Get a Lifetime Dot Com

(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!)

What we contemplate, we sit in for the rest of the day. If we wake up with fear, and do not shift our mind, this fear might manage our day, rather than us managing our day.

I find it very helpful to do a particular exercise before I even get out of bed. It has two purposes:

• It sets my intention for the day (Intention is the 9th factor in creating and maintaining our karma); and
  
• It  generates confidence. We don’t have to “drum it up” or manufacture it.

Before arising from bed

Contemplate the tiger.
Colour: orange
Area of body: legs and feet
Qualities: meek in the sense of discrimination (discerning, clear-seeing); we calmly reflect on our lives and the situations in which we are involved; we know what to accept and what to reject – this brings confidence; totally aware of law of cause and effect: whatever we do has repercussions for the future; the tiger is careful (not to be confused with paranoia).

Contemplate the snow lion.
Colour: white
Area of body: just below the navel
Qualities: perky in the sense that we can determine our own actions; joyful because not burdened by bewilderment: we know that helping others leads to happiness; we see confusion for what it is: the outcome of the mistaken view that putting ourselves first leads to success; decisions made on basis of whether our actions will benefit others

Contemplate the garuda.
Colour: red
Area of body: chest and arms
Qualities: outrageous because we appreciate what we have, which brings joy in our lives; move beyond conventional way of doing things, which is based on fixation and attachment to me; true freedom comes from understanding the deeper nature of reality <impermanence; insubstantiality>; by moving beyond ego, we know who we actually are!

Contemplate the dragon.
Colour: blue
Area of body: head and shoulders
Qualities: inscrutable because we have wisdom beyond concepts, because we have moved beyond the reference point of a solid self and are therefore not caught up in habitual thought patterns; we are fundamentally enlightened. We are here living a good life trying to help others.

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

In previous posts (March 1, 8, 15 and 22, 2009) and on my webpage called Karma’s Big 12 I have discussed the factors that go into creating and maintaining our personal karma.

But we also need to know how we can change our karmic stream.

There are many ways to talk about how to do this.

For today’s post I have chosen what are known in Shambhala Buddhism as The Four Dignities: Tiger, Lion, Garuda and Dragon. To me, they represent the power of good intention.

The role of intention (our motivation, purpose is central in creating our karma – without intention there is no volitional action. Without volitional action, there is no creation of karma. There are only two situations where we are not creating karma: sleeping and meditating. Otherwise, we are engaged in volitional actions.

We can have positive intention or negative – each type produces corresponding karmic effects. <source: Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche>

and

Our intentions create our reality. We each create our own personal realities by what we focus on and intend to happen for our experiences. Therefore we have an enormous responsibility to choose our intentions carefully.<source: Wayne Dyer>

Without intention there is no volitional action. Without volitional action, there is no creation of karma. There are only two situations where we are not creating karma: sleeping and meditating. Otherwise, we are involved in actions.

We need a kind of “insurance policy” so that when we meet with negativity, we meet it with the Four Dignities.

There are many descriptions of the Four Dignities. The description I offer here is taken mainly from a document I received in May 2004 and reflects the theme of this post: how to change our karmic stream by consciously setting our intention every day from one based on confusion to one based on wisdom. The words in <   > are my notes.

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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.

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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!)

It doesn’t really matter what causes us to reach our limit. The point is that sooner or later it happens to all of us. <When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron>

If I am Susan Boyle, I reach my limit when I go from being a “regular” person, unknown except to my family, pet, neighbours, shop keepers, friends, doctors and other service-providers, to having every one of my actions scrutinized. I thought I was just providing entertainment for a talent show. Instead, I become the entertainment! I become anxious, fearful, nervous.

Our habitual assumptions, all our ideas about how things are, keep us from seeing things in a fresh open way…[But] There’s no certainty about anything. This basic truth hurts and frightens us and we want to run away from it. …things like disapppointment and anxiety are messengers telling us that we are about to go into unknown territory.<When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron>

Habits are comprised of two aspects: an emotional aspect, and our habitual ways of reacting (karma). Ego, our manufactured self, uses habits as one of the items in its arsenal of weapons in its battle to maintain its (illusory) solidity, to bolster its mistaken belief that it exists unconditionally, that is, beyond relative causes and conditions. But when ego is “unsuccessful,” and the ground under our habitual patterns shifts, we feel like the rug has been pulled out from under us. We feel like things have fallen apart.

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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!)

We shall fight on the beaches – <source: Sir Winston Churchill>

When we talk about the fear of death, I believe that it is really ego’s fear of its own destruction.

Ego struggles to maintain its solidity. But it is a battle that it can never win because it fights to maintain a solidity that is illusory.

Whenever there is any threat that might expose the shifting sands that underly ego, this ego tries to secure a “beach-head” — like the beach-heads at beaches code-named Juno, Omaha, Sword and Gold, in Normandy, France on D-Day, June 06, 1944.

We might habitually drink alcohol, take drugs, eat, stop eating, call friends, ignore friends, sleep, play sports, have sex, manifest self- righteous anger etc. etc. — anything to restore a feeling of comfort with who we think we are.

These habitual patterns contribute to both creating and maintaining our karma. Sometimes this produces negative effects, as described in previous posts, namely, Deconstructing The Karma of Alleged Killer….; and I’m-just-a-link-in-your-chain.

On “D-Day” — which stands for The unnamed day on which an operation or offensive is to be launched  — the terrified teenage warriors provided target practice for Nazi guns perched on the cliffs high above the beaches on which the soldiers landed.

We shall never surrender <source: Sir Winston Churchill>

I noted above that ego tries to secure a beach-head like those beach-heads on D-Day.

But that’s where the similarity ends. For on June 06, 1944, these warriors, with invincible courage, set aside ego and surrendered to big mind. They sacrificed small, self-centred, “me first” mind on the altar of basic goodness.

I cannot think of a greater tribute to those of you, “dead” or “alive,” who fought there, to say, with heartfelt gratitude that, despite being on what amounted to a suicide mission, you established a beach-head — both literally and spiritually — from which to conquer hatred in all its forms.

Wherever you are now, I thank you.

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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!)

With the publication of his book My Remarkable Journey, Larry King loosens his suspenders and dips his toe in his own karmic stream.

During his book tour, I heard Jian Ghomeshi interviewing him on May 26, 2009 on CBC Radio One

Among other things, Larry said that throughout most of  his life he hasn’t engaged in “introspective thinking” because he “lives in the moment.” (I myself don’t think of the two as being mutually exclusive.) Larry never asked himself “why?” or checked the connection between cause and effect in his own life – i.e. he didn’t interview himself! He didn’t explore his own karma.

Larry’s famous suspenders kept him together — kept his manufactured self (ego) in place —until now. The man whom many consider the king of all interviewers is finally interviewing himself.

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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!)

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!)

© The New Yorker Collection 2000 David Sipress from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

Meditation is no longer a strange word. Scientists have done many studies recently to show the benefits of meditation on our health, both physical and mental. Stress reduction.

This post is, however, not directly about the health benefits. It is about the way meditation can help us to cut through our karmic cycle, to change the course of our karmic stream.

We cannot avoid karma as long as we have continual thoughts and continual subconscious gossip. As long as we have a liking and disliking state of mind happening all the time, we cannot avoid karma at all. I think it is quite straightforward. The idea is that virtuous karma, good karma, produces good situations. It’s sort of predetermined. And bad karma produces bad results, which are also predetermined. (Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche)

and:

But at the same time we can prevent sowing further seeds of karma altogether by realizing that there is a level where karmic seeds are not sown, the nonthought level. That is why we meditate. It has been said that sleeping, dreaming, meditating, and developing awareness are the only states in which we do not sow further seeds of karma. <emphasis mine>(Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche)

√It is said that the mind that created our karma is the same mind that can change its course.

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