L. writes:
===
Karma is not taken over from anyone else's heritage or Karma by being with someone in Love, by
communicating with or even sharing his/her life. There is no such thing as being infected by
someone's Karma just because of connection or sharing her/his life.
Therefore your assumption on karmic involvement was not correct in the first place; but it might have
been an impulse from your desire nature to separate in a relationship for whatever reason. There is no
karmic sin in being in love with someone or to help someone.
The strange thesis of Karma being infectious has no foundation..
My Best
L.
===
NJ. Responds:
===
A comment: Karma equates with action. If one's association/love with another induces them to
express the same patterns, then there is an influence in creating a new Karma. this can be
either "good or bad." I dislike these terms. NJ
===
OK,
Here's my (long winded) take on Karma:
In it's simplest form Karma equates with "action", or the law of cause
and effect.
From the Kybalion:
"Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause; everything happens
according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes
the Law"
Hypothesis:
We all share in the Karma of each other, although there are many planes of causation.
Here are some examples of unpleasant "shared" Karma, otherwise known
as "What goes around, comes around":
We share in the Karma of the Earth:
An asteroid hits the earth and extinguishes all life. Was it something you did?
We share in the Karma of Humanity:
Are we our brother's keeper, or can we safely ignore the suffering of our fellow humanity? You get
on a airplane to take a trip. The pilot, however, is having a bad day. He crashes the plane and you are
killed. Was it something you did, or did you just happen to be within the "cause-and-effect sphere"
of
another person who was himself influenced by being overworked due to pressure from a
company who (for profit motives) was making him work long hours?
Or perhaps your Higher Self placed you within the sphere of influence of that plane of causation so you
could learn something?
Remember the Poem which starts off "For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse
was lost. For want of a horse, the message was lost. For want of a message, the battle was lost. For want
of a battle, the war was lost. For want of a war, the nation was lost." ?
Our Nation
Your country goes to war. You, being a peacenik, remain at home. An enemy pilot, however, releases
a laser guided bomb on an adjacent military target, which due to an uncorrected Y2K software bug,
goes off course and lands in your lap. Did you will this, or are you (and your other countrymen) just
reaping the successful consequences of harboring a dictatorship?
Our State:
The people in your state vote to lower taxes. As a result of lower revenue for your local school
district, your child is crammed into a crowded classroom, and suffers from the effect of an over
crowded, under supervised learning environment. As a result of this poor experience, you child
doesn't get the help she needs in math, and deciding she is no good at it, chooses a less demanding profession,
and thus is unable to provide for her retirement, ultimately becoming a burden on the social security
system.
We share in the Karma of our Family:
Your father is an overbearing, abusive alcoholic. Do you fall within the cause-and-effect sphere of his
actions and omissions? We could speak volumes on the "cycle of abuse".
We share in the Genetic Karma of our species:
You are born with poor genes, and die of cancer at age 10. Did you choose this outcome, or did your
Holy Guardian Angel choose this one for you as some type of trial or learning experience?
We share in the Karma of those with whom we have intimate relationships:
When you are intimate with someone you share: Their energy field; Their bodily fluids; Their
emotional body as it interpenetrates, mingles, reacts with, and influences your own; Their mental
body; Their spiritual energy; Their finances, etc... all up and down the planes of existence.
All these fields have a plane of causation and of cause and effect which you are sharing. Just as we
are impacted by the energy field of others, we are also influenced by the cause-and-effect sphere of
influence from all of the rest of creation.
This is so because, WE ARE NOT SEPARATE. Only by believing in the illusion of Separation, can we
delude ourselves that our actions do not effect others, and that others cannot affect us.
The ALL is ONE. Nothing can happen without God's notice, and nothing can happen without some cause
and some effect. It is precisely because we are all connected to the ONE that we can say " I will look
upon every circumstance of my life as a particular dealing of God with my soul"
Here are some more blunt examples for your enjoyment:
Your spouse has a gambling or drug habit, and empties your your bank account, wiping our your life's savings.
Your lover is unfaithful and gives your a fatal venereal disease.
Your significant other is a compulsive bipolar paranoid manic depressive, and drives YOU nuts.
So while there is some karma that we can't avoid, some karma that, if we were aware of it, we could
avoid, and some karma that we should not avoid, there is still the issue of knowingly choosing to take
on and share the burden of another's karma by entering into their spheres of influence and
planes of causation. We do this by entering into their "sphere" and interacting with them on many planes
and fields. The question becomes, can you help them transmute their karma (counter balance their
planes of causation), or is their vibratory rate so powerful that you fear it will
drag you to their (disharmonious) vibratory rate?
People who do "healing" vibratory work do this also, but with the
intention of positively influencing the other person's fields of causation, and
hopefully not the other way around.
Again, from the Kybalion:
"To destroy an undesirable rate of mental vibration, put into operation the
Principle of Polarity and concentrate upon the opposite pole..."
"Nothing escapes the Principle of Cause and Effect, but there are many planes of Causation, and one
may use the laws of the higher to overcome the
laws of the lower"
"By an understanding of the practice of Polarization, the hermetists rise
to a higher plane of causation and thus counter-balance the laws of the lower planes of causation. By rising above the
plane of ordinary causes they become themselves, in a degree, Causes instead of being merely caused."
Well, I think I've overworked this issue, but I'd just like to offer one more example:
HERE IS THE ULTIMATE EXAMPLE OF TAKING ON (and transmuting) KARMA:
Jesus of Nazareth, who so loves humanity, that he suffered death on the cross for us.
Here Jesus, the great healer, voluntarily took on the loving sacrifice of helping to transmute the karma of
the whole of humanity for the purpose of influencing the planes of causation (Yesodic,
Yetziratic?) and thus bring about a healing of the collective consciousness of humanity and help assist
our evolution.
I don't believe that the mystery of golgotha was publicity stunt. Instead
I think it was an act of spiritual healing upon the body of Adam.
Perhaps Jesus was Christ's scalpel for working upon Yesod (collective subconsciousness of humanity)?
C. wrote: In time, as I realize the fullness of my nature, this sense
of detachment will give way to the remembrance that I was the One who chose to
forget about my real nature in the first place, so I could discover it once
again. This discovery occurs through traveling, settling down, building
and then tearing down, and traveling again. Sometimes my constructions are
hard to leave behind and I experience great emotion at the time of their
destruction. L.V.X. C.
=====
For me, this "discovery" occurs when I stand and face LIFE, and
ENGAGE with it, regardless of the outcome, for only then do I have the
opportunity to SEE the Face of the Beloved behind it all.
Most of my learning right now is being done in the class called
"LIFE".
My former girlfriend is dealing with a brain tumor, and is not doing very
well at the moment. This has brought up, for me some fundamental principles
concerning relationships that I have learned first hand. Namely:
- When you love someone, you take on the burden of their karma, as well as
your own. - The more evolved partner in a relationship bears the greater
responsibility.
Thus in any relationship there comes a crucial crossroads, where the person
must decide whether they love the other person "enough" to where they
are willing to take on the sacrifice of sharing the burden of the other person's
Karma, or not. If not, then the relationship stops growing, and eventually
dissolves.
About 5 months after we broke up, P. was diagnosed with a brain tumor, but as
far back as a year ago, I knew that something was not right with her, and I
tried to get her to see a doctor, but she refused. P. eventually became
dissatisfied with the relationship because I was unwilling to make a greater
commitment without knowing what was wrong with her, and eventually she decided
that we should be just friends instead. Basically I was not willing to take on
her karma, especially if I could sense that something bad was in store, and
wasn't able to determine if her karma was going to be "manageable" or
if it was going to be "catastrophic".
Yet, I feel doubly bad. Not only for her, but also because I realize my
failure to take responsibility for the love we shared. If I was ignorant I could
be excused, but my greater awareness causes me more suffering because I realize
what is going on at a deeper level and my Higher Self holds me to a higher
standard. Now that she is ill I am trying my best to be a friend to her and be
there for her to talk to, visit her, etc.. come what may. Come what may! This is
where courage comes in. Courage not to fear or run away from suffering and
death, but to be a friend to someone in need, and to engage with life, whether
it leads to her recovery and health or to her suffering and death. To be there
for her whatever the outcome. One must engage with life and treat Victory and
Defeat both equally as the impostors they are. To have the Courage to do as God
Wills (or as Christ would do), without attachment to the result- That is the
Goal.
Why am I sharing this with the List?
Because it illustrates that the most powerful spiritual lessons are learned
in and through our relationships with others, be they acquaintance, friend,
lover, spouse, parent, or child. If we can bring this heightened awareness to
our everyday life, then life will be the greatest teacher, for in fact the face
of the beloved does lie behind the mask of Every Person, Every Thing, Every
Form, Every Situation, and Every Trial. Our greatest moments come when we are
able to face the adversary and strip off his mask to reveal the Face of The
Beloved who was there all along. To me, this is the essence of Redemption.
Intellectual speculation and abstract principles are all well and good, but
all are worse then useless unless expressed in Action through engagement with
LIFE. Or as the Kybalion puts it:
"The possession of Knowledge, unless accompanied by a manifestation
and expression in Action, is like the hoarding of precious metals - a vain and
foolish thing. Knowledge like Wealth, is intended for USE. The Law of Use is
Universal, and he who violates it suffers by reason of his conflict with natural
forces." The Kybalion.
For an example of "Shared Karma" in its positive sense, there is
the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" starring Jimmy Stuart.
I wrote (from the Kybalion): == "By an understanding of the practice of
Polarization, the hermetisists rise to a higher plane of causation and thus
counter-balance the laws of the lower planes of causation. By rising above the
plane of ordinary causes they become themselves, in a degree, Causes instead of
being merely caused." ==
S.E. Responded: == "Now comes the question of whether the person
is actually beyond the laws of Karma at this point. I would say no. By merely
becoming a Cause, this does not take us beyond the laws of karma, we are just
switching the roles at this point. How does this new role effect the process? In
the process of becoming the Actor as opposed to the Action, how do we rectify
the effects of the Actor? How does One eventually step off the turnings of the
Wheel? Is it better to become the Axle? Which from my perspective is the First
Cause and point of involution and evolution of the wheel's spinning or to seek
the Other Shore and attain to the state of the Sphinx? And what is the
difference if not the veil of personal perspective?" ==
It would seem to me that the higher the plane of one's awareness, the more in
harmony one would be with the ONE, or First Cause, or as you put it, the more
they would move to the center of the wheel, and thus become more of a conscious
co-creator, or administrator of the turnings of the Universe.
Polarization is the principle behind the statement: "It is by changing
our emotional reactions to things that we transmute our karma", for the
emotional level is on a higher plane than the physical level. Of course, in
order to change or transmute our emotional patterns, we must apply the law of
polarization again and thus must rise to a higher plane of awareness, and then a
higher, etc...
Notice, that by meditating on the Tarot keys, we are in fact using the law of
Polarization on a higher (mental) plane. This sets into motion a Cause, which
then has a Transmuting Effect on our conscious mind (intellect), and emotions
(desires). These are symbolized by the Lilies and Roses in the Magician's
garden.
