In this post I am not going to answer what it is, but what it is not. First off the origin of Karma is from a religious order. To keep things in perspective here, all of the religions, major, minor and odd (the jedi religion) are the equivalent of all the water in the oceans. The amount of truth contained in that vast world is about an eye dropper’s worth. It is impossible to argue the merits of one version of religion or another, especially in this time period, as it seems one only need to have the vaguest notion of a religious order in order to have your own. Keep in mind, if a religious order does not have Freewill at its foundation it is severely lacking in credibility.

The reason why I am going to go over what Karma is not is because there is a very odd and destructive version that has plagued the western “new age” community. Many times folks would come to me for some healing work and say something along the lines of, “I saw a psychic and she told me the reason I am in the relationship I am in is we had another lifetime where I killed him so he is now beating me senseless as Karmic payback.” The psychic who uttered these words should be charged with a crime and let’s see why.

In order to understand why “working out the past in the present” is a problem we will turn to my dog. My dog, just like you, lives wholly in the moment. There is no past or future for him, only now – just like you! If my dog were to pee in the house on Saturday and on Thursday I beat him senseless over that fact he would be completely lost. He’d have no idea what the hell I was talking about when I said, “Don’t pee in the house.” The past was no longer an issue – he never peed in the house as of Thursday. If I were to correct the dog’s peeing antics I would need to catch him in the act and then correct him right then. See where I am going? To resolve an issue is to resolve it in that moment, while it still exists. To wait for “another lifetime” is neither possible or reasonable.

To really understand why the whole western system of Karma is preposterous one needs to get this: I don’t learn lessons, I have experiences. Some of those experiences involve stealing from others, or being stolen from. Some involve breaking up with folks I loved or having them break up with me. Some involved getting into fights with people over this or that and all of it happens IN THE MOMENT! It would do me no good whatsoever to spend time with someone in this life resolving (who needs to resolve anything at all), something that was relegated to the original moment.

If you still don’t get it. I’m sure all of you reading this had a 1st grade experience where you were made fun of. A time where you were so hurt at being called fat, or stupid, or slow, or something else that you want to resolve that. Go back right now to 1st grade and fix it! What are you waiting for, do it, go back and demand a resolution! At first thought you got confused and you thought, “Gee I can’t go back.” Your second thought was “gee, what would I say?” Get it, there is only the moment, there is no resolving anything from the past in some future moment. The past was an experience, nothing more. The past was not a missed lesson or damage that needs to be balanced by doing other damage. Experience is experience. There are no lessons, as lessons are for slaves.

You are not in a bad relationship now because you had to fix the bad one you were in ten other incarnations ago (ago is not the right word as there is no “past” incarnations only incarnations).

Karma is not resolving the past in the present. Karma is not punishment for past deeds. Karma is not what is causing your problems. In fact, what if you saw your problems exclusively as opportunities, then what is your Karmic problem if you have no problems?

And what about those folks who came to me with Karma/relationship problems stemming from past traumas? They had just plain old present-moment conflicts, conflicts that were often simply resolved by simply moving on.

A side thought. I suspect some of this Karma business originates with a group of people who do reside in India. I have read about a place where you can go to a center and give them a thumbprint. A few days later, if you are one of some 100k (if I remember the number correctly), you will be told about your life. This suggests to me that some 100k people have decided to spend some time on Earth going through each possible permutation of a “lifetime.” So everyone takes turn as a butcher, baker and a candlestick maker. The Karma theme could come from that process, but it would only apply to those in the club and not a teenage girl in Utah who’s having a hard time in her first serious relationship.

Tags: new age religion