(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

On Friday November 06 Iras and I drive to the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto to participate in the Light Exchange. Bring in old Christmas tree lights and get the new, energy-saving led ones.

About six months ago, Iras has a change for-the-better in her financial situation. So as we drive back home, I asked her how that affects her life. She makes an interesting statement:

I can’t change my life. So I just made it better. Not in any big way though. I just paid off my debts.

The big question we all have is: How can I change my life (karmic stream\patterning)?

Instead of driving to the St. Lawrence Market in a car, let’s imagine that we are on a stream where we are paddling our canoe from Kingston to Ottawa. We follow a certain route. But then we decide we’d like to change directions. We take another route.

Likewise, sometimes a decision is made to change the course of a river so that certain land will be irrigated.

To repeat: the big question we all have is:  How can I change my life (karmic stream)?

Only when we go beyond creating and then maintaining it! That means making a change in our habitual patterns at the very moment they arise. How? By undercutting the attachment to the thoughts and emotions that make up habitual patterns. Again, how? By doing something different rather than the same old thing. What’s that expression? Something like “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

The point we want to stress is that

……we are creating future actions. We can change the course. We are not stuck in our karma. (Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Class Four, page 86 of the Sutrayana Transcripts)

Back to Lilly’s statement above:“Well, I can’t change my life so I made it better. Not in any big way though. I just paid my debts.”

I suggested to Iras that she did exactly the right thing. By actually taking responsibility for an area that needed taking care of, she actually made a change in her karmic stream and therefore in her life overall.

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