The recent article Natures Support lead to some further questions and discussion that are worth exploring.
Karma is an eastern word that means action. It is energy with a motivator in it. For every action there is an equal reaction, a consequence. Usually, when people are talking about karma, they’re talking consequences.
When we resist what is arising in our life, we can prevent the flow of energy from completing. Thus it cycles around again in the future. This is the wheel of karma. If there has been a history of resistance, which is typical, a backlog builds up. This leads to a delay in consequences and we stop experiencing a connection between action and result. We may feel the world is against us in some way.
Complicating the issue is the vast complexity of the field of action. While the basics are simple, there is a vast array of action taking place in every moment. Mostly, we’re oblivious to how we’re affecting others and to our own backlog. This adds to the apparent capriciousness of the world.
We see good things happening to apparently bad people and bad things happening to good people. Sometimes people will chose to take a life using up their good karma in wealth and fame. But if they forget who they are and how they got there, they may act badly, replacing the benefit with major future difficulties. Especially if they’re acting it out on the world stage. And yet, we can’t judge surface appearances. Some on the world stage are acting out our collective karma to help us recognize it in ourselves. We can say they are actors that may not be creating difficulties for themselves and may even be offering us a great service. We have to look behind appearances to the drivers, to the karma itself.
Even if someone is acting horribly, they may try the best they can from their experience. Some people live in very tiny, foul boxes. Some have taken on very difficult challenges that may not be apparent. Not that any of this is an excuse for bad behaviour but being quick to judge is not on the bright side either.
Inversely, good people can create a space for dealing with nastier things from their deep past, even if they don’t remember making that choice. When you really crank up the light, it can unsettle the shadows making life more eventful.
In the end, the most important thing is how we respond to what arises. As we become more conscious and less entangled, we choice over how we respond. We may at first realize after the fact we’ve gotten caught again. Then we notice while things are unfolding. And finally, as the first impulse to act is arising – then we have a choice. We can even resolve some events energetically so they don’t express into our life.
It’s been the experience we can only stray so far off the path of our life. We can travel on the paved surface, on the gravel shoulder, or along the ditch. But we’re still roughly moving in the right direction with variable levels of smoothness. We can stall out but something pushes things along, perhaps painfully. Choice within a destiny we might say.
In the larger scheme of things, it’s all working toward balance and growth. Nature follows laws, yet has profound intelligence behind it. This complexity of action is being managed for the good of all to a grand schedule.
Life is unfolding not just for us, but on the scale of communities, countries, and the world. When group consciousness has stuff it needs to work out, people are brought forward who can embody what needs to be seen and processed. The EU, UK, and US are all in difficult cycles at the moment, creating drama and conflict. Are their populations seeing what needs to be resolved and healing or getting caught up in the drama and reinforcing it? What you put your attention on grows stronger. What are you feeding with your attention?
As group consciousness becomes more and more awake from more and more waking up within it, it makes it easier for more and more to wake up. This will drive bigger and bigger issues to the surface for resolution. This doesn’t mean things are getting worse – it means they’re getting better. As those apparent persons mature in their awakening, they can help the collective move through more.
Nature
While karma often seems to be about working out the past, Nature is very much about now, action in the present. Nature serves us in every moment, keeping the body alive and the world intact so our life can continue to unfold. Yet most people are oblivious to their support. This means we tend to work against them and make their job harder. Because they work in the field of energy, they’re in the field of our emotions. Is this a minefield of suppression or a rich empowered field of joy?
Further, do we regularly transcend into samadhi? This not only cultures the ground on which enlightenment unfolds but it improves the environment in which our laws of nature act. It also produces soma, the nectar of the gods.
Soma greatly enhances our support teams ability to support us and can attract others to the team. We might say soma is like chocolate for the laws but it is also said to bring them immortality. Further, working in the environment of someone who comes to embody Divinity gives them the opportunity to be become enlightened deva-style.
What natures support means in daily life, even if we’re not awake or aware of this support, is that required events unfold more artfully and smoothly, we have greater synchronicities, and life becomes more enjoyable – despite that backlog. Soon we shift from adding to the backlog to winding it down.
Self Realization itself roasts most of our karmic backlog as it breaks our identification with the “doer.” This leaves just the dynamics in the life itself that are already underway & scheduled. Often, we realize what our life is about and why we’re here. As we grow in higher stages, we become increasingly an influence for good and may come to partner with laws of nature to support not just this unfolding but the unfolding of the whole. We shift to working in the cosmic.
Some describe a battle of the gods and demons taking place both historically and now, in this transition to a higher age. The battle itself is the to and from that keeps the universe in balance so it can continue to manifest. I don’t experience it this way myself. To me, it’s more a grand play of Divine unfolding. In the coarser layers of creation, there are some that have chosen to step out of their dharma and be self-serving. Some are simply trouble-makers. Others have fallen to the dark side as Star Wars would phrase it.
The latter was partly an effect of going through a darker age. In such a time, the shadows can grow very strong. But as the light rises, balance is restored. Vast numbers who had fallen are being liberated from their darkness to choose again. Those that remain are being much more constrained. This is the natural order of things.
However, it’s worth noting that even in a high age, there is always a destructive force. Food and experiences still need to be digested. What has been born must die. What rises falls again. These are the steps of progress, what Dorothy Rowe calls the Divine Dialog. In balance, the processes work in harmony and even destruction is not a shadow. It’s also not a majority.
As we become more in tune with the world, we become more sensitive to the larger trends of time underway. We can also use tools like Jyotish (The Science of Light aka Vedic astrology) to look at trends and avoid blindly stepping into rising muck.
We can also discover where we get blocked if we’re moving in an unsuitable direction that isn’t in our interests. Life becomes a reliable gauge of our next steps. Is this movement supported? Or am I experiencing barriers or resistance from the environment? Some karma can also arise in any process but is the overall movement smooth? Are the forces driving it benign?
This is how I ended up getting my grad degree. It wasn’t even on the radar but I followed what was being supported, away from what was no longer working. That put me in place, then the opportunity presented itself and clicked in. Admissions told me it would take a miracle for everything to come together in time but it did.
As we become more in tune with ourselves, we can see the seeds in play and recognize our stronger drivers (desires) and what’s driving them. Again, this gives us a choice. Do we act out every impulse or do we see and heal less-supportive seeds?
Often, there is a related shift post-awakening when the old drivers of a “me” fall away but there isn’t the depth yet for the flow of the Divine to move in. But as we heal and go deeper, flow arises and the Divine can move through us, expressing a much richer rendition of anything we may have brought to the table before that.
We can then support not just our own life but aspects of the whole.
Davidya
Last Updated on June 25, 2023 by Davidya
I have another article on action to follow shortly.
What I most like about your blog posts is the tone of positivity and connectedness— “In the end, the most important thing is how we respond to what arises.
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“What you put your attention on grows stronger. What are you feeding with your attention?” In my case, it’s too much attention being focused on the thoughts about the physical symptoms of stress/anxiety which appear to act as if a dam to the river flow.
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How strange it is to observe all this. I mean, there is the suffering but at the same time, there is an understanding that it is this way but it doesn’t have to remain so. — “As we become more conscious and less entangled, we have a choice over how we respond.”
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“We’re still roughly moving in the right direction with variable levels of smoothness. We can stall out but something pushes things along, perhaps painfully. Choice within a destiny we might say.”
David, thank you.
Hi Lewis
Ah, but that attention may be being drawn to that stress as a way to help resolve it. It’s not that we fight where attention is going. Rather we become more conscious of it so we can fine tune it.
Yet attention will still go where it’s called. Pain, for example, is a magnet for attention.
As you know being in an anxious state (borne of acting in an apprehensive manner) brings with it the fight or flight or freeze mode of action so it’s difficult to trust in simply being conscious of where attention is focused (a more relaxed way of being with whatever is happening) especially if it’s on the suffering/pain.
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“Pain, for example, is a magnet for attention.” Observing this in action it is clear that Attention itself doesn’t have anything to say about the pain, however, the mind/thought never tires of making many fires out of it.
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Recently, there has been the vague notion that perhaps all this stress and the accompanying symptoms may in some way be connected with the on-going process of cleaning house, so to speak but, this lay hidden in the darkness— lost in amongst the anxiety.
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David, what you say makes sense, thank you for shining some light on this.
Hi Lewis
Actually, anxiety has deeper roots than past action. It is a consequence of not being able to process all of our day-to -day experiences, partly because there is resistance to those experiences. Overwhelm is common today because the pace of life is accelerating.
And yet, if we can learn to step back into deeper values of who we are, we can shift the process and find relief. As a result, we also learn the power of attention and disentangle it from the content of experience.
Yes, past stress that is not processed can be stored in the physiology. It will rise to the surface to be cleared when the opportunity presents itself but thats less typical if there isn’t some value of established presence for that to arise it.
As usual, David, very helpful indeed, thank you.
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Watchword— Presence.
You’re welcome, Lewis. This is why I recommend an effortless meditation. Samadhi helps culture presence.
Hi David,
Nice continuation to the discussions born out of the first article.
All still a little overwhelming to someone such as myself and where I’m at in my development. Simply the vast orchestration of it all.
As to what one can actually be responsible for and contribute to, or not – “the most important thing is how we respond to what arises” – I have heeded this very seriously since the posting of “Spinning or Seeing”, and I am rarely getting caught by ‘outside’ events and rather only interested in the energies to be resolved arising instead. Still, of course, acting in life appropriately and carefully when needed.
I seem to have so much energetically to be resolved, since this year began. Indeed, I’m sure progress is being made and charges do release…after considerable healing time (easily spending 5-6 hours a day when added up, for the past month).
I don’t mind. I, of course, want to clean up, and my karma regarding my disability has meant that I am given the time to do so. Problem is, if indeed it is a problem, I’m becoming something of a total hermit, choosing to spend time cleaning up rather than doing other optional things.
There’s always some charge or knot calling for attention. And so, I’m giving all the attention I can spare. I appreciate many knots resolve in layers. Guess my ego typically grows impatient and wishes it would just all resolve faster (laughs).
There’s a a new subtle anxiety, that I must prioritise and get to healing right away rather than going about ‘outer’ life where I’d be carrying around unresolved energy, that heaven forbid, might unnecessarily express in the ‘outer’ world.
Since working through all this healing work, I do get, sometimes for hours at a time, windows of brightness and a happiness for no particular reason. However, I’m not happy going about ‘outer’ life unless I’m…well…happy, because I now know unless I’m experiencing the clear/happy, then that’s a msg alerting that I’ve get ‘stuff’ pending.
I was wondering if you could address balance in regards to the above concern, because I know you have said many times that we need to be ‘living’ life in order to integrate changes and ground.
Sometimes charges are so intense that I don’t want to be doing anything else but giving them full attention, but other times when things are less ‘loud’, but rather in that still-not-fully-resolved-yet state (and while I will become a hermit, meditating away, if that is what is called for in my life) there’s always the thought, “well it’d be nice to be doing something else instead”.
While I’m vigilant to not getting caught up in any ‘outside’ dramas, seeing through the ‘play’ as it were, I’m aware that I could be getting a little OCD about my ‘inside’ cleanliness. A kind of obsessive-compulsive spiritual cleaner, if you will.(laughs).
P.S. My arms and hands finely vibrate with energy when things are really moving (almost coming out of the palms in one experience), when frozen knots/blocks have thawed and become like rushing water (phew! what relief). Would you know if mudra would be beneficial or unnecessary here?
In my experiments, the hands do twitch more with a jnana or hridaya mudra. Other than that I’m not refined enough to detect any difference or advantage. Different mudras, of course, have different purposes. Maybe I should leave alone. At least things are moving. I guess we’re (as egos) always looking for that extra edge or upgrade (laughs). 🙂
Thanks, Phil
OK. The object here isn’t to add a bunch of techniques or manipulation to your daily experience. Just to make the process a little more conscious. That can help keep things moving on and through.
Healing is a process that takes years. This has been developing for thousands of years. Now we’re reversing the tide. So its not a competition nor should it be the main thing in your life. You need regular activity to integrate what is clearing. If it becomes your life, it won’t be as effective long term.
There can be phases when something dominates. And this year has a number of dynamics that will be challenging for some people. But the point here is upgrading the quality of your life, not turning your life into a purge-fest. (laughs)
Sometimes, people use spiritual practices to avoid their life. This is called bypassing. It’s not as effective then. Being disabled does add another factor where you can increase practices a bit but still, you want to be able to integrate all this. You do that by getting out there…
Also, grasping after happiness will cause suffering just as much as avoidance and resistance. It’s not necessary to be happy all the time. A rich life includes the full gamut of emotions.
When you’re working on a charge and it’s loud and strong, it is ideal to be able to give it your attention. But take breaks and avoid strain.
Your palms have secondary chakras and can certainly radiate energy and read energy. Some energy healers use this.
Mudra has never been a formal part of my practice. They’ve simply arisen spontaneously, mainly due to flow.
Moderation in all things is a good principle. 🙂
Thanks David,
Yup, I’ve been playing the longest set so far at Purge-fest ’19. The crowd has gone home. 🙂
This speaks to the “Protestant work ethic” you mention in the new ‘Action and Bliss’ article. I get really caught with the “Try, Try Again” mentality, that “God loves a trier.”
Part of my healing has been to try and make progress with my disability, which might afford me the facility to get out there more in future. But yep, guilty as charged, as mentioned, recently I have closed the door on the outer world and went for broke.
Actually, 10 years ago, before my disability kicked in, I was, albeit small-time, a budding musician and did headline a small festival – not the hardcore Purge-fest of course (laughs).
Playing my instrument has consistently brought me the state you mention here – “If you’re immersed in a task and time is flying by, you’re in the flow and force is not in play.”
I’ll think I’ve been playing for 20min or so and when checked, 2 hrs has gone by easily. I get completely lost in it. Always have – been playing since I was five, when I was insistent on having a guitar for no apparent reason. My m&d have always said that I lose all concept of time.
I did start curbing playing in recent years thinking it was not such a good thing, because I’d lose that self-reflective awareness (falling unconscious as Tolle and the like call it, even though consciousness is obviously still there illuming the experience of being lost in playing music).
It hadn’t clicked, that this is the much spoken of ‘flow’.
And like with the aforementioned “Protestant work ethic” (well actually I was confirmed Catholic and went to Catholic schools), I really enjoyed/enjoy playing, perhaps more than anything in my life, and so part of my psyche then assumes ‘if its fun, it then can’t be spiritual’ (Laughs).
🙂 Actually fun can very much point to spiritual, as long as fun isn’t about escape or avoid. Pleasure is here to encourage the good but of course, moderation as usual.
Spiritual practices are good in the same way. Moderate. What is moderate varies some by individual though. It can take a little experimentation to find our points of balance – not so much that we can’t integrate or pull away from the world, not so little that our life isn’t supported. There are rules of thumb that are good for when we get started but this can evolve…
Try, try again is also just fine if it’s without force and we’re not trying to push an unsupported agenda.
I know a couple of people who record and distribute music from home. One is handicapped.