and pleasure do themselves partake of God's rivers of pleasure and good.
"I slept and dreamt life was joy. I awoke and saw life was service. I acted and behold service was joy." Tagore
Give without remembering. Take without forgetting. Give freely. Receive openly. Do all with gratitude. It is the way of love. It is the way of joy.
Neuroscience has shown that gratitude is not only spiritual practice but also that it enhances our well being. Gatitude may in fact be the only form of spiritual practice. When we pray and ask for something it is supplication which has a different energy. Performing random acts of kindness creates gratitude. Ancient wisdom teaches that when we help others we find more meaning and happiness which is also a recipe for gratitude.
Be grateful and you will be happy. happiness leads to great empowerment. Attend to your well-being especially to happiness, the cause of which is sometimes found in hidden recesses, always in gratitude.