You Don’t Need The Karma Band-Aid

In the East, karma is often used as an excuse not to bother, as hey, “It’s all predetermined anyway” is the common sentiment. It becomes the ego’s excuse to remain in suffering and not to initiate change. It becomes the justification for complacency.

And the truth is, in a certain context, from a relative perspective, the key elements of your life are indeed pre-determined (by your illusory karma or incomplete experience), as is your role in it, but from the absolute perspective of the Buddha (or awareness) you truly are, that is dreaming this dream with all of its characters and contents, this is all a dream. And the good news is, this is actually what makes you free, because at the heart of everything, you are already the Buddha (awakened one) dreaming this play. You (and everyone else) are not just the character/s in the play or what in the east is called lila, you are the awareness at the very heart of creation. You simply have to wake up to see it. Once awakened from the dream, then you have actual free choice.

It is true, that from the perspective of the character that you are acting out, (that you as awareness have dreamed up, as are all other characters), you have no real choice, the role is predetermined by your previous actions. You are effectively asleep and unconscious in your karmic patterns playing themselves out on automatic. To overcome this somnambulistic state, ultimately you have to see through the role you have fallen prey to and all of its repetitive patterns, similar to a person who after several failed marriages begins to realize it is oneself who keeps attracting the same type of unsuitable partner. Negative habits, repeated enough times, fortunately do begin to wake us up to our own unconscious patterns. To help us wake up, it helps to practice what is referred to as an absolute view: the view or perspective, the awareness of one who has seen through the blinders of ego identification and now experiences unconditioned awareness.

When you finally meet someone who helps you not only understand this intellectually, but actually experience this directly, you cease identifying as the mere character in the play and realize yourself as awareness. From then on, real choice returns; no longer are you bound by the pre-written script of the play, recorded in the crystallized thoughts of karma which are stored throughout the energy lines (meridians) of the body, throughout the very muscles and the viscera of the body, (not only in the brain).The charge or contraction identification with karma has held over you has been released.

On the highest level of understanding (from the absolute view of awareness) karma does not exist. In the relative world in which we live, however, bound by our identification with ego, which is the root of karma, it does indeed exist and it controls everything. Because of this, to realize the freedom that we are, we must free ourselves of the control karma has over us. We must free ourselves of the karmic matrix that rules everything by simply seeing through it in every moment. A difficult task, but not impossible.

So should you do battle with the ego?

No, this will only keep it going. For whatever you resist, persists. It will only make the ego stronger. Simply noticing it when it comes up without resistance is the answer; to artfully wake up and stay awake. And disciplining yourself to complete all of your stored karmic memory is the key, one easy way is to simply tap your desire and resistance at the end of each day, along with a daily meditation practice to continually nurture your awareness of your own true nature.

The Benefits of Karma Completion: