LIFE – Let It Flow Easy!!
The third law which is important to understand is the Law of Cause and Effect or famously known as Law of Karma. The biggest myth to drop – unlike how many interpret or think of Law of Karma, it is definitely NOT a law of punishment. Its a simple law of Action and reaction or law of feedback. What you sow is what you reap. So if you sow banana seeds, you are not going to get apple trees. You will, if you tender to the saplings and take care of the soil, water it regularly, not let weeds grow or insects or animals destroy it , you may get Banana trees over a period time. And those trees have the potential to give more bananas and banana trees.
In the ancient Hindu philosophy there are various concepts within the Law of Karma. For example, the predetermined circumstances that one is born with e.g., someone is born in a well to do or poor family, so called birth abnormalities or not, the tendencies one carries forward and what one has to work with in the current life time, the conscious or unconscious patterns in behaviour. I believe that whilst those concepts may explain or answer some of the questions that may arise in one’s mind in terms of why some people are born with a silver spoon or why some people face a lot of setbacks and challenges and poverty, or why are some are born in a war zone or third world or developed countries etc., I prefer not to go into those concepts as knowing them per se does not change the potential that we carry in terms of free will to alter our destiny or experiences of the current life. Our thoughts fundamentally determine our destiny. And this is the extremely precious and all time relevant advice that Lao Tzu gave us thousands of years back when he said
watch your words, they become actions;
watch your actions, they become habits;
watch your habits, they become character;
watch your character, for it becomes your destiny”
Our free will is always available to us – in terms of the choices we make to awaken or to continue to live our lives with the blinds and that choice is given to us every single moment, every breath that we take. If we choose to awaken, live more consciously, with more awareness moment by moment, we start breaking away from the unconscious tendencies or behaviour patterns that we have accumulated and we start living an enriching life.
Its a CHOICE that we have, that we make to live our lives like a Master or like a victim. If our actions are from a place of awareness, then whatever feedbacks or reactions we receive, we will be able to make the best use of that. However, if we choose to live like victims, blaming everyone else and everything else outside of us, our environment, our country, our politicians, government policies, family members, or previous lives Karma or even God in a lot of situations, without realizing that the feedback or the reactions we receive, we only perpetuate the place where we took the actions from i.e., the victim mind.
Our victim mind finds it extremely difficult to take ownership of where we are in terms of our life or the experiences that we are creating for ourselves. The victim mind likes to blame or wants to put the ownership on someone else ( mostly we blame our parents and our way of thinking passed onto us by them and our ancestors, or God or very often destiny or fate rather than our actions, our mind. The Laws of Duality, Impermanence and Karma are all interlinked and not mutually exclusive. How we perceive death or life is our Karma and our karmic relation to ourselves.
The law of cause and effect helps us understand the interrelation between the whole of existence – a story within a story, a pattern within a pattern. For life goes in circle. Everything in this universe has a circular pattern, a spiral pattern. Look around closely – the galaxies, the rotation of the earth, moon and planets around the sun, the spiral pattern in fruits and vegetables, leaves, flowers, shells, etc. The genesis of it is also within the Fibonacci series.
In simple words, what we experience in life is a reflection of our state of mind. Whatever is inside, will come outside. Squeeze an orange, orange juice will come out. Whatever we sow in terms of our intention in our inner world (our mind), becomes a reality in our external world through our actions. And what we then reap is responses / reactions in our external world. And then we once again have that CHOICE to whether respond consciously or react unconsciously.
It is a lot hard for most to accept and undertake that ownership of being the co-creators of our own destiny. A lot tend not to agree to such a radical view point of taking 100% ownership of their lives in their own hands. We worry about what the society will say, we take our relationships way too seriously to an extent that we even continue to live in a toxic environment or for that matter tolerate the toxic actions of others ( which obviously are taken from their ignorant mind). I think for most of our adult lives, we refuse to let go off of our child mind which is used to being taken care of or looked after. The expectation is rather silent but when not fulfilled brings immense suffering. Once the awareness trickles in, we can make that choice of moving from an infant to an adult and thus evolve or rather remember. (they say we are spiritual beings having a human experience, who have forgotten our connection with divine and hence have forgotten our divinity).
When we start looking at the experiences we are creating from a place of being the owners of our actions and life, we start realizing that Karma is definitely NOT a law of punishment. Its a simple law of action and reaction. Its like a boomerang. Whatever goes around, comes around. If one is living with an abusive partner, one has chosen to continue to live that life mostly out of insecurities and fear or if one chooses to walk away, then the person has taken steps to alter the life experiences that they are creating. And that’s the power of CHOICE or free will we have. Its like the story of the dog we CHOOSE to bring into our lives ( refer the write up Ways to live I and II). Successful people, or people who we label as being strong or fighters are that because at every single step, despite the positive or negative outcomes, they make the choice to be the Masters of their lives. My teacher always used to remind me, there are absolutely NO CHOICELESS moments in our lives. There is action in inaction. At some point in time, whenever we choose to lead our lives as the Masters of our lives, we have to ask ourselves the bigger question – Why do we do what we do….? What’s the mindset / thoughts driving the action or inaction…
Note the patterns in your intentions, thoughts and actions. If those thoughts, intentions, actions give you the outcome that you want, continue. If not, change your thoughts, intentions and actions. We all have the power to choose the frequency at which we vibrate – love or gratitude or fear or lack. It actually is that simple – the only challenge or difficulty we have to overcome is our unconscious self limiting belief systems and demolishing the walls of our conditioning ( acquired from others or self created).
Remember whatever actions ( conscious or unconscious) we choose to sow, the freedom of action is always available to us. Make your choice with wisdom.