Concept #1: through each of our wakeful moments, unknowingly, we add to our karma. Before grappling with the concept of Karma, one must practise being aware in the elusive present moment, being aware of ourselves within the endless string of random and boring little moments that connect our all major ones, the happy ones and the devastating ones - like the many small breaths that connect each of the *big ones*.
Being aware and awake *in the present* means shutting out the monkey-chatter, the relentless flow of random thoughts that are not a productive part of any problem solving process - it is about shutting down unsolicited thoughts that invade our brain the minute we stop talking.
You see, being a good person, by anyone’s yardstick, is one thing but, though it is essential, it is not what THIS process of karmic amendment is about.
Western philosophy and science trap the universe in the network of words, thoughts, equations and emotional crutches as well as an ongoing confusion of rules, laws, and words called *reasoning*.
Sadly, we take in this network and make it rigid. We then use it as so many weapons against the ordered and logical spontaneity of nature.
As a rule of thumb, I will say that even as we consider ourselves thoughtful and caring, we are, to greater or lesser degrees, a part of our culture’s worship of individual power and profit and therefore equally, to greater or lesser degrees, removed from our spirit’s energy, from our energy field and the karma that is currently ours to edit.
The ever-spreading juggernaut that has become western-styled culture is one of upgrades and supersizes; of heroes who hit, throw, bounce or chip balls of varying sizes; of great, easy sex; of I want it now-I want it to be easy-I want it to be cheap-I want it to be fun; of self-indulgent behavior, of blame-shifting, of anger flare-ups, and of il[legal] drugs.
Our lifestyle menu is as full of mind-numbing options and escapist behaviors as a jellybean jar is full of beans.
The only assumed power we have is that of trying to ‘make things happen’ in a hit-and-miss manner, usually with a success that is relatively short-lived.
Concept #2: not many of us seem totally happy with our *life* – if we were, why would we feel so much stress and anxiety?
Anyone’s bottom line observations have to be that the rich seem to always want more and the poor seem to always want more. The ones in the middle seem to also always want more. More what? More money; more love; more fun – usually in that order.
The dying want more life and the unhealthy want more health. That does make *some* sense* but not in the absolute.
Even when we have love, health, comfort and stability, we tend to want more or want differently, in order to keep boredom at bay. Why?
I’ve come to accept that it is because our real essence, the essence of our genuine happiness - our intended state of Just Being - are not at all linked to anything physical or material.
Oddly, en masse, like the pods of whales that are compelled to beach themselves though they have an entire ocean in which to have a *whale of a time*, the cultural model most of us follow forever dooms us, life time after life time, to be permanently lusting for more of something or other.
It is this *wanting* that makes us unsatisfied with what we do have, even though, mostly, we really do NOT need any more than what we already have.
What we DO need for ourselves is a serious re-think of the meaning of Contentment and Happiness.
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