Changing Default Karma: Morality vs. Magic

Q: I've heard a story concerning a very high lama whose wife prevented him from being in very serious car accident by smashing up the kitchen pots and pans (the smashing together of the pans substituted or fulfilled the karma for car metal smashing together). 'Can karma be eliminated by magic or physical intervention?'

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A: That's such an interesting story about the smashing of pots and pans. IMO what you're describing is an act of "sympathetic magic". Westerners wouldn't normally think in magical terms. The lama and his wife however probably do think in magical terms. That couple would accept image-matching-intervention as a compelling explanation of why the lama didn't get smashed up in a car wreck.

All sorts of systems work via sympathetic pairing of "matching energies. For example, homeopathic medicine and children selecting their parents! But IMO what you are describing is magic (working with matching images) and this simple tit-for-tat reasoning does not address the deeper level of karma.

(In the Christian tradition see, Matthew 5:17-19 , 1 Corinthians 8:9-13., many more for commercial-material vs. spiritual-ethical interpretations of Karmic Law.)

My own view is that human karma is not primarily a physical law of action-reaction, but it is primarily a moral law of action-reaction. Thus the time-honored rule of Karma can be phrased as "Do unto others as you would have done unto you." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethic_of_reciprocity

That is, it is a Law of Intent.

The purpose of the great karmic machine is to transform ignorance into wisdom. If smashing up pots did effectively eliminate karma, what wisdom would be gained? Very little, except learning to pay more attention to prescient dreams and acting on them in an image-matching fashion.
I'm a big fan of skillful magic but karma is much more serious and important than magic!

"Karma" is primarily a moral system

IMO karma is primarily a moral system, and the greatest of all the great privileges of a human birth is that humans are social animals but with individual souls. Animals and lower life forms have group souls, but humans have individual souls which means that every one of us must make his own choices.

Ignorance of the true value of life causes people to mistreat others. The actions which cause payback-reactions range from the severest ignorance of killing other people to lesser moral errors such as stealing to milder errors such as manipulation and deceit.

Signal and Counter-Signal

In every case, the culprit behind immoral action is the reptile brain. This old part of the human brain constantly signals each individual to survive at any cost, "whatever it takes". The reptile brain is constantly telling us to optimize personal survival. As a counter-signal, the human moral community with its religious traditions is constantly trying to get its members to treat each other with compassion and respect as the best path toward increasing the value of life.

It's a battle! But slowly, surely, the moral intelligence grows, and the native comes to choose the higher path. I personally think this is mainly a battle of the brain regions! Enlightenment actually occurs in the pathways of the brain, when we open up higher consciousness.

People moving forward into the higher paths quickly discover that during those previous lifetimes and lower moments in the current lifetime, many reptile-brain-mandated errors have occurred.

We have mistreated others intentionally or not. The record of that mistreatment of life is permanently stored in pranic form (the "Akashic Record"). The record states what happened and what has to be done to correct it.

Purpose of Karmic 'Taxation'

Now the purpose of correcting karma isn't just to satisfy some robot tax-collector of the Akashic Record. It's to help the enlightenment-bound person to "unburden" some of those old accruals and open up those brain pathways and increase their moral and spiritual awareness.

Some people can perceive the connection between their current events and their past events by this-for-that commercial logic. This type of believer interprets Karma entirely within the operations of human law. Karma is, in some ways, a very simple tit-for-tat exchange system. (That's why the simplistic magical approach can be valid for some believers.)

This level of believer is quite satisfied with the eye-for-an-eye type of justice, whether one is the criminal or the victim. This type of believer looks no deeper for explanations. That is fine until some massive injustice, which can't be handled in human law systems (e.g., genocides) has to be explained. At that point, the explanation of karma has to go deeper, into the realm of moral intelligence and the differences between human law and divine law.

However, most people are so driven by their survival anxiety that they don't think about any type of karma, human law or divine law, until those final 60 seconds before death, when all the connections roll out like a movie right before your eyes and its OMG I wish I had done things differently! At that extreme moment of death, it may become suddently clear how much future-life work one has created for oneself through lying, cheating, stealing, exploiting etc. in the current lifetime.

And some people don't appreciate that every action in the current life sets up the conditions for the subsequent life, until they're clear into the astral plane. Then, forewarned and fore-armed (or so it seems) they set a new agenda for a new lifetime knowing exactly what they're signing up for in terms of payback. One cheerfully accepts the privilege of a rebirth explicitly for the purpose of correcting that karmic backlog. Then one is reborn and promptly forgets the astral promise to fix those errors cheerfully and with gratitude. One slips again into a life of misery, resentment, and "why me?" self-pity.

Oy.

Karma: mechanical or moral?

I believe that while karma is indeed a mechanical system of action-reaction, the actions that karmic reaction is correcting are moral errors.

The purpose of the karmic system on Earth is to transform the destructive ignorance of the value of life - which is embedded in our animal bodies -- into the divine wisdom which recognizes the supreme value of all life (but especially human life!) The final result of a karmic error-correction payback must be the transformation of ignorance into wisdom.

This tranformation cannot be accomplished by magic. It must be accomplished with higher, reflective, rational, moral awareness.

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Hope this viewpoint is useful in furthering a very interesting discussion about tantra, magic, psychic imagery, and transference of subconscious instructions from one form to another form. IMO the magical processes involved are entirely valid, but a deeper conscious moral engagement with the concept of "necessity" (why does the native believe that such a thing "must" happen) should be in place before karma, or "reactivity" is fully released.

Sincerely,

Barbara Pijan Lama, Jyotisha
http://www.barbarapijan.com/

Changing Default Karma: The Big Secret

Question:

Respected Madam, Namaskar.

After reading all the knowledge of your writings, I have observed very closely that you have focused much in changing how one thinks and acts to shape the destiny. The planetary arrangements in charts and D-charts are stored events and thoughts meant to be fixed in lifetime.

My question is

how can one change his/her destiny by mere changing one's thoughts? For example, how is it possible for one to achieve materialistic gains by one's thoughts? Is it simply psychological approach of healing or one's thoughts changes planetary effects also?

Shri Deepak Chopra follows such approach, through Ayurveda. Several learned astrolgers, have focused similarly in changing the thoughts and behaviour patterns in improving one's destiny.

Best Regards, Jai Ganesha.

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Yes that is the big "secret".

Stored thoughts will act on their own programming through the motive force (momentum) of Karma. However human beings in partnership with the Divine are hugely blessed with the power to directly change the content of our thoughts.

Changing the thoughts, which are essentially the "program code" which directs the scripted narrative of the incarnation, can result in changed material experience.

Obstacles to changing one's Jyotisha destiny: doubt and negative attachment

There are two obstacles to changing the thoughts. The first is lack of faith ( = doubt), the second is ego attachment to the victim experience. Most people find, after working seriously upon the task of changing one or two life-definitive expectations, that it is quite difficult to change only one thought, because all of one's thoughts are subtly interconnected.

However, there is still much benefit to be gained not so much by completely eradicating a seed-thought (bija) but by increasing the virtuous qualities of the thought.

E.g., one can transform the poverty and slavery qualities of a severely oppressed Shani condition in the Jyotisha chart, into a lifetime of spiritual service with exceptional spiritual rewards (see the Jyotisha nativity of Mother Teresa of Kolkata, esp her awful karma of neechcha Shani + Chandra in Ari bhava).

Huge changes usually not needed

Most people find that, with some minor adjustments, the incarnation as originally configured is really OK. After eliminating guilt, grief, and the negative vibes or projected opinions of other people who are stuck in their own bitter negativity, most normal people truly do like themselves and their life situation, and most of the "default" thoughts are found to be really quite fine.

Unless one is a massively miserable fountain of vicious negativity (very rare), it's generally OK to let 90% of one's thoughts run on the default program.

Other People's Negativity - Housecleaning!

A large proportion of one's own perceived negative attachment is not deep attachment at all. It is one's hospitable willingness to host the projected negativities of others - such as, one's mother's unexpressed anger, one's father grief at a failed career, or some other business which is rather 'hitchhiking' on one's own psyche.

Unwanted Guests

After these unwanted psychic guests are cleared out, one can attend to one's own authentic programming - and that is serious work - but the amount of one's own authentic work is usually much smaller than originally felt when one was mixing up the projected toxicity of others that one has graciously agreed to "carry" with one's own true karma.

The task of improving the remaining 10% is quite demanding however, since the core "problems" tend to be rooted in negative expectations to which the ego is deeply attached. To release negative attachment to anger, rage, blaming, anxiety, guilt, etc. is to threaten the ego structure.

Avoid "becoming unglued"

To preserve basic social functionality, it is not a good idea to de-stabilized the ego structure, unless one has first established a supporting partnership with the Divine. Avowed Partnership with Divine means undertaking a profound and unshakable commitment to live in a state of faith. This partnership which provides a new, replacement "glue" of faith is essential to health during the ego-transformative process.

When the ego starts to crack up and break down as the "glue" of negative attachment starts to weaken, the native then can inject a substitute glue into the cracks and continue to function socially in the world of human law, surrounded by fear-driven people, and still continue working and communicating without "becoming unglued".

So the good news is that all negative attachment, including but not limited to the negativities seen in the Jyotisha charts, can be resolved by directly altering the thoughts which produce the material downstream. The bad news is that no one can do this work alone without risk of catastrophic ego breakdown.

Sangha

The best support is individual faith in the divine, and a strongly recommended additional level of support is the 'sangha' or community of the faithful, who can step in to help the native when one is enduring an identity loss caused by release of negative thoughts.

Most of the great religions have systems in place to reinforce individual faith while also keeping individuals of a spiritual nature in touch with each other, so that everyone stays mentally healthy.

"The Power of Your Subconscious Mind"

The best book I can recommend in practical modern English which describes in clear and plain language just exactly how to release negative expectations and replace these seed-thoughts with positive faith (I.e., how to create miracles) is "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" by Joseph Murphy, Ph.D. (1966).

I very much recommend this book. In the US it sells for about $6 and many public libraries have a well-read copy. If you can find a copy of this book, you will own the basic instructions for creating precisely the life you want.

Why is something so simple such a "big secret"?

Be forewarned -- that this information is "secret" not because it is forbidden, but because so few people can understand it. It is extremely simple, and yet our material-survival-scarcity-fear programming which is based the reptile brain is so powerful that most folks simply cannot accept that simple faith in the divine could possibly solve even small problems, let alone the larger, "high-stakes" problems of life.

Yet, for those who are ready to hear the message (perhaps because they have tried the common human methods of hard work, anger, and guilt -- and failed), this is the big "secret".

Change the source, change the downstream

Deepak Chopra M.D., B.V. Raman Jyotishi, most reflective physicians, astrologers, true priests, mystical philosophers, will all recommend the method of changing the originating thoughts in order to change the downstream material experience.

As Trulshig Rinpoche says, That's the way it works!

All the best,

Barbara Pijan Lama, Jyotisha

www.barbarapijan.com

Changing Default Karma: Intuition vs. Negative Programming

Question:

Respected Madam, Namaskar.

I wish to understand this confusion. What is the difference btw negative thoughts and intuition,because intuition can be both negative and positive. Since I have strong Siddhamsha [D-24] lagna with four strong planets and in Vimshamsha [D-20] exalted lagna lord Moon. I have strong instincts and possibly intutive mind.

My Question

Due to extreme negative thoughts of Shani in Lagna, I fail to understand when the intuition is acting or the negative believes of Shani happening. I can encourage others with strong positive inspiration boosting, but ironically I fail with myself. Why such a mental programming is there?

Best Regards, Jai Ganesha.

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That is a very good question!

"Intuition" in English = "inner teacher". The inner teachings are authentic to the native. The inner teacher is the local voice of the Universal teacher. (As above, so below.) The voice of the inner teacher is always positive, always loving, always encouraging, always supportive and spiritually validating, always confident in the power of faith, always true and sweet. The character of intuition is entirely reliable and provides true guidance at all times.

The voice of intuition is always positive.

However your point about intuition being both negative and positive might refer to the content of intuition, where the actual instructions which emit from the inner teach might sound negative sometimes.

There can be for example a powerful positive signal from the intuition telling the native to leave a situation because it is harmful, to resist entering a building because of some danger there, or some other non-positive action. One who is accustomed to hearing the voice of intuition would probably not interpret this type of instruction as negative, because the voice itself is loving, caring, and accurate.

When the conscious mind does not detect psychic information that is implicit in a scenario, often the intuition will add more non-rational detail.

The classic example is "mothers intuition" for a child. Most mothers can "feel" their child's well-being even if the child is hundreds of miles away. A mother will know if the child needs help. Knowing that "my child needs help, my child is in trouble" might be perceived as a negative intuition. But really it is intuition *of* negativity in the intimate psychic environment. Intuition cannot be inherently negative, but intuition give directions, by telling the native that someone needs help.

Negative intuition?

In reality what seems like "negative intuition" is simply picking up the signal of someone else's fear (the child's in this case) and the native (mother) is moved by compassion to enter that child's fear space and skillfully help the child. Similar when the intuition picks up negative signals from others in the family, workmates, or even from a big group setting. That's intuition giving a knowledge of what others are feeling. It is not intuition causing one to feel reactive or negative oneself.

There may be fear and danger lurking in the environment. When the intuition picks up those psychic signals (perhaps even coming from the mind of a criminal) that does not mean that the native is living in fear or is the victim of negative programming. It means that their psychic radar is sensitive to imagery present in the environment.

Need for interpretive skill!

The good news about intuition is that it is always true. A compassionate person can use intuition to say or do just the right thing at the right time, and thereby have a much more fulfilling life.

The bad news about intuition, if you could really even call this bad news, is that after one receives intuitive information, one may feel compelled to act upon it. And if one does not have a high skill level for choosing right actions, strong intuition can create a "busybody" or someone who is always trying to help but in reality is a rather disruptive or socially clumsy person.

However IMO the downside of empowered intuition is very small, and any possible troubles that it causes can be hugely improved by just a little bit of training in discrimination and choice-making. The consequences of not having access to intuition are much more troublesome.

Negative programming

Negative programming is exactly as you note. Negative, destructive, rooted in fear. The voice of negative programming is by character criticizing, blaming, fearful, hateful, materialistic, doubtful (doubt is the greatest enemy of truth!) and bitter.

The core reality of negative programming is that it is not authentic. Negative programming is "outside stuff" which is not a genuine living component of one's true nature.

Karmic luggage

The good news is that negative programming is only karmic "luggage". Negative programming is not nourishing. We don't need it to live. It is not life-giving and not intrinsic to life. That is a good thing for us humans! Negative programming is not necessary for us to live. It is a karmic accrual, like a tumor. It can be cut off, dropped, released, left behind.

The native may at any time become "enlightened" by simply dropping the load of baggage.

Liberation: Dump and Run

One may decide to stop carrying the burden of other people's anger, fear, grief, guilt, resentment, bitterness, materialism, doubt, frustration, and blaming. This possibility exists in every and any moment of time.

Any human can realize that one is dragging around a huge bag of outdated junk, or pulling a cart full of manure, or pushing a massive stone up a hill (Sisyphus). There is always the "secret" option to just "dump and run".

Fear of weightlessness

Usually people get deeply identified, socially and psychologically, with their "suitcase" full of problems. The average person is actually scared to let go of the weight. Imagining the prospect of absolute freedom, and physically to live with that weightless feeling which might ensue after losing that big boat-anchor of the grounding baggage -- that weightlessness scares people to death!

The Slow and Careful Path to Unburdenment

As a result, few humans will do a radical release of the whole heavy pile of luggage all on one day. Those with a bit of consciousness might feel more safe to release one's bondage more slowly. These folks are on a path of 'slow and careful'.

They prefer to take a complete inventory of all the negative thoughts that are in the suitcase before even starting to release the weight. They write psychological books about the delicate distinctions between different varieties of fear and resistance. They develop detailed instructions for how to disengage from one stored-and-carried item at a time.

They like to catalog all their memories and the complexities of the fearful human relationships which bind one to earth (Jyotishi have the karma of doing this job...) before undertaking the single moment of total release. (Naturally Budha the list-maker and Shani the weight-carrier are good friends!)

The slow path is ... Slow.

The problem with the slow method is of course that it may require numerous lifetimes to catalog the entire inventory of accumulated memories and all the reactions to those memories. Naturally it is easier to just dump the whole suitcase and run!

The trick: living free of negativity compulsion, living with respect for negativity!

The trick for living successfully without personal bondage to negativity (or with reduced negativity, if one wants to keep some of it for "ballast") is to learn RESPECT for the negative programming of others.

Shani requires respect.

The physical body is part of the material world, the physical body's material survival need is programmed by the reptile brain on a bio-chemical level, and the physical world in general is the outcome of the combined thoughts of gazillions of beings. Much of the thought which brings the material world into being is "negative" that is, it is reactive and fearful. This must be respected.

This level of "natural" negativity that survival requires (food, clothing, shelter, social validation) is neither good nor bad. It simply "is". Survival fear is a natural part of human life. The trick is to manage it skillfully.

Living free but in the world: listen for the true voice of intuition

One will live a vastly better life through heeding the intuitive voice of God which lives in each human heart, while consciously releasing the historic negative voices which clamor loudly for attention.

One's own legacy karma in the form of reactive memories of old fears is constantly reinforced and complexified by the projected fears of those around us. Even if one is lucky enough to achieve the consciousness to learn to discriminate between the true, authentic intuitive voice versus the untrue, inauthentic voice of ignorance and fear -- even if one has earned this conscious intelligence -- it is essential to treat Other People's Projected Fears AND one's own survival programming, with the deepest respect.

Yes, intuition and negative programming are different

I hope this perspective is useful. If an inner voice seems spiritually validating, calm, and vivid - that is intuition. If an inner voice seems scared, anxious, and confused - that's negative programming. The bulk of negative programming is actually the projected fears of other people.

The good news is, it's easy to release attachment to this exhausting, heavy burden. But first, learn to distinguish the different 'voices' of the Nine Graha. Then, as St. Paul recommends, choose to follow the Voice of Life.

Sincerely,

Barbara Pijan Lama, Jyotisha
http://www.barbarapijan.com/

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