Mind the Threefold Law you should, three times bad and three times good.- Wiccan rede
Whatever you do comes back to you, whether it’s good or bad. We get rewarded for our good actions and punished for bad ones. That is our Western way of thinking about it. Which is interesting, given our rational and scientific way we describe the world. Isn’t the idea of some mysterious force being out there to get us within the realm of magical thinking? If this makes things easier for you, stick to it. Try to be the best person you can, do good things, avoid doing bad things and rationalise the events in your life through karma from our past lives.
I however would like to take a different approach. In my understanding, it is all down to awareness.
Think about it for a minute. So you think we have free will… Do we, really? We have our lifelong experience of conditioning and emotional blockages that decide for us. Our rational mind may know something but by trying to control the outcome, we’re stuck in the same point only in a different way. Until the emotional blockages are cleared. Our free will is limited to the things we are aware of. There is a lot of shit buried in our subconscious. Our way of thinking is shaped by our beliefs, values, background, families of origin, early life experiences, 20+ years of conditioning, prejudices and even as much as hormones. When it comes to anything that we aren’t aware of, we don’t decide about our actions. Which is pretty much everything. So all those subconscious aspects of our life can be defined as our karma. Would you agree that we could call all those unconscious mechanisms our ego?
Ego is not bad per se. It is there to ensure our needs are met. If it’s healthy, it should ensure a nice balance between taking care of ourselves and being okay with the rest of the world. It is still not very conscious.
Everything is shaped by action, both the future and the now. Even the past, to the extent it influences the now (which we can rewrite! See “Waking the Tiger” by Levine). Our thoughts are also action. It could be about the energy and vibration that we have, what we attract, what our perception filters out of the world and manifests for us.
As soon as you become aware how your actions shape the reality and are able to stop yourself before sending out something you wouldn’t appreciate receiving, your karma has no power over you. It is pretty much the same as having worked through your shit and letting go of your ego. The same goes for doing something good. If you do something in order to get something in return, or to manipulate someone – would you be equally happy receiving that kind of treatment? But if you do something good, help someone without expecting anything in return… According to my nanny, that is the number one reason for happiness.
The lesson repeats as needed
Karma can be also seen in a different way. Since we need to balance our needs and the interactions with others in our life, every action out of balance tends to have a consequence. Say we dominate others, and as a result people fail to trust us and resent us. Or we try to please others and as a result we grow resentful. Both could be seen as lessons that we need to master on our way to a happy life, if we want to have real relationships with others. And the lesson will repeat as needed. We will meet many people on whom we are going to act in the wrong way, we will do them harm, do ourselves harm, until we realise what it is that we are doing that keeps us from happiness. And even once we realise what it is, we will have many chances to demonstrate that we have learned our lesson.
“Ducunt fata volentem, nolentem trahunt.” (“Fate leads the willing, and drags the unwilling.”) – Seneka
We could of course accept our karma. Decide that our given features define us, this is what we are and accept all consequences that come with that. But our flaws, traumas, phobias, conditions and addictions are not who we are supposed to be. They are keeping us from who we are supposed to be. Of course everyone is affected by their current situation. We are acting in accordance with our level of awareness. We can raise our awareness and free ourselves from our karma.
Making mistakes
So assume you did something you regret. Can you undo the bad seeds? Not sure that can be done. The truth is, the best antidote to all bad karma of the world is compassion and acting on it. In fact, all of us could benefit from daily meditation with compassion on our minds. It raises empathy, raises our vibration, makes us more receptive to others and sensitive to everything that comes our way.
If you find that interesting, you might want to consider a more comprehensive and complex set of 12 rules of karma. And of course, the sources: source 1, source 2, source 3.
