Teacher Training Manual: Lesson 04 - Karma

Objectives

At the end of the session, students would have:

1. Understood the basic concept of the Law of Karma,

2. Appreciated the different ways to settle karmic accounts,

3. Realized the deep aspect of creating positive accounts through positive consciousness while doing actions  

Procedure

  Start with 5 minutes of meditation (with commentary)

Define the characteristics of human life: awareness, relationship and expression.

These three characteristics of human life cannot happen in the silent, still world of souls, they require action and a stage on which to act. Human life is subject to the universal law of karma (action and interaction).  

What is the universal Law of Karma?

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction; what you sow, you reap; this law is absolute can't be adjusted or manipulated. With the law of karma, however there can be a delay between sowing and reaping. The seeds of certain actions bring instantaneous results. Others can take years or even lifetimes to come to fruit. (Give examples here.)

Motive Determines Result

It is not so much the act that determines the return but the quality of intention behind it. In the simple task of brushing the teeth the intention can be varied. - I need to clean them well; I don't want cavities. (care) - What terrible teeth! What am I going to do? (anxiety) - I have the most splendid teeth in the world. (vanity)

Importance of Understanding the Law

In ignorance, we have done many things against the universal and divine laws. We cannot just say "I didn't know". Above a certain age it is our responsibility to know. The understanding of the karmic process is fundamental, if I want to:

- reduce the weight of the past - eliminate any type of suffering - modify the course of my life - start to experience a positive return from my spiritual efforts understand all the "why's" which surround my daily life  

Questions That Lead to Tensions

Why? What? For what reason? How? These inner questions tear at the fabric of the consciousness. Even so they all have only one answer: karma. I don't need to go into minute details of each situation. If I see that nothing can .happen without having had a just cause in my past or in that of others, life becomes much easier to face, with responsibility and courage.  

Taking Responsibility of My Life

The knowledge of karma is the pathway to real freedom. It makes me accept that the responsibility for whatever has happened to me up to this moment cannot be attributed to any another person, ancestors, the government or even God. It is mine and mine only. Equally, what my future holds depends on me. Rather, whatever I choose to do at the moment is already creating my destiny for tomorrow. I shouldn't forget that the only real time I have for creating my future is the present, now. Karma teaches me that I am the creator of my own little world. I also, am the creator of the environment immediately around me. On greater level, I am a co-creator together with God of the world of tomorrow. That I can create the future of my choice - love, peace and happiness is what is going to happen. If I choose to exchange love and peace in my interaction with others, I create relationships based on those qualities."

Three Kinds of Karma

In all relationships there is some give and take and the greatest interaction takes place with those who are closest. To get a sense of the value of interactions, consider the three kinds of karma (action) which the soul carries out through the body.   1. Positive Karma: arises from being soul-conscious. The action is purely benevolent and there is no motive or desire for any return. Actions carried out in soul consciousness will help others rediscover their own soul consciousness.   2. Negative Karma: is motivated by body consciousness. In this state, I seek self-gratification or I get angry at someone because my desires are not met. These are actions, which accumulate karmic debt.   3. Neutral Karma: involves routine tasks, which do not affect others; washing dishes, driving the car, etc. However, even these actions, if carried out in a state of body consciousness, can become negative.    

Karmic Indebtedness/Account

An important corollary to the Law of Karma.

Indebtedness with Others: "We are not only individuals acting alone. We act in this extraordinary play of existence with other actors. During the process and according to the interaction with others, we create accounts of debit and credit that become the basis of our connection with others. The reasons for which a specific relationship goes well or not are in the so-called karmic account that I have accumulated with the other person. The beings that lay the parts of parents, husbands, wives, children, friends, colleagues and acquaintances form a network for the giving and receiving of happiness and sorrow from this account established in the past or being created in the present. The strongest relationships that I have now were established previously. We knew each other in other lives and possibly in other connections. As long as the account exists, the interchange of actions together continues. When there is nothing more to give or receive, the paths separate by death, divorce or simply by the loss of contact."  

Development of Sanskars or inner Nature

"Everything that an individual does and produces is registered in the self (faculty of the subconscious mind) as a sanskar. Sanskars are not only the basis of the karmic accounts but also our talents personalities and propensities.

Example: Mozart, at age four, wrote minuets, a concerto for piano and a sonata. These compositions were not only technically accurate but extremely difficult. At seven, he wrote a complete opera! Where could he have learned to play so well? It's obvious that such musical mastery at such a young age was not a genetic inheritance. He must have developed his talents previously.   Seeing the process of human existence on a personal level stretching back into the past and continuing on into the future definitely gives back a great degree of security to the soul. Affinities and aversions are understood. The feelings of having met someone before or passed by a specific place are so common that the idea of cosmic randomness just cannot remain. If there is such order in the minute details of cells and atoms, why cannot such order exist to determine relationships, stretching over a long period of time? In the impossibility of complying with karmic obligations in one life, we have to take a new body to guarantee that all beneficial and negative actions receive their due return."  

Settlement of Karmic Indebtedness/Accounts

There are three methods of settling your debts and setting yourself free.

• Firstly, now that you have a clear understanding of the difference between soul consciousness and body consciousness, you can stop performing action in a state of body consciousness that is taking from others.

 

• Secondly, you can begin to repay your outstanding debts by serving those souls with whom you have a karmic account. This, however, can take time, and perhaps as long as it took to create the debts.

 

• Thirdly, the fastest way is to meditate; to establish the direct link (yoga) with the source of spiritual power, the Supreme Soul, to pass on to others through positive thoughts, good wishes and vibrations. This union with the Supreme is the key to your own personal freedom from bondage of karma with other humans. Not only does that power transform your old habits, which created the debts in the first, but it is also the income you need to settle all your debts comparatively quickly.

  (There is also some kind of settlement of account through suffering of body or state of mind.)  

Karma Yoga

The third method of settling karmic account is one of the major aims of Raja Yoga. To be a raja yogi means to be a ruler of the self. It's not just a question of learning to discipline the physical senses but, more importantly, of directing the energy of the mind, emotions and the personality in a positive and constructive way.  

Definition

Raja Yoga can also be called Karma Yoga. It means to perform action while having a mental connection with Supreme Being or to have a meditative consciousness while talking, walking,' sitting on a bus, driving a car or working, in fact, doing anything.   My meditation isn't a secret process but a very visible one. I can see the results of yoga through my karma. If my actions are still aggressive or motivated by greed, this certainly serves as an internal check for what's happening with my meditation. If there is the experience of a link, then God's peace, light, love and purity are going to manifest themselves through my actions. Relationship can't exist without karma or interaction. The same applies in my relationship with Supreme Soul. Actions that are just for my own sense-gratification or for the development or sustenance of relationship with another human being are called karma. Actions performed out of love for or obedience to God is called karma yoga. Certainly there is no question of doing anything for God. He doesn't need or want anything. When the seed of karma is filled with the love of the Supreme, and the power of the Supreme, that karma becomes so powerful that it brings thousand-fold fruit.   Karma yoga means to live in the world but to maintain the link of yoga so that it transforms one's life and one's life can help transform the world.  

Strengthening the Conscience

Criterion for right and wrong - if action is performed in my eternal consciousness, then not only will it bring benefit to me, but it will give happiness. The pure karma is to bring myself and others around me close to God. An action based on limited consciousness, which ca be called impure, takes others away from God.   Even after realizing the difference between right and wrong, to be able to pull myself out of my own trap of negative vicious cycles and both substance and emotional addictions, I need power. That is the ultimate purpose of meditation. In meditation, through the link with the Supreme Being, my conscience awakens and starts to become clearer so that I can see the difference, in terms of my life, between right and wrong. I also receive the power to be able to make the right choices and to follow those through in my life. The quality of my karma changes as a result. The conscience is the voice of the original state of the soul. When awakened, those original qualities of peace love, purity and power arise and assume control of the self. The very quality of my personality begins to change and develop in, a positive direction. Just by being focused in the consciousness of a being, a soul and allowing my conscience to guide my life means that I am moving towards my destination with clarity and speed.  

Changing Deeply Ingrained Sanskars

Karma yoga functions in two ways:

1. by filling the self with power, the transformation of action is possible. This in turn brings about change in my sanskars.

2. by drawing on the qualities of the Supreme Being my sanskars change.   On one level, whatever I have done, I have to receive the return for that On another level, whatever my past karma may have been, the fire of God's love is able to resolve it and remove its impact from within the souls itself, in terms of negative personality traits and also in terms of karmic effects in physical situations. Thus it can be seen why yoga or the union of love with God is so crucial.

End the session with meditation (recorded or live)  

Meditation Commentary

As you turn within, become aware of the relationship between you the soul, your body and the physical world ... Visualize and understand how you animate and express yourself through your body in all your actions ... Visualize and consider your interactions with others specially members of your family; colleagues in the workplace ... Check the quality of your actions and interactions with them ... Are they coming from body consciousness, wanting something for yourself, or from soul consciousness, your spiritual vision of others, and giving them what they need on a spiritual level?

Be aware of the relationships, which are uncomfortable and watch your thoughts in those relationships ... Your waste/negative thoughts and feelings tell you that you need to resolve something in relation to that person. (Pause)

Now, focus your attention and concentrate on the Supreme Soul ... Visualize a subtle but powerful link of love between you and the Supreme Being ... You allow yourself to absorb spiritual power of peace and love directly from Him. (Pause)

Visualize yourself channeling the power of peace and love into your actions and into positive thoughts and good wishes for those around you and for those who are far but you can bring close in your mind. (Pause)

Now, come back to the awareness of your body and the room where you are sitting.   Om Shanti!

Assignment=

Use the power of thought. As the thought, so is the result. Thoughts create actions, and so spread vibrations and the law of karma will return those vibrations to you. Pure thoughts are the most valuable treasure of one's fortune.   Answer the following questions (in your own words):

1. Who is responsible for our sorrow or happiness?

2. How can a soul erase negative karma?

3. How can a soul create a stock of happiness for the future?