Karma and Dharma

We will not write an extensive essay about Karma and Dharma here, since a lot of documentation is available on these subjects elsewhere; Instead of a long diatribe, we will summarize the main concepts and give you a daily exercise to practice for your own personal growth.

Karma is the result or consequence of your past deeds. You get from life what you put into it; you reap from the field in the fall what you sowed as seed in the spring; you receive an eye for an eye. Every action you take will result in a reaction in the Universe, and that reaction will eventually rebound back to you (as Karmic justice). To perceive your life on a Spiritual level, you must begin to understand that any action you take, even those you took in a past life, will reproduce itself in your life today in the form of a lesson that may include a bit of suffering. These lessons occur so you become more conscious of the need for compassion in your relationships. Karma is therefore a tool to teach you whatever life-lessons will most effectively help you evolve. Suffering is not necessary in life, but we must accept it when it occurs because it is designed to help us evolve. At the same time, while we must be accepting of whatever trials come to us; at the same time we must learn to free ourselves from negative Karma.

Dharma is also a tool for learning and personal evolution. Assuming you did not steal, murder or lie in another lifetime, your Higher Self may still decide to experiment a bit, perhaps in order to better understand life as a human being. To facilitate that understanding, your Higher Self may create trials and events in your life, so that the desired learning can take place. There is usually less suffering in the lessons of Dharma than in the lessons of Karma; sometimes there is no suffering at all.

Even though you are seeking personal evolution, you may have suffered some trial or injustice that seems unbearable to you. When this is the case you may wish to call upon the Great Justice of the Universe to manifest itself in your life and the lives of those directly around you. We are not talking about invoking simple human justice here, rather we refer to calling on the Divine Justice that sets experiences in place so that our Karma will be resolved, in order to free the soul of its burden. If you believe you have suffered injustice at the hands of another, you can call upon the Great Justice to set things right. Then, the Great Justice will cause the occurrence of events that will definitely force your aggressor into a lesson, to help him relieve his soul of its Karmic burden.

On the outside, the “target” will probably seem to suffer, and the events will appear to lead to the correction of the situation so that you receive the justice you feel you were denied. It might even ruin his/her life. In truth, these events are set up in a way that is designed to relieve both of you of the Karma that probably binds you together, and this correction might even ruin your own life. If the (named) aggressor is in the right, and it is you that is in the wrong, then get ready to experience an unpleasant major lesson, while the smiling face of your innocent companion mocks you.

High levels of compassion and forgiveness will also transmute your Karma so it is released without you having to face those difficult experiences. Developing an attitude of loving compassion will elevate your Karma until love dissolves your Karma completely, thereby removing the necessity for unpleasant lessons from your life. Compassion can prevent painful lessons from occurring; then again it will also prevent the lesson from being received. Perhaps, in that event, the lesson was not necessary for you to evolve, and the events you are experiencing may have just been the extra weight of your past Karma, from a time when you were less virtuous than you are now.

The key here is to find a balance between accepting the lessons of life on the one hand, and forgiving and developing compassion as a tool to relieve the pain of your existence on the other hand. The practice of compassion consists of identifying the lessons in your life by getting a perspective that is external to your normal point of view; it is as if you were a Spirit flying above your human self. As you look down on the problems in your life, and the people you are having trouble dealing with, you must actively work on forgiving the other parties that you have been angry with, at the same time seeking understanding of the lesson itself, and its meaning in your life. Breathe deeply and do not be afraid of experiencing the emotions from your past. Replay your life in your mind, and ask your God to guide you through the steps of your Karmic lessons and your Dharmic path.

In time, you will learn how to call upon the Great Justice to manifest itself, without negative repercussions, but don’t do this technique until you are comfortable in your heart, since it will bring up old memories and it will manifest events that may cause you to suffer, if you have not first developed enough compassion, and the ability to see your life from a higher perspective.