Karma isn’t Your Headmaster, and God isn’t Harry Potter

What is karma?

Is it a bullshit previous life baggage we are stuck with and can never get rid of? Or is it the original sin of Christianity, something we are born and stuck with?

Is it a weapon of shaming? Of course he is suffering, its his karma!

Bonus points if said with a dismissive, self righteous, holier than thou tone.

Eastern types like to believe they are more enlightened than Christians as they believe in free will and that we can change our karma etc etc

And yet, every teaching assumes karma is an unchangeable force.

Have YOU ever had thoughts like these:

• I can’t get enlightened yet, too much karma

• I’m suffering because of previous karma

• XYZ is so evil, karma will punish him.

In this thinking, karma is a cosmic policeman you can never escape and that will one day hunt you down and punish you.

A very poor way to look at the complex field of karma.

Karma as Mind Energy

Karma is not something “out there”. It is not a mechanical or vengeful force out to get us. Karma’s job isn’t to punish us, to teach us a lesson, or bring justice to evil doers (which is usually other people!), or any sort of justice system that hands out lollipops to good boys and beatings to bad boys.

The concept of Karma has become corrupted through continuous and centuries of misuse. It is now something akin to Christianity’s Original Sin, something out of control that we are stuck with. Another similarity- both are used to shame and guilt people.

The Deeper Meaning of Original Sin

Original Sin is itself a corrupted concept. It has nothing to do with sexual shame, which is how it is interpreted. Sin is an archery term which means to miss the mark. To sin is to miss the purpose of life, our reason for being here. To sin is to forget who we are, beings of light, and identify with the mind instead of the all pervading Spirit.

Original Sin hence refers to the time we first forgot who we were (as individuals or as a race) and fell into suffering due to a misidentification with the ego mind (being kicked out of heaven).

Note that in this interpretation God isn’t some vengeful A-hole who punishes his children for silly things.

Rather, it is us, humans, who forgot who we are when we tasted the fruit of duality; The tree of knowledge is the tree of dual knowing, of knowing things as external to yourself, rather than a part of the whole.

God didn’t kick us out of heaven, we did it to ourselves. And in pure Advaita traditions, which includes a Course in Miracles, we have never left heaven, but are merely dreaming our nightmare world.

What is Karma ?

Is the sum total of our mental energies (me to here includes logical and emotional mind). Our psychic imprint, as it were, all the mental energy we have been putting into our inner being.

If you don’t believe in past life, that’s fine, it’s all the shit you have been suppressing your whole life.

If you do believe in past lives, note that the past lives have little to NO influence over your current life. You are born with all the unexpressed energies you created in your previous lives. That’s why enlightened people can say you don’t need time for spiritual awakening.

All the mental energies from all your previous lives are available to you you NOW, and so YOU can resolve them NOW.

Of course, the process takes time , but the fact is: Since WE created these energies, WE can dissolve them anytime we are ready (conscious).

Karma is a very freeing concept. It does not bind or shame us by anything we might or might not have done in some life a billion years ago.

Karma should make you feel light and peaceful, not terrified of some past demon coming to whip your bottom for being a naughty boy/girl.

Karma says: You created this shit, you can solve it, NOW.

That’s why it is unhelpful blame some “god” for our problems.

God, the Universal Spirit who lives in sum guides us out of the mess WE created, but he doesn’t do this by punishing or shaming or attacking us in anyway.

At its most basic, karma is the energy we have been creating our whole life. If we have been putting anger, blame and attack into the system, that’s all that will come out.

As humanity, we also have a collective karma, which is all the anger and hate we have put into the system. And so we must carry not just our own cross, but the cross of all humanity. And that’s why people like the Buddha said you cannot become enlightened unless the whole world becomes enlightened.

The Vengeful Mind

Let’s talk a bit about the mind. Never underestimate the mind.

The mind has the power to alter the outer world, a power it gets from God. And that’s why really strong mental energies can attack us in the outer world too.

• We can suffer from sickness accidents or other body problems

• We can face problems at work, tension, depression, or other mental problems.

These external attacks are what give people the impression that karma is something “out there”. As always, the cunning ego attacks us while hidden, making us believe the attack is coming from the outside, when it is our own mind creating our problems and ministering misery.

The Insane Ego

But the insane mind/ego always over reaches. It ends up killing itself. These attacks, which come from our own mind, end up causing so much suffering the ego dies, at least for a time

Ultimately, our suffering, created by the mind, causes us to go beyond the mind, into the realm of the Spirit.

But to make it clear: This suffering is a CHOICE.

We suffer because we don’t face all our suppressed anger, hate and fear. Because we are scared of the shit we created, we imagine some “god” will punish us for it. In the future, of course, we can hide today.

And so, like milk that has been boiled too much, all this pain comes boiling out of our mind and burns us, causing us suffering and pain.

When I say suffering is a choice, it doesn’t mean one of the conscious/rational mind. The rational mind might say Oh, I want to be happy and peaceful, but there is a river of anger and hate inside us that says otherwise. The conscious mind is like the visible part of the glacier- 90% of the mind is subconscious, hidden below. In a fight between the talk guess who wins?

Meditation is the process of turning the unconscious conscious, so it can no longer affect or harm us.

Karma is our own mind

To repeat, the problems we face in life, caused by a so called “karma” are our own inner shit. When it becomes too toxic, the body pushes it out to protect itself, and it comes out in the form of disease, depression, problems that seem to come from the outer world but are actually reflections of our own inner state.

No magical force

So karma isn’t some magical force that controls our life.

It is our State of Mind (conscious and unconscious) NOW.

It is merely all the mental and psychic energy we have collected (in this life or multiple, doesn’t matter) and that we continuously reinforce.

Read the last line AGAIN.

We not just create this shit, we continuously reinforce it. Why do you think karmic energy follows us from life to life?

People ask: How can we be free of karma when we are constantly creating new karma? And that maybe true if you see karma as merely a blind force of retribution. Hence the “monk” types want to retire to the forest, so they can run away from karma.

They leave their house, wife, car, bank balance, and think they are free of karma. But they keep the one thing that keeps them bound: their mind.

Even in the forest, they carry all their mental energy. It is the only thing that enslaves them, and the only thing they cannot get rid of.

Real renunciation is always of the mind. You renounce your beliefs, your thinking patterns, your addiction to mechanical thinking.

Our beliefs, which includes for most people their religion and their concept of “god”, is what keeps them bound.

Reinforcing Our Mental Crap

Not only do we have strong mental beliefs, but we continuously reinforce and strengthen them. We keep repeating the story in our head. Usually this starts and ends us being the victims of a cruel world out to get us.

This story that we cherish so dearly and that we hold on to, this is what binds us. Action doesn’t bind us, like Krishna says in the Gita. Attachment to action binds us.

Attachment means thinking with the limited egoic mind. In this state, there is always a “me” vs “them” or the “world”. The ego needs another to justify its existence, and this other us usually an enemy; at best a temporary ally against shared enemies.

And so the ego acts to strengthen itself. It builds big houses, looks for the sexiest husband/wife.

Or it tries to be the Most Spiritual Person of All ™ (MSPA). This MSPA™ donates to orphanages, fights (literally, of course) for the environment, becoming a guru or joining a cult.

But like everything the ego does, it remains unsatisfied. The Law of Impermanence is immutable. The ego grows old, its wealth decreases, the wife leaves, or the other guru gets more likes on social media. And so the ego tries harder, putting in more energy in an attempt to become stronger.

Whether it succeeds or doesn’t, doesn’t matter. The body eventually dies. The mental/psychic energy creates a new body and the process starts again.

And that’s why karma or God doesn’t bind us. WE BIND OURSELVES. It is a choice. One taken at a very deep unconscious level, sure, but a choice nonetheless.

Sure, all the negative energy we have created does come back to attack us, but in my limited experience, if we are conscious, the power of our awareness, which is actually the Power of God, burns the negative energy to a crisp. Negative energy cannot be completely spent, but it can be reduced to almost nothing.

(One Exception I should mention: pain, disease and death of loved ones. Each one of us has our own path, and cannot interfere in the spiritual path of others.

As the Course in Miracles says: The Teacher of God only works on him/her self.)

Cause God ain’t Harry Potter, boy

And this brings me to a question I’ve had for years, and which many people have: Why dpesnt God just FIX all my problems? What sort of a God lets his little children suffer?

The answer, as you know by now is: God ain’t the one making us suffer. That’s all on us.

God is the Spirit willing to guide us out of our nightmare. But he doesn’t do that by making our sleep more comfortable. No, God wasn’t us to wake up.

That said, the more in tune you are with the Spirit, the easier your life becomes, because:

1) You stop creating the madness that got you in this mess in the first place

2) You get in touch with the Universal Intelligence (that I call the Mother, that knows how to guide us through the dream. Like God, this force wants us to wake up, but that doesn’t mean we have to live a life of poverty. The Intelligence can guide us to the path that will make both our spiritual and material life comfortable.

God doesn’t “fix” our problems, he gives us the wisdom to see beyond them. He guides us out of our nightmare, always fixing the problems at the root cause.

Our natural state is one of Peace. If there is no peace, something has gone wrong. This is usually the egoic mid fighting the Spirit, trying to get its way, and creating more mental energy (or karma) that keeps it bound.

Ultimately, getting rid of karma is easy, as all we need to do is relax and let the Spirit do all the work. But this is also why this path is so hard, as the ego is scared, and won’t give up its control so easy.

To go beyond karma is to relax into the spirit, to let God do all the work, to let the universe work through us, to let the Divine flow through us.

Easy as pie 😊