Karma as Adharma

Duty is recognized necessity for the right action performed in freedom from the bounding influence of Karma. In other words the very definition of the word Dharma.

Dharma is commonly translated as 'law', 'vocation', 'religion' or 'code of conduct', when in fact the word literally means doing what you are born to do. From the root of the word dhr - 'to uphold'.

The opposite of that is Adharma (against dharma), the acts which imped or pervert the current of your existence.

Well before the concept of Karma firmly took the central stage in the pantheon of Vedic, Buddhist, Hindu thought it was known as Adharma 'that which is opposite of Dharma'.

After all we are not punished for our actions, but by our actions. Yet Karma did not become sin until the lawgivers made it into a sin. Until than it was Adharma.

Dharma is the universal law which confirms the nature of acts which are inherent in the nature of things. The Dharma of the Sun is to shine. Full stop ! Just like the dharma of the Moon is to  shower the rain on Earth.  

Adharma is not a sin either, it is simply non-confirmity with the nature of things. A crime against harmony. It is from there that the nature of the philosophy of Karma proceeds.

Whence Dharma or doing what we are born to do is, ultimately speaking, rests on being in harmony with the Natural Law. When the Natural Law is being violated it is our Dharma to uphold it from within regardless of our individual Karma. The very essence of Sanatana-dharma. 

Jai Guru Dev 

Letters on Karma

According to Yoga there are three types of Karma collectively known as Sanchita, Prarabdha & Agami.

Sanchita-karma is a residue produced by actions performed either in this life or in a previous one, which remain dormant during this life. Sanchita-karma is a potentiality of karmic seeds  and most beings* (see notes) don't experience the effect of it during the current incarnation.
Prarabdha-karma is indeed the residue of actions working itself out during the present life.
Agami-karma, ''yet-to-come'' is the result of actions performed during this present life which will mature in the normal course of events.

Just like with other Fundamental Laws no matter how much awareness we have of it, the Law of Karma - a current that ripples waters of the ocean - affects the surface of creation from within. It's not just action per se, but what, in its motivational force, fills the creature with desire for existence.

Notes: * The exceptions are those in whom the Latent Energy (Kundalini) has been awakened. When an awakening is powerful enough and the physiology is pure enough for a proper ascend of Consciousness  inside the (Sushumna) channel, the rising Energy will compress the karmic load expelling the latent tendencies along with latent sanchita-karma. That explains why many advanced meditators after awakening  have to endure more than what was otherwise ''written'' in their life-scenario.

(Extracts from the letters, Cote d'Azur, France, July, 2009)

The subject of Karma is vast and we would inevitably touch the other aspects of Vedic wisdom in order to expand the understanding of the concept. One of the disciplines closely related to the concept of Karma is the Vedic Astrology, known as Jyotish (Science of Light). According to that science trajectory of the soul is calculable just like any other heavenly body in the Cosmos.

In fact it provides an entirely new perspective on the notion of Karma, which is much more to do with the respective positioning of the Planets and their combined effect on the incarnation in question. The Science (Jyotish) itself was founded by the ancient Rishi Parashara who fathered that great son of Indian pantheon of Seers, the author of the 'Four Vedas', The Mahabharata and the Yoga Vashishtha.

Rishi Parashara did not just conceived his child randomly but made sure the seed was sawn at such precise time that it would assure the birth under the most auspicious planets with potency enough to create nothing less than a super-human. Surely enough his son was born a Veda Vyasa one of the most celebrated Rishis and most beloved author of the epics, the lore which was destined to influence an entire Orient.

The celestial trajectory of the soul is not a random traveling, it has an orbit so when the jyotish pandits build the birth-chart of a particular individual they can trace the past as well as foresee the future.

Some New Age authors have a tendency to portray Karma as something easily mendable, something one can navigate at will. As tempting as that sounds it is a far fetched view on the fundamental Law which sets everything in motion. According to Yoga, and as mentioned earlier, Karma consists of different degree of density. It has to be accepted and worked with by purifying the field of action itself, because Karma is not separate from Dharma. ''Purifying the field'' - meaning transcending action from the most fundamental level, from the level of thought.

Jai Guru Dev (Extracts from the letters, Cote d'Azur, France, August, 2009)

The triadic flow of Karma

Next to the notion of Yoga, Karma is probably the least understood concept that came out of India. The theory of Karma is accepted by most systems originated in the Subcontinent, yet there is no agreement on the way the notion is interpreted by various traditions associated with the systems of Indian Philosophy.

We are not going to focus here on the particularities between different doctrines, suffice to say there is a wide spectrum of interpretation. For instance Buddhism does not recognize identity, their doctrine of karma is based on the notion of dependent origination. In Veda the action is seen as the means to gain Self-realization, while according to Advaita Vedanta action is not the means to total freedom.

They all agree though in the main aspect: Karma (action) performed leaves potency behind powerful enough to produce future experiences of joy or sorrow according to its nature. 

The most elaborate explanations are given in Patanjali Sutra in that classical gloss by an ancient commenter Vyasa with its almost scientific pragmatism. The other in The Bhagavad Gita which defined action as one of the means to attain Liberation in one of its chapters entitled The Yoga of Action, Karma Yoga.

Going back to the triadic nature of karma it's important to understand that karma is not something rigid but in itself a subject to extremely complex fluctuation of the generic matrix which produced the flow of karma in the first place. We should immediately point out that in reality there is no in the first place for there is no beginning and no end to karma as such. That's why the Gita says: ''Unfathomable is the cause of action.''

Karma consists of three currents: fixed, mixed and flexible. 

~ The fixed portion of karma is the most gripping and it is formed of the countless factors accumulated by the sum total of all previous actions put together with mathematical precision. It determines or rather betrays the celestial trajectory of the soul on its evolutionary path. The moment of conception along with the moment of departure is recorded in the number of the breaths literally.

Speaking plainly, it is that portion of karma which is impossible to change just like it's impossible to reverse the river against its flow. Genetic setup, intellectual capacities, constitutional build, racial and ethnic background cannot be changed, just like the time and place of birth which forces an individual to share the collective consequences of a larger karmic influences. 

~ The mixed portion is formed of immediate energies produced by more recent actions infused with the latent tendencies of the previous kind. Because of that it is less gripping and allows a certain degree of cooperation with the overall karmic flow. The skillful swimmer will be able to go along with the current knowing where to apply the effort and where to let it go. 

The way the mixed portion of karma will affect an individual is to a large degree depends on the awareness available to witness one's own actions and reactions. That is, what is considered a bad luck for one is a good luck in disguise for another. The quality of our experiences are too a large degree influenced by the interpretation we assign to them, whence it is pointless to talk about the positive and negative in a larger scheme of events.

Generally speaking the mixed part of karma is where we feel the presence of the providence and ''good lack'' or as opposite to that the feeling of being haunted by the ''unfortunate'' circumstances.

~ The flexible, is that portion of karma were we are legitimate co-authors of life-scenario, we are born to act. It is that part which is constantly in motion, in a sense that it is constantly open to the field of all possibilities. It consists of countless patterns of thoughts with which we deal on a daily basis and which subtly influence the direction our life is taking even if by some invisible force. Yet it is the most valuable portion of karma and the least explored due to the latent tendencies of the previous (fixed and mixed) parts, and is only subjected to the conditioning of our psyche. 

Once freed the flexible part of karma can and does create wonders. Even if it does not allow the rewriting of an actual script, it has the potential to ease the flow by useless fighting with the main current of life and exchanging it with the newly found joy of being transported. 

To utilize the flexible part of karma is an art of living in itself. The mystery of our past and the secret of our future is hidden in the unfolding sequence of each and every moment, that what we call present. 

The greater is the experience of the moment - the greater is the impact we have on our life and every given instance. To do that skillfully one needs to implement the technique which allows that experience of the moment to its maximum. 

Jai Guru Dev

Noli me tangere...

 A child's hand  reaching to grasp a new object,  moved by  instinctive desire to hold the world in those  tiny fingers, to feel the thrill of a new sensation only the touch can reveal...

   

So is with the story, once pressed on the  mind,  forever leaves an  imprint  whose  shape  mothers  all  other stories in its womb, so simple  and  profound  in  its  essence  no  heart  is  left  untouched  by its narrative...

The story of Christ could be read as reversal of the original Vedic Creation Myth, where Prajapati (the Progenitor) in order for the Universe to come forth has to sacrifice Himself through an act of dismembering, so great is Creator's compassion that He willingly puts and end to His unity so that diversity can take place!

That act of an original Sacrifice has to be reconciled, over and over as time goes by, and God incarnate into the flesh as  Jesus in order to restore the unity again between the Spirit and the matter torn apart by the original descend. That's why  so  many  great  spiritual  masters  of  India  recognized  in  Jesus an Avatar  and often  referred to him as Love-incarnate. Some scholars  believe  that the historical  Jesus has spent, those missing  in the new testament  years, in Kashmir learning  at the feet of distinguished  masters  what would  become  later  known as Kashmir  Shaivism (a  fusion of an old Vedic  tradition with emerging  practices of Tantra).  

    

Small wander  many  Hindu  Saints recognized  in  Christ  a  Yogi   par  excellence  and  one of  the  greatest  Siddha ever to walk  the  earth. Leaving  arguments  for  the  scholars  and  theologians,  we'll come back  to the  story  itself,  the  story  which  never  fails  to  move the heart,  being  the  crossing  point,  the  heart  is  where  Christ  left  his  most  healing  touch.

Some of  the most precious moments in Christ' story were  the  encounters with the small circle of his disciples and the most  enigmatic of all with the woman, whom Christ saved from being stoned to death, known as Mary from Magdala. It is worth remembering that the bond of unconditional Love - which broke the bondage of Mary's soul from the constraints of the body - was a touch stone between Compassion of  Jesus and burning desire of Mary to become one with her Beloved. If Christ was greatest yogi than Mary Magdalen was destined to become a yogini of the western world as the foremost Christian Saint.

Noli me tangere - ''touch me not'', is a latin version of words spoken according to John, by Christ to Mary when she recognized him after his Resurrection. The original phrase was written in Greek and translates as ''cease clinging on to me''. What was behind  the line, when Christ appeared in front of Mary Magdalen, his most devoted disciple, making her move on an impulse to embrace the feet of her beloved Master, yet being restrained by him. Noli me tangere, the phrase has been a subject of many debates between the scholars and interpreters of Christianity. We'll give it a Tantric touch. 

According to Kashmir  Shaivism, the touch is considered to be the most important faculty of the senses,  which takes place at the onset of evolutionary  process, more importantly,  that process is being  repeated  over and over again at each and every instant of our  existence! The touch is not only limited to experience of the object of sense perception transmitted  through the air element and expressed  through the organ of cognition as hand. In fact for the possibility of any experience to happen, there must be a moment of the crossing  of two, the union produced by that sensation. Sound uniting  with ear, touch uniting  with  skin,  sight uniting  with  form, taste uniting  with tongue,  scent uniting  with the organ of smelling. 

Through all the activity touch is a culminating  factor in giving possibility of the  experience for the one who is going through it. For that reason Tantra  considers  all experiences  erotic in its  essence,  for in every  instant, on all the levels of creation, the original  act is  being  re-created in a mini replica  of Grand  Union as penetration of the Spirit into the World. The sense of touch is  located  at the Heart Center and transmitted through air element. It associated with the heart chakra, where hands serve as organs  of  cognition and the genitals  as organs  of action. The Heart  center  is  the seat of  prana  (vital  force),  as  well as  the seat of  all emotions. The holy  shrine of the body-temple and  Lord Himself dwells  in its  chamber,  in  the crossing  point  where  the  subject  meets  its  object... and  the experience set in motion.

     

It's as if the Lord  in response to the lover, who is  in the agony to embrace the  Beloved,  warns:  Do  not  touch  me !  If  you  wish  to  unite  with  Me,  you  have  to  go  beyond   the  realm  of  the  senses !  The message is simple, to embrace the Lord  and to be  touched by His Divine Grace,  Mary  Magdalen  has to withdraw  her  mind  from  the activity of the senses  if  she is to enjoy true union with the Beloved.  

                                                                                

Memory of the Whole.

QUESTION:

If we are from this whole and part of a whole, why do we feel so separated from this most of the time ? Only when it rains and we are silent enough to stop and listen do we connect. The rest of the time we forget who or what we are. Why is the memory so easily erased if this is our natural state to be?
(posted by Emma Devi, 'On the Verandah', 23 February)

REPLY:

To answer these questions in a way would only reinforce the enigma. The obviousness of a predicament is in the paradoxical nature of consciousness. Let us try to see it from two diametrically opposing perspectives.

First and foremost, there is no separation on any levels what so ever! This sense of separateness is illusory, in reality it does not exist. Separateness is being perceived at a local level only, yet the nature of consciousness is essentially non-local. The subject (observer) and the object (observed) are forever united in oneness of the experience where the subjectivity is actualized by the process (of observing) itself. The perceiver and the (manifested world) perceived cannot be separated for an instant and are in fact an integral part of universal continuum.

If it were not so there would be no possibility for any experience at all. Just like when there is no connection to the ethernet there is no reception, no signal, nothing. The five senses provide the mind with information which allows for the experience of the physical world to be perceived as real. Coalesced with impressions left by countless previous experiences and stored deep in the recesses of the mind they provide fertile ground for sprouting of all sorts of desires, thoughts and ideation. The process is powered by the complex network of subtle charges which are electrical in nature and needs the source at all times for its function.

When the senses shut down (during the dreaming state) the mind is left to itself to wonder for there is no shortage of impressions (as mentioned earlier), and the vividness experienced in dreams is the proof of an autonomy of mind from the senses. When in turn the mind shuts down (during the deep-sleep) the experience of 'nothingness' (on waking up from that state) betrays the fact that there was a witness to the process. Who is witnessing the 'nothingness' of the deep-sleep state, when the mind is switched off ? These gives us an insight that there is a witness beyond the spheres of the mind. For the faculty of mind is just an instrumentality, which has no authority of its own.

If I am not the senses. Not the mind. Than who am I? Who is experiencing all this and moreover, who is making it felt as if the experience belongs to ''me''? That line of questioning is inevitable if we to understand the whole business of separation properly. Some identify the sense of ego as the source behind separation. The sense of ''I'' is what holding an incarnated soul together as a unit, from the uniqueness of its DNA vibrations to the interactive patterns of individual behavior. Egocentricity is certainly a major hindrance for harmonious co-existence, but can we blame the I-sense for the identification with the experience which is the real cause of misery? After all ego has no existence of its own and its function is what gives variety to an act were individuality is a mirrored infinity in its dynamic dimension. Moreover, the complete distraction of an ego is detrimental to the embodied being in as much as there is still a need for normal functioning of all bodily systems and the immune one in particular.

Is it at all possible to be connected while still being subjected to the limitations born of human condition? What is than stands on the way if there is continuity of energy throughout all the states of consciousness, why do we feel separated from the source? After all the source, the energy and the matter are one if the understanding of the modern physics to go by. Where does the separation comes into?

The separation is all in the head. It is in the dual nature of the mind. Mind is an instrumentality of consciousness very much like a lens, it serves as a channel to actualize the experience by narrowing it down to the individual level. It's as if Consciousness limits itself in order to enjoy particularity of any given experience. This trick is possible because of the dichotomized nature of thought. Thought in its essence is a fluctuation (a wave, a ripple) on the surface of the mind. As long as there is a thought process there is a sense of separation, because the surface of the mind is disturbed and cannot reflect Consciousness fully. Soon as the fluctuations subside the mind becomes still and reflects nothing but Consciousness. That is because the mind in its state of quiescence is Consciousness.

When mind is drawn outward by the incessant activity of the senses, it gives rise to the world of phenomenal experiences (of the physical world). When the mind turned inward (like in concentration, meditation, absorption) it will gradually move in the direction of the source (of bliss). Mind fluctuates between two extreme polarities, that of Absolute Dynamism (in its outward move) and that of Absolute Silence (in its inward state). When it's enjoying the outward activity it takes on the quality of the external experiences and (as if) looses its connection to the source. Yet soon as its finds its way home to the Silent sphere it becomes that which it is and always has been.

No matter how paradoxical that sounds, the mind can experience both the dynamism and the silence simultaneously. For that the mind needs to turn within on a regular basis, so that the deep silence experienced during the periods of inward strokes will eventually spill out into and infusing with the dynamic phases of activity. When the mind is thoroughly soaked in silence it will regain the ''memory'' even when being absorbed in the activity of the senses. In truth the term memory has little to do with the actual process, for the notion of memory is only applicable to the relative spectrum of life. For when the mind is awakened to its own nature and purified from the latent tendencies it becomes transparent in the midst of any experiences, mental or physical makes no difference. The ''memory'' here is in the form of a fully integrated knowledge that Awareness is independent from all forms of activity and is the only criteria of life lived in freedom from suffering.

So the separation does not exist yet what constitutes for the feeling of being separate is the degree of awareness throughout all the spheres of human interaction from it's innermost silence to its outmost dynamics of nature.

The Nature of Pain - 2

Pleasure and pain are two most important neurophysiological responses in the brain which mark our likes and dislikes and wire the connection between the body, mind and environment. There is strong evidence for biological connections between the neurochemical pathways used for the perception of both pain and pleasure, which confirms with the yogic view of both experiences being part of the same continuum.

The Samkhya doctrine recognizes that process as the inner mechanics behind worldliness. Attachment arises from pleasure and pleasure is derived from attachment to the experience it produces. In turn pain gives rise to aversion and thus the circle of attachment and aversion strengthens the Vasanas (psychic conditioning) of an individual psyche.

When we undergo pleasurable experience we take it for granted, for its a natural predisposition in our mind and needs no questioning as for the reasoning. One of the resultant states of awakening is an increased awareness of the deep connectedness of all psychological states and physiological conditions. Even if still automatically preferring pleasure to pain the awakened mind is no longer bound by the attachment the experience of pleasure otherwise incurs.

That is because spontaneous realization rests on the knowledge that they (pain and pleasure) follow each other (like the dials of a clock) with the change in the alternating states with which Nature performs all actions. The Gunas (Sattva, Rajas, Tamas*) rotate and bring about changes in physical and psychological states of our system. Even a threshold of pain differs according to the predominance of a particular guna in an individual.

Whatever is the case, the one who set his/her mind on the path of yoga tries his/her best to overcome the cycle of attachment and aversion born of the experience of pleasure and pain. Both experiences produce the subconscious latencies in the shape of the above mentioned Vasanas. Attachment and aversion are rooted in misapprehension of reality which firmly binds the soul to the body by identification of the ''I'' (as a spectator) with the process of a spectacle.

To cut these circuit is to brake free from the chains with which the ''I'' is (seemingly) bound. Seemingly ? Well, the ''I'' is never affected by that which takes place on the level of cognitive (motor-sensory-mental) experiences, nor does it get affected by any fluctuations brought about by the superimposition of those experiences onto the ''I'' (as the perceiver). No more than the images projected onto the screen have an effect on the light which illumines the movie. So is with our experiences in the world as far as the motor-sensory-mental responses are concerned.

(end of part 2)

Notes:

* According to The Samhkya, one of the Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, The Gunas are primordial qualities which constitute Nature. On cosmological level Sattva is the energy of equilibrium; Rajas is the energy behind all motion; Tamas is primal factor behind inertia. In terms of psychological states of an individual, Sattva balances all processes and stands for light, clarity and peace. Rajas is responsible for excitement, passion, desire and consequently for all mental turmoil including pain and misery. Tamas as inertia rules stagnation and ignorance born of total identification with the physiology. Suffice to say that everyone is a mixture of all three energies with minute combination/proportion of the three Gunas which form the basis of an individual psyche.

Mars retrograde

We all have been put through the test since Dec 20th when Mars, the blood-boiler went retrograde, and in the last three weeks in particular, as the planet has entered its most 'destructive' phase. By March 10th Mars will resume its normal course, and soon as February is over we all get some relief. Than two more weeks and we are out of the most demanding time we've been in a while, and that's despite the fact (suggested by many astrologers) that we've benefited by the overall positive planetary combinations. We should understand these that despite the losses the blows were somewhat softened.

Just to remind, Mars is retrograding in Leo, adding extra heat, extra anger and extra pride to already fiery planet. Comparing Western Zodiac with Indian Jyotish: the main characteristics of the planets are very similar so are the behavior and what the planets rule in both the outer and the inner spheres of our reality.

According to the Jyotish, the planets are grouped into benefic, malefic and neutral based on the energetic qualities they emit (from the worldly point of view). Mars (Mangal in sanskrit) belongs to the malefic group of planets, that is the overall character of the planet is unruly and has a fiery nature to it. Other malefic planets are Saturn, Sun and ascending and descending nodes of the Moon. Benefic ones are, Jupiter and Venus. While Mercury is neutral, that means the planet's energy can be colored by the combination of the planets it happened to share the house with.

From the psychological point of view Mars rules the emotions associated with fire element. Passion, anger, courage, jealousy, pride, and everything that makes us burn with impatience. When balanced Mars gives us strength for decision making, courage to face adversity and fearlessness to go with the changes in life. When imbalanced, as during the retrograde period (plus other special transits) the planet is seemed too eager to destroy everything, from the relationships to our inner peace, which are the mirrored conditions in any case.

Mars retrograde in Leo is a double bill. The otherwise assertive energy of leader Leo is being perplexed and thwarted into confusion and self-doubt. On top of that the shadowy qualities associated with Leo become exaggerated where pride and self-centeredness meets its extremes. Multiplied by the Martian energy we can expect an alien behavior from those we thought we knew as our own selves. Internalized anger is also on the agenda as the fire instead of being directed for cooking something nourishing or battling with adversaries is often turned against oneself.

The best strategy during the warrior planet going backwards is to sit it out in a shelter or make sure you use a bamboo stick instead of a real sword if you happened to be a martial artist. Is there anything good during the time when Mars is retrograding ? For sure, when the period is over we'll come out of it with facts and information which otherwise would have remained hidden. Both about ourselves and others. We'll be stronger and more compassionate beings, after being faced with our own limitations and inadequacies. Just like flower field gets more fertile after some blood drops on the ground. Exposure to our limitations would only help us go beyond the limits of our own making.