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THE KARMIC TIES that bind us

What is the significance of the people in a person's life that are there karmically? Does that mean that they are more important than other people? Does it mean they keep showing up in someone's life for a purpose?

The Law of Karma states that for every action, there is an equal reaction or consequence. Every thought, word, emotion and action that we put out into the Universe comes back to us because this Universe is electro-magnetic in nature. Our thoughts, words, emotions and actions emit electrical vibrations (or energy) that are magnets for all energy that is on the same frequency or wavelength - this is the principle of "like attracts like".

The essence of Karma is really very simple: what you sow, you shall reap - or whatever seeds you plant in the garden of your life is what you will grow, cultivate and experience. Your thoughts, words, emotions and actions plant energetic seeds every moment of every day, so you are constantly creating karma. As we have discussed in previous columns, the more positive energy you put out into the Universe, the more positive energy you will draw to you and experience - the same is also true for negative energies in the form of negative thoughts, words, emotions and actions.

If one were to always have positive thoughts, words, emotions and actions, one could expect to always draw positive experiences (one who is truly positive would see all experiences in a positive light, even in the face of what one might judge to be a potentially negative experience). What makes this complicated is that our karma follows us from lifetime to lifetime, so some of the experiences that we attract in this lifetime originate from our thoughts, words, emotions and actions in other lifetimes. If we choose to accept all of our experiences as gifts for the growth and evolution of our soul, and see them in the most positive light, then we neutralize this karma, and break the cycle for this life and others.

The purpose of our soul's journey is for Creator to know Itself, therefore Creator fragmented Itself into "others" because it is easier to perceive another than to see oneself. These others become mirrors in which one can see oneself reflected, and thereby know oneself (if you never saw your reflection, what perception would you have of yourself?). The key is that all others are actually one and the same, therefore what we do to another, we do to our own self (and to Creator). The Law of Karma simply follows the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have done unto you" - do to others what you would have done to you, because you too, will experience it at one time or another, in one way or another, in one lifetime or another. All major religions express this Golden Rule in some form, because it is a Universal Truth.

Our soul's purpose is to grow and evolve through lifetime after lifetime, and one of the greatest ways it does this is through compassion. Compassion is the ability to care for another as oneself, to love another and feel what another is feeling, and to practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is the greatest key to karma, because it unlocks the bonds that shackle us to one another and to our chains of reaction; forgiveness is the key that sets us free from our prison of self-condemnation and eternal suffering.

When you have a negative experience that causes you to have judgments against yourself or another, or to have negative thoughts, words, emotions or actions of any kind, this creates an electrical charge of energy that holds a certain frequency and attracts all that is on the same frequency and wavelength (I am repeating this because it is essential to understand, and all too easy to ignore or deny responsibility for). If you experience something which causes you to have a negative reaction, that negative energy will continue to reverberate outwardly, until it starts to come back as a chain of reactions - the initial experience is like the pebble dropping in the pond, and the waves that emanate from it are the reaction, which eventually will come back in the form of waves.

If you choose to have a negative reaction, these waves will continue to flow for lifetimes, creating waves of negativity. The more often you react in the same way, the more frequent those waves of experience will be, until you break the cycle and drop a new pebble of thought - such as acceptance or forgiveness. If you now choose to react with peace and calm acceptance, you will return the pond of your existence to a state of peace and calm.

The more strongly you react to any situation, the stronger the energy waves are that you emit, and the more intense and longer lasting their consequences and repercussions will be. If you have had a terrible experience in a past life (which is most certainly the case for us all), and you had a very strong reaction and response to it, you may still be experiencing the waves of attracting similar situations. Whatever we do in other lifetimes follows our soul like a shadow into subsequent lifetimes until there is some form of resolution or peace.

The goal of our soul is to come to a place of total peace, joy, calm and acceptance under all circumstances (which is one of the benefits of the practice of meditation). The more you react to any situation, the more you are bound to experience waves of that energy coming back to you. If you choose to remain detached, nothing can stick to you because you are not attached to it, so it cannot attach itself to you. Maintaining a sense of humor can help a lot, because the Universe has a great sense of humor - there is humor in everything, if you are willing to see it, and humor is a great healer. Humor prevents you from taking anything too seriously (including yourself), and allows you to detach from it.

Karma is about reaction and consequence - both good or bad, which are simply judgments (what might be good to one person may be considered bad for another, so this is completely subjective). From the Universe's perspective, it is all energy, which is essentially neutral, but which attracts all that is of the same vibration. Most people are not really concerned about "good" karma, although they should be, because the more good energy you create in this lifetime, the more good and positive experiences you will have in this lifetime and potentially in the next ones. Most people want to know about their negative karma because this is what is causing them to suffer, and continue suffering until the cycle is broken.

When you have a bad experience with someone else in another lifetime, and one or both of you have a strong reaction to it, that energy bonds you together until that energy is somehow resolved. You will keep encountering each other in lifetime after lifetime, replaying all aspects of the situation until something changes and there is a different response that allows for a sense of completion and resolution. Basically, the karmic bonds that we have with another represent unfinished business with that soul, which is not allowing our souls to be at peace.

One of the ways that we may create a sense of resolution is to come back into that karmic relationship playing the opposite role - for example, if we have been an abuser in another life, we may come back and be abused by those whom we have hurt. This is not meant to satisfy some sense of divine justice or retribution, but it is so that we may develop compassion and understanding for how it feels to be hurt and abused, and to break the cycle of pain and suffering. However, karma does not always involve playing opposite roles - you may come back and keep repeating similar circumstances over and over again in the attempt to change the pattern of choices, reactions and consequences - for instance, in previous lifetimes, you may have taken spiritual vows of poverty that are now preventing you from experiencing financial abundance in this life. (In the course of a psychic reading, we can explore karmic bonds, patterns and issues that may be affecting you in this lifetime.)

Those with whom you have karmic bonds are not necessarily more important than other people in your life, but you will feel a strong emotional charge with them, perhaps even a great fear or aversion. Karmic bonds may take priority for you because they are keeping you from enjoying peace in your life and freedom of choice regarding incarnation, so your soul may desire to seek every opportunity for healing and completion. In the process of seeking resolution, you may play all kinds of roles for each other: parents, siblings, family members, teachers, spouses, in-laws, lovers, partners, bosses, children, neighbors, enemies, etc. You will keep drawing them into your life to play out the same circumstances that created the waves of energy that bonded you together in the first place, until something changes and breaks the bond. As you can imagine, this can be very painful and uncomfortable, time and time again.

What makes this really difficult and challenging is that we often come into a family in which we have karmic bonds with one or more members of the family. This is fine if we saved our brother's life in a previous lifetime and he pledged eternal gratitude, but it can be really painful if the man who is now our father was once our sworn enemy, or the person we are married to once owned us as a slave and now wants to control our every move. These types of energies will play out over and over again, where you may not feel like you belong with your family, and you don't feel safe with those you are supposed to love and who are supposed to love you.

The reason that these patterns keep replaying over and over again is because they are unresolved - the waves of energy keep reverberating from our reactions until our reactions change. This is why forgiveness and acceptance are so important. Forgiveness breaks the chains that bind you to each other, and breaks the chain of reactions that keep coming in waves over and over again (I can address the steps necessary for true forgiveness and completion in another column). Acceptance allows you to have peace that stills the pond - unconditional acceptance does not make waves, but keeps everything calm and at peace.

It is important to remember that you are constantly creating positive or negative karma with all your thoughts, words, emotions and actions in every moment - and you will experience the positive and negative consequences of your karma in this life and the next. The stronger your actions and reactions are, the more energy you are putting out into the Universe, and the more you will draw waves of experience to you that is on that same frequency, including people who are on that same wavelength. The more you choose peace, joy and acceptance as your reactions and responses, the more you will draw experiences of peace and joy to you, in this lifetime and the next.

When a soul completes its karma with all other souls, and has experienced self-acceptance and self-forgiveness, then that soul is free from the wheel of incarnation, because it is our karmic bonds that cause us to keep coming back in order to seek peace, resolution, compassion and forgiveness. Once a soul is free of karma, then that soul may still choose to come into Earthly incarnation as a teacher and avatar, but all Earthly experience involves the risk of incurring further Karma, unless one remains detached, at peace and in joy.

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