December 8, 2019 Tonight I will speak on Karma. There is Karma that is from your past, from past lives, from many different lives. Though you live in this body, you have lived in other bodies. And in those bodies you have accumulated desires and wounds, and a need to fulfill or complete actions that have been left incomplete. These are your Samskaras, meaning the reactions to past actions and experiences. These reactions to past actions and experiences, these Samskaras from past lives, from this life, from your—what you have been taught in school, from what you have learned from your family and your environment, from even the type of environment you have been in, all of this creates reactions in the mind. And the totality of those reactions, the totality of that unique sequence of impressions left in you is your personality, is your basket of Karma, in which you express your unique individuality.
So, this Karma is neither good nor bad, but it composes the uniqueness of your personality, the unique ways that you react to things you hear and see, the unique way that you process internally, and what from that you draw to you and you push away from you. This is all governed by the conglomerate, conglomeration of the totality of experiences you have had, and your reactions to those experiences. This is held in the subconscious mind. As you move through life, these bindings, these beliefs, constructs, reactions, that you may feel you have no control over—they’re unconscious—they begin to govern your life.
For example, if when you were a child, your father was very strict and would not listen to you when you said your opinion, you may develop an inability to simply express yourself. And you go from no expression when confronted with something you dislike, to extreme anger, because you have not learned how to assert yourself. Due to your reaction to your past experience, you become unable to assert yourself in a natural way. Like this, so many different psychologies and reactions develop in the mind, and they begin to form the conglomerate of your experience and how you view the world. They bind you in beliefs about who you are and what the world is around you. They bind you in the belief in self and other, and the separation between you and everyone else. They bind you in your identity with your individuality, with your ego.
And those big reactions held in the mind that have not found a suitable situation to be expressed, will sooner or later bring you into circumstances where they can find, those Samskaras, those reactions, can find expression. This can be positive experiences, or negative experiences, experiences you enjoy or experiences that are very unpleasant. You know, many times when people begin to meditate, or they drop into a period of deep and prolonged meditation, they find that certain circumstances or mental reactions begin to rise to the surface and become played out in their life. They may even find that they are drawn into situations and circumstances where these hidden Samskaras can rise to the surface. And many times people will find there are a sequence of difficult experiences in the life, or a sequence maybe of very good experiences that happen. This is the ripening of Samskara so that it comes to the surface, and the Karma is played out in your life.
The reactions of mind surface. Once they surface, you have the ability to observe them, to witness, and to work with them, to work with your response to situations and circumstances. When they are simply held in potential, you have no ability to resolve them. But once they surface, you have ability to resolve these sentiments, these struggles that arise. But when they are arising, when Karma is playing out, when Karmic patterns are arising to the surface, you feel as if you have no control. Situations and circumstances keep happening in which you are at a loss to make a difference. Those are Karmas. And when they are happening, many times you do not have choice in the situation. And so, in those circumstances, allow yourself to witness, and to maintain as much conscious observation of what is occurring as you are able. And, as those Karmas play out, let them go, let them resolve. And you return to your witness-ship, to the intelligent consciousness which is your own true nature.
So, meditation, Sadhana, and Karma have a relationship. And as you do your deep meditative work, these patterns rise to the surface in the mind, get played out, and allow you the opportunity to resolve them. But, if you only are trying to resolve the past Karmas, in doing actions, you make new impressions in the mind, and there are new reactions. So there is one important solution, and that is to recognize that Brahma is the doer of all actions, Brahma is the receiver of actions, Brahma is the act itself. When you realize that the one, eternal being is the one doing all actions, and that all actions belong to that one, then in your surrender to the eternal Self, the results of Karma go to the eternal one, and you cease to identify with those results. And thus, you are freed from Karmas. And as you free from more and more Karmas, a lightness occurs.
More clarity of mind is there. The ability to distinguish the real from the unreal, the ability to know real love comes into play. And this is the great benefit of Sadhana. It resolves and heals the Karmas of your life, if you take the right understanding and you meet them with consciousness and acceptance. If they are good and pleasurable, or if they are difficult, meet them both as aspects of the divine. See the divine everywhere; when you see the divine in your Karmas, you recognize that all comes from that one and all returns to that one. Then you begin to touch freedom. Alright? Are there any questions?
Questioner: I was confused about how, when, if you unite with Brahma, you sort of can skip the process of healing Samskaras and resolving unresolved Karma. Is that the gist of it, that instead of going one by one and working to dismantle and resolve these things…?
Answer: When you try to work out each and every pattern in the mind?
Questioner: Yeah.
Answer: The action, the very action creates reaction. And, as soon as one is resolved, there is another, and another, and another. And in the meantime, you are creating more reactions in the mind. So, the cause-and-effect approach does not have a lasting effect. The lasting effect comes when you recognize that you are not the doer of actions, that all actions are done by the infinite one. All actions are received by the infinite one, that all beings are the one, are composed of the one. Then, you realize you are not the doer; you are dancing in the dance of creation. In the interwoven, interconnected network of life. You did not create that network. You do not control that network. It is. And so, when you surrender, you let go and you recognize that you dance in the dance in the mind of the great dreamer. Then the burden of Samskara lies not with you, and you become connected to the whole.