Karma: Good and Bad

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karma

Flying Shaolin Kung Fu Monk

The sad thing about negative karma is that most of it is utterly unnecessary, a waste of time, energy, and other resources that could be put to more productive uses. Next time, before acting out of spite or reacting impulsively out of anger to hurt another person because they have hurt you, think about the price  in karma that you will have to pay one day for your actions. What you do will one day be done to you. If not in this lifetime, in another. In the end, nothing we do is without consequence.

The wise person knows all this and does good things, building positive momentum and good karma to move forward in his life. The foolish person goes on blindly ignoring the Law of Consequences, digging a deeper karmic hole that he will have to climb out of in the future. More often than not, that climb is long and laborious. When we choose to resist the inner imperative to grow, we are choosing to let our karma and our toxicity control our life.

3 Principles of Karma

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karma

Three  principles of karma control much of our life experience.

  • The core concern of  the law of karma is the restoration of balance. When we suffer the pain we once caused someone else, we are being given a critical opportunity to increase our sensitivity to the sufferings of others and to also learn respect for the sanctity of lives other than our own. If we learn from the suffering our past actions have brought upon us, we can restore our balance and complete our karma with respect to that particular issue. If we do not learn from our suffering, our suffering will continue until we do. Once our karma has been set in motion, the only control we have over it is how long it will take us to learn from it.
  •  When we strengthen the negative side of our being, we lengthen our evolutionary journey. Add to our karma, and we may well be adding to the number of lifetimes that are necessary to complete our growth and realize our true identity. Even if we don’t add to the number of our lifetimes, we will certainly add to the weight of karma we must work out of our system in this lifetime. The more karmic weight we carry, the more unhappy and lost we will be, and the more the negative side of experience will dominate our lives.
  • When we add to our karma, we slow our life momentum. The opposite of this karmic principle is also true. When we clear up our unconscious toxicity, our life begins to accelerate. We gain spiritual traction and develop positive life momentum. Our consciousness begins to grow and expand. Our inner light becomes brighter. We begin to get a glimpse of who we really are and experience a greater sense of happiness and inner peace than we had previously known. However, if we still insist on creating more negative karma, none of these positive developments will occur. Upward momentum will wither and fail. Traction will disappear. Inertia will set in. Discouragement and anxiety will become our constant companions and new layers of pain and darkness will obscure the truth of our being. This is the fruit of negative karma.

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Paradigm Shift

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consciousness

Mother Teresa

Consciousness and Congruency

In the new archetype of consciousness, the world and the pursuit of spiritual growth are no longer in conflict but have become congruent. The world is not the enemy, but rather the reflection of our consciousness. We no longer have to be rigid, self-sacrificing, and self-righteous in the attempt to be clear, whole and expand our consciousness. In fact, those attributes will not only prevent us from being whole, but are also clear signs that we have failed in our attempt to elevate our consciousness. It is certainly acceptable to do good works in the world and have material abundance. Moreover, when we are whole and have what we need, we are less consumed by material possessions than we are when we lack them.

The Circle of Wholeness

It is only common sense to realize that if others benefit from our good works, so should we. Giving and receiving are equal parts of a larger whole. When we can receive the love of others, as well as give our love to them, we keep the positive energy flowing forward in our life and elevate our consciousness.

We gain positive life momentum and increase our consciousness when we clear the toxicity from our system. We strengthen and expand that momentum when we give of ourselves and allow others to give back to us. Wholeness is a circle, made up of equal parts of giving and receiving. When we operate within the dynamics of that circle we will experience the abundance and joy that are the signature of an elevated consciousness.

The Real Business of Life

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consciousness

The Doctrine of False Piety

While it may not be apparent to everyone, the real business of life is “growing” our consciousness. In the old archetype of spiritual- ity, the pursuit of consciousness was accompanied by self-sacrifice. Consciousness was associated with martyrdom and a substantial increase in suffering. The physical world was thought of as the devil’s playground, and the acquisition of material goods was strongly discouraged. To do otherwise was to be corrupted and to fail. Self-denial was seen as the essence of piety.

Enforced Denial

Enforced denial, however, creates a powerful attraction for what has been denied. Deny someone something he really wants, and you create a craving in that person for what has been denied him. Deny someone something necessary to his life, and you will only succeed in tying that person tighter to the object of that denial, while at the same time creating in him a great deal of fear and guilt about the issue in general. The end result of enforced denial is that what has been disallowed will become a more powerful theme within that person’s psyche than the search for consciousness ever could. What one can’t have will dominate one’s life. In the end, enforced denial only strengthens the desire nature and defeats the quest for consciousness. It is counterproductive to one’s growth and evolution.

More Internal Obstacles

Enforced denial then, often leads to the opposite of its intended result. Instead of smoothing and quickening the path to truth and higher consciousness, it creates more internal obstacles to be unraveled. It dams up and subverts psychic energy. If you don’t think this is true, consider the plight of the Catholic Church with its central doctrine of celibacy for all priests. Would the tragedy of pedophilia in the priesthood have happened if the doctrine of celibacy no longer existed and priests were free to marry? You don’t find much mention of children being sexually abused by ministers, rabbis, and imams, where the clergy in these respective religions are free to marry and raise a family.

The Game of Life

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karma

Steve Prefontaine

The Pace of Life

It is unfortunate that few people integrate their system, clear their karma and find their wholeness. That failure, however, does not change the rules of the game of life or release us from the unrelenting pressure life places on us to force our growth and resolve our karma. It only means that the consciousness we fail to develop in this lifetime is the consciousness we must develop in our next lifetime. Death does not end the soul’s demand for growth or resolve our lack of integration and our failure to find our real self. Death is but a timeout, a rest stop in the long journey of the soul.

The Pace of Evolution

Since most people are not focused on their integration and internal development, their growth proceeds at a glacial pace. One of the critical functions to fall within the scope of The Law of Consequences (Karma), is the pace of our individual evolution. The Law of Consequences  or karma insures that our life momentum is proportionate to our consciousness and our actions. If we don’t take action to confront and defeat our toxicity and integrate our system, the Law of Consequences will keep the cycle of karma active in our life. The repetition of patterns of karma provides a strong brake to building positive life momentum. Instead of moving toward our destiny, we repeat our toxic patterns of karma. As long as the brake of karma is an active force in our life, our growth cannot be anything but hard and slow. However, when we clear our toxicity and karma, we also remove the karmic brake from our lives and are free to build positive life momentum. When our system is clear of toxic karma, our mind is clear to act in our best interests. A clear system, a clear mind, and clear action create accelerating life momentum. When we escape the heavy weight of our karma, our growth is much faster, and our life becomes much more satisfying than it would be otherwise.

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SHAME: A SUMMARY

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unconscious toxicity

Shame: A summary of major points

  • Unconscious toxicity ties us to the past. While unconscious toxicity remains in the psyche, the past is prologue to the future.
  • We strengthen our shame when we refuse to face it. What we don’t clear becomes repetitive and immortal.
  •  Unconscious toxicity is both kingmaker and spoiler. It gives the ego its crowning power, while preventing the soul from claiming its rightful place of authority.
  • Unconscious toxicity splits us off from our spiritual nature, our happiness and our fulfillment. When toxic elements hide within our psyche, we cannot be whole or advance our evolution beyond where we are now. As long as the negative ego holds the reigns of power, we will never realize our true identity or find our higher purpose.
  • As long as unconscious toxicity remains in the psyche, the negative ego will retain its hegemony over the soul, and inner balance will be impossible to achieve. When we regain our inner balance, we reopen the doors of possibility. The future will not be a restatement of past toxicity, but an opportunity to increase our inner light.
  •  Inner balance emerges when two conditions are fulfilled. First, we burn up our shame. Second, our soul emerges as the rightful ruler of the psyche. When we regain our balance with the soul becoming the main authority in the psyche, we have the opportunity to discover who we really are and what our higher purpose is.
  • When we burn up our unconscious toxicity we jump-start our growth. With the removal of the hidden blocks in our system our life momentum turns positive and progress toward the goal of Self-realization accelerates dramatically.

When Shame is Unresolved

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shame

Shame: Past and Present

When we have failed to face our shame, the unresolved shame of the past becomes the unknown shame the present. When the source of our shame is unknown, it is much more difficult to connect the patterns of the past to the events of the present. Unresolved shame becomes unconscious shame. We don’t know and can’t remember why we feel the way we do. As shame becomes unconscious, the odds increase substantially that it will remain immortal. One of the more disturbing consequences of immortalizing shame is that it greatly increases the internal distance that must be traversed if we are to become the person we were always meant to be.

Real Self vs. Shamed Self

Our real self is not a part of material creation. The real self, unlike the physical body that houses it for a specific incarnation, does not originate in the material world. It belongs to the higher realms of the spirit and is unconditionally immortal. Nothing can change its true nature or destroy it. Shame, in contrast, is a part of material creation. Its immortality is conditional. It only becomes immortal if we refuse to face and clear it. When we finally confront it, it loses its immortal status and is destroyed. It will plague us no more.

Everything in life has a price. Nothing comes without a cost. The price of freedom and fulfillment is overcoming everything within you that is not the real you. The cost of healing your shame is finding it, facing it, feeling it, and clearing it.

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Immortalizing Shame

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The Heart of the Matter

The truth about shame emerges when the surface differences have been shorn of their camouflage and the heart of the matter is all that remains. We cannot evade our shame. If we try to evade our shame, we will only succeed in empowering it in two important ways. First, a toxic event that remains unconscious retains its power. Second, when we allow our shame to retain its power, we make it immortal. The consequences of immortalizing our shame are immense. As long as we permit shame to function with impunity in our psyches, we will never be whole; we will never be happy; we will never be fulfilled; we will not go forward; we will not evolve; we will never know who we really are, or what our true purpose is. Toxic shame defeats the true purpose of our lives.

Psychic Bleeding

Chronic psychic bleeding, a consequence of toxic shame, like that experienced by my client, carries serious and immediate consequences. It steals our energy, deprives us of clarity, and upsets our emotional balance. In the end it leaves us powerless, victimized, enraged, and confused. As long as unconscious shame sits in our system, the door to the soul is closed to further contact, no matter how much we might meditate or pray, or how many hours of Yoga we might do a day. Nor does physical death end the tyranny of shame.

Our Unresolved History

Everything we failed to resolve while on earth must be resolved upon our return to earth. When we die, the emotional energy associated with our experience of shame leaves with us, becoming a part of our soul complex and a component of our unresolved history as an incarnated entity. Since shame survives death, it becomes more deeply embedded in the subconscious in our next incarnation and more unavailable to us. When we don’t deal with our shame, we immortalize it. What we postpone ends up owning us. When we immortalize our shame, we increase its potency.

An Original Sin

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sin

Original Sin, Originating Shame

As the example in my last post (Thank God!) indicates, while the participants in our toxic drama often change, the central theme of that drama does not. This is the psychological equivalent of original sin. An originating trauma becomes an ongoing problem. We rarely want to face our shame –sin– because shame, at its core and in its darkest places, makes us feel fatally flawed, unfixable, and unworthy. To feel unfixable is unendurable.

The Flight to Desire

The most common solution to the problem of shame-sin is to deny that it exists and then flee desperately into our desire nature as fast as we can. Unfortunately, our desires are not well equipped to save us from our deeply entrenched and hidden shame and sense of sin. Instead of releasing us from the oppressive weight of our toxicity/sin, and the toxic situations we draw to us, they divert us from the hidden issues that dominate our lives. While desire may distract us, it can never redeem us.

Camouflage and Packaging

In my client’s case, the future repetition of the original problem of shame/sin arrived in a compelling disguise, packaged in a different personality and starring in a different role. If we allow ourselves to be distracted by the superficial differences provided by an appealing disguise, we will fall victim to the devious power that our denied shame/sin possesses to reach into the future and sabotage our life. (to be coninued.)

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Thank God!

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http://citizenbfk.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/070215231620o6plml2g0_judge-larry-seidlinb.jpg

The Lethal Nature of Unconscious Toxicity

If we permit unconscious toxicity to remain entrenched in our system, however, it will recreate the dysfunctional patterns of our original wounding experience. The wounds of the past will become the wounds of the present. The way we once bled will be the way we bleed again. Subconscious determinism will override the will of the conscious mind, severely limiting our ability to experience real inner freedom or find fulfillment.

When the subconscious contains hidden toxicity the people and situations we draw to us may seem to be very different from those that were toxic to us in the past, but the underlying patterns we experience in our encounters with them will be the same. They will still carry the same toxic charge for us as the people who originally shamed us, and they will infect us with that same toxicity all over again.

The Lawyer and the Judge

I once had a client, a female attorney, who was divorcing her husband, who happened to be a judge. She constantly complained that her husband was dry, distant, cold, and critical. While he may have had the perfect personality for a judge, he had the wrong one for a marriage. He constantly put her down and made her feel inadequate. Her self-esteem was virtually non-existent. When she first came to see me, her system was full of rage toward all men. In our first few sessions, we were able to clear some of her rage. That clearing created enough reflective space in her system for me to ask her about her childhood and her parents. When I asked her about her father, she answered that he had been warm, outgoing, engaging, and funny, nothing at all like her husband.
“Was your childhood a happy one?” I asked.

“Not really,” she admitted in a low voice.

“Why?” I asked.

“Well,” she started hesitantly, “My father was warm and funny, but he picked on me and made fun of me! He made me feel really inadequate and ashamed of myself, although I’m sure he didn’t mean to.”

With that confession, she burst into tears. I let her cry, making no attempt to console her. Consolation, like sympathy, validates the inner victim and interferes with the clearing process. Consoling her would have kept her rage intact, stopped her progress, and deprived her of the opportunity to discharge an important piece of her childhood shame. When she finished crying and became more peaceful, I pointed out the connection between her father and her husband.

“So,” I began, “while your husband and father are nothing alike, at least in terms of their personality, they are very much alike with regard to the quality that wounded and shamed you. Both of them were critical of you. Both of them made fun of you. Both of them put you down. Both of them made you feel inadequate and worthless. Your father caused your original shame. Your husband reopened that wound. Chronologically, the wounding events of your childhood are many years behind you, but the toxic emotion from those experiences is still very present in your system. Those emotions haven’t been banished. Instead, they have traveled with you into the present. Although hidden, they control your life.”

Shame

“Shame is a very powerful ongoing emotional event. It is not over just because the time it happened in is past. Time doesn’t separate you from your toxic emotions, as it separates you from the historical events of the past. If your toxicity remains unconscious, it will continue to terrorize you until you clear your childhood shame. If you don’t clear your shame, you will pull someone else into your life that will do the same thing to you. If your childhood dynamics had been more positive, you never would have married your husband in the first place. The source of your problem lies in your relationship to your father. Your husband is the result of that originating pattern.”

Getting Over Daddy

“Great!” she said, feeling frustrated by the task ahead of her. She had come to me to get over her husband. Now she had to deal with something even more difficult and overwhelming, her father.

“It only seems impossible now,” I told her. “The reality is that it should be fairly simple to clear the childhood shame from your system. The worst is over. You have faced the truth. When you know the truth you know what to do. The truth about your toxicity is a map that reveals your path to wholeness. Right now, your path goes through your relationship to your father. Every time you reveal and redeem another layer of your toxicity, you will discover more of your path and stand in more of your light. We make our way to our truth, step by step. Every step we take brings us more freedom. Much of life is about overcoming the negative. Since we all have had a different life experience, we each have a unique path to discover who we really are. This is your path.”

“Is this about the worst thing you’ve ever had to deal with?” she asked in the wounded voice of a child.

“No,” I replied. “It’s actually one of the easier dilemmas I have faced. This should be routine. The good news is that we now know where we’re going. The next step of your path is clearly defined. Your material is fairly mobile and should be easy to move. We should get through it quickly.”

“Thank God!”