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: 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, 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 dream into my private diary on the seventh day of the month of September in the year 1993 CE. May it benefit all beings who are trying to understand their karmic package.

Am with some members of a royal family….We are at supper. Then move into another room. The room is beautifully decorated. One of the princesses is known for being a good bridge player. The princess and I play two-handed bridge. She wins the contract — diamonds are trumps.

I think I have very little of value in my hand. But after playing a few rounds, I notice that I have all four aces! Something I hadn’t noticed before. I knew I could get four sure tricks with the aces. I have a two of diamonds as well. I expect to lose that trick.

But the princess begins to play sloppily.  So I win all five tricks.

My Notes on the interpretation of the dream:

• bridge = getting from one place to another
• hand = what resources are available to me in my life
• beat the princess — a royal, a person in a “superior” position, at her own game — by (1) recognizing that I have winners and (2) by her playing sloppily, without attention to detail or focus – I am focused.
• playing my hand = living my life
• four aces = I’ve got the best resources! I didn’t I know I had them when I first started playing my hand. Even my lowest card, the two of diamonds, takes a trick because the other player plays sloppily.
• two of diamonds = even though it is a low card, diamonds are trump here.
• diamond = clear mind; primordial intelligence.
• I am focused = what is the focus here? I am carrying the karma of my “ancestors” (my past). But, once I purify the negative karmic consequences of past actions, there is also great positive potential in terms of the abilities, talents, skills etc.

Conclusion:

With what I deduce to be the karmic packages of the six historical figures pictured above, I, Rainbow Desert Flower, the present (fictional) incarnation of these six historical figures, had tended to focus on the negative aspects of my karmic package. I was therefore surprised by a dream I had around this topic – a dream that included four aces and a two of diamonds.

The question I posed in the head of the post is “What does the game of bridge have in common with your karmic package?

The answer is two-fold: (1) you have to play\live\work with the hand you’re dealt; and (2) it’s your choice whether you play\live in a skillful or sloppy way.

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