What is karma? How do we know it exists? If something bad or good happens to us, is it simply because of previous karma we created? Is fate truly so intertwined with every decision we make? The Buddhist philosophy of #karma is not the only spiritual belief system that suggests an #indebtedness to the choices one makes. It just happens to be the origin of the most common term used in today’s #SpiritualConversations within the Western world. Karma may also be called retribution, consequence, the law of returns, or nature’s justice, etc. It may be likened to Hammurabi’s code, “an eye for an eye- a tooth for a tooth” and fatalistic thinking that reinforces a lack of control or a sense of #guilt. What is the true balance of personal choice and that which is beyond one’s control? Do we become the purveyors of karma and #consequence or does some greater force beyond us cause it? These questions commonly arise when life is going great or when life brings hardship. They appear in the stream of #consciousness within that seeks to know- what is life? What is it all for? Why me?
If you pick up any religious text or mythological account, #archetypes, #allegories, and #aphorisms fill the pages with reflections of truth and the laws of human existence. These texts are an attempt to portray the many #teachings the mystics, sages, and priesthoods have witnessed in time. Their truths can be edified over and over in the acceptance and reiteration of generational belief cultivated throughout thousands of years. In an individual’s personal journey for #truth, ignoring, questioning, and denying these conclusions and stories of the past are natural responses to defining one’s own destiny. The child within wants to know more than it is being told. It seeks the unknown with inherent curiosity, sometimes to the point of chaos and endangerment. That is it’s nature. We all carry this #InnerChild as a reflection of our inner spark for life, not just the story of how we grew into our physical age. Becoming an adult is a journey of self-discovery that requires exploration of knowledge, beliefs, and direct experience. The way one embraces, rejects, or toes the line of these informational opportunities, frames the perception of one’s #identity. Anyone’s life may be shared and written as an allegory or example of the truth they observed or that others perceive about their experience from the outside. Perhaps, the point of life and questions about #fate resolve in the act of witnessing one’s story.
Witnessing one’s story requires subjective and objective self-awareness. Then, by seeing the choices one has made and plans to make, an individual may experience a sense of power to change or create their own #PersonalNarrative. The will to power thrives from the instinct to survive. Yet, when the needs of basic survival are met, that willpower expands into higher #aspirations. Humankind has evolved a very different set of circumstances over time, allowing the brain to develop higher order functions that still rely on instinct, yet now supersede it with ideals and innovations. When an individual harnesses the will to affect their own story and the outcomes of their behaviors, that individual enters into a conversation with fate, karma, and #intention. Fate is defined as a greater power beyond one’s control or a pre-written experience one must yield to. Karma is defined as the debt or consequence, whether beneficial or detrimental to the perception of life lessons and soul fulfillment. Intention is the discernment of #choice and behaviors that arise from self-awareness to empower the unfolding of outcomes in order to #change or co-create with one’s perceived fate or karma.
Fatalistic thinking gifts the individual the option to surrender to life and self as it is, yet also enables a lack of accountability in the deferral of one’s willpower to perceive and act differently through the cultivation of self-awareness. There are many fantasies and horrors to enrapture the mind when it comes to living by the will of something greater than oneself. Fate, like karma and intention, is a powerful teacher about the forces beyond oneself. It reminds us to have humility for what we do not know and that we are not the masters of the universe. Fate reminds us we are merely a part of it, another story to be written among the billions of stars shining into infinity.
Karmic debts and returns are the scales between fate and intentional #willpower. The #LawOfAttraction for what one puts out into the world, directs at others, and propagates in oneself is assumed to return the same energy in kind. How an individual values these payoffs and consequences perpetuates the ripple effects of choice and personal surrender in their personal narrative. The cycles of karma may be relevant to an individual’s experience of connection through beautiful and challenging relationships with family, lovers, friends, or colleagues. Current #LifePatterns or #PastLife stories may arise as an echo or de ja vu’ sensation as the interactions of the story unfold. Levels of understanding and intention to perceive a situation or to act differently begin to awaken, reveal, resolve, and dissolve karma felt from the past. This is a conscious and unconscious experience. The more conscious it is, the more intention one may empower to service the call for healing and completion around the internal and external struggles of this chapter in their story. When karmic completions occur the storyline of a life shifts with the deepened sense of connection an individual feels to how it has or will define them. The release of #KarmicDebts opens new doorways in the wisdom of one’s identity and embodied power to create something new in the next chapter of their personal narrative.
The power of intention calls us like the allure of a magician’s wand. The will to create and direct one’s life is a natural urge that is often nourished or challenged by an individual’s circumstances and the people they share life with. The desire lurks beneath the surface of the psyche to change the hard things and invoke the good things in life, even under the pretentious beliefs of engrained guilt and shame. Seeking the power of intention requires cultivating a balance between #surrendering to fate and #learning to resolve karmic debts or repetitive patterns that hinder one’s perception of #empowered fulfillment. Some may say to be intentional is a way to seek control over an experience. Being intentional may exhibit malevolent or benevolent desires, effects, and outcomes depending on the #perception of power in the world and self. Intention can create karma as much as it can resolve it. When life feels beyond one’s control the natural response is to attempt to control some part of the experience, ourselves, or others. Benevolent intention is more about creative #manifestation than control from a place of #arrogance or #authority. When we try to control life and others, we create #PowerStruggles that may originate in #KarmicStories or become karmic debt. Intention honors the autonomy of power within and the power of forces outside of us. It means aligning the ability one holds to affect their own internal state, exhibited through behaviors and choices, while formulating requests, invitations, and offerings to the external powers that influence us and life. Intention is a tool for transformation. It fortifies an individual’s authentic self beyond the nuances of karmic roles and stage setting #filters. It embraces a power beyond oneself in this life and many lives after, whether in heaven, hell, earth, or some other realm altogether. At the very least, it assists one in achieving a more fulfilling and empowered experience of the life you are writing now.
It is your choice to perceive the power of fate, karma, and intention. The story continues to unfold with each thought, each action, and each breath. Where is your attention? Can you see yourself? Can you feel the power within to create with life and transform? Self-awareness and motivation for enduring resolutions grants you the freedom to evolve and excel at the game we call life. Let your inner child seek the #healing it requires and the impassioned curiosity to know the power of its own #illumination. This is the core of all spiritual texts that define “awakening.”
Take a chance with fate. Bargain for your karma if you find it appealing or complete the contracts that bind you. You hold the pen to write your own destiny, to surrender in your own way, and to embrace, perpetuate, and resolve your own karma. Your heart is the feather to be weighed on the scales of truth in this journey of soul.
Excerpts from the Writings of Julie Hightman
Comments