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(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!)

…There is always something missing. If you examine your mind in everyday life, you can see that something is missing all the time  No matter how much you try to enjoy different places—living in a city or on a mountain, going to the beach or to a beautiful park; no matter how much you try to enjoy food, clothing, anything that can be obtained on this earth, there is always something missing in your heart. No matter how many friends you have or how long you enjoy their company, there is always something missing. All the time there is something missing in your heart. You are never really happy.

Even when there is excitement in your life, if you carefully examine the nature of your mind, you will find that there is still something missing. You are not completely happy. Watch your mind closely; examine it well: “Is this happiness complete or not?” It is not complete. There is still something missing. (source: Transforming Problems Into Happiness)

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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.

*  *  *  *  *  *

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

All the world’s a stage
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances
And one man in his time plays many parts.
<Shakespeare>

On June 24, 2009 the King of Pop left the world stage.

But as the philosopher-poet Kahlil Gibran noted:

Death changes nothing but the masks that cover our faces.

Question: What kind of future lifetime might Michael Jackson have?

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.

As Michael Jackson put it:

Everyday creates your history.

We could add “Everyday also creates your future.”

Please note: the description of Michael Jackson below is not meant to be judgmental of him as a human being. It merely characterizes how his energy manifested in this lifetime. In other words, we are not our characteristics any more than we are our illnesses.

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

Prologue: We understand intellectually, conceptually, that karma is carried from one lifetime to another and from one situation to another in this present lifetime, much like a torch is passed from team membert to team member 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 The actual face of karma: a portrait gallery, 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 look like? In other words, what is the fruition of the karma of the Portrait Gallery of these six historical figures in terms of money, career, sex, family, friendships, etc.? And what would today’s (fictional) incarnation have to do to change the karmic stream so that future lives would not just be a repeat of the past? To answer these questions, I use diary entries.

* * * * * *

I, Rainbow Desert Flower, enter this dream into my private diary on the 1st day of the month of July in the year 1970 CE. May it benefit all beings who are trying to understand their karmic footprint.
……..

I think I was born with a state known as chronic depression! I believe I have been carrying this habitual way of relating to the world with me from lifetime to lifetime.

Last night I had a dream that has given me a wider perspective:

Dream:

I am in a very, very large theatre. It is empty. Nothing in it. No chairs. No actors. No audience. No musicians. No props. No sets. But I know right in the dream [as opposed to thoughts upon waking from the dream] that the space is a theatre. I also know that the theatre is space! I rest there. Then a black cloud floats in from stage left. Right in the dream I think “This cloud is depression. But it wasn’t there in the beginning. Just space was there. Then the black cloud moved in.” I notice that the cloud is not affecting the space around it in any way.

Notes on interpretation of dream:

• theatre = space = our primordial nature
• depression = insubstantial; like a cloud blocking the sun of our true nature. But the sun is still there. Just blocked temporarily
• main message of dream = I am not my depression.
  

Update June, 2009:

We experience depression as a solid thing. I think that “depression” is comprised of a bundle of habitual patterns which have both an action and an emotional component, which contribute to creating our karmic stream and maintaining it.

Fortunately, just like a theatre provides an unchanging stage for the actors to enact the play, our primordial nature is vast and provides an unchanging space for a multitude of changing, temporary, unsolid, impermanent, insubstantial — ie. empty — conditions like depression.

The pure nature of mind beyond the intellect, beyond all of these ordinary mental operations and activities, is not affected in the slightest by a dense state of mind.

NOTE: I am grateful for this message on Twitter, July 17’09 from N_Odzer: #FollowFriday @ExBP_Buddhist Great in insight in depression, & Bipolar Disorder with a Buddhist perspective, @Margaret_Scott 4 Karma blog.

Update January 24, 2011

Here’s a quote, from Rigpa Glimpse of the Day, that describes, in different words, my interpretation above of my dream:

In Tibetan we call the essential nature of mind Rigpa—primordial, pure, pristine awareness that is at once intelligent, cognizant, radiant, and always awake. This nature of mind, its innermost essence, is absolutely and always untouched by change or death. At present it is hidden within our own mind, our sem, enveloped and obscured by the mental scurry of our thoughts and emotions. Just as clouds can be shifted by a strong gust of wind to reveal the shining sun and wide-open sky, so, under certain circumstances, some inspiration may uncover for us glimpses of this nature of mind. These glimpses have many depths and degrees, but each of them will bring some light of understanding, meaning and freedom.

This is because the nature of mind is the very root itself of understanding.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to this weblog. Click on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar, and follow one of the three sets of simple, step-by-step instructions. Thank you.

(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!)

Eight-year-old Victoria (Tori)  Stafford went missing on or about April 08, 2009. On May 19, 2009 two people — Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 29, and Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18 — were arrested for the abduction and murder of Tori.

Rex Murphy, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation  (CBC)-TV, on “The National,” May 21, 2009, eloquently gave his point of view about the murder.

We all wonder “what kind of people would abduct and then murder a child? How do people come to this point?”

This is where the 12 factors that create and maintain our karma may help us gain some insight.

In previous posts we have looked at the 12 factors in terms of past lives and how they influence our present one.

In this post, we’ll look at the factors in terms of one particular action.  Killing.

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(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!)

My friend Marigold sent me a copy of actor Gwyneth Paltrow’s online newsletter Goop, edition April 16, 2009 in which Paltrow asks: Why are people delighted when bad things happen to other people?

Possible answer: we feel better about ourselves. Why? Because we can “shore up” what we mistakenly believe is our own independent, ongoing, permanent identity.

At the end of her article the actor asks:

I’m curious about the spiritual concept of “evil tongue” (speaking evil of others) and its pervasiveness in our culture. Why do people become energized when they say or read something negative about someone else? What does it say about where that person is? What are the consequences of perpetuating negativity or feeling schadenfreude?

While contemplating Paltrow’s question on her Goop website, I thought of the nursery rhyme about the Goops written by Gelett Burgess and published in 1900.

The Goops they lick their fingers,
And the Goops they lick their knives;
They spill their broth on the tablecloth —
Oh, they lead disgusting lives!
………
……..

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(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!)

I remember when my parents took me to the three-ringed circus when it came to Toronto.

The world of suffering and confusion seems to me to be like a three-ringed circus. But instead of the circus barker introducing the lions, elephants, and high-wire acts, he shouts:

Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner we have the rooster, representing the poison of passion. Over in that corner is the snake, representing the poison of aggression. And over in this corner is the pig, which represents the poison of ignorance.

The poisons are interrelated. That is why the tail of the rooster is grasped by the pig,  and the tail of the snake is grasped by the mouth of the rooster.

The role of the three poisons? To make us (our egos) feel solid, permanent, ongoing, unchangeable.

They work together. They each act to assist the others. They are partners. And for that reason I liken them to a three-ringed circus. There are three different acts going on in this ring, but at the same time they all mesh together to produce an integrated “show,” an effect.

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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 understand intellectually, conceptually, that karma is carried from one lifetime to another and from one situation to another in this present lifetime, much like a torch is passed from team member to team member in a relay race. 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?

But what does karma actually look like “on the ground” in our daily lives?

Based on my weblog paged called Actual face of karma, what would the life of someone who is the present (fictional) incarnation of Queen Tiye (mother of Akhenaten), Helen of Troy, 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 these six historical figures in terms of money, career, sex, family, etc.? To try to answer this question, I use diary entries like the one below.

*  *  *  *  *  *

I, Rainbow Desert Flower, enter this into my private diary on the 29th day of the month of June in the year 1971 CE. May it benefit all beings who are trying to understand their karmic footprint. This diary entry deals specifically with the romantic relationships that arose out of the kind of past karma carried by the present incarnation of our portrait gallery described above.

Part One:

You needed to see me as
rough
but my kiss told you as
tender

You needed to see me as
critical
but my words told you as
helpful

You needed to see me as
formidable
But my eyes told you as
searching

You needed to see me as
having left you
But my presence told you as
here

You needed to see me as
You needed to see me
You needed to see
You needed to
You needed
You

But where does that leave us?

Part Two:

rough kiss tender
critical words helpful
formidable eyes searching
left presence here

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(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!)

The story of Helen of Troy, with its combination of sex and violence, has endured for over 3,000 years since Homer wrote about it. There have been movies on the big screen. Movies on television. And scores of books.

Helen was the Greek version of Marilyn Monroe. Her story, as told by one of my favourite authors Margaret George, is a dramatic illustration of the laws of cause and effect, afflictive emotions, grasping and craving. In short, we watch with fascination as the karma unfolds. (For an historical account, based on The Illiad by Homer, you can read the first three chapters of Helen of Troy by Jack Lindsay.)

Helen was Queen of Sparta, married to King Menalaus. While Prince Paris of Troy is visiting Sparta, he meets Helen and the rest, as they say, is history.

Agememnon, King of Mycenae, and older brother to Menalaus, creates alliances with other Greek kings and they set sail — in the fabled 1,000 ships — to make war on Troy. While Agememnon is in Troy, his wife takes a lover. After ten years, Troy is sacked. Helen returns to Sparta with her husband King Menalaus.  When Agememnon reaches Mycenae to take up his throne again, his wife stabs him to death.

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(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!)

To further demonstrate the 12 factors (links) that create and maintain our karmic stream,  I’m going to use a true situation as described by author Ann Rule in her book Too Late to Say Goodbye .

All lives, no matter how prosaic, have their secrets, and we never know what is actually going on in even our closest friends’ worlds. Jennifer Corbin was no different. Her involvement with someone outside her marriage began quite innocently.

In the spring of 2004, Christopher and Jenn meet on Sony PlayStation’s game called Everquest. Jenn plays a Wizard called “wizwiz148.” Her online partner signs on as “sirtank1223.”

A few weeks before Jenn Corbin is murdered, she discovers that her virtual lover “Christopher” is in fact another woman whose real name is Anita Hearn.  Anita is the last person to speak to Jenn Corbin in the early morning of December 04, 2004, the day she, Jenn, dies.

Her husband Dr. Bart Corbin, not realizing that Christopher is in fact a woman, has discovered steamy emails between his wife and “Christopher” and thinks his wife is involved in an affair. He murders her while their two young sons sleep in their beds.

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