There are many out there promoting goal setting and manifesting your desires. And there is good value in some of that content. But the part you have to be careful of is trying to control the way the results show up.
The Bhagavad Gita famously says “You have control over Action alone, never over it’s fruits.”
Letting go of control can be very difficult for the ego. But eventually, the ego itself lets go. Then the habits of control fall away over time.
Learning to trust nature, that you’ll be fine, can take time. And support may well show up up in ways we don’t anticipate or in forms we may at first reject.
But if we stay open to the possibilities, the results can be beyond what we might imagine. Our life takes on an air of miracles and we feel blessed. But only in places in our life where we can let go.
Occasionally what this means is it can be like spinning your wheels. Your attention is focused, the desire is clear, you are acting towards it, but things keep being delayed. This then is a time for patience, a time to continue but not force, a time to check in to see if there is another variable at play or something that hasn’t been noticed yet.
When I talk of allowing though, this doesn’t mean sitting and waiting. You must act. But in acting, watch what unfolds. Is there resistance? Is that coming from you? Or is this about timing, a not yet? Or is it because your attention is going in the wrong direction?
You’re not going to find answers out there to these questions. You’ll just notice it’s going well or it’s not. This is where the fine feelings come in. Some may describe this as intuition or even discriminative intellect (but not the judge). If the way is smooth, you know you’re on the right track. For now. You’ll find doors keep opening, sometimes in places unexpected.
Buckminster Fuller described it like this:
“I assumed that nature would “evaluate” my work as I went along. If I was doing what nature wanted done, and if I was doing it in promising ways, permitted by nature’s principles, I would find my work being economically sustained — and vice versa, in which latter negative case I must quickly cease doing what I had been doing and seek logically alternative courses until I found the new course that nature signified her approval of by providing for its physical support.”
I have found this more than true. The more flexibility I have when I act, the easier the outcome. In some cases, the results begin to come even before the impulse to act begins. Simple attention facilities it, then acting puts things in motion.
“The action of great men gains success through Sattwa —purity of consciousness— and not from the means of action.” – Smriti
What this means is that when we become a clear channel for the flow of attention, action finds few impediments to success. At a certain point, the whole process of action itself becomes one of growth and purification. From the Gita again, “Yogis, abandoning attachment, perform action for self-purification.”
Purification also means resolving old karmic obligations. Putting down the load.
Davidya
Last Updated on March 19, 2017 by Davidya
Davidya, this may be my favorite of all your articles yet. What a deft job of packing those paragraphs with wisdom. Thanks yet again.
Thanks, Rose. This one came right out of current life experience.
I’ve had a large change pending for several months. The process was crawling along and not flowing as smoothly as usual. And then suddenly, things went into gear and are happening rapidly now.
We could say the time came. And the day before, it certainly felt like the time had come. The next days events well demonstrated that.
But also, it began to move when I was present in person, not trying to organize long distance. And another friend with powerful attention was also on it too.
That’s the tricky balance. To not step into pushing it when action is not bringing results. But also to act directly and in person.
In my experience, I’ve found I’m not “allowed” to get “justice” through manipulation methods. I can only get vicarious satisfaction of the person who wronged me in hearing in the future, that he/she got whatever bad thing happening to him/her from dealing with another person. I figure that person is allowed by the universe to help me pay off my bad karmic debt but of course that person will pay off his/her bad karmic debt via someone else. Do you find my thinking to be off?
I’ve also thought that what happens to you is “fated” and one’s free will comes into play with your response. If your response is with integrity, you are giving yourself good future karma. Would you give me your opinion on my thinking?
I’ve also felt like when I’m paying off a bad karmic debt, that I can endure, endure, endure but that the harassment won’t stop until I create a drama-like climax (like taking the person to court). I may loose the court case but finally, the harassment ends. Any comments on my reflections?
Hi Morgan
Well, I wouldn’t describe this as the highest understanding. The basics of karma are simple but the dynamics of interaction get complex really fast. Trying to figure out what is paying what is rarely accurate.
It’s a good understanding that seeking personal justice is a mistake. Revenge has a way of backfiring on us. But seeking satisfaction like this means you have an investment in a certain result. This keeps you tied to the person energetically and will keep the cycle (and drama) going.
It’s actually less about what is done that what is behind the action. Our motivation is the energy behind the action that leads to the consequences. For example, you cut someone off in traffic by mistake. The consequences are minimal. How the person you cut off reacts determines the consequences for them. And if you cut them off intentionally, there are different consequences here.
We can’t judge a persons motivations by their behaviour. While we may guess at it, we’re just complicating our life by getting into someone else’s business. That can lead to taking on some of their karma.
This doesn’t mean we should blame ourselves or others for what arises. It’s more useful to work to be more conscious and thus make better choices and work to resolve the challenges that come up within.
For example, when you see this desire for “justice” within, look behind that to see what’s driving it. It’s not out there but inside you. There can be layers to this we gradually peal off. In time, you’ll resolve the charge. You’ll still remember what happened but will loose the charge that drives your reactivity. Then you’ll stop carrying this person with you.
Often, we find that said person put the incident down long before we did. We’ve been the one keeping it going.
This process leads to a huge update in quality of life as we stop carrying around the burdens of our past.
Karma isn’t really bad or good, it’s just action seeking to restore balance. It’s also a law of nature so isn’t personal either.
We can say the choices today lead to the consequences tomorrow and the choices of the past lead to today’s consequences. It’s not really fate but our own past choices. Free will and fate are just different points in time.
If you act with integrity, it helps a great deal. It may lead to benefits or to balancing past choices, etc. But careful what whats motivating “integrity”. We can have an integrity to our philosophy yet the philosophy dismisses the well-being of others.
So yes, it’s a good idea to act with responsibility and integrity, just be careful what that’s riding on.
I’m not suggesting you second-guess everything, just be conscious of how you’re feeling when you act. That can be a flag for what is motivating your action, whatever mind story tells you about your rightness.
Because action works in the field of energy, resolving (balancing) the energy is what leads to it’s conclusion. Thus, rather than acting out what is unresolved, as you become familiar with your inner dynamics you can resolve a lot of it within. No great drama required. And if drama does arise, you’re not entangled as much and can see it for what it is.
I’ve written various articles here on karma that offer different perspectives or ways of thinking about it. Hope this helps. Big topic.