Is “bad luck” really gold in disguise?

(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!)

One of the readers of this weblog was asked by her father when she was four years old “what’s your favourite colour?”

“Plaid,” she replies.

This same Plaid, 58-and-a half-years later, sends me a message on December 15’09 that I want to pass on to you. It raises a number of nitty-gritty questions and issues around karma to which I try to respond.  (Come to think of it, the nature of karma might well be characterized as a kind of plaid fabric with strands knitted together from different colours and textures….)

In the quotations from Plaid below, I have added the numbers in parentheses.

I am more and more perceiving what may appear to be (1) real bad luck – bad karma, whatever you may call it –  as (2) hidden gold (3) when looked at upside down – kind of hard to explain,

(1) “real bad luck”: Apparently, the result (vipoca) of an action (karma) is actually neutral in its essence, just like gravity. If we move too far in one direction, we have to be brought back. This is what I call the compensation aspect of karma. If we perceive the result of our previous action as “unpleasant,” ego calls it “bad” or “negative” karma.

(2) “hidden gold”: It seems that we spend thousands of lifetimes in this struggle. But it is not “useless” if we regard our experience as a teacher. What does our experience teach us? Well, for one thing, it teaches us about cause and effect. “What goes around comes around.” As I mentioned above, it is ego that calls the effects “bad” or “good” etc., because ego bases all its evaluations, perceptions etc. on dualism, this and that. Of course, it is easy to be fooled into thinking we are “solid” and “permanent” because we have individual bodies.

(3) “when looked at upside down:” I think I may have an intuitive feel for what you mean. I sometimes compare our ignorance and the karma this produces to “wearing our clothes inside out.”

….how is a soul going to become well rounded and balanced enough to express his/her true God Nature/Buddha Nature? without experiencing all facets of human existence? Great power, many victories, social approval, even touching enlightenment, and then coming back as one who is not privileged, maybe suffering malnutrition or abuse.

“experiencing all facets of human existence:” I’m not sure about the necessity of this. I do know that those who are fully awake have been awake for centuries! Perhaps some of us don’t learn very quickly. We seem to have to suffer over and over and over again before we “get it.” In other words, before we understand that our very self-absorption is what keeps us in a state of sleep, unable or unwilling to live in each nano second as it arises.

These unfortunate  conditions may be karmic punishments which the soul limits itself with, in order to expunge the stain of previous cruelty  but only in the service of seeing things from the  perspective of the Other, and the Other is anyone else who is not Self. If all souls come from a Sacred unified Being of Love, and are split off to search out new experiences and to learn and grow, then we are all the Other.  And our Love drives us to immerse our selves in these  mryiad liftetimes.

“split off”: As I understand it, in every moment there is open space — no fixation at all. But we are frightened and so we quickly split the experience of open space into two parts (dualism) known as “self” (ego, the manufactured self) and “other.” Once we have set up this dualism, we need to “protect” this ego. We do this in a variety of ways, e.g. defence mechanisms; habits etc. etc. Ego actually knows that it doesn’t “exist” in any solid, permanent way. But it refuses to give up the “fight” to prove itself, to prove its existence, to prove its separateness. <if interested, check out how karma develops step-by-step. Of course, ego can’t prove these things because they are illusory. Illusory because they are based on a fundamental mistake that we make about the nature of reality.

I was given an image recently that really helps me – lifetimes may seem to be sequential, but are they? I read “Oversoul 7” years ago by Jane Roberts and found it upsetting, but I keep going back to the basic idea of the book.  Is the great plane of human existence really more like a large lake that the soul dives into in search of experience? It’s really deep and cold over there, with treacherous rocks under the surface, but over here there is a sandy beach and shallow blue water…where shall I dive in next? and who is to say which lifetime comes before the other ones? One’s soul only strives to learn and grow – transient emotional or physical pain is a goad to move forward….and from the high place of one’s great complete Soul which is a fragment of God, it is all seen to be existing in the present moment. Ego does not matter at all. Wow! Ouch!
“…..soul dives into in search of experience”: As long as we operate on the basis of ego, we will continue to generate karma and its results. I don’t know about “searching” for experiences of various kinds. I don’t think we actually “search’ as such…….our karma ensures that we have a variety of “experiences” which may in fact just be “effects” of past actions. Depending on how we relate to these “effects” we can either (1) cut our karmic stream or (2) maintain it!!! In fact, how we perceive what happens is itself based on our karma! That is what meditation practice can help with. We believe that our thoughts are reality. That maintains the karma we already have. If we’re going to change our karmic stream, we have to change our mind….again, that is what meditation practice is for.
Now I may rail against my unfortunate circumstances, what ever they may be, ( and I do sometimes, rail, that is) but ultimately I set it all up for my own soul’s growth, and what keeps me burdened is mostly repeating negative patterns that do not serve the new “me” I am hoping to become.
And as long as we’re caught up in habits, there is no freedom, no real free will.
It’s almost funny, if it didn’t hurt so darn much. And I see this similar situation with most of my friends who are also trying to become conscious. It is so easy to become stuck in comfortable and familiar misery/victimhood.and then soul growth slows down.
To repeat, as I understand it, in every moment there is open space — no fixation at all. But we is frightened and so quickly splits the experience of open space into two parts (dualism) known as “self” (ego, the manufactured self) and “other.” Once we have this dualism, we need to “protect” this ego. We do this in a variety of ways, e.g. defence mechanisms; habits etc. etc. Ego actually knows that it doesn’t “exist” in any solid, permanent way. But it refuses to give up the “fight” to prove itself, to prove its existence, to prove its separateness. <If interested, check out how karma develops step-by-step> Of course, ego can’t prove these things because they are illusory. Illusory because they are based on a fundamental mistake that we make about the nature of reality.

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