Understanding of Karma
“Karma” literally means “action” and “deed” in the ancient Sanskrit language of India. It is the Law of Cause and Effect, Action and Reaction, and Sequence and Consequence.
According to Buddhism, karma is the total of our previous actions and current impulses. The result of our efforts will be love. All things done with respect help us to see our lessons more clearly and fully appreciate them for what they are worth. Love is everything we do; then, we create positive karma. The most important thing in life is to learn to give out love and let it come in.
Most of us look at events like winning the lottery, thinking of a friend and then meeting him that very same day, or finding the perfect gift that happens to be a store you accidentally walked into as coincidences. But believe there are no such things as coincidences. As much as we would like to find it, nothing happens by chance. Karma, not chance, is the reason.
Everybody does have a particular destiny, and we can either travel the track to it or turn it off and do something completely different. It is our free will. However, this idea does not stop us from going through lessons, whether painful or easy. After all, we have come to earth to expand our soul's understanding and grow to be high spirits, so lessons are a must.
When a soul journeys on earth, it needs to learn many lessons of all different types. It needs to understand an experience from all sides wholly. Some might have to learn to be kind, generous, and selfless, such as giving to others without looking for personal gain. May place them in situations where they must give and do more than they are comfortable with. Others may be placed in positions of incredible wealth. The lesson for each one is to see what a person does in a specific situation. Do the wealthy ones share their money with those in need, or do they hold on to it for fear it will run out?
Many also confuse karma with fate or destiny. Be aware that these two are very different. Uncertainty and the future can be changed, but karma cannot. For instance, a person is destined to be a successful, well-known singer, but he has to work through his past karma of releasing addictions. If he chooses to become an alcoholic in his present life, he has not learned his karmic lesson, which has changed his destiny.
On the other hand, had he overcome his addiction and learned his karmic lesson, he could have realized his fate. There is certainly no way to prove that karma exists, but things do happen due to our choices. We are responsible for our actions and the results they bring. Put another way, if you break it, you pay for it! By continually creating karma, we have within us the ability to change the outcome of our future.
Besides individual karma, there is also group karma. Family, friends, nations, or businesses and beyond. We all choose to come back to different families because our souls have a karmic connection. We all know that beautiful expression. You can pick your friends, but you cannot choose your family. Well, in truth, we do like our families! We decide between lives that there are individual and important group karmic experiences we must learn and undertake to evolve spiritually. But, those souls we call our family, including our extended family and close friends, have spent many lifetimes with us on this earth, learning various lessons.
In one lifetime, you might have been the father, the child, and the grandparent in another. The role doesn't matter. There is a group learning dynamic, and the objective is for you to take on these various roles to learn and develop as a more rounded and experienced being. Experience is the most excellent teacher.
There are family relationships in which, for no reason, the mother and daughter are. Or two brothers or the father and son have never been able to get along. Most do not understand why this is so, but they feel down or depressed. In this life, their souls have returned to work out their relationship and to understand one another.
CAUSES OF KARMA
Based on a true story from many years ago. A woman named Jennifer - Jennifer had two children, and the moment her younger daughter was born, she knew naturally that this would be one of the hardest karmic lessons of her lifetime. From the moment her daughter could talk, she was demanding and difficult to control, and she acted out to get attention.
And so, one day, Jennifer went to a Spiritual Medium (medium) to find some real answers about what happened between them.
Before the reading began, Jennifer confided to the medium about the day her daughter was born. She looked at her and said to herself. "I know this one. And oh, she is going to cause me heartache. I need to know what is going on between the two of us."
Immediately, the medium saw a female spirit with long curly hair standing behind Jennifer. The heart had very powerful thoughts. Then the medium says:
"Jennifer, there is a woman here is wearing a flowing colourful caftan robe. She seems to be very excited about you. She is telling me that she did what I am doing. Her name is Dana."
"Oh, my God. Dana? my past psychic reader."
"Well, she is sending her thoughts across me very clearly."
"Yes, that is Dana. She always said what was on her mind."
"She wants you to know that she is your guide now."
She keeps an eye on you and ensures you are not getting in over your head."
"Thank you, Dana. I can use your help."
The medium listened to Dana's thoughts, which came to him fast and furiously.
"She is telling me about your daughter now. She says that you are afraid of your daughter. Is this true? Jennifer?"
Jennifer lowered her head. "Yes, she harassing me." After a beat, she added.
"What could I have possibly done to her to deserve such treatment?"
"Dana is telling me that you have many lifetimes with your daughter, and many of these lives were powerful ones. You both were important people. Dana says that because you were powerful than her in those other past lives, your daughter is jealous of you in this life because she can't beat you."
"Oh, my God!" Jennifer sighed. "No wonder she treats me so badly."
"Dana wants you to be careful. Your daughter still has a grudge against you from a previous life. You and she have been pitted against one another many times. You were a king in the previous life together, and she was your daughter. She tried to get you killed to take over your power. You found out and banished her to an island for the rest of her life.
But she never made it to the island. On her way, a group of villagers killed her because they loved the king so much and hated the daughter for trying to kill him. When you learned that your daughter was murdered, you blamed yourself. You died of a broken heart the following morning."
Dana tells Jennifer that the two of them have a lot of karmic lessons to learn. Her daughter has to know to admire and accept her mother and not be jealous of her fame. Both of them have set up a scenario in this life so that both of them should learn how to love one another no matter what positions they have in life.
So you can see how karmic patterns are played out. Suppose more of us are mindful of what we have with our family members repeatedly. In that case, the lessons won't be so difficult to comprehend, and certain behavior can be encouraged while other activities can be curbed.
NOT AN ACCIDENTS
Here is another story of three mothers who came to the medium for advice when they experienced misfortune. After an initial introduction and a brief meditation, the medium saw the spirit of a young man with wavy brown hair standing behind one of the mothers. So the medium called to the mother, "Diana, I have a young man here. He is your son, I believe. He is around nineteen and wears a T-shirt with a gun pictured on it."
Diana's eyes welled up with tears, and she grabbed hold of her friend's hand next to her. "Yes, That's my son Tony."
The medium started to feel the impact of Tony's death. Suddenly, his head felt like spinning, and everything went black. Then he asked, "Did he die in a car accident?"
Diana and one of her friends beside her nodded their heads together. "Tony mentions that he is here with the other ladies sons. They all knew each other from school and hung out together. They were fascinated with guns, the movie Platoon and Vietnam. Is this correct?" At this point, the other two mothers, Betty and Sandy, sitting on either side of Diana, raised their hands as a sign to the medium that they were present.
Betty shared, "My son was also fascinated with Platoon and Vietnam." Sandy added, "They were like the Three Musketeers. They went everywhere together and were fascinated with war stories, especially about Vietnam."
As they are speaking, the other two young male spirits show up. All three were the same age. They seemed happy as if they were always meant to be together.
The medium asked the three young men to show him their accident. The picture was quickly implanted into the medium mind. "I could see the three boys in the front seat of a black Jeep. They were driving too fast, especially around the curves. Tony was laughing as he bent his head to turn the radio up louder. Just then, another car coming from the opposite direction caused Tony to grab the steering wheel, and the Jeep veered out of the road and into a telephone pole. The car burst into flames. All three young men were trapped inside and died in the burning vehicle."
As the medium explained what he saw, the mother clutched one mother's hands for support, and some cried.
Diana then asked, "Why did they have to die like that - in a car crash?"
"Your son is telling me that they had to die that way. It was a karmic debt that needed to be repaid."
The medium then said to all three of the mothers. "The girls in the other car were not hurt. Is it right?" They nodded.
The medium asked the boys to clarify the karma that had to be repaid.
The medium says to the mothers, "Your sons are telling me that they served together in the Vietnam war before this incarnation. This was probably in the late 1960s. Now the medium is getting a picture of a full moon.
"I see. This took place during the Chinese New Year in Vietnam. The three soldiers were riding around in their jeep looking for gooks, they are saying. They were all drunk from celebrating. They found a man and a woman, husband and wife hiding in a car. The three soldiers jumped out of their jeep and taunted the couple, calling them names. Then they began shooting at the car, and the whole car went up with fire. The couple were trapped inside. Oh, my God! The three of them just stood by and watched the couple die in the fire."
It was an unbelievably horrible picture. The three mothers were crying as they heard how cruel their sons had been in their other life. The medium then turned to the mothers and said. "There are no accidents. The car accident in this life was not the fault of the two girls in the other car. Thankfully, those girls did not even sustain a scratch."
Sandy asked. "But if they had died in Vietnam, why did they have to fail again in this life?
Wasn't their karma repaid in that war?"
"Not necessarily." replied the medium.
Then the young men told their mothers how sorry they were for causing them pain. "Tony is saying, Please don't cry for us. We had to pay it back. Now we are free."
After several months after the messages from her son, Diana visited the home of the two girls, whom she had also known, as they were schoolmates of her son and the other two boys. She felt she needed to do this as a final act of healing. Maria, the girl's mother, answered the door, and Diana thanked her for letting her visit. The two women spoke about the accident. As Diana told Maria about the medium reading and how the boys were involved in Vietnam, Maria contributed valuable information.
"It's funny you should talk about your son's fascination with Vietnam. My two girls are also fascinated with Vietnam. They want to visit it one day. And they are scared to death of fire."
"Really?"
"They have even put fire ropes out of their windows in case of fire. They are so afraid of being trapped."
Not knowing how to explain the result of Tony's life with the lives of these two girls, Diana hoped that her son would help the girls overcome their fear of fire from his place in the spirit world.
Perhaps the two girls in the accident were the husband and wife who burned to death in Vietnam that day. We will never really know. However, what does matter is that those three young men were responsible for their hateful actions. They have to accept what they have done.
Remember that karma is not a punishment but a way of managing our actions and reactions. Karma is also an educational tool to help us evolve spiritually and to balance out the results of all the efforts we have generated that are out of harmony with the law of love. We are given many opportunities to clean up negative karma from previous existences. Yes, the spirit world has made it very clear to us that, as souls, we have lived many times and in many different places.
Check out your actions. Are you harming or helping others? We often give others more respect and freedom than we give ourselves. We are all learning to be and do the best we can. Whatever a person sends out in word, or deed will return to him; what he gives, he will receive. If he gives hate, he receives hate; if he gives love, he receives love; if he gives criticism, he will receive criticism; if he lies, he will be lied to; if he cheats, he will be cheated. We are also taught that the imaging faculty plays a leading part in the game of life.