Karma Consideration

It’s time to talk about karma. Because, let’s be honest, you can’t have a blog titled “Finding Zen” and not talk about karma. Despite the fact that there is really no evidence for a metaphysical belief in karma, the conviction is pretty widespread in our culture. We have cast it as a sort of luck associated with virtue: if one does good, one deserves and can expect good luck; and conversely if one does harm, one can expect bad luck or unfortunate happenings.

I’m not really sure how I feel about the idea that the beneficial or harmful effects I have on the world will return to me. I take that back. Of course I feel good about it; I put a heck of a lot of good out into the world. I guess I’m just not sure how much validity there is in the whole “what goes around comes around” notion. Most of the time I think this concept just ends up inducing guilt and taunting us to bend down and pick up the gum wrapper we threw that didn’t quite make it into the trash. Or convince ourselves that our not-so-nice (actually really awful) but very attractive acquaintance who doesn’t have to work and spends her days getting manicures and lunching and who somehow bagged a really fantastic (and wealthy) spouse and what seems like the perfect life will eventually - and inevitably - be plagued with boils and find herself desolate and alone with only her stony heart to keep her warm at night….. or whatever.

On the other hand, it’s hard to believe that there isn’t some cosmic tally sheet gauging our ups and downs. It does feel like there is an ordered rhythm to our days. Life seems to unfold in waves of darkness into light, over and over again. Pockets of sorrow bloom into joy, dip back into sadness and then again come into light. It is an endless dance, the yin and the yang, the ebb and flow of a universe that cradles our spirit, embracing it for a time, and then lets it go. Caught in the middle of this beautiful masterpiece we stand. We can’t possible understand the mechanics of it all. We cannot know how or why, not really.

I suppose it’s human nature to want to understand the reason we are handed what we are handed in this life. We like to rationalize, categorize, justify, analyze. I was demoted at work; what did I put out there that brought this into my life? I lost someone close to me; why? Our minds need to work it out. But I think that in the noise of our chattering minds we’re missing the point. When we’re faced with a challenge, it’s not about the “why,” it’s about the “what” we do with it and the “where” we go from here.

Whatever the challenge, whatever cards we are dealt, we often find ourselves at a crossroad. And there is always a choice: to enter the burning building or not, to speak the truth or not, to stand before ourselves without illusion or not. That’s what it’s about. It’s about what’s underneath the challenge; there is always an invitation to live authentically, to shine, to take one step closer to our truth, that brilliant blue pearl floating in the space between the space of our spirit, singing our heart song.

We are often called further into experience than we’d like to go. Why? Because what goes around finally comes around? Who knows. It doesn’t matter. Here we stand. In the middle of life's tempest with an invitation and a choice.  No explanation, no thing, no one can tell us when to leap. There is no authority to bless our decision. There’s no law that dictates how it will unfold. We can’t look to luck or science or even karma. It’s in our hands... whispered to us from the God within.