If you want to sort out your karma and dharma in one fell swoop,
here's how it's done.
Figure out
how to use your free choice constructively.
When you've got that one sorted out, everything else is easy. The big
ideas are really quite simple. That's why everyone stumbles around and
gets them snarled up. They're looking for something complicated. The
simple reality is that the more complicated things are, the further from
The Truth they are. The more simple things are, the closer to Source
you've gotten.
Free choice is the flip side of the coin to karma. Neither one makes
any sense without the other. Karma, as you may recall, is just an
unlearned lesson from the past. The reason things keep coming back to us
is that we have not yet learned the lesson. Once we learn the lesson, the
karma is gone and things do not come back to us.
So what does it take to learn the lesson? Free choice. We have to make
the choice, to decide, to learn the lesson. Admittedly for some people
this is an easier proposition than for others. Rookies often get
side-tracked on issues other than free choice.
But the experienced spiritual seeker knows that Great Journey involves
living one's life such as it may be. In doing so s/he chooses to learn
the lessons life presents as they are presented. It is then that the
karma goes away. The greatest journey of all remains the
journey within, the greatest lessons of all are the lessons within, and the
greatest truth of all is the truth within. Save your air miles for a
holiday.
Fine. But how did the karma begin in the first place? We made a
decision. We exercised our free choice, sometimes consciously sometimes
not. Often enough, in making decisions we do not see at the time of
decision-making all the ramifications and consequences of the decision.
Not a problem. The law of karma brings all the unseen consequences to
our attention eventually, if not in this life then the next.
The curve ball in this is that free choice is not the exclusive
preserve of the conscious mind. An enormous amount of free choice takes
place in realms of the mind which are other than conscious. Many
alternative health techniques work with varying success toward allowing
a person access to these realms.
The key to any of these techniques is the person's motivation to
change, which is still the exclusive domain of the individual. Not much
can be done about that. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't
make it drink.
How do we know when the law of karma is bringing
us a lesson?
Easy. Ever have something happen "to" you. Bingo, right
out of the blue, there's an event you have to deal with. Gotcha. That's
karma. Look for the lesson. Remember, the lesson may not be what you first
think it is, so consider the situation carefully. Remember you have free
choice in how you respond. Do you wish to initiate new karma, or resolve
old karma. Think it over.
This gets even more interesting when you finally come to understand
that it is in the resolution of your karma that your dharma (your right
path) unfolds. For in learning free choice to resolve your karma, you
gain the tools to unlock why you are really here, your dharma.
Eventually the karma is gone and no more is being created, free choice
revolves around the unfolding of dharma, which is when life's journey
takes off and flies into something wonderful.
To live without creating karma does not mean sitting on
a mountain-top somewhere chanting obscure mantras. It does mean still
participating in the world around us. In the East there is a Sanskrit
saying which describes this ability:
Once the lessons of free choice are learned these delightful
little sayings have profound meaning and guidance for our lives.
