How to Free Yourself From Karma

 

These days, we love to bandy about the term ‘karma’.

It was his ‘karma’, we say.

It must've been my ‘karma’, we say.

He’s going to get his ‘karma’, we say.

 

But what is karma really?

 

And is it a moral thing?

 

Simply put, we could define ‘karma’ as cause and effect.

 

So it is more ‘scientific’ than moral. Hit one billiard ball into another on an even table and, knowing the angles, you can calculate where the second one will go.

 

Karma is just like that.

 

Of course, in the everyday world, you’ve got thousands of variables, so doing the calculations isn’t simple, but even if we always see karmic logic as though through a mist, it’s nonetheless there.

 

Shout angrily at someone, and you’ll typically provoke a reaction. Open your heart to another person, and you’ll encourage a different one. The exact nature of these reactions mightn’t be easy to predict, but energetic forces have been unleashed, and inevitably, they will have an effect.

 

Of course, this is all simple enough. But we can go deeper.

 

For instance, what caused us to shout in the first place? What caused us to open our heart?

 

And if everything is causal, do we have free will?

 

Or will karma inevitably enslave us to our past?

 

Are We Marionettes in the Hands of Past Energetic Forces?

 

To better understand karma, let's take a simple example. Imagine you're a pack-a-day smoker who hasn’t had a cigarette for several hours.

 

You feel the craving, the nervous tension, and everything within you aches for a smoke.

 

Now, you could ignore the feelings. You could go for a run or read a book or do any number of things, but truth is, you’re being energetically nudged to act in a certain way, and chances are high you'll give into this temptation and smoke a cigarette.

 

Similarly, with habitual actions. If you always get up and brush your teeth first thing, most likely when your alarm goes off the next day, you’ll do the same.

 

Nothing outrageous here, but it gets a touch more interesting when it comes to our emotions. For here, our past also tends to nudge us in certain directions.

 

For instance, if your partner leaves their socks lying around the bedroom even after you’ve asked them countless times to put them in the laundry basket – even after you’ve gotten upset in the past – then most likely it’s going to bug you.

 

What’s more, it’s going to bug you a lot more than the first time they did it.

 

Because this time, it isn’t simply one pair of socks. Rather, it is the accumulated memory of dozens – or maybe even hundreds – of socks irritating you.

 

It’s a pile of socks. A mountain of them. And their collective weight is something you are not going to tolerate!

 

No, they urge you to give your partner a piece of your mind, to tell them straight what you think of their slovenly habits.

 

Now, admittedly, you might choose to stay calm and constructive, but if you’ve gotten upset each time they have left their socks lying about before, then you’ll probably get upset again this time.

 

And in many ways, that is what karma is: it’s past energetic forces creating a heightened probability that something is going to happen.

 

It is past energetic forces pushing you to act in a certain way, forces that are hard to resist.

 

Energetic Residue

 

To be even more precise, karma (at least where it involves our personal thoughts and actions) could be seen as the influence of past energetic residue stored in our body (energy field) that pushes us to think and act in certain ways and prods us towards certain emotional states.

 

Buddhists had a word for these energetic forces stuck in our body: samskaras.

 

And the more of them that we have, the less free we will be.

 

Each one will nudge us in a certain direction until our freedom is bit by bit reeled in.

 

Samskaras create emotions within us.

 

These emotions lead to thoughts.

 

And those thoughts then urge us on to actions that reflect them.

 

What’s interesting is that if we pay attention, we can actually feel this energetic residue in our body.

 

Typically, we experience it as a kind of tension –  one that can be felt in particular parts of our body (for instance, our chest, throat, or solar plexus).

 

And it is our attempt to ease this tension that makes us want to lash out at our partner over the socks and smoke the cigarette.

 

Of course, we could resist these temptations, but when the tension builds inside of us, it isn’t easy.

 

We want to release it, and taking action almost always seems the best way.

 

The Path to Freedom

 

So the way out of this karmic bind – as you may already have guessed – is to remove the energetic residue (samskaras) left in our energy body.

 

For the energetic residue left in us is what you might call our ‘buttons’.

 

And when those buttons get pushed, we feel a surge of emotion that clouds the way we see the present and urges us to action.

 

Action that often isn’t in our best interests.

 

But if we remove those buttons, then we don’t get the emotions and, consequently, are free to choose our actions.

 

This sounds nice in theory, but the question remains: how do we get rid of ‘energetic residue’?

 

For many years, I presumed Reiki would do the trick.

 

With all of the energy I could feel pouring into my body when I practised it, and with all the good I could feel it doing me, it was hard to imagine that it couldn’t fix everything!

 

But what I learned over the years is that while it was incredible for general things, very specific ‘hurts’ (like relationship scars, social humiliations, etc.) didn’t necessarily clear away.

 

Yes, my increased Reiki-calm-and-balance might hide them, but when the right trigger arose, my buttons still got pushed – buttons that spurred me to react in certain ways.

 

Now, admittedly, I’m talking about the ‘healing with the hands’ component of Reiki, and the complete system does have things like the ‘precept meditations’ that can clear energetic residue.

 

But even so, those meditations don’t tend to be ‘targeted’ at specific events from your past.

 

So if you want to work on the time someone you loved belittled you in public, the time your parents denied you love, or how your ex-husband emotionally abused you over a period of years, then you’ll want a new tool. One that specializes in clearing out the energetic residue left by specific events.

 

And what I have discovered is that the best tools for this are usually meditations.

 

Specific meditations that can act like surgical tools to remove energetic residue and leave you feeling light and clear.

 

For energetic residue won’t magically disappear by itself.

 

Time – despite the saying – doesn’t heal everything.

 

In fact, typically, it doesn’t heal a brass razoo.

 

All it does is bury stuff.

 

And yes, it can bury stuff so deep that it feels as if it no longer exists, but find the right trigger (be it a look from a new partner, an old pop song, a fragrance, a word, or whatever) and you’ll feel a surge of emotion and realize you had never truly healed from your old hurt.

 

Of course, the consequence of this is that over the course of your life, you will probably have stored up a near-endless amount of energetic residue.

 

But the good news is that you can apply the Pareto Principle (or 80/20 rule) to get rid of it.

 

In other words ­– according to this principle – 20% of issues from your past will contain 80% of the energetic residue.

 

And, actually, in my experience, it is probably more like 90/10 or more. So if you work on the big issues, the juicy hurts and unresolved emotions from the past, then you’ll clear out and dissolve most of the energetic residue that triggers you.

 

Make a List

 

If you want to free yourself from your past, I suggest (as a first step) making a list of all of the past incidents you can think of that have left some energetic residue.

 

These are the events which, when you think about them, cause an emotional reaction in you.

 

Typically, you’ll experience this as an energetic contraction/tightening within your body.

 

Look especially for relationship issues, for a lot of energetic residue stems from them.

 

Then, once you have a list of items, meditate on each one to dissolve the energetic residue.

 

If the process is successful, you should be able to think back on any incidents you’ve meditated on and find that you feel emotionally neutral about them.

 

This is a sign that the emotional residue has been removed/dissolved, and it means that this piece of your past will no longer propel you to think and act in certain ways.

 

Keep working with this process, keep dissolving the items on your ‘energetic residue list’, and bit by bit, you’ll regain your freedom.

 

You’ll dissolve your karma and step into a liberated world where the baggage of your past no longer determines what you feel, think, and do.

 

 ***

 

PS Hopefully, you have some meditation tools for dissolving past energetic residue. But if you don’t have any or would like to learn more, consider joining me for my Redesigning Your Energy Body meditation course on March 22-23.

 

Over the weekend, I’ll teach you powerful techniques for clearing energetic residue fast!

 

I’ve used them for two and a half decades, taught them to hundreds of students, and am, even today, amazed at how powerful they are.

 

To find out more, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fear, Belief-Viruses and the Truth Within

One of the things I like most about the Usui Reiki system is that you don’t need to believe in anything to practise it. Reiki’s success resides entirely on the experience it gives practitioners, and it has survived for almost one hundred years not because it convinces people to believe in anything, but because it affords them a rich experience. Because it heals. Because it enhances joy. Because it helps make people whole.  Like all great spiritual systems, it helps you find the ‘truth’ within, the truth beyond belief systems. This is a critical point, because while belief systems can point us in certain directions, that is all they can ever truly do. They are maps that encourage us to explore certain places, but the maps – as they say in Zen – are not the territory. To know what the territory is like, we can’t rely on descriptions handed to us by others. We need to experience it for ourselves. Only then can we determine whether it is a place we would like to spend more time in or not. The same, naturally, can be said for books, teachers and theories. Indeed, no matter how beautiful they may sound, no matter how eloquent or logically compelling they may seem, we should always use our inner compass to validate them. We should check in with our soul, with our intuition, to see whether what they teach truly resonates. The thing to bear in mind is that humans are not particularly rational. More often than not, our beliefs are simply used to bolster and support our emotional states of being. That is why when we are sad, depressed or afraid, it is so easy to believe things that if we were balanced, healthy and confident within ourselves, we would laugh at. Just like when we are physically or emotionally run-down and catch a cold or flu, when we are physically or emotionally run-down, we are more susceptible tobelief-viruses – viruses that can take over our mental 'operating system'.  When this happens, even smart and loving people can begin to think and act irrationally. As emotional creatures first and foremost, if a belief brings us comfort, we will have a strong desire to champion it, even when it is ridiculous, divisive, dangerous, or worse. But such beliefs never provide true comfort. Instead, they are like a Band-Aid, like alcohol or other drugs. For a short time, they can give us comfort. But ultimately they will not sustain us, because true comfort must come from within, and it must come from something deeper that simply a mental construct or belief. The Fear Virus So why am I talking about this now?  Well faced with a pandemic, faced with what we might call a fear-crisis, faced with fragile emotions, we can all too easily become intellectually vulnerable. This is a time when fundamentalism can easily grow teeth. This is a time when simplistic black and white truths can seem so seductive. This is a time when we so often want to find the one and only truth. Unfortunately, it is this kind of fundamentalism that gives rise to suicide bombers, to the Inquisition, to the Crusades, to world wars and genocides. Of course, fundamentalism comes in many flavours, many of which I know little about, but I have some experience with Christian fundamentalism, and of late I have met more than a few healers who have turned their backs on Reiki because they have ‘found Christ’, because they have been ‘born again’. Now I have nothing against being ‘born again’. In fact, I think we should continually strive to reinvent ourselves. But for me, being born again needs to be the result of a personal experience of something (in this context, the Divine). Think of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus for an example of this. His experience of God in this moment was so profound, it overrode everything he believed. It was so profound that he went from persecuting the Christians to championing them. (He even changed his name from Saul to Paul!). Unfortunately, many people who claim to be ‘born again’ have not undergone this deeply personal experience. Rather, they have let themselves be seduced by a belief system that they can’t truly justify – a belief system that in the depths of their hearts they cannot honestly believe in. And in many cases, they can’t believe in their new beliefs because they don’t make sense. In fact, their new beliefs run contrary to what they know deep in their heart to be true. God is joy. God is love. God is peace. God is acceptance. This is what they know, and yet their new beliefs are judgemental. Their new beliefs cause their hearts to close to people or practices that don’t align with theirs. Their new beliefs typically even condemn these people to eternal damnation. And yet where Christianity is concerned, Christ was an exemplar of acceptance. He spent much of his time with the very people (tax collectors, prostitutes, etc.), that society shunned. He believed in the Christ nature of everyone. He also believed that a person’s virtue resided in the feelings in their heart, not in the rules/belief system they followed. That is why he healed on the Sabbath. That is why he overturned the tables in the temple. That is why he was constantly at odds with the religious authorities of his day. They were too often all rules and no heart, but it was heart that he looked for. So to say someone will only get to ‘heaven’ through Christ the person – and not the Christ Spirit – goes against everything he taught. What about all the people who came before him? Were they all condemned? Of course, having chatted to enough fundamentalists over the years, they do have complex justifications for all of this. The rules were different before Christ, etc., but look in your heart and it will be clear that a good person is a good person regardless of their religious affiliation. The saint in the Amazon Forest doesn’t go to hell just because he doesn’t believe in Christ (and yes, many people do argue for this!). Of course, if it sounds ludicrous to condemns saints to hell, then why are good, smart people ready to do it? Well, as I said at the start of this article, we are first and foremost emotional creatures. So if a belief system or community can feed our emotional longings, then we will often be ready to throw good sense out the window. And where fundamentalists groups are concerned, they typically do offer a lot of emotional support. They give you a community. They give you a sense of belonging. They give you both emotional and intellectual security (you have found the truth and can now relax!). That is why in moments of upheaval, in times like these when fear is so prevalent around the globe, we are particularly vulnerable to these groups and their beliefs. Finding the Truth Within Christ (Matthew 7:15-20 New King James Version) said:  15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” If we accept that the logic of ‘false prophets’ also holds for belief systems, then we will know the value of such belief systems by the fruit they bear. We will feel their truth within us. If they bring us more joy, if they bring us more love, if they bring us more light within our lives, then these belief systems are beautiful ‘trees’. But if they cause us to fear. If they cause us to judge and close our hearts to others, then that too is an indication of the type of ‘tree’ they are. So in these unique times of upheaval, there is no need to look to external sources for a definition of right and wrong. We simply need to look within. Because when we find our centre, we don’t need to ‘believe’ in anything. We will simply know the truth – the truth of that moment. And if our logical mind questions whether what we have found is the truth, then remember that our inner emotional state will not lie. The truth will not just set us free, it will bring us happiness and joy. But if what we believe doesn’t lead to such things, then we must keep looking, for the truth lies elsewhere. (Article Copyright, Jeremy O'Carroll 2020) To find out more about Jeremy O'Carroll's Reiki courses, visit the Om Reiki Centre website. Or to catch up with his daily reflection, visit the Om Reiki Centre Facebook page.