Humanity has been engineered with absolute wholeness in the karmic mind.
Each one of us, as distinct entities, are intended to complement each other as do each piece of a puzzle that is so ginormous that it can be boxed. It is so unknown and unfathomable to absolutely every human who has ever lived that it cannot be, as puzzles usually are, represented by an accurate picture to guide our options and our moves.
Unseeing and alone ad in the great void, we are.
Heads up: blindly, trusting, harmoniously, we are karmically intended to move forward, one step, one breath at a time.
But, the flipside of ‘human nature’ as it has adapted to life over the millennia, means that, at our core, we remain apart.
When united we seem, it is only superficially. It is an illusion.
Indeed, it takes very little for anyone of us to become defensive and divisive.
‘Death is the end of life; ah why should life all labour be?’ asked Alfred Lord Tennyson, one of the British Laureate poets during the reign of Queen Victoria.
That’s a very good question, indeed.
Yet, when acting calmly and at the same time fiercely convinced of our heart-mind coherence, we have the capacity to drill through layers of pretence.
As we reveal to ourselves what is not ‘us’ and engaged in challenging conversations with others near and far, we do our bit to complement one another and edge towards a more harmonious whole.
Perhaps, particularly more so in ‘unprecedented’ times such as the current this, the current era of the global pandemic, positive introspection often yields opportunities, the silver lining of crises
Not sure when this mind-meander really began.
No idea where it will end.
So many ‘hot’ and divisive topics these days!
So many thoughts dictate our actions and our inactions, as well!
Beyond the usual stressors, there’s so many new complex and divisive issues to tackle – or to simply ponder, these days!
Shortlist: ☹
The causes and effects of global warming, to be or not to be vaccinated, the ever-changing pandemic status, the pros and cons of national mandates, school closing/schools opening with or without the wearing of masks, snap lockdowns, jobs lost, lives lost, how to come together or not at birthdays, weddings and funerals and a new understanding of what it means to be ‘free’ in our reasonably safe democracies, and so on.
Reality check: a previously quasi-constant state of anxiety has for the past year and a half, morphed into a major global crisis and, for the first time in living memory, cutting across all ages.
But, here’s the thing: no matter how held back or locked down or sinking we feel – or are – let’s spare a heartfelt thought for the children, the men and women of all ages currently in the Afghan city of Kabul or in Chinese camps or in refugee camps or in drug cartel infested areas – or in Haiti which was recently devastated by the killer combo of cyclone and a 7.2 magnitude earthquake!
Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher (circa 400BC) may have said, “The perfect man breathes as if he is not breathing,” but for most of us, mere humans, this is easier said than done.
So, for now, together and separately, let’s breathe through our belly, specifically through our Qi centre a.k.a. the lower dantian, also known as the 2nd chakra and Swadhishthana, the abode of the Self.
And, now, dear Reader, let’s dig into the issue of equity and see where that leads us.
We all agree, at least on paper that, despite our noticeable intellectual and physical differences, what rights, responsibilities and opportunities we have as citizens of planet Earth should no longer depend on whether we were karmically born male or female.
They should no longer depend on the skin tone karmically attributed to us in utero.
Nor should they depend on our age.
Or social status.
Our rights, responsibilities and opportunities should no longer depend on others’ assessment of our worthiness, our abilities or dis-abilities.
And who knows what else most of us agree with … if only on paper!
Reality check: all I know for sure is that every aim for change has to be an active and courageous aspect of an ongoing intergenerational dream for the freedom of all lives to be safe, loved, and healthy.
That’s because, beyond being karmically connected to each other by our neurons and protons to all aspects of the universe, our bodies are connected by the invisible ripple effects of all that we choose to feel, think, say and do.
So, before we observe others, let’s observe ourselves neutrally.
Later, we will better be able to judge our observations and deal with those observations in a coherent manner that will align us more closely to the being we are intended to be, here and now.
Argh … we know that doing that neutrally – without judgement – is much easier said than done.
Never mind! It’s time to get our hands dirty and get a better feel for that forever expanding garden bed that is our life.
Boys to boys. Boys to girls.
Girls to boys. Girls to girls.
People to people.
In private schools – in public schools – in kindergartens and in our universities – in our government institutions – behind our own closed doors – in our teams and social groups – in places of worship – in our streets – in areas traditionally dedicated to boys and men – in areas traditionally dedicated to girls and women … is there ever a place on Earth that is consistently free of slander and little-mindedness?
Here and now, can we think of a communal place that is free of any latent or active abuses?
Serious questions: is there ever a home that is free of gossip intended to steal someone else’s reputation?
Or one that is free of the strategies that enable some to win their point and their place by implementing ways to exclude others – however so subtlety?
Where and when is it that the tiny seeds that eventually sprout into a personality that choses to be nasty, reactive and divisive are planted in our psyche?
Is it in utero?
Or is it absorbed into our system during our formative years?
Our free choice of thoughts begins with neutrally observing all that goes on everywhere.
Everywhere inside our head.
Everywhere within earshot.
Everywhere within our line of vision.
Heads up: as we can only hope to interpret correctly What-Is in front of us, there is no need to contort ourselves to see what’s going on ‘behind our backs’, as the expression goes.
Suppose real freedom means that we are emotionally, mentally and physically safe. In that case, free choice is about minimising the painful memories and resulting limiting beliefs that, too often, dictate our reactions to people, circumstances, and ourselves. The perception we have of our bodies, as well.
Genuine freedom means that we have robust control over our emotions, how our mind tends to process them and its protective reactions, too.
It means having the possibility to live peacefully, at the full level of our karmic potential.
Heads up: most of what we think and do – or resist thinking and resist doing – releases ripples of varying lengths and morphology.
However insignificant we think it is, every choice we make immediately becomes an invisible aspect of the tandem of cause and effect.
Bottom line: as the Tibetans say, ‘The act and its fruit.’
These days, we could say that ‘the act’ is our mindset – current software.
From our 3-D body, to our mind, energy and emotions, that software involves our entire system.
Perceptions and impressions wired in from our early childhood and consolidated as we grew have created the programme we can call EGPER – short for Ego-Persona.
EGPER is the programme that runs our adult life.
This remains true for as long as we leave our ego-persona in charge of the console and keypad.
Reality check: karma is what the ancient wise ones called the flow on effect of EGPER’s reactions, be they good, bad or indifferent.
It’s the blend of fateful choices made since we passed through the gates of our primary school.
It’s their consequence.
Bottom line: our individual and collective karma is the ‘effect’ generated by EGPER’s responses to the multitude of plot beats that have impacted it thus far.
As such, it could be said that karma is the ‘fruit’ that keeps falling in our lap – whether we want it or not.
For sure! Though these effects or ripples do it in varying degrees and intensity, every one of them impacts all aspects of our physical body from brain to heart to genes – and, of course, our mundane day-to-day.
What results is the persona-lised karma, the flow of our life, as we have co-created with the universe from the choices made freely during our life’s journey thus far.
Hence the importance to be awake and aware throughout each of our wakeful moments.
However, if it’s true that a yogi is awake even when asleep, we, on the whole, tend to be asleep even when awake.
So, any practice aimed at expanding our consciousness will be a blessing not just for ourselves but also for those who are near and far, known and unknown to us.
Just as breezes and strong winds take turn shifting and reshaping sand dunes through a process known as saltation whereby grains of sand are carried by the wind near the surface in a series of short hops, so, too, do the surface waves of our emotions, thoughts, actions and inactions, good/bad/indifferent.
Each karmically-laden minute is always hopping, invisibly shifting and shaping most of our moments underfoot.
But not just our own moments.
Too often, unbeknownst to us, the decisions and choices we make impact others.
These persons might be known or unknown to us.
They might live nearby or very far away.
In a way, it’s not that different from our decisions to wear or not wear a mask or to get vaccinated or not in this, the era of the C-19 pandemic.
Any choice we might make will impact others in one way or another.
Bottom line: most of our intangible moments contain invisible particles of fresh, coherent possibilities. After all, though the air we breathe always appears invisible to us, it, too, is never ‘empty.
Most of our daily moments may appear repetitive, predictable and boring, veiled or obscure – unnoticed – and yes, most of them are.
That’s until we understand that, on and off, unforeseen micro-events shift the course of our days which, at times, forces us to snap out of the waking dream that is our 3-D life on planet Earth.
These moments are intended to push us to shift or to completely rethink our own thinking.
As every other moment, these moments created the sensations that have triggered emotions, which created the thoughts currently whirring behind our eyes, here and now.
These moments are intended to ‘engage’ us in challenging conversations with ourselves about our reactive patterns and the tenacious drag of our baseline identity.
As always since the dawn of time.
Keep Reading …
And Rethinking …
And sharing, dear Reader 😊
