4 KEY POINTS ON KARMA

“People get into a heavy-duty sin-and-guilt trip. They feel that if things are going wrong, it means they did something bad and they’re being punished. But that’s not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings you need in order to open your heart.”
– Pema Chödrön

1. The ego generates the negative karma. The heart generates the positive karma.

The ego, an exaggerated sense of a separate self, is always coming from a place of “me, myself and I” — separateness. Self-ish. Creating from restriction and illusion, not from LOVE. You can see where this is going…

When the ego puts a thought, a word or actions into play, it creates a kind of binding—an energy knot. You could think of it as a disturbance in the force. The ego generates karma because the ego is perpetuating separation. More divisiveness equals negative karma.

When the HEART puts a thought, a word or actions into play, it moves positive energy… it generates more harmony. Beauty, the flow of Truth. We can call this positive karma. Acts of generosity, Loving Kindness, Compassion, Wisdom.

And because like energy attracts like energy, the generator of those good deeds is going to magnetize more of the same in any given lifetime. Benevolence. Goodwill!

Let’s go back to negative karma… It’s the result of thoughts, words or actions that are selfish. Boom.

Why is selfishness harmful? Since we’re all one, selfishness throws off the “spiritual” balance.

Accumulation of negative karma can show up as financial problems, health issues, lack of loving relationships, etc. EVERYBODY deals with negative karma—gurus and rappers. We are ALL burning karma. We incarnate in order to heal, to come into balance.

Accumulation of positive karma shows up as a prosperous, rich life—however that individual defines prosperity. “Wealth” could be living in a small cabin, great apple crops, or excellent cash flow. A rich life is being inwardly and outwardly balanced in our mind-body-emotion.

Side note: Karma applies to groups, communities and nations as much as it does to individuals. This is the effect of joining forces.

2. EVERYTHING in the universe returns to balance… eventually

The Universal Intelligence wants everything to return to Truth and wholeness. As Martin Luther King said, “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” MLK was quoting Theodore Parker, who was a transcendentalist Pastor.

When we hear “bends toward justice,” we might think, “They’re gonna get what’s coming to them.” But this message is intended to be HOPEFUL, because Parker’s full description was: The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice—one Divine end towards which creation moves onward and onward, forever.”

One “Divine end.” Boom! This is karma!

YOUR SOUL is always guiding you back HOME, to equilibrium. We have the free will to get on course and off course, to generate positive or negative karma.

You WILL generate BOTH in all of your choices and incarnations.

Are you sowing seeds for flowers? Or seeds for weeds?

3. Your so-called “bad karma” is the Soul helping you come into balance.

We think… “I’ve got some bad karma…” lost the job, my wife, my dog…… bad country song…

When we are on the receiving end of so-called “bad karma”—aka struggle and SUFFERING…it’s our Soul giving us the opportunity to come back into balance. Back to awareness of our Essential Nature.

So the energy knot that our ego created wants to loosen. And that can be a painful process. That pain is the GROWTH. It’s actually the liberation. It’s the neutralizing of karma! Once we understand this, we won’t suffer as much over the suffering.

We get “struck” with the opportunity to clean up our karma during certain planetary alignments. Periods of our life, in sync with astrological unfoldings. Let me give you a very over-simplified example.

“What comes together, falls apart.” – The Buddha. Whatever is bound will—eventually—be set free.

Working through our negative karma is how we can become more CONSCIOUS. If we choose. We meet the challenge, we rise to the occasion, we CHOOSE to become more COMPASSIONATE as a result of getting flattened—of our ego getting toasted, of facing psychological deaths. We come out on the other side of the negative experience as a more “positive”, inclusive, aware person. This is the beauty of karma—it’s the purposefulness of suffering.

And what do you naturally want to do when you’re more expanded? Generate more positive karma.

4. BONUS: TRULY GOOD KARMA IS SELFLESS

Setting out to “accrue good karma SO THAT more good things happen to you…” cancels out the good karma. My good karma is not money in the bank that only *I* get to profit from.

It’s the selflessness that dissolves the negative and generates the positive.

You do the goodwill because it’s RIGHT ACTION, it’s what Love does. Not so that you can attract more money or a hot partner. And RIGHT ACTION may not always be convenient. It might not be our first inclination. It isn’t always easy.

But the goodwill returns us to our TRUE NATURE, to our Higher Self. Good karma feels great when we get there.

When we stay attached to our experiences, we can create suffering. So the healing inquiry is: Are you willing to give over one painful experience—and the suffering that came with it—to your heart for healing? Just one? And then another and another? Bringing each experience up to be accepted and completely Loved? So that it can be fully released?

Breathe into your heart,