We do not have to believe in reincarnation to benefit from this post or weblog. We only have to agree that present actions have effects in the future. What we call our past history was once the future that was caused by previous “present” actions.

Prologue:

Prologue: We are told that karma is carried from one lifetime to another and from one situation to another in this present lifetime. It’s much like passing the torch in a relay race. But what does karma actually look like “on the ground” in our daily lives? Put another way, what are the consequences of our past volitional actions when certain causes and conditions meet and certain seeds ripen in the present?

Based on my weblog page called Actual Face of Karma what would the life of someone who is the present (fictional) incarnation of Queen Tiye (mother of Akhenaten); Queen of Sparta (aka Helen of Troy); Queen Jezebel; Queen Cleopatra; St. Teresa of Avila; and Sigmund Freud actually look like? In other words, what is the fruition of the karma of this Portrait Gallery of six historical figures in areas like money, sex, friendships, career, family etc.? To try to answer this question, I use diary entries like the one below.

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I, Rainbow Desert Flower, enter this letter that I sent to the present-day incarnation of King Menelaus of Sparta\Mark Antony into my private diary on the 11th day of the month of August in the year 1991 CE. May it benefit all beings who are trying to understand their karmic footprint.

Thanks for taking the time to recover the silver chain. The spring lock was missing. So I took it to a repair centre and am enclosing the invoice for reimbursement.

(Update May 09, 2009: note the reference in 1991 to a “silver chain” [protection cord blessed by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, circa May 31, 1979] in the first paragraph. It’s like I was unwittingly referring here to the 12 interdependent links that imprison us… And “the spring lock was missing” = the karmic stream between Antony and Cleopatra took another turn in this present lifetime.)

You asked for some “advices on Eastern thought.” While I don’t have any advice as such to give you, I can recommend a course of action: write to the <dharma centre>  (I took you there in the autumn of 1980 when His Holiness The sixteenth Karmapa was visiting the city), and request to be added to their mailing list to receive notices re Open House nights. They provide free instruction in meditation practice preceeded by an introductory talk, usually on some Wednesday nights.

Actually, you are already familiar with the basics of the technique of Eastern-type meditation practice! Do you remember your telling me that when you’re running, when thoughts start appearing, you return to your running.

Well, that’s the rudiments of the sitting practice of meditation. It’s called mindfulness-awareness practice and uses the technique called “labelling and following”, with the breath as a vehicle (in your case you were doing what’s called post meditation practice, i.e. mindfulness-awareness in daily life): you assume the correct posture on a meditation cushion; when thoughts\feelings arise, you touch them (rather than ignoring them) and label it “thinking,” then gently (rather than aggressively) take the mind back to attention on your out breath and follow it. The idea is to be in the “now” (rather than past, present or future), to “recollect” (as in re-collect) oneself, and to relate directly to the mind (rather than conceptually). The by product is peace of mind and release from stress.

You can get the full details of the correct posture to assume etc. etc. while meditating and other important details from a trained meditation instructor at the above centre.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck.

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