Karma put simply is The Law of Cause and Effect.

Karma flows constantly like a thread, warp and woof, through the fabric of our lives. Understanding our karma and proclivities is key to free will thinking, acceptance, and happiness in this lifetime and in our evolution through many lifetimes as we search for healing, acceptance and santosha. I hope in this teaching to provide enough information and guidance for you to begin to see karma, not as reward or punishment, not even as good or bad, but as ‘just is’. In this teaching, I will discuss 1. What is karma 2. Why some people have a lot of constrictive karma 3. Karma and how it relates to addiction 4. What triggers our karma 5. How to soften karma 6. Aham Brahmasmi, becoming one with our karma.

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What is Karma? The Dhammapada which is a text of Buddhist teachings, says ‘In Buddhism there is no one sitting in judgment to punish us for wrong actions, nor is there anyone to reward us for our good works. Instead, reward and punishment issue from the self-fulfilling law of karma, which permeates every aspect of the Buddha’s teachings. Put simply, the law of karma states that as we sow, so shall we reap: everything we do, say, or even think has consequences, good or bad, and sooner or later those consequences must come back to us.’1 In Kriya Yoga we like to call actions and their effects harmonious or inharmonious, stepping away from good or bad. Harmonious or inharmonious to what? Our spiritual evolution. Everything we do is to evolve and mature spiritually. Our karma is the map to our evolution and maturity. My addiction to alcohol was a stepping stone towards deep healing and Santosha. Once I saw the karma and the healing I needed to do, I took upon the task. I knew that alcohol was controlling me and thus my relationship with myself and others. I decided to use my free will choice to heal and grow in wisdom, not pity or shame but in great awe of the teachings. In the teachings and practices of the SR program, I would like to share life as just a movement on a path to self-realization, to self-healing to self-love with the promise to eventually see that self-love is really universal love. While I navigated life in addiction, I was asleep, unaware, fulfilling my karma without exercising my little bit of freewill. But what I want to make clear is, I was not a bad person. My life asleep was not because I was somehow a horrible person, but rather, I was constricted from seeing that my uncontrollable desire for alcohol was karma or desires from my past. And then one day, when the timing was right, I awoke and exercised my free will to heal and to find joy and happiness in my life. This is not saying that one day I awoke and everything was groovy, but I awoke to the knowledge that I and only I could free myself from the limitations of the mind. And so the journey began; to take back control of the mind and my life. So what have I said? I will quote my Guru Goswami Kriyananda ‘The law of karma is not the law of retribution. Extremely Important!!! The law of karma is the law of cause and effect. If you give love, you will receive love, if you give knowledge you will receive knowledge.’2 I remember what a revelation it was when I realized that when I stopped shouting and cussing at others, others stopped shouting at me. With addiction, if we allow alcohol to control our lives, it will. Cause and effect! Not good or bad, just cause and effect.

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Why do some people have more constrictive karma than others? Kriyananda would say because they worked really hard to get it. (He did not say they deserved it) People are constantly putting each other down. Communication has nearly ceased to exist. We do not ask each other for clarification, we let our imagination and anxiety dream up all kind of stories in which the other guy is the villain. And we are constantly yelling at one another, leaving no room for empathetic listening. Because karma is the law of cause and effect, when we are harsh, and judgmental towards others, judgment and harshness will come back towards us. As my example earlier, when I learned to stop screaming, people stopped screaming at me. When I started to listen, I began to realize that everyone is doing the best they can at this moment with the karma that they have. There is another very important factor here. You must understand that karma operates on the physical plane with words and actions, but also, karma acts on the ethereal plane as thoughts, conscious or unconscious. So thinking a thought will result in karma, or is held to the law of cause and effect. Many thoughts, unless they are constructive thinking thoughts, come from the subconscious or unconscious mind. And the subconscious and unconscious mind cannot tell the difference between you and me. So when a thought pops into your mind about another person, and you grab onto that thought and build a story, even a very short story, the unconscious mind relates this story unto itself. Have you ever just flashed a quick thought, ‘they deserve to be hit by a car running across the street like that’, the unconscious mind just got filled with you wishing to be hit by a car. What this is saying, is when you put others down, you are putting yourself down. When you hurt others, you are hurting yourself. When you send acceptance and love to others, you are sending acceptance and love to yourself. “Om shanti, shanti”. And visa versa, when you accept your own limitations and commendable traits, you bring an acceptance and acknowledgment to others. Another important piece is, the subconscious does not know time. This is a big one. If something happened to you as a child, and then in your adult life the event reoccurs, your subconscious mind will see the event in the same light as when you were a child, even though as an adult you might be led to handle it differently. For example, if you were nipped at by a brown dog as child, and reacted with fear or needing comfort, then as an adult you see a similar brown dog who starts to play a little rough, your subconscious will come in and try to persuade you to fear and move quickly away from the dog. To be fearful of brown dogs is pretty restrictive karma.

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How does karma relate to addiction? There are two words in which to describe our habits and our personality. Samskara is the impressions of our actions that are deposited in our mind. The first time that I really altered my mind with drinking, it was considered fun and temporarily took me away from my uneasiness. That made a strong impression that was put in my mind. And each time the action was repeated, or each time I got intoxicated, the impression in the mind became deeper and deeper becoming a groove and eventually this groove became a habit. Samskaras are ruts or grooves of habit cut into our head by recollections, impressions and psychological imprints. Addiction is the ultimate samskara. Addiction is a groove that we fall back on subconsciously over and over again to solve the problem of the intensity and discomfort of the present moment. The deeper the groove and the stronger the habit, the less mastery we have over our mind when we try to execute an action that is contrary to these habits and samskara’s in our mind. It is almost impossible to have a day without becoming intoxicated! And the stronger the habit, the more harm we will do to ourselves and to others. The addiction comes first, and having a harmonious relationship with others comes after that. This harm through attitudes and actions is karma. The Dalai Lama says ‘Once you make a choice to use drugs or alcohol, consequences are unavoidable.’ As addiction happens so does karma. So Karma, the law of cause and effect, is inevitable and a universal dimension of addiction. We are always producing karma, but under the influence you are more than likely producing karma that will constrict you and produce more intense emotion. With that said, it is never too late to soften karma and eliminate karma. If you eliminate a piece of karma, it is gone forever. If you do not eliminate or soften karma, it will come back to you again and again, lifetime after lifetime, until you do. The real piece that is important is that it is not the alcohol, the drug or the sugar that is the problem. It is the grooves in the mind that are the problem. It is the desires of the mind that are the problem. So in order to soften the karma and eliminate the samskaras of the addiction, one has to completely heal from the addiction. It is not enough to just stop the flow of the source of the addiction. You have to remove the desire and the attitude towards your addiction and your life. If you are reading this, you are on the path! I wish you healing on your journey. As we move through this healing journey together there may be times of sadness, shame, self anger and self pity. Karma just is. We are here to learn and evolve through our karma. And help others along the way. You are not a bad person. There are no bad people. I repeat, there are no bad people. Actions that we perform with full awareness, with intent, and with desire create the deepest impression in the mind and cause the most karma. Everyone is moving along their own karmic map and spiritual maturity and evolution. Kriya Yoga techniques help us become self-aware so that we can see our karma and become one with our karma to heal, evolve and mature happily and joyfully. Kriya yoga techniques offer you the opportunity or volitional action to soften your karma! We are that which is sacred in all living sentient beings. Shanti!

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What triggers our karma?

• TV. What we see on TV drags up memories from the subconscious and this triggers karma. Where do you think much of the violence of today comes from? Violence is everywhere, movies, TV, video games, comic books, etc. Be very careful on what you watch and what you experience! Do not sleep with the TV on, please.

• People trigger our karma. The people we hang with have been in our lives before. What in them triggers you and is it time to heal and forgive or is it time to avoid them until you are ready to understand the karma. If there are groups of people that trigger your karma, be mindful about who you hang around with. Or if you have to be with these people try to see their actions as karma playing out. “Ahh, isn’t that interesting, Martha is judging me again to Tim. Om shanti, shanti may Martha finds happiness in her life. (If she was truly happy and content, she would not judge others.)

• Memories associated with karma triggers karma. When I quit drinking, I had to quit listening to rock n roll music because it triggered my alcohol karma.

• Our stories of trauma, and looping minds trigger karma and intensify karma. When our minds loop around trauma or how hard it is to quit drinking, the karma intensifies. All emotionality produces or intensifies karma.

• Emotions intensifies karma. I used to drink more on the days that I was trying to limit myself verses the days I just let life happen.

• Reasoning triggers karma. “Well cousin Bobby drinks whenever we get together. Why can’t I?” Thinking that what is good for another must be good for you is deadly, my teacher would say. We are all different. And we need to come to know ourselves, our weakness and our strengths. Our strengths are here to help balance our weakness’. Our astral natal chart is a great way to study our proclivities.

 

What triggers your karma?

What can we do to soften our karma?

• Attitude is everything! Kriyananda tells his story of an experience he had as a medic in the army. One of his fellow soldiers had his right arm blown off and as Kriyananda sat with him to administer aid, the soldier proclaimed, ‘ha, good thing I am left-handed.’ Another example, after many months of drinking and being on the wagon, I finally realized that I had sat around and done all the things you do while you are getting high, endless times. “I had been there, done that”, became my attitude and I was ready to experience something new, I was ready to think a new thought. That is when I knew I had softened my addiction karma. The Kriya yoga techniques in this program can give you the capacity to think a new thought. This is exactly what meditation and mantra are for: to create a new and higher thought form!!

• Produce good karma/Pray for others. Pray for the difficult people in your life.

• Mediation will help quiet the mind to decrease our thought patterns from producing or intensifying karma; meditation allows us to be less emotional and helps you become aware of your proclivities so that you can see them coming and detach. This program will give you the know how to do that.

• Om Shanti Mantra. There is an entire teaching of how to use the Om Shanti Mantra.

• Kriya Yoga techniques such as Nadi shodana and Kriya Rotation.

• See people as people and actions as actions. People are incarnating with some heavy work to do. Pray for them rather than judge them.

• Forgiveness Ritual. According to Kriyananda ‘Forgiveness is a spiritual process that neutralizes karma, accelerates your spiritual unfoldment, and brings greater satisfaction, insight and freedom into your life.’ It is essential to your spiritual development!

• Become one with your karma.

 

Aham Brahmasmi. What does it mean to ‘become one with our karma’? It means that we come to a realization that karma is not something that is happening to us but instead it is our path to spiritual evolution and freedom. It shows us what and where we need to heal. Yogis believe that we are the sole creator of our past and our future and we need to take responsibility for that. In yoga there is a sanskrit phrase for this: Aham Brahmasmi. Aham Brahmasmi is such an empowering concept. You are the creator of your universe! You are the architect of your own destiny. Every thought, word or action done in the past has set up your future. Well, you might say that your parents were not loving parents and thus your world as a child was very unloving and you became bitter and started acting out to get attention. It wasn’t your fault you started drinking at a young age to get away from it all. That is a real tough one and an example I can relate to. You cannot control your parents but you can control how you react to them and how you consciously choose to treat others. Goswami Kriyananda would say this is karmic attitude. It is really tough when you are very young and you don’t remember you have free will. But hopefully there was one living being that showed you kindness and love so that you remembered how to love. And as an adult we still make choices everyday by choosing to either live our current life as a victim or choosing to see the karmic patterns and learn to live life as Aham Brahmasmi. This means that we have a choice whether to create thoughts which eventually lead to actions, from a victim viewpoint or from a karmic viewpoint. For example: We came into this lifetime with parents, siblings and karma that were to project us into healing and softening our karma of this lifetime. Once you see that, you can start working to heal that karma. One of the biggest pieces of karma I came into this lifetime with is an addiction to alcohol. And there was no better way than to put myself smack dab into the middle of an entire family with alcohol addictions. For the first 40 years of my life, I saw this in the viewpoint of a victim. Constantly “how was I to become sober when my whole family drank.” Or “I was neglected as a young adult and the only thing that calmed me was to reach out to alcohol and drugs.” Then one day I woke up and made a choice to stop drinking. And eventually after studying yoga, I can now look at my addiction as karma. I can look at my incarnation into a family with alcohol addictions as the karma I needed to heal and move to a place of healing and free will. To a place where I am at today :)

How to let Aham Brahmasmi bring santosha to your lives:

• • Become aware of your thoughts. What thoughts are you feeding internally to create your life externally? This is important!!

  • Begin seeing limitations and challenges in your life as your karma to be softened and eliminated rather than experiences of a victim of bad luck. And then soften your attitude towards those challenges. “What can I do to soften my attitude about my proclivities and limitations?” Learn to balance. If a piece of karma is mars energy, bring in some venus energy.

  • There is a natural harmonious flow to life. Notice when there is a resistance to this harmonious flow as karma to be softened. You may have to reflect a bit on the real issue. But once you see the karma, you can choose to change your attitude towards it. Attitude is All!!!

 

Karma is the simple idea that everything is caused and that each soul confines themselves to their actions of the past and to their thinking patterns. We can change those thought patterns anytime we want. That is why we are here in these bodies with our ego self in this lifetime. To see our karma, and allow it to move us forward and upward. It is called spiritual evolution. We are not perfect or without karma or we would not be here. We came to earth to follow our desires and to soften our karma.

The root cause of pain and suffering is karmic attitude. Attitude is all! So change your attitude! Change your thinking patterns and feed the thoughts that bring happiness, joy and Santosha into your lives. You are the creator of your lives, you really are. It is such a beautiful design!

Shantih!

 

 

1Dhammapada, translated by Eknath Easwaran Chapter nine

2Goswami Kriyananda audio on Karma