Karma

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

Karma is about spiritually attaining merit. According to both yoga 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. Karma - the law of cause and effect is unyielding. The laws on our earth plane do not necessarily work across the veil between worlds. One's lawyer cannot help us when we face a spiritual tribunal after death.

“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 Ancestors

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

The factors the dark side can play upon are subtle but powerful.

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

When it comes to one’s karma, the end never justifies the means.

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

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

“The results of cause and effect are often not immediate because they would influence free will.
God wants us to do things for the right reasons; not out of fear and shame and because of what may result but out of love and justice.” The Ancestors

The Creator does not want us to be motivated by the fear of hell and damnation as our reason for good behavior - good is better than bad but karmically neutral and without merit. Moreover, if rewards were immediate then we would be no better than a well trained animal who gets a treat every time it performs correctly when commanded.

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 will be karmically passive. It is better to give charity - even if it is to get our face in the media of for a tax deduction - than not to give it but the act may not have spiritual merit depending on our intent. 

Karma is about subordinating our evil inclination or shadow to our inclination to do good, subordinating monkey mind to spacious mind, subordinating ego to the higher Self and the trickster influence to that of our guides and the Creator’s will.

 “To make a choice good and evil must both operate freely.
Choice is either evil or good.”

“There are no good choices or bad choices only the consequences of those choices. Consequences are neither reward nor punishment, they simply are consequences - natural cause and effect, often not immediate but always inescapable.”
Akiva taught;
"Everything is given on loan (impermanent - we cannot take it with us,) a net is set out for the living (the net of samsara, being bound to and tempted by a sentient existence,)  
... and free will is given."
These are the polarities that will push us to the left (good) or to the right  (bad) depending on our choices. If our choices are consistently bad we can experience Soul Sickness or even Loss.

King David wrote; 

"From the sound of my sighing has my essence cleaved onto my flesh."

He is describing 

Essence - being the Soul 
and Flesh - the body

and Sighing 

 equanimity, harmony, balance. No doubt when he was a shepherd tending his sheep he must have felt this more often than after he became king. We have all experienced this "sighing" coming out of a meditation, a yoga class, a really good massage or following a spiritual retreat in a pristine area. 

At these times our essence clings to our flesh and we feel at one. 

However, at other times when we are under severe stress or in survival mode, monkey mind and ego with an element of shadow take over and spacious mind and our good inclination may be put on hold, unless we have an advanced spiritual practice which will bring us back to equanimity. 

If monkey mind, shadow and ego prevail over all else on a long term basis then the soul, being pure, withdraws from the body. This usually occurs due to irresponsibly overindulging in sentient pleasures such as "sex, drugs, rock and roll." If we are only deserving of negative karmic merit soul sickness or even soul loss can occur as the right sided factors on the diagram above take over from who we truly are or should be. 

Who do we want to be and what do we need to see?

“We do not see things as they are

We see them as we are.” Talmud

We all have a shadow side or an evil inclination. We also have an inclination to do good so what happens to our karma depends on which one of these we feed. If monkey mind, ego or the tricksters have any say it will be our evil inclination that gets "watered." Spiritual practice will bring spacious mind, the Higher Self and our guides to our assistance. A regular spiritual practice is an indispensable catalyst to our "Becoming" which will occur with a shift to the left side of the diagram, except possibly under extremely stressful circumstances when it may deviate but then with discipline, rapidly return.

“S/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.” Talmud

 The tension between these polarities is where spiritual maturity happens. We might have the intention to do something bad or unskillful but if we act consciously instead, we can attain karmic merit.

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

in other words if we

"... restrain the blaze in the hours of desire and let it flow into the hours of prayer and service.”

The Talmud says that someone who has sinned in the worst way but then Repents or "Returns to his or her Higher Self 

"... 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 also Jesus's teaching of the prodigal son/daughter who returns to the Father/Mother

 “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.”  The Ancestors

"If God were after numbers he would have made the way abundantly apparent and attractive - enticingly so, ego free and forever lasting. The Infinite one has also granted us our own lens for seeing and our own will for choosing what we see." The Ancestors

We need to see ourselves as the Creator wants to see us rather than those who may be more interested in our personas than our soul.

“The menu is only the menu.
It offers, it describes, it suggests.
When the meal arrives do not put it aside.
Absorb the reality of your choice.
If you do not taste the nature of God in your selection, you must choose another dish, if indeed you desire to be for the Infinite One, all that He is for you.
For although the Creator's breath will be present, His presence will not manifest for you.

You need to choose the offering He has prepared especially and selectively for you.” The Ancestors

The sages teach that it does not necessarily get any easier as we advance with our practice. 

"The contest is fiercest when the stakes are high and so you may expect to be challenged, tempted and dissuaded in any and all manner of your weaknesses - be they physical, mental or emotional - all of which are attributes of the spirit.” The Ancestors

There are six main factors determining our karma and which challenge our free will. We will talk about them in the future blogs,

Fulfill your destiny

Correct injustice – heal the planet

Do no harm

Subordinate ego to the Higher Self

Love

Be in joy doing all of this

Click on the link to play and meditate on it
03_Light_and_Dark.mp3