THE JOURNEY HOME, SWEET HOME



Understanding and exploring the different levels of consciousness


Our original and natural awareness of ourselves as spiritual beings has been replaced by the illusion that we are the bodies we occupy. One of the many consequences of this unconscious mistake is that we give almost all our time and attention to material objects and processes. In our obsession with all things material, including our own and others’ physical bodies we see and measure others by their physical form. We compare our own shape with that of others. Our success is measured by the quantity of our material acquisitions. Doing has become much more important than being, as we make the clock our master and speed our god. Then we try to cram more activities into a space we call a day. It is all part and parcel of identifying with our form and the thing we do through our form. We become trapped in the lowest form of consciousness – body consciousness – and cannot see the trap. We lose ourselves in action and become “blind” to the way we make everything seem urgent.
When we identify with our body, we create our ego – the false sense of self – and this is what gives rise to all forms of negative thinking and emotional pain. When we identify with the physical, we lose our sense of self in something that must change, decay and even be destroyed. When external objects and circumstances, including other people, mean more to us than we do to ourselves, we feel we have no control over our lives and are at the mercy of uncontrollable forces. This is what generates fear, tension, anxiety, worry and anger – the principal emotions which lie behind almost all physical disease.
When we are mentally detached to something or someone, in such a way that we base our sense of happiness solely on the external, then mental/emotional pain arises in this ‘attachment’ is disturbed or even removed from our lives (either temporarily or permanently). We are even taught to invest our hopes and dreams in the lives of others and our entertainment industries rely on our living our lives through the fictional characters they create. As a result, both our potential and our aspirations remain unknown any desire to be all that we can be is unfulfilled and we are no longer able to retain a healthy sense of self-esteem.
While the price we pay for our loss of soul-consciousness in some form of suffering as our messenger and let it tell us that we are asleep again to our true nature. Pain, at any level, is simply a wake up call. However, instead of listening to the messenger, we frequently either send the messenger away (thereby denying that the problem exists) or we wallow in the pain (under the illusion that a bit of pain is good). In fact, we often convince ourselves that pain and suffering are inevitable and even necessary. We grow accustomed to the pain of fear and anxiety, and we see no harm in the occasional outburst of anger and rage. Such negative emotions become regular features on the landscape of daily living. If anyone suggests it would be better to remove them, we resist the idea, as we cannot imagine life without our daily dose of negativity and the adrenaline that it produces. There is also the argument in some areas of psychology and self development that we should not suppress our emotions, that it is healthy to ‘express’ them, to let them out. This, however, only strengthen the habit of creating our negative emotions. The spiritual solution is to stop creating such emotions and to draw, from the core of our consciousness, the qualities of love, truth and peace and use these to create our thoughts and attitudes to the world around us. If we are to truly have an awareness of the original nature of the self, then it is not a question of suppression and/or expression – and on the contrary, we focus on our natural, innate positive qualities and simply don’t give any room to the negative.
However, before we can do that there is one powerful truth we need to see and accept, which is the principle of self responsibility.


Self Responsibility

Changing the quality of our life experience means choosing the quality of our inner life, our inner world. This begins by acknowledging and accepting that any pain or suffering is not natural and that something has to be changed within our own consciousness. As with the physical body, where just being free from disease does not necessarily mean that we have reached a state of optimum health, so too the spirit, the being, the soul within needs to be freed from the habit of tolerating even low level of pain. However, we are often unable to change our habitual self-perception as victims because one of our deepest habits is to attribute our pain to something, especially to someone else. We forget that no matter what is happening around us only we are responsible for our own thoughts and feelings. No one can make us feel anything without our permission Have you ever thought of this?. An accurate knowledge and understanding of spirit reminds us that any pain or suffering is there because we have lost our true self-awareness. And yet, it’s OK! Although pain is not natural, it is part of the plan. It is the price we all pay for our spiritual amnesia, from falling asleep to who and what we are.

The road "home" and our true awakening begins with the acceptance that wherever we are is wherever we are meant to be at this particular moment in time, and whatever we are experiencing is whatever we are meant to be experiencing. Instead of trying to escape from a difficult situation, we need to understand that we are in the process of learning more about ourselves. Instead of attributing our mental or emotional discomfort to someone or some circumstance, which is really a form of disempowerment, we will benefit by acknowledging that we are fully responsible for whatever thought, feelings or emotions we have at this moment. This accepting of self-responsibility is the beginning of self-empowerment. If our experience is one of pain or discomfort, then it is a signal that we are not creating the highest quality of thoughts and feelings, or we are not doing the right thing at the level of action. If we can be aware of the signal of suffering brings, and value its message, we will then accept there is something we need to think, feel or do differently to free ourselves from a self-imposed prison.

While a caged bird’s freedom lies outside the cage, our freedom awaits us within. We have an inner journey to make from body consciousness to soul-consciousness, from dependency to independence, from fear to love, from being the slave to our senses to being the master of our sense. In meditation we sit in the driving seat of our conscious awareness, the fuel for our journey comes from the realisation and experience of the truth of who we are, and the direction is set at every moment as we ‘consciously’ decide where our attention and awareness go. This is the real work of self-mastery and the beginning of the journey home.

The metaphor of a journey is a good way to perceive our life, and perhaps several lives. The journey is also defined by our day-to-day relationships with other beings or human souls if you like. With some, we form profoundly strong bonds during a grand joint adventure, perhaps across several births. Our relationships would be completely harmonious if only we knew who we are and acted from that truth. In forgetting ourselves, we complicate our relationships with the many masks we learn to wear from a variety of motives, not least so that we may protect ourselves from others whom we wrongly learn to perceive as threatening. We forget that we cannot be threatened. Only what we are attached to can be threatened; that is, our false self-images or beliefs which form the basis of our ego. These masks are at the core of the games we play in our interactions with family, friends, colleagues and co-workers. Instead of being open and honest, loving and kind, we build walls and play evasive or confrontational games, criticising and gossiping games – all signs that we are not content within ourselves. They are symptoms of our own insecurity. Our insecurity is a symptom of our spiritual amnesia.

Our day-to-day work of awakening and self-transformation involves seeing ourselves playing these games, and freeing ourselves from thought and behaviour patterns we have created over time. Once again, meditation becomes a vital exercise of reflection, seeing and remembering.
Only when we realise that we are responsible for any mental and emotional pain that we are experiencing we will be interested enough to take time out to reflect. Only when we reflect on our daily experience we will see the patterns (habits) that are the cause of our discomfort. Only then we can break the patterns. The most effective way to break a pattern, from a purely spiritual point of view, is not to struggle with it, but simply see the pattern, remind ourselves of who we are as spirit, soul or being, remember our self as soul, and to reconnect with our true peaceful, positive and loving nature. When we learn to reflect, without self-judgement, on our experience, we start to see the illusions that we have learned. These are the roots of the patterns of belief and thought which are causing our suffering. Then, by consistently remembering who and what we are, through our meditation, we invoke the innate power of our peace, the power of our love and the power of truth. These innate powers then dissolve the old patterns which we now know we now know were based on false illusion and false belief.


Inwards and upwards

While we do this inner work in the context of our ‘horizontal’ relationships (with others, nature and the physical environment), there is also a ‘vertical’ aspect to our journey which is equally important, our relationship with the Supreme Source of Power, The Higher Self or Consciousness, the Supreme Source of Energy to whom many call God. It is a journey only for the soul, and not the body, as we learn to move to higher levels of consciousness through meditation and yoga or remembrance. It is the “journey home”, a purely spiritual journey by which we return to our original, pure state of being, where we are completely free of the illusion that we are physical entities, where we are totally free of the noise of uncontrollable mental chatter and the emotional pain to which we have grown accustomed to and, in some cases, addicted to. While it is vital to restore authority over the faculties of our consciousness, equally important is the mastery of the three main levels of consciousness, sometimes referred to as the ‘three worlds’ – the physical world, the subtle world and the soul world.

Our spiritual journey "home" begins from where we find ourselves now, which, most of us, is the physical or corporeal world.


The Physical World
The solid physical world of movement and sound

This is the world around us where we find the laws of science and properties of matter in operation. Our physical environment is full of noise and constant movement as we play our various roles through our physical bodies on the stage of life. We express ourselves through our physical form and experience others through our physical senses. We relate directly to and interact with other beings or human souls as we exchange energy in all our relationships. But this is a limited world defined by the dimensions of time(1) and space.
Almost all of us are now in this state of consciousness – aware only of the physical. It is not sleep, but compared to where we have come from it is a very sleepy state of awareness. Some human souls have become so sleepy, so unaware, that they think this physical state of conscious awareness is all there is.
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(1) Understood here to mean our limited attempt to measure our experience of the space between two events


The moment we identify ourselves with anything or anyone within this physical world, in that moment it is as if we are asleep. As we have seen, the recurring theme of this article is that meditation is the method to break the habit of identifying with the physical, awaken ourselves and learn to be who we truly are. Only then can we begin to allow that true sense of self to influence our thoughts and actions.

One of the fruits of the practice of meditation, along with detachment from physical objects and surroundings, is the development of an awareness of ‘the subtle’, of a dimension beyond our understanding of the purely physical.


The Subtle World
The mental world of movement but no sound

This is an intermediate dimension of purity and light, beyond the physical world. It is a place (or state of consciousness) where we are able to experience our subtle, light form, which is pure, carefree and light in character. We can reach this subtle region through our thoughts and, although we may not literally experience light, there is an experience of being detached from the physical body and an awareness of subtle vibrations.

In meditation, we go beyond the consciousness of the physical and the awareness of the physical world. With pure, spiritual thoughts, the soul can change the nature of the energy it gives out (vibration) and move easily into this level.
This subtle region of pure, white light is like a cocoon of light around the physical world,, where angels as we know live. In this state, communication requires no sound, only vibration. Just as we are able to walk into a room and experience something in the atmosphere, so too we are able to feel the pure, positive energy of ourselves and other souls when we are in this subtle state of consciousness.

Beyond this subtle region of pure consciousness, there’s yet another world or region where our home as souls is, our original dwelling place and now the destination of our spiritual journey. It is not so much a place as a state of consciousness that takes us beyond both the physical and subtle worlds (states of consciousness).


The Soul World
The incorporeal world of no movement and no sound

Beyond the physical of constant change, noise and movement, beyond the subtle region of pure thought, there is a dimension of complete silence and perfect stillness where time has no reference. This is the world of the soul or the home of all souls, called by Christians, Heaven. Here the soul is in its inactive state. It is not doing, it is being. The soul is completely detached and separate from the body, and exists in its original state in the form of a spark of spiritual energy. It is from here, and from this state of being, that we all come and we will all eventually return to regardless of what religion you have or not have, regardless of whether you believe in God or not. We all as souls are returning to this place in due time.

To perceive this dimension and experience this pure state of soul consciousness, imagine for a moment, that you as the soul, the conscious point of spiritual light, have moved outside your body. You no longer have your senses. You cannot see, hear, touch, taste or feel. You can’t speak or communicate. You just are. You have no need to think about anything, no decisions to make. You are not asleep or non-existent, you are simply totally absorbed in your own being.(2 )
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(2) Obviously, the awareness being described here is far from the self-centred awareness of someone whose whole approach to life is narcissistic. Here, we are focusing on the pure, natural and original energy of the soul.
This is the experience in the soul world, a dimension of complete silence and stillness. You are light, suspended in light, beyond the boundaries of your own thoughts. When we are in this original state of being, we are like seeds, dormant, but with the complete future plan of our life’s expression within is emerged within us like a blueprint.


It is also in this dimension or state of consciousness that we encounter the Source, the One who has been called by many names down through the ages (God, Allah, Ishwar, Jehovah, etc.), but always remembered as light. This is the Supreme Soul, the spiritual Parent of all souls, who exists eternally in this dimension of spirit or the Soul World. It is in this seed state of being, in the presence of the Source of spirit, that we are spiritually refreshed in preparation for our emergence again into this physical world, the world of action and interaction with others again. It is in this state that we are spiritually recharged. Like a solar panel absorbing the light of the sun we absorb that light of the spiritual Sun. The creator heals and renews the soul. This is recreation.
Before exploring the identity, nature and role of the Creator, it is useful at this stage to consolidate and strengthen our meditation experience. It is through meditation that we can learn to create the states of consciousness which enable us to move easily between all three worlds. Use the following meditations or reflections to take you into your highest state of consciousness – the state of complete silence, where you, the soul, are truly like a tiny seed, with everything merged within you.



Making the Journey Home Through Meditation/Reflection

First Step – Leaving the physical world

One of the most effective inner skills that meditation helps us to develop is to disengage, stand back and become a detached observer. This is not a form of escape but a way of learning to use our energy in a more efficient way. Being a detached observer allows us to witness life around us without losing or wasting our mental energy on issues and events over which we have no control and that are not important to us. Being a detached observer also allows us to see a more complete picture of what is happening, whether it is an international scene or a domestic situation. It is also the basis of self-control, allowing us to keep unhelpful emotions in check and to bring forth all that is good within ourselves. By being detached from the world around us while observing without judgement or resistance to anyone or anything allows us to return to our soul-conscious state easily and quickly.


The Detached Observer

The next time you find yourself in an intense interaction, feed the following thoughts below into your mind, pausing momentarily between thoughts, allowing yourself enough time to slow down and focus.


I am a soul and at peace with myself and the world around me . . .
This scene is one of thousands in which I choose to play a role . . .
I disengage for a moment from what is happening around me . . .
Mentally, I take a step back and just watch dispassionately what is happening . . .
I make no judgements or assessments - I just observe . . .
As I observe, I see that souls are playing their own unique role, according to their understanding . . .
My acceptance of each one is total and unconditional . . .
As I watch, I also become aware of my patience in allowing this scene to evolve naturally . . .
I wait for an invitation to participate – it always comes eventually . . .
I have no personal agenda . . . or desires
I am happy to contribute towards achieving the most positive and effective outcome . . .
In the meantime I watch, while remaining at peace within myself . . .
I share the vibration of that peace with all around me and with all I’m relating to in the knowledge that this is the most valuable contribution that I can make . . .
I realise that simply by observing peacefully I am participating positively in this scene . . .
To maintain my peace I remain the detached observer.

If you dedicate time to consciously practise the above meditation /reflection in ‘action’, you will eventually find that you move into this state of being naturally and easily. You are not avoiding or escaping from life or the reality of the world around you. Instead, you are learning to control your awareness and involvement, disengage at will, be more sensitive to all that is happening around you and give yourself the time and the space to measure your response. You are also developing a deeper awareness of the subtle energies at play within yourself and others. You are being ‘soul-conscious’ while being aware of the drama of life, unfolding as it should, around you.

Second Step – Moving into a more subtle world

As well as our physical form, we each have a form of light – a subtle body (like the angels). Sometimes referred to as aura or angels, it can be ‘seen’ by some sensitive souls, and can even be photographed, but most of us only become aware of it through the vibrations of others. The purity of our light form is dependent on the purity of our thought or mental vibrations. The daily practice of Raja Yoga Meditation is the main method by which we purify our thoughts and raise the quality of our vibrations. In this way we can move into, and be more aware of, the ‘subtle region’. This will also help us increase our sensitivity to all the subtleties of daily life.


Being Light

Here are some thought for your meditation/reflection to take you into a world of pure light. Take your time and allow yourself to live each thought.


I am now detached from the physical world around me and simply observing . . .
I become aware of the constant activity in my mind . . .
I consciously create only the purest thoughts . . .
I am a subtle being of pure spiritual light . . .
I become aware of my subtle body of pure, white light surrounding my physical form . . .
In my body of light, I consciously stand up and step away from my physical form, which remains seated . . .

The light of my subtle form is like that of an angel – radiating out into the world . . .
Each thought is like a fine strand of silk, shimmering into the world around me . . .
Each strand carries a vibration of pure peace, a gift to any being that it may touch . . .
Each strand is a thought so subtle, so fine, yet so powerful, so pure . . .
In this pure awareness of myself in my form of light, I realise that the greatest gifts I can share with those around me are the light of love, the light of peace, the light of truth.


As you practise the art of being aware of your subtle body, you will begin to sense how you can have a positive effect on others simply radiating good wishes, pure thoughts and pure feelings. You become aware of how the atmosphere in a room or outside it or between people can be enhanced simply by your moving into this subtle state of pure being, with the intention of contributing the highest possible vibrations towards the people and the process around you.

Third Step – Arriving in the soul world

Our original dwelling place is a dimension of soft, golden red light, a place of absolute silence and stillness. This is where we used to ‘to be’ in our original form of a point of radiant light. In this dimension, everything is merged within our consciousness. Like a seed, we are life waiting to happen. We are poised to emerge and express our unique beauty through the form of a body. Through our physical form we will be able to radiate the fragrance of our spiritual qualities. For the soul, this original, seed-like state is like being at home. The deepest form of meditation and reflection is one in which we return to this dimension of soft, golden light. It is a state of being which we can practise experiencing where we are still in our bodies.

Going home

As your meditation deepens with practice, you will find yourself able to go beyond the awareness of the world around you, to go beyond your own thoughts and feelings and to arrive in a state of deep inner silence. Here are some thoughts for a meditation or reflection which will take you of this state of consciousness. In this meditation you are using thought to go beyond thought.

I am a spiritual being who has travelled far and I am about to make the final journey home . . .
I willingly release my awareness of the physical world around me, and of my physical body, for a moment . . .
I centre my awareness of myself in the middle of my head, just in between my eyebrows…
I become aware of my ‘subtle’ body of light . . .
I feel myself moving easily upwards, away from the physical space I have been sitting in, and out into the world . . .
I continue rising high above into the vastness of the sky . . .
I enjoy the feeling of the freedom of a bird on the wing . . .
Ahead I can see space in all its majesty approaching . . .
In a split second, my subtle body collapses into a tiny point of shimmering white light . . .
Like a comet I race past a thousand galaxies . . .
Almost as quickly, I slow down and I enter an area of warm, golden light . . .
Like a quilt of the softest down, it enfolds me . . .
I know this place so well . . .
I have reached the silent world that is my eternal home . . .
I am completely still . . .
There is no moment, no sound, no thought, no feeling . . .
Yet I am aware . . .
I am aware of the deepest peace . . .
I am aware of the most profound silence . . .
Like a seed in its original state, I am the soul in my original state . . .
Everything I have ever known and done is merged within . . .
I am aware of the presence of another who has only benevolence in his heart for me . . .
I decide to stay and enjoy this eternal moment of the deepest peace, in this silent, loving reunion, in the comfort of my original home.

Within each of us is the experience of each of these states of being, or levels of consciousness. Even in the physical world any journey begins from home and eventually brings us back home – so it is with the journey of spirit. Our spiritual home, the home of all souls, is the soul world, a dimension beyond time and space, where we remain silent and in the company of our spiritual Parent. The purpose of leaving our home, the reason for our journey into the physical world of time and space, is simply to live, experience and know life. It is to know ourselves, to express and experience the inner beauty of our unique nature, and to experience the nature and the beauty of others. To do this we need to be in a physical form, with our five senses and together with others in the same time dimension. Here, we are together, expressing ourselves and being creative – creating our own lives, as well as working with, caring for, helping and appreciating others in their creation. In the co-creation of our grand adventure together, we each have the opportunity to enrich and be enriched. When we began the journey the predominant energy was pure love. In our journey through time and our gradual loss of true self-awareness, love has turned to fear. This is why we now experience so much division and conflict at all levels of our modern societies.

When we lose awareness of this purpose or reason for being here, when we think that ‘here’ is all there is and when we place the material above the spiritual on our scale of values (the outer before the inner), our life becomes much less playful and joyful. Life becomes more serious and we turn our relationships into a business. “I’ll give, if you give. I’ll love you if you’ll love me. I’ll do this for you, if you do this for me.” We become “traders” bartering activities, o emotions and of feelings. We become dependent and begin to fear that we will not be loved, so our love turns to fear. Unhappiness is a natural consequence of making life serious in this way. Unhappiness trickles down from the spiritual to the mental, to the emotional, and ultimately affects our physical well-being. But deep down inside you and me and everybody else, there is always a voice calling us back, reminding us whispering its truth to us. While we have succumbed to the illusion that we are only physical beings and that life is survival of the fittest, this quiet inner voice gently reminds us that this is not who we are, this is not why we are here. You are not what you see in the bathroom mirror and you did not come here to be in perpetual anxiety. This is who you are, this why you came – come home, be yourself, be aware and be free again. Be love, give love and be loved again as you always had been initially.

The call of our spiritual home and our original state of consciousness is always there, just as much as the memory of home from our childhood experiences in this birth is always within our consciousness. Sometimes we go back to visit the place where we were brought up and played as children. We re-experience, re-live the special feelings and significant moments. For every soul on Earth there is a spiritual home that calls us. For every soul on Earth there was a spiritual childhood filled with innocence, joy and blissful happiness. It is a place of pure, undiluted peace and contentment, a dimension beyond time and space. It calls us and it beckons us to return. It is a journey of no distance and it takes only one second!


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on “The Journey Home” I’m usually asked

Q. Do we go home (to Heaven as Christians understand) when we die?
A. No! Allow me to explain. When we understand and experience ourselves as souls, as imperishable, eternal beings, we realise that death is only a physical phenomenon. At the death of the body, the soul makes the transition into another physical costume (body) and a new chapter in the adventure of life begins. Depending on the soul’s karma3 (actions, the record of action through the body), this is likely to be somewhere in the orbit of the souls with whom it has been close in previous births. The soul only leaves the home once in a unique, personal journey, which is not linear but cyclical. This pattern can be likened to actors to leave home to go to the theatre to play their parts. They change costumes between scenes – they don’t return home at the end of each act or scene, they do return home, instead when the play is over, finished, only to return the next day for another performance or performances to repeat their part. Is this analogy clear enough? Each birth that we take (whether you believe in re-incarnation or not) can be likened to a new act of the play with many scenes. It is a new chapter in the book of our journey into and through this world.

Q. When you say the soul falls asleep, what do you mean exactly?
A. Even though we are awake and aware of the world around us it is as if we are asleep and unable to see the world as it truly is, unable to see others as they truly are and unable to see events in their true light. The word ‘see’ really means “perceive”. Our intellect perceives the world and interprets the world according to what it has learned to believe and according toActually the purpose of this journey is three-fold. First it is an essential inner exercise in which we re-learn to choose and control our state of consciousness. Secondly it is an inner process which can only happen when we learn to detach, which means letting go of our accumulated negative habits of thought, negative emotional tendencies and negative memories. This is why the journey home could also be described as the only journey where you are guaranteed to lose your baggage! Third, it is an inner process of renewal and empowerment. As you master the process of moving through these states of consciousness you regain your spiritual power that was previously trapped or suppressed by the illusion based on identification only with form. The journey home is not an escape from reality but a return to a higher reality. Unreality for the soul is the belief that the physical world is all there is and that happiness always requires some physically stimulated experience. Past experiences. If we have learned to believe we are bodies and not souls, if we have learned to believe that our emotions are created by others, if we have learned to believe that the world is evolving in a positive and progressive way, these beliefs will influence our perception and interpretation of other people, situations and world events in a certain way. Our thought, emotions and behaviours follow accordingly. Each of these beliefs is wrong, erroneous, false – but don’t believe me; instead find out by yourself dispassionately! In essence we are asleep to the truth, so we sleepwalk our way through life and it’s tragic that we don’t even know it. As a result of wrong beliefs, we will create pain and/or suffering in some form, at some inner level, but we will tolerate the pain in the belief that it must be “normal”. It is only when the suffering becomes so great and intense that we acknowledge we have to do something about it. And here you are, doing something about it by reading this article on meditation/reflection to see if it will help you understand your pain and transform your pain. Which it will! Just reading this article won’t change much beyond your understanding. Only the practice of meditation and the inner study of the simple truths you find here will eventually heal your pain (spiritual, mental and emotional). Meditation and ongoing spiritual study help you to awaken and stay awake to the deeper realities of life around you and to the eternal truths which already lie within YOU.

Q. Surely if I make this ‘journey home’ will I not have to leave my body and therefore die?
A. This is a journey through levels of consciousness. You don’t leave your body, you simply refine your awareness and with each refinement you ‘go beyond’ the awareness of the last level. For example, right now you are aware of the physical world around you, the room, perhaps an itch in your leg and of course you are aware of this article you’re reading. Stop now and meditate for a moment, withdraw your attention and then your awareness from everything outside and around you. Become aware only of your inner world and nothing else, your thoughts and feelings in this moment now. Then go beyond the awareness of your thoughts and feelings. Be aware of yourself like a seed, everything totally merged within. You are completely still yet fully aware of yourself. Notice the power of being in this awareness; not power over anything or anyone, simply the power of being, the power of the self. The journey home is not to a place in the physical sense, but to a level of awareness or state of consciousness which can be likened to the original state from which you began your journey into this corporeal world.

Q. So if the higher reality lies beyond this world does that mean we may as well give up on this world and just ‘go home’?
A. Although that may be an appealing idea to some, it is not possible just yet. In truth it is our karma which keeps us here, which another way of saying, keeps us aware of the physical world of form. Our karma is the creation of these inner negativities mentioned above. The clearing of our karma comes with the practice of raising our consciousness, through meditation/reflection, back to its original and highest consciousness.

My Personal Experience

It was the most powerful meditation I had ever had, in Rajasthan, India, almost without trying. Almost immediately after I sat down I felt a powerful urge to go deep inside. And then I felt a pull to what I can only describe as beyond! I completely lost awareness of everything around me and I was in another world. I can only describe it as light, soft, warm golden light. I felt a presence of another Being. I knew who it was. I recognised Him instantly and I knew He recognised me. I could feel His love. At one point it was so powerful it was almost overwhelming, I have never known such a feeling before. I was aware of one tiny thought which crossed my mind, to turn the volume down, and immediately He did, and I instantly regretted the thought and I could swear He smiled – but of course there was no face. But then something pulled me out and back into the room. I was absolutely stunned by the depth of the experience – I still remember it to this day, and I shall never forget if I were to live a hundred! It took me ages to be fully aware of the physical. I kept wanting to go back since then.

Journal Exercise for You
This may give you some experiences. Just do it and see what it does for you. Don’t question. Just flow. Allow yourself into it. I had some experiences doing it. See for yourself what it does to and for you.

A. Seeing Beauty
For the next seven days, I want you to focus on something that you consider to be beautiful and/or inspiring. Don’t get lost in it but consciously identify what are the attributes or characteristics that you consider beautiful or inspirational. Note down below what you see.

Day

1 Beautiful______________________ Inspiring________________

2 ______________________ ________________

3 ______________________ ________________

4 ______________________ ________________

5 ______________________ ________________

6 ______________________ ________________

7 _______________________ ________________

B. Visiting your life

Spend your next week-end imagining that you are a tourist or guest who has come to observe your own life. Tourists and guests usually appreciate the thing that we usually take for granted and they also notice details that we tend to ignore. Make a note below of your experience, identifying areas of your life that you realise that you have been neglecting recently.


C. Beyond Your Senses

Find yourself a quiet place and a time when you know there won’t be any interruptions. Sit down quietly and concentrate on being observant of you senses. What can you see, hear, smell and taste? Now, one by one, withdraw your consciousness from these senses. Imagine that you are in a world with no colour, no sound, no smell, no sensations and no tastes. Do this exercise slowly: firstly, with conscious awareness and then detaching yourself and finally bringing your awareness back to your senses. Record your experience below.


D. Out of this World

Create a short story entitled Alice visits the World of Solid, Subtle and Sublime. Describe Alice’s adventure as she moves from one world to another and what she discovers in each world.
The Laws and Philosophy of Karma


Understanding the natural laws which govern the mental and physical universe of action

There are three things that we all have in common:
Awareness - of ourselves and others

Relationship - the sharing and exchange of energy with others

Creativity - the ability to produce thoughts, ideas, concepts and feelings and express them.


The purpose of our life is nothing more than living life itself – to be self-aware, to be creative, to express ourselves to our highest potential and to exchange the energy of love with anyone around us. But this cannot happen in the incorporeal world or Soul World, silent home of the soul mentioned earlier in the previous article. These characteristics of life require action, a costume through which to express ourselves and a stage on which to act. The physical world provides the stage on which we can move, bring to life, create, relate and express all that is within us. For each of us the possibilities are infinite.
The moment we take birth in a physical form, we are constantly doing one of three things: acting, reacting, or interacting – sometimes all three together. There are certain laws which are intrinsic to action and interaction. They are not human laws requiring solicitors or lawyers to interpret or police to enforce. They are natural laws which are constantly operating in every relationship. They are often called The Laws of Karma (action): acknowledge in Christian philosophy by the saying, “As you sow, you shall reap”, described by Isaac Newton as the Laws of Motion where, ‘for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction’. The Laws of Karma reminds us that whatever quality of energy we give out, we get back now, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or in our next birth. This might not be exactly ‘an eye for an eye’, or ‘a tooth for a tooth’, but if we give happiness consciously or unconsciously, directly o indirectly to someone it will come back to us; if we give pain or sorrow through our thought, words or actions, it will equally come back to us too. So, what would you like to come back to you? Give it out! What would you like to harvest from your “farm”? Sow it! Would you like, for instance, to have broccoli, juicy, sweet tomatoes, beans and peppers for your meal in five months’ time? Sow the seeds of the same and take good care of them. The choice is yours, no one else’s! We all know this, don’t we? Oh, yes, we do, but some or many have the childish excuse of ‘the mind is willing, but the flesh is weak’ to justify such deeds. However, if we are aware of our true nature as souls, such excuses have no room in here. But remember, such deeds bear fruit and you will be the one yourself to harvest. You can’t possibly pay anyone to harvest the fruits for you however rich and wealthy you may be, however influential you are, however physically powerful you may be. You just have to do and reap, harvest them for you and alone, nobody can even help you do it for love and compassion’s sake; like it or not!

When we are reminded of these immutable of cause and effect it awakens our awareness of our true responsibility, accountability. Most of us are conditioned by the idea that we are accountable for the actions for some of our actions, but not all of them. For example, we would consider ourselves responsible for the actions which bring our colleagues together for a task at work but would not consider ourselves accountable for the argument we have with our neighbour. We would consider ourselves responsible for driving our family safely to their holiday destination, but if we nearly have an accident because we were trying to get there quickly we might consider the other driver responsible for nearly causing the accident. If we sustain our family through our own enterprise and professional efforts we would take the credit, but if we turned to a life of crime to clothe and feed ourselves we might blame the inequalities of society or the formative years of a difficult childhood.
In our forgetfulness of this principle of karmic returns we have learned to avoid taking responsibility for many of our actions. We fail to see the impact of our actions upon others and we fail to see that the real meaning of responsibility is our ‘ability to respond’ (response-ability). Life can be seen as a series of responses which we each create in our interactions with other people and events. As is the quality of our ability to respond (energy given), so will be the quality of the returns (energy received). The Laws of karma also serve to remind us that our circumstances and our personality today are the result of what we thought and did yesterday, last week, last month, last year, perhaps in our last birth. A great majority of people do not like this insight or find it difficult to accept because most of us have been taught that our destiny lies in someone else’s hands, or in the ‘hands’ of life, or in the hands of fate or luck about which we can do nothing. Far from the truth, in fact! Karma is also sometimes referred to as the Law of Reciprocity. It is a law which teaches us that there is no such thing as luck and that whatever befalls us today is the result of our benevolent or negative actions in the past. If you spend a few moments reflecting on events in your life, without judgement or emotion, you will begin to see connections between actions and outcomes, causes and effects. When you see how all effects have their causes, you then have the evidence that this universal law is at work in your life at all times.


The Dimensions of Karma

Karma has two dimensions: external and internal. We all radiate energy and whenever energy we send out in the form of our thoughts, words, attitudes, emotions, feelings and actions – as ripples into the larger pool of life – will eventually return in days, weeks, months or years. At the same time, if we think speak and act in an angry way consciously and unconsciously, we leave an impression or memory of anger within our own consciousness and the habits (personality) of anger is born. Within the habit, character or personality is the recorded emotion and experience of our expression towards the object of our anger whether or not we are aware of. Not surprisingly enough, I often hear people say, “What did I do to deserve this?” Very much so! I liken this expression when we sow a mango seed, for instance, and we don’t see any trace of sprouting and over time we forget all about it after so many years and sow another type of seed, an aubergine seeds, for instance, and after some time we suddenly see the mango sprouting, and ask ourselves, “Who sowed this wretched thing preventing the aubergine seeds to germinate?”; that is, “What did I do to deserve this mango?” “I want to have aubergines for my meals!” Funny and ridiculous, isn’t it? If we encounter the object of our anger the next day, it will trigger the emergence of the recorded anger (mango sprouting) from within the personality. We then deepen the personality/habit as we express more anger, even if we only ‘think’ anger. The emergence of this emotional energy (mango sprouting) from within our consciousness then stops us from interacting in a positive way. It clouds our mind and confuses our intellect, crippling and distorting our thoughts, decisions and behaviour. This often explains why we find it difficult to communicate with certain people in our life. Sounds familiar? Essentially we are carrying a negative image of the other person within our personality from a previous interaction (sowing of the mango seed) with them. And when we see them again it invokes the energy within our personality, which then influences our ability to respond to them.

The record of our karma (actions) is entirely our own creation, carried within our personality, like scars on the soul. These scars then express themselves as habitual behaviours. Just as any scars on our body require healing, so do any negative habits within our consciousness require healing. It is therefore important to be aware of the quality of our actions (sowings), which begins with the quality of our thoughts, which begins with the quality of our consciousness or state of being. Awareness of this cause/effect process, which begins within our consciousness, allows us to understand first: why we are experiencing discomfort today (due to low-quality action in the past); second, why we need to be careful not to reinforce any existing negative habits and behaviours with further negative thoughts/actions; and third, how we may create positive karma (positive action) or outcomes in the future.
There are essentially three levels or categories of action:

Negative action (akarma) is motivated by consciousness of the body. When we identify with our body and think we are only our physical form, we think happiness is a physical experience and we seek self-gratification and fulfilment through sensual experience. Our senses are designed to consume external sources of stimulation, so we develop the habit of taking and forget that everything we take must be given back some day in some way. The resulting dependencies give rise to tension, fear and anxiety, generating thoughts like “Can I have more?” or “What if I don’t get more?”
Dependency is always a hair’s breadth away from addiction of any type. Any sensual addiction entraps the soul, inner freedom and peace are lost and real undiluted happiness is impossible to experience. There is always the possibility that whatever we become accustomed to being able to take or consume may finish, or cease to be available, and so fear is ever present. It is here that we find the birth of stress in its most common forms.

When our sense of self and our security are both based on our position, possessions, pay or another person, then life’s daily events can easily represent a threat to any of these things, thereby affecting our sense of security in the world. The consequent fearful and angry thoughts and the actions which follow accumulate a negative karmic debt or account. Any actions motivated by greed or attachment are what we could call ‘sinful’ actions, where the meaning of sin is simply to forget who we are. When we forget who we are, our actions spring from an illusion of who we are, and those actions are therefore inaccurate and negative, often destructive. Our capacity and ability to be loving, peaceful and contented is diminished. Although we grow accustomed to tension, dissatisfaction and being upset, we don’t realise that these emotions have their roots in forgetfulness of the true self. Over time, the record of all thoughts and actions, which are driven by these states of being, accumulate within our consciousness and heaviness sets in.

Negative action is also a result of misuse or abuse of one or another aspect in our life: of the body, of relationships, of wealth, of our thoughts, etc. Taken on a simple level, if we gorge ourselves on cream cakes and do no physical exercise, it is certain that we will gain weight at some point in our life. Our bodies are not designed to take in more calories than they use without producing a negative result. Wee are able to see or admit the negative results of our actions on other levels.


Neutral action (vikarma) involves routine tasks which do no t normally adversely affect others: washing dishes writing a shopping list, choosing what clothes to wear, etc. However, even these actions if carried out in a state of body-consciousness, can easily become negative on a covert or subtle level an d a further debt or heaviness may be accumulated.


Positive action (sukarma) arises from a state of being soul-conscious. We are aware that we are spirit and that we have spiritual energy at the core of our being. We are free from wanting anything form outside ourselves. We do no look for peace and happiness from outer conditions, as we now know and experience them as states of being. We have reversed the flow of our energies from taking to giving (either material or non-material). Aware that we are eternal and imperishable, we are not threatened by others in any way. We can see the best in everyone and encourage their full potential and their spiritual qualities to blossom. We are also able to move consciously into a spiritual state of being at will. We can be powerful, joyful, insightful or full of love by choice. We know that whatever spiritual state of being we choose, that state emanates towards others without effort. Our thoughts, attitudes and actions are all expressions of our state of being.

However, it’s not that we become full of love or generous towards others because we want some positive energy in return. If we give with the subtle desire or expectation for a return, our motive and actions are not soul-conscious. In an enlighten state, while we ‘know’ that whatever we give will return to us, we are simply giving from our heart, for this is the nature of the self. This takes us to the idea that the most sublime and an unlimited way of giving is that when we have no awareness that we are giving. It is the highest impulse of spirit. To be is to give. There are no conditions placed on our being.

The most significant actions carried out in a state of ‘soul-consciousness’ will always bring spiritual benefit to others. The greatest thing we can do for others is to help them rediscover both their soul-consciousness and their link with the Creator, God. We do not attempt to force enlightenment on another or expect that they must accept this, but we can be instrumental in helping and/or supporting others to see how they can set themselves free from illusion and to reconnect them with the Source of spirit, with God. This is the highest karma or action or deed.


Karma – The Universal Debt Collector

Whether we are a cleaner or a mechanic, a corporate executive, a CEO, the president of a nation or a king, we have all made the same mistake of losing our true self-awareness (soul-consciousness). This is why, at this present time when the world is in a state of transformation, we all find ourselves with ‘debts to settle’ and some inner scars to heal, not only from this lifetime, but also accumulated from previous births. The web of karmic debt can weigh heavily within our consciousness. This explains why even those people who have an abundance (or lack of it) of material wealth and physical comfort are often painfully unhappy. The burden of this karmic debts can also prevent us from finding true freedom, as the ‘sins’ of our past disturb our peace and our happiness in the present. If someone keeps coming into our mind, interrupting our concentration, or they trigger feelings of frustration or depression when we see or even think of them, or people who commit crime against us or rob us something or whatever we can understand that we are likely to have some outstanding debt with that person, and often there is an underlying lesson to be learnt or something that has to be changed. For most people this is very tough indeed to accept. In these moments, although we may think we are free to think, say or do what we want, we do not have spiritual freedom. We are tied to our inner disturbance (habits) which has been triggered (not caused) by the outer event or presence of a person.


Feeling the self

There are three methods of settling debts and setting ourselves free:

Staying awake and aware
The first is to increase the awareness of the self as soul and diminish the illusion that we are our body. This ensures that all actions come from inner state of peace, generosity and benevolence, without any personal agenda or conscious desire for any return.(3)
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(3) Admittedly, only God can be described as truly altruistic; even a mother expects the return of love directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously from her children. Here, however, we are assuming the difference between conscious and unconscious motives
This requires the gentle effort of constantly reminding ourselves who and what we are – soul not body. Our identification with our body is so strong that it can be drawn like a curtain across our consciousness in a second. The path of the awakening spirit is therefore one of waking (awareness of self as soul) and sleeping (under the illusion that we are our body), waking and sleeping. We tend to fluctuate between the two (like dawn and dusk) until we find stability in soul-consciousness. This is why it is important to awaken and stay awake, and why it’s important to give our mind and intellect good spiritual food and exercise every day to keep them fresh and alert. Being soul-conscious, and acting from that consciousness, , naturally heals the scars (habits and tendencies) left by past actions based on illusion (body-consciousness). The evidence that our meditation/reflection is working is a lightness of spirit and an increasing easiness in our interactions with others. These are the signs that we are clearing our karmic debts. It is at this transitional stage that we will often find it helpful and supportive to be in the company of those who are also practising meditation, learning to be ‘soul-conscious’ and making the same effort to awaken and stay awake. It gives us the opportunity to share experiences and learn from others. We will also be less likely to find benefit or make progress in the company of those who continue to focus mainly on the material world and who still see themselves only as physical beings.

Face to face

The second way in which we can begin to settle our outstanding debts is by giving back to those souls from whom we have in the past ‘taken’ and with whom we now have some ‘karmic account’.
However, this can take time, especially if imagine all the souls we have interacted with during many births. We are sure to have one or two people in our life right now who seem to have the ability and capacity to press our buttons or just stimulate feelings of discomfort by simply being in our presence. If we are serious about ‘waking up’, we will not avoid these people, nor will we go looking for them. Instead, we can use these relationships as teachers and opportunities to learn about ourselves. We can ask ourselves, “What is it within me that is reacting to this person in this situation?” “Why am I creating this discomfort in their presence?” In this way, we will see and understand what we need to change within ourselves. We understand which habits need to be healed and transformed. It will always come down to something connected with our own ego or attachment. Our inner healing will always begin with the ‘letting go’ of something. When we identify what that is and when we do ‘let go’, we find it takes the negativity out of our thoughts and actions, thereby breaking the negative patterns of exchange with others.

The moment we are aware that our own discomforts are self-imposed, we are halfway to self-change and the clearing of karma. The next step is to forgive ourselves, for wounding ourselves with our negative thoughts and actions, and to forget the past. When we do this work of inner healing, we automatically change our response to the person or situation previously triggering our discomfort. Our new spiritual response is like a new step sequence in our dance with the other person and if we change our step they have to change theirs. We often hear the saying, ‘When I change, the world changes’ (or people change), don’t we? Don’t wait for others to change for us to do the same for if I do that we shall be waiting till eternity and this never ever come. If we don’t change, we will need to empower our own capacity to be patient and check that we do not want them to change in a certain way as a result of our own desires and expectations. Alternatively, they may be dancing the right steps and we learn to dance the right steps too. If we want them to change, it means we are trying to control them in a subtle way which means we still retain a selfish motive. This always results in frustration and failure as it is not possible to control another human being.


Healing Power of God(*)

The third and most effective way to heal and clear the burden of our karmic debt, both inside and outside, is through the process of meditation and remembrance (yoga). In yoga, we establish a direct link with God, the Source of spiritual love, light and power. When we are directly connected to the Sun of spiritual energy, we can allow that energy to heal the negative habits and tendencies within our own consciousness. As our energy changes, through our power of thought, we are able to send out that positive energy towards those with whom we have some difficulty (karmic account). In yoga (remembrance or connection or link), we open to the warmth of pure love and the light of eternal truth from the Source, healing our own spirit and liberating ourselves from the illusions which made us create wrong thoughts and perform wrong actions in the first place. The illusion was simply in seeing ourselves as limited, mortal, physical beings. This led us to believe that love, happiness and peace were physical and to be found externally, which in truth made us use others to get what we wanted. Healing has taken place when we experience ourselves as souls, unlimited, immortal, spiritual beings and children of the Supreme. Healing has become a reality when we rediscover our own internal resource of love, happiness and peace. Only then will we begin to see and perceive others in the same way. This spiritual vision transforms the quality of energy we give to others which then heals and transforms those relationships. Once we have fully healed our self-awareness, we can act as instruments to bring that light from the Source into the lives of others. By doing so, our intention to serve others spiritually has the effect of purifying our own motives in all areas of our life. The healing power of God is then available to others and to the world.

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(*) Change this word with something that makes you feel better


Healing and Settling

Our yoga (remembrance) or union with the Source is the most effective way of healing and settling our accounts of karma. The thoughts within the following meditation may help you to draw on the energy of the Source in order to heal the inner wounds and scars which are left by the negative karmas of the past.


I sit quietly in meditation . . . aware of myself as a soul . . .
In soul consciousness I reconnect with my inner peace . . .
I see the beauty of the many virtues of the spiritual being that I am . . .
There are natural feelings of love and appreciation for the self . . .
At peace with myself, I turn my thoughts to God, to the Sun of spirit . . .
I open my heart to the light of my spiritual Parent . . .
I feel the warmth of His presence and the light of His love for me gently healing the wounds of the past that are buried deep in my heart . . .
The wounds left by fear and sorrow, by sadness and anger dissolve . . .
Like iron being turned into gold, the Alchemist is doing His work, and the deepest healing is taking place . . .
While I sit and absorb this healing energy from the Source I also reflect that light out into the world . . .
The vibration of my reflection of His light and love touches everyone I know and have ever known . . .
It is a light which also heals and transforms my vision of them . . .
I now recognise everyone around me, fellow souls, spiritual beings on their own unique path, playing their own unique roles . . .
I also realise they too have lost their true self awareness . . .
With this new self-conscious vision all negative memories and past hurts associated with each relationship is willingly released . . .
The only important moment is now and the past is forgotten . . .
The healing of forgiveness is complete, and the karma is cleared . . .
In this present moment there is a deep feeling of liberation . . .
In this moment there is a deep appreciation for the presence of God in my life, and a humble acceptance of His invitation to assist.

The beauty of The Laws of Karma is an understanding, that if our actions bring happiness and spiritual upliftment to others today, our own tomorrows will be bright. It reminds us that our destiny is firmly in our own hands and it starts with the creation of our own thoughts.


Give Yourself Permission

Our personalities are essentially the combined habits of previous lifetimes which have left their mark as our inner tendencies (or sanskaras), at the end of each birth it may well be that habits such as becoming angry or upset, anxious and tense, have been with us for so long that they feel a natural part of our inner life, so natural that when someone says our true nature is not anger but peace, not fear but love, not aggression but acceptance, not anxiety but calm, it does not feel right. And even if it did feel right for a moment, we have become so attached to our old habitual moods, feelings and behaviours that we do not really want to change. It may even be the case that we have become so weak that we need help to change. It seems much easier to stay the way we are. As we begin to meditate and develop our spiritual practice, our view on this will fluctuate. When it does, imagine you are having a conversation with yourself and teaching yourself. Give yourself permission to be peaceful by nature, full of love.(4) by nature, naturally content by nature, wherever you are and in whatever you do. After a while, you won’t need to give yourself permission and you will find these states of being are there within you quite naturally at every moment. They are our original and eternal nature. Everything else is learned. Like many other authentic approaches to spiritual awakening, is as much about unlearning as it is about learning.
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(4) Many people interpret the use of the word self and self-love as narcissistic and leading to selfishness. From a spiritual point of view nothing could be further from the truth. If we are not able to accept, appreciate and love ourselves it will be impossible to accept, appreciate and love others. We have learned to hate, fear and to create anger towards others. These are not natural states of being. Learning at a spiritual level is as much about unlearning the habits of negative thought and action which may have adopted from watching others as it is about learning something new. Meditation and yoga are seen as the most effective ways to learn how to love again, which begins with the self.

The Creative Process

Karma shows us how all suffering is self-inflicted. At the spiritual level, suffering is caused by attachment. At the emotional level, suffering is called fear. At the behavioural level, suffering is resistance. The process by which we create our own destiny is quite easy to see on paper; however, it requires some checking to see if it matches the reality of our inner and outer lives. Here is the process in essence.


Sow an intention and reap a thought.

Sow a thought and reap a feeling.

Sow a feeling and reap an attitude.

Sow an attitude and reap an action.

Sow an action and reap a habit.

Sow a habit and reap a personality.

Sow your personality into all your relationships on
on journey through life and you’ll reap a destiny.

Watch your thoughts!

Be aware of your intentions!


Our intentions stem from our beliefs about who we are, where we are and why we are here. If we believe we are physical and mortal beings, we will believe we are here to survive as long as possible. This leads to the intention to get what we need before others, which in turn leads to competition and which finally leads to fear. If you know you are the immortal and imperishable energy of soul, then survival is no longer an issue and your intention expands to include (not exclude), connect with and enlighten others. The service of others at a spiritual level becomes the highest intention in action. It is the highest form of charity (not giving alms). It is fully free from fear, free from the need to want and take and can be seen as an act of true, pure, undiluted, soiled and muddied love. This is why competition and spirituality are never found together. You are either a competitive person or a spiritual person. You can’t possibly be both!



Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on this Subject of “The Laws and Philosophy of Karma” I am usually asked


Q. In the world today; we see many injustices and people suffering. How can we relate this to the Laws of Karma?
A. In a world where everyone knows what everyone else is doing, as they are doing it, each day brings scenes and images of many apparent injustices. Whether it’s in the office or on the television news, we see people suffering tremendous pain at the hands of others. Our sense of injustice is stimulated and it becomes easy to rise from our armchair in outrage against the perpetrators. In the process we ourselves suffer from our own self-created anger and perhaps hatred. This can only worsen the situation. There are now three problems (the victim, the perpetrator and me) instead of the initial two. This does not at all solve the problem! This process then becomes a habit and an inner pattern we begin to repeat, not only when we encounter scenes of global strife, but the moment someone at home or in the office does something similar. A button is pressed and we react with the same pattern.

When we forget, in both global and local contexts, is the history and geography of karma. Every scene and situation has a variety of related causes in both time (history) and space (geography). But we often fail to consider this. An understanding of the laws of action reminds us that whatever we give (consciously or unconsciously) we get, and whatever we get is the result of what we have given (again, consciously or unconsciously). When we integrate this understanding into our awareness while we watch apparent injustices in the world, it defuses our outrage, lessening our pain. It’s not that we sit passively and allow people to inflict suffering upon others (not at all!), but it helps us to see that the greatest or highest contribution that we can make, to both the victim and the perpetrator, is to help them remember who they are and help them rise above their anger and fear towards each other. Only in this way can we help them to liberate themselves from an exchange of energy that has perhaps been going on for centuries. But before we can effectively do this for others, it is necessary to be able to first do it for ourselves. Instead of taking the law into our own hands (the desire for revenge), we can benefit everyone around us by understanding and living according to the invisible laws of cause and effect which define all human relationships. Sometimes this is referred to as ‘walking the talk’, and it often requires moments of reflection before action in order to discern the consequences of any course of action. This ability to stop, reflect and consider, in a state of mental calm and with clear intellect, is an essential attribute of all effective leaders in life, every single day.


Q. How do you know that your actions are creating negative karma?
A. At the very heart of our consciousness, we have a conscience. Our conscience is essentially our innate awareness of truth. From a spiritual point of view, the truth of who we are as spiritual beings is a core and eternal truth. If we consider ourselves to be anything other than spirit, soul then we will be thinking and acting against our conscience, against our truth, which is like going against the grain of spirit. We will feel something is not quite right. If one of the pistons in our car engine is out of sync with the others, the engine will sound slightly strange. We immediately have it fixed, because we know that if it continues it may destroy the engine. If we do something that is out of sync with the truth, the voice of our conscience speaks to us. But we tend to ignore or suppress it, especially if we are having a pleasurable experience – we then create the habit or sanskara of ignoring our own conscience. The smoker hears that voice telling him to stop poisoning his body, wasting money unnecessarily and being addicted, but then ignores the voice or drowns it out telling and convincing himself that “I’m willing but the flesh is weak”, giving credit to this biblical statement as his infantile excuse. This only adds to the inner disharmony already present and both self-respect and self-esteem are slowly eroded.

Any addiction we do which springs from forgetfulness (body-consciousness) will trigger this inner, spiritual discomfort. Following the action, we might feel guilty for doing something we innately knew was wrong. Any form of guilt that is not induced by another person (that is, not a response to emotional blackmail) is the voice of our conscience calling to say that we are acting against the grain, something is out of sync. Our level of guilt acts like a barometer. It shows us when we are not aligned to truth. If we learn to pay attention, listen to the inner discomfort and the message it conveys, we will also hear why and how to make corrections.

Q. Why do we become moody?
A. At any one moment, we have the capability to feel something. Our feelings vary throughout the course of the day. Sometimes they are pleasurable and sometimes they are painful. What we forget to do is to choose our feelings consciously. Instead many of us have become lazy and allowed our feelings to be dictated and shaped by people and circumstances. In other words we have become influenced. Our swinging, changing moods are the result of the inner karma or inner action of becoming attached to things, people, ideas and circumstances. If we are attached to our job and we are made redundant, we will feel gloomy and our mood of doom will drain our energy just when we need to look for our next job with optimism and enthusiasm. Any form of loss will induce the mood of sadness which, if repeated over a long period of time, will turn into depression. When someone says or does something we do not like, our resistance to their actions and their presence leads to anger and ultimately rage. We feel these emotions first within our own consciousness.

When new think we are only physical entities and consider the world around us to be our source of happiness and joy, our moods will fluctuate, even with the changing weather. But when we know who we are, and are stable in the awareness of being soul-conscious, our happiness and joy come inside. We are stable, unaffected, that is, in the face of praise or defamation, loss or gain. We are no longer moody and equanimity is our inner state of being. We are at the helm of our life, with our hand firmly on the rudder of our feelings. And while we cannot control the waves of the ocean of life around us, we can control and choose how we will respond to outer events and people. When we do, we will be able to choose what we feel, regardless of what may come to us. Life ceases to be a rollercoaster and becomes more of a cruise, less a hurricane and more a gentle breeze. We will truly be able to sing in the rain

Q. Why don’t we recognise our state of body-consciousness?
A. One outcome of the transition from soul-consciousness to body-consciousness is the distortion of the virtuous characteristics of the soul into negative traits. It all begins with the development of the ego. This occurs when the soul (self) becomes attached to and identifies with the wrong image of the self. The first and most powerful attachment is a misidentification with the body. Having lost our true self-awareness as an imperishable soul, we fall under the spell of the illusion that we are physical and therefore mortal. It is this illusion which gives rise to the thoughts and actions of taking (rather than that of giving), keeping, defending and protecting (as if we are being attacked). It makes us think that survival is essential, that the major goal in life is the accumulation of possessions and a relationship based on mutual attachment. As a result of these beliefs, we see the birth and growth of five vices or negativities which then hold our spirit, soul in their grip – ego, attachment, greed, anger and lust. Lust has many levels and is not confined solely to physical relationships. We lust after many physical stimulants – from music to movies, from meals to mate – little realising we are further binding ourselves and that we will have to settle the karmic debt, which is accrued as a result, at some future date.

Q. How can I be sure of what my intentions are?
A. We need to understand that every action, thought and feeling is motivated by an intention, and that intention is a cause that exists and must have an effect. If we participate in the cause, we must participate in the effect. In this most profound way we are held accountable for our every action, thought and feeling, that is, for our every intention. It is, therefore, wise for us to become aware of our many intentions, to sort out which intentions produce which effects and to choose our intentions according to the effects that we desire to produce. ‘But where does intention come from?’ you may ask. Intention has its deepest roots in our sense of identity. If we think we are British, black or Muslim (body-consciousness), we will perceive the French, white or Christians as different and possibly a threat; so our intention will be to beat, avoid, overcome or defend ourselves against them. These fear-driven intentions and must rebound some time, somewhere. See yourself as the eternal, imperishable soul as you would others, above and beyond such limited, physical identities, and you have nothing to fear and nothing to lose at all! This then allows the intention to love and respect others to become real in your actions and returned in time.


My personal Experience

Understanding the Laws of Karma was a revelation to me. I’d spent my life in suffering and pain and most of my relationships was a walking disaster. They would start off OK, but it was usually all downhill from there. Then I saw the ripple effect operating in my life and realised it’s me, I’m doing this to me. I’m getting back what I put out. Initially I was resentful – why didn’t someone explain this to me sooner? And then it turned into a kind of relief and a ‘so that’s why’ kind of feeling. Now I’m very careful about my thoughts and attitudes towards others. Now I make sure I don’t accept others’ pain, contrary to what the Dalai Lama told me, in the practice of Buddhist path “Tong-Len”, wherein you need to take their pain and suffering as yours so as to heal your own. I accept them, but I don’t consume their negative energy. And I endeavour not to take it personally when someone criticises or attacks. (I’d like you to know that I’ve been criticised and attacked, both physically, emotionally and verbally) Intellectually I know that their criticism and attack on me is really a criticism and attack on themselves, but in reality it’s tough to be stable and unshakeable and at the same time compassionate, but I’m getting there. I’m still working on that one myself. Now I know what a secret to most people is – my inner and outer destiny is always in my own hands.



I’d like you to do an exercise on this

A. Life Action Review
Take a moment to write a short note to God as your friend, sharing with Him all the major negative actions you can remember that you have done in your life. No need to go into detail, just a short list. Then, when you are done, fold it neatly, offer it to your Friend in a short meditation then . . . burn it. See the burning as a complete release from the past and all its karmas. This exercise works wonders. It really does!

B. Mood Rerun
At the end of the week look back on the week and identify three definite moods that you experienced. Note the time, place and who was present. Then reflect on each one individually and look behind your mood to see the cause. Note down what you see.


1. ___________________________________________________________


2. ___________________________________________________________


3. ___________________________________________________________

C. Action Awareness
At the end of each day this week, review the day and recall 5 key actions in each day. Then categorise each action according to its quality in the space provided below. In this way you increase your conscious awareness of the quality of your actions.

Time

___Negative Action____________Neutral Action____________

Positive Action____________ _____________

___ ____________ ____________

___ ____________ ____________

____ ____________ ____________

____ _____________ _____________

____ _____________ _____________


D. Future Karma
Karma tends to be a reference to the past but it also has an important futuristic dimension. What we do today will determine our life in the future. Take a moment to envision your future (in this lifetime) at a spiritual level, drawing on what you have learned in this article so far. Describe in detail your vision of yourself – What are you doing? What are you talking about? What are you feeling? Who are you with etc.? Then stand back from your vision and ask yourself. What do I need to do today, at a spiritual level, to manifest my vision of my future?


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By Ross Galán
Leading NLP Spiritual Life Coach
- A regular freelance columnist
- A travelling Facilitator of Emotional Intelligence Seminars in Europe, USA & The Far East and is basically based in London & Madrid
- Ross would be so grateful for any feedback. He could be reached at:
E-mails: unicoross@hotmail.com*
rossgalan@escueladeinteligenci.com
rossrgalan8@gmail.com
rossgaln@yahoo.com

Blogs:
http://uniqueross.blogspot.com (Articles***** in English)
http://unicoross-.blogspot.com (Artículos en español)
http://unico-ross.blogspot.com (Travels / Viajes)

* You can well reach me preferably here