Prisoners of Karma

How is karma felt in our life? It is usual to think that karma imposes a restriction on something (puts us in a choiceless situation, doesn’t allow us to manifest our wishes, makes us sick, takes away someone we love, robs us, gets us fired, misguides us, pushes us into a traffic accident, etc.)

Ok, karma really does that, but those things are the least it does! The least. A bauble. A small something you can easily deal with.

A truly free man or woman would not lose much time on that. He or she would accept it (sometimes with gratitude) or do something to get rid of it (with ease – for example, it will practice some preventive actions if familiar with jyotish and the time map ahead). But, all in all, such a material manifestation of bad karma is not really a problem. If karma would manifest only like that, the vicious cycle would end very soon. You would work it out, finish with it in no time, and live freely ever after.

Unfortunately, karma is much more malignant than that. Karma is hidden in the place you are considering your own – deep behind your thoughts and desires.

The majority of today’s spiritual teachings are in deep denial of that fact. They run away from it, taking refuge in fulfilling our desires, manifesting our thoughts and intentions. Because thoughts are ours, aren’t they? We feel them like ours; they are formed in our own mind, don’t they?

The true spiritual awakening will only begin when you put a question mark on all of that; when you ask yourself: “Are my thoughts really mine? Or am I just programmed by karma to think them as such?

I would like that you ask yourself that question many times during this weekend. And later, too. Many times means as often as you have a certain desire. Please, be careful: I’m not talking about the answer – just about the question, that is asked persistently, firmly and with inner passion. In just a few days, that question can take you further up the spiritual path, towards the real freedom and the real awakening, then many years of so-called “spiritual work” so popular nowadays (in most cases, those things are leading you to the opposite direction of freedom, anyway).

These photos are from the second evening of the retreat seminar “The Freedom”, Novi Vinodolski, Croatia, May 2015.