What is Karma
The fact that we go through more than one life, a fact that does not mean that our lives in any way can be connected with each other. Maybe reincarnation is a random process, the lottery of the cosmos in which we take part. Or perhaps we ourselves make a choice, guided only by our own whims. That is, when choosing our incarnations, we are somewhat reminiscent of a child who stands in front of a showcase with multi-colored sweets: he wants to take a few of those, a little of these, and as a result dumps all the sweets into one bag. There is nothing illogical in all three scenarios. But in most spiritual traditions that recognize reincarnation, it is believed that everything does not happen quite like that. Our lives do not go one after the other, obeying whims or depending on chance. They are subject only to the laws of causation, which in India is called karma.
Today the concept of karma is quite widespread. This topic is constantly raised in pop music, talk shows, sitcoms. Many have recognized the law of the return to us of the action we have committed in relation to others. This idea has taken root in the religions of the West: what goes around comes around; Judge not lest ye be judged.
Deep down, we realize that we will not be able to avoid the consequences of not only our actions, but also our intentions. Doctors claim that the body reacts to our attitudes, attitudes and beliefs in a thousand subtle ways. Everything we say, do or think before influencing others affects ourselves. But if our bodies react so sensitively to any little thing, then our lives should react too!
Karma, on the one hand, is the simplest concept, on the other, incredibly complex. Treat others the way you want to be treated. And according to this rule, karma is a very simple thing. But when we try to understand how such mechanisms of karma as actions and thoughts, which are never put into action, are able to influence events separated from them by centuries, karma turns out to be a mystery, covered in darkness. Moreover, it is not something that we can investigate from the outside. This is the flow within which our lives are. Investigating karma means looking into the depths of your own being. Attempts to understand it are a study of the essence of human life.
Karma in general has to do with the laws of cause and effect that govern human evolution. The word "karma" means both "action" and "deed." In fact, karma (cause) forms vipaka (effect). Karma is often misused to denote both cause and effect. Thus, a person often speaks of inheriting "good karma", although technically he inherits "good vipaka". Today this approach has become so widespread that it is no longer possible to change the situation.
Since the time when the concept of karma was combined with reincarnation in the Indian texts of the Upanishads (about the 8th-3rd centuries BC), it means "action with a consequence of rebirth." According to the philosophy of karma, our evolution, passing through many life circles, is governed by the interaction of life choices and the events and experiences that follow them, which are caused by these choices. This is our way of learning lessons. In the new conditions that have arisen, we again make certain choices, and they create other conditions, etc.
According to the psychological tradition of yoga, all our actions leave traces in the psyche, called samskaras. Samskaras are tendencies hidden in unconscious desires, they are likened to seeds from which the conditions of our life grow - both internal (we experience them as individuals) and external (we experience them as historical circumstances). These seeds reappear in our experience in accordance with the law: everything that is incomplete and important must be completed and thus transcended.
Promotional video:
Esoteric spiritual traditions teach that we incarnate (incarnate in physical bodies) on Earth in order to improve through special challenges, difficult lessons. As a consequence, every human life in a certain sense is a class of a school where they learn to develop and improve the soul.
But with repeated incarnations, our choices become more and more conditioned by previous choices, the perception of events - less neutral and more colored by the experience of past lives. Each incarnation imposes another layer on living conditions, increasingly depriving us of the opportunity to make truly free choices. So we find ourselves in the labyrinth of self-programming, not realizing who we are and what we are outside of this program. We can get so confused in these conditions that even after death and separation from the physical body, we cannot completely free ourselves from their influence.
Karma and vipaka. Cause and investigation. Choosing and reaping its fruits. Step by step we choose our path in the labyrinth of living conditions and we can change them. Choices that improve or neutralize our living conditions are described as producing beneficial karma, while those that make them harder are described as harmful karma.
Esoteric spiritual traditions regard human beings as embodied souls trapped in the repetitive cycles of human existence and fighting to extricate themselves from the web of living conditions. These traditions view world religions as beacons calling souls back to the spirit world, to the freedom of spiritual existence. Not because evil is inherent in earthly existence, but because it is limited in time and cannot be eternal. Thus, the esoteric reading of karma is largely a doctrine of return. Its purpose is to help a person get out of a difficult situation, to focus on the ultimate goal.
More often, karma is defined as the law of moral interchange: what you give will return to you. Moral recommendations arising from this law are presented in all world religions. Although self-sacrifice is suggested as an antidote to chronic selfishness, on a more global level it is recommended to value all people as equals, including ourselves, and to act accordingly.
In every religious tradition there is a specific word for this kind of relationship. Christians call it agape (love for one's neighbor), Taoists call it uzu, Jews call it hesed. In a word, love in its highest form. This compassion is suffering together, involving penetration into the situation experienced by another person and choosing a direction of action, taking into account both one's own and other people's interests. An action performed in a manner "devoid of ego" but not neglecting it is called wuwei in Taoism. Sometimes this concept is mistakenly translated as "non-action", but it is rather "non-self-motivated action."
Karma includes a wider range of causation than simple moral retribution. Nevertheless, the emphasis on it is fully justified, because the law of moral interchange-retribution is the main one in our attempts to return to the spiritual. We are encouraged to treat other people the way we would like them to treat us. After all, they and we, in essence, are simply different manifestations of a single, underlying reality. By treating others the way we would like them to treat us, we gradually loosen the bonds that hold us to the illusion of separateness and heighten our awareness of the underlying oneness. But we are instructed to follow the "golden rule" not for idealistic reasons, but because through it we can discover the original truth of our existence.
From a physical point of view, the statement about our unity is an obvious absurdity. In the physical world, we exist as special and separate entities. We are born separately, we quarrel over a piece of our daily bread and die each to himself. Less truth about us than affirming our unity is hard to find, although there is much that motivates us to act as if we are one.
But from a spiritual point of view, it is precisely the feeling of separation that is an illusion, not an ultimate reality. In our life, not only everything and everyone is intertwined, but is a manifestation of a single reality. In the moments when life splits to reveal the truths most important to us, we begin to discover that our deepest and most true essence is one that we equally share with other beings. In such an entity there are no Two, but always One. Nobody can teach this truth to anyone, everyone must comprehend it himself - through karma and rebirth.
According to esoteric traditions, the illusion of separation is created by the conditions of material existence. To exist in earthly life means to exist independently, there are no other options. As a consequence, as long as we exist as separate beings, we learn wholeness. The chain of choices, step by step, brings us to overcome this illusion and find the Divine Community that binds us all into one being. And then, harming others in order to derive our own benefit, we harm ourselves, and helping others - we help ourselves. Our handling of other boomerangs comes back to us so that we can learn that although we are physically separate and different, we are essentially one.
The drama generated by this feedback process unfolds over the centuries. The law of karma teaches that our present is not a moment independent of time, but part of a chain of cause and effect, the beginning of which goes deep into history, and the end is lost in the distant future. Karma is the direction of movement due to the myriad choices we have made, their driving force. What we accumulate for ourselves can manifest itself over time. History has so much inertia that it can be reflected in the future. This is true for all levels of existence. History is an intertwining of individuals, families, societies, nations, races and planets, all filled with meaning and causally connected. Our choices and the results of our choices serve our awakening.
But since the time when karma was first recognized by the law of nature, humanity has been trying to understand how it works, and on this path of cognition several stages have passed.
In the early stages, karma was usually defined as punishing justice: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If you have killed someone, he will kill you in the next life, if you have stolen something, deceived someone, insulted or acted meanly, one day they will answer you in kind.
Over time, karma began to be thought of not as settling scores, but as lessons that allowed a broader application of the rule of compensation. If you have not fully compensated for the harm that you caused your victims, you can compensate for it to other victims of this type of crime. If you have killed someone, then in the next life you can work for the victim's family, that is, indirectly face the consequences of your action. The point is to learn from your mistakes. We often learn a lesson with our real partners, so why not learn it with their substitutes?
Sometimes karmic lessons do not require the participation of another person at all. In this case, karma acts through the transfer of certain attitudes, emotions or habits in their entirety from one circle of life to another. Quite acceptable in the first life, in the second they will bring pain. For example, guilt denied in a past life can be completely transferred to the present, undermining self-esteem and leading to a psychological breakdown until the problem is completely resolved.
The modern understanding of karma emphasizes the need to learn from our previous experiences and recognize that these lessons can take many different forms. Therefore, one should get rid of the habit of thinking of karma only as a punishing justice. The threads that connect our lives are too thin and too varied for such a narrow concept. All of the kinds of lessons outlined above are evident in case histories drawn from past life choices, and of course there are many models of causation that we have yet to learn.
In addition to the law of moral interchange, which is undoubtedly important for spiritual evolution, our lives are connected by many different causes and effects, and all of them are also karma. Chronic hunger in one life can lead to excess appetite and obesity in another. Falling death can lead to a fear of heights. Years of music practice can manifest as "natural musical talent." Karma encompasses the entire spectrum of causal relationships, and the range is incredibly wide. Everything that we perceive as innate, natural, in fact, is rooted somewhere in our history.
Modern discussion of karma is influenced by the many medical histories that contain memories from past lives. They are described in detail in the psychotherapeutic literature. We can read about hundreds of cases where people recall their experiences from other historical eras, while receiving impressive psychotherapeutic results. By examining these kinds of cases, we begin to understand more deeply how consequences are related to causes and how this connection stretches through lives.
But it is necessary to remember about the impersonality of karma. There is no judge watching over us, punishing or giving out rewards in subsequent lives. Karma is a law of nature that works to restore harmony violated by our choices. Karma does not simply balance cosmic levels or return the psychospiritual system to a stress-free zero state. This spiritual cybernetic structure facilitates our growth by providing constant feedback on the choices we make.
Karma and reincarnation are the laws governing the evolution of human consciousness, but we do not know who created this system, who designed this masterpiece.
The assumption that spiritual leaders are watching and helping our evolution is an ancient and reassuring thought, although most people find it difficult to accept. There is a lot of evidence from different areas of science, and their number is growing, which, if not prove the presence of spiritual leaders, then at least admit such a possibility. Encounters with spirit beings are often documented in the reports of institutes teaching various techniques that raise the level of consciousness, such as the Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences in Faber, Virginia. Such contacts represent another area of alleged evidence.
Periodic contacts with spirit guides are described in reports of transpersonal therapy sessions. For example, Dr. Stanislav Grof describes the various spiritual leaders who have manifested themselves in the application of his holonomic therapy as follows:
“Meetings with leaders, teachers and defenders of the spiritual world of people are among the most valuable phenomena in the transpersonal area. Subjects perceive them as higher entities living at higher levels of consciousness and energy. Sometimes, at a certain stage of the spiritual development of an individual, they appear spontaneously, sometimes during internal crises, responding to an urgent call for help. In many cases, they continue to appear to the subject on their own initiative or at the request of their protégé.
1824 - A 9-year-old boy named Katsugoro, the son of a wealthy Japanese peasant, told his older sister that he was confident that he had had a different, "past" life before. This case is one of the first, which was officially recorded from the words of eyewitnesses, witnesses and documented. Katsugoro conquered everyone with his vivid and picturesque memories of his previous life, overflowing with details and a lot of small details that a child of such a young age could not know.
First of all, Katsugoro said that in his previous life he was the son of another peasant and lived in a village on the island of Okinawa. In adulthood, he became seriously ill and died of smallpox in 1810.
The boy ended up under cross-examination by government officials under the direct supervision of a psychologist and doctors. The boy told more than 50 different stories and experiences from the life of the village from the island of Okinawa. In addition, he revealed the secrets of his previous family, which only a close person could know. It is worth noting in particular: Katsugoro gave the investigation the home names of his "past" relatives, as well as the names of pets: dogs, cats, cows and sheep. The boy's memories of his own funeral, which he described in detail, looked very curious. In addition, he named the exact date of "his" death and the date of the funeral. Moreover, it should be noted that Katsugoro himself never left his village and did not visit the islands of Okinawa.
The facts told by the boy were verified, collated and fully confirmed.
S. Reutov