The Law of Synchronicity the sixth principles of karma

“Look within. Be still. Free from fear and

attachment, know the sweet joy

of living in the way.”

Buddha

Chapter VII

The Law of Synchronicity

I remember working very lovingly and diligently in the rice fields near the monastery, especially one particular day. I had spent the majority of my time helping the others bring the rice in shortly after the harvest. It is a lot of work bringing it in and then separating the rice from the plants after they had dried in the fields. After a wonderful swim in a nearby river I felt refreshed and sat down for the evening meal with my brothers. Late that evening, Rinpoche Kiela appeared before me and asked, “Young man, have you really looked up at the stars in the night sky since you have been here in the Himalayas?” “No, master, I have not,” my voice betraying my joy over the idea, thinking it the perfect way to relax after such a long day of work. “Come with me,” he openly invited.

As we walked out onto the roof I looked up and became instantly transfixed. “Whoa!,” I thought as I exhaled slowly in complete awe as my peripheral vision made a futile attempt to absorb what I saw, the limitless depth and expanse of a crystal clear sea of twinkling stars all around and on top of me. Billions of them! Never in my life had I seen so many. So close. “What do you see?” Kiela asked, breaking the infinite silence. I told him. Being always the teacher he asked a somewhat surprising question, “What else do you see in the reflection you are viewing in this night sky?” I answered somewhat easily, knowing now the implied meaning behind his questions, “I am witnessing a perfect flow or harmony in motion.” He smiled while I continued, “Everything is working in complete union.” He nodded and informed me, “It is time you truly learn the ideas behind the sixth principle of karma.”

I have always enjoyed the way the Masters teach in the Far East because one never knows when the lessons appear and they always used life as an example for the teachings. This style has been attempted by me in this part of the world and I have not found that it works very well. It appears that most do not understand the metaphors that are used so I have had to become a little more direct in the manner in which they are shown to the western mind set. We are very interesting in our lives and mannerisms. In an earlier chapter I had discussed how automated we are and moving people from this is not a simple thing to accomplish but it is worth it in all aspects of individual living, it is freeing and empowering. Allow me to continue.

He began with this concept, “No matter where you go in life, there are many things you will do. Some will seem very special and important to you, and some will seem very insignificant and irrelevant. You must treat them all the same. Do you remember the caterpillar?” My answer to which was yes because in that lesson no one thing was insignificant from anything else. Did you know that a vast number of people do not consider something as simple as a night sky can be such a wonderful teacher of harmony and how life can be so synchronistic? In truth it is this way in all things and it comes down to whether we agree with it or not this is the only thing that shifts harmony into disharmony. You see, the only thing separating importance and irrelevance is a judgmental mind. We tend to express a stronger commitment and perseverance towards those matters which we judge as important; on the other hand, we may very well become lackadaisical in what we do or even procrastinate from that which we judge as trivial. Rinpoche Kiela continued, “All things are important. In truth, no one thing is more important than another, and both should be treated with the same level of diligence, no matter the importance or seeming insignificance and this includes each and every human in our world along with each and every experience.”

He stated, “This is the basis of the next principle of karma, the Law of Synchronicity. All things are perfectly equal.” He went on, “All of life is like this night sky,” he pointed to the dark sky, “All of life is a perfect flow of harmony, and it does not matter whether a person agrees. In truth, life itself does not get out of harmony. Humans do.” I was actually surprised at his last words as we sat and watched in pitch black silence, allowing the blanket of stars to embrace us. From where we sat, under the expanse of the universe, what master Kiela said made sense because there was no discernable difference between any of the stars, each twinkling absolutely in harmony, equally. What a perfectly magnificent view of life in motion, each part in total acceptance with all the others while moving in perfect unison. In observing this it seemed that none of it was aware of anything else except only knowing there is not even one iota of insignificance about it. This same idea applies even when looking at a beach and all of the grains of sand as each grain is just as important as the other or else the beach would not exist. These are simple concepts flowing in harmony with each other while being impervious to everything else in life just simply being a beach or a universe even the mass of humanity.

Rinpoche Kiela softly offered, “It is time for us all to learn how to live in a very synchronistic fashion,” or living in “sangha” as the Zen traditions call it. This simply means for us to lift ourselves above the physical pulls of life, to simply look through the eyes of our divine nature. This is an aspect born right along with us and part of our makeup, to see all people as our equal in all respects no matter their system of belief. Unfortunately, we have not yet accomplished this on a world-wide scale, for synchronicity still lies dormant within the majority of us. So how do we live our life in this fashion, in total peace and harmony, when life itself is so hectic? This question just answered itself if you had read it closely. If you think life as hectic then it is so for you, a planted seed of karma along with its particular return activity. Life is hectic solely because you are interrupting it by seeing life possibly as it is not, or attempting to control it which you cannot. If you are, in fact, doing these things, then it is genuinely suggested you let go and relax, release your grip before arthritis sets in. Allow life to be exactly what it is! Simply step out of the way and learn to “allow” this is all that is required. It is realized that this is interesting to implement in this part of the world and I personally know that it is difficult to teach yet it does work.

Unlike all of nature around us and the stars above us they only operate in harmony and flow, we humans appear to hold onto the need for control, always so urgent and ever-present. We have come to believe that some one has to be in control, even if it is our self; yet, in truth, no one need be. Which world-renown philosopher, scholar, Master, Guru, or spiritual text flatly declares that some one must be in control? Call me if you know of such a person or text, and it will be shared with you that person or author is coming directly from their ego. And this is an aspect of us about which we have already discussed at length in an earlier chapter, and from which a Karmic return is guaranteed. You see, in monastic living no one is in control. Yes there is a Llama to oversee the facility, in my case Rinpoche Kiela, but he is not whom you can label as a boss. A Master, yes. Not a boss. No monk needs to be told what they need to do because they can easily see and do what requires attention in that moment, on a voluntary basis, working in union with each other without an inkling of opposition. They honor all of life and each other, recognizing every thing as awe-fully important, no matter how seemingly small it may appear, from the tiniest insect to the entire planet. To them there is only equality. And equal with you and me.

   “Yes that may seem to be easy to do in a monastery in the remote foothills of the Himalayas, away from city life, a family, with children, a job, a car, traffic, and...and...and,” you may ask me.  Placing all judgment aside, life in a monastery is not at all a walk in the park, oh no, coming from one who lived in one for many years. But living in equality, peace, and harmony is truly not all that difficult to accomplish in this part of the world either, for it all comes down to how one views the world, life, and people, more importantly them self. So…how do you see the world, life, and people? Here is the key question to ask yourself, “What is important to me, and what is unimportant?” Your answers may very clearly reveal how duality has slyly entered your life, a subject that was shared in the last chapter. All things are equal means just that. No exceptions. Yet we still do not see it that way. God, our Father, Super Mind, the Creative Principle, no matter your personal name, can not create with inequality built-in because, if it does, then this makes God an ego-based concept. Thank itself that it is not!

Feeling the item as insignificant, an ego-based human will pay no mind and easily step over sidewalk litter rather than take a slight moment to drop it in a nearby receptacle. This is truly an act considered as a compassionate move to Mother Earth and the rest of humanity. Yes, I realize this is a small gesture, but imagine everyone picking up after themselves and what they see around them, would the world become very clean? Seeing a cleaner environment, perhaps we would be less inclined to discard items out the car window. Is this an insignificant act? Is a clean world a small thing? From the eyes of equality, the Law of Synchronicity, this is our natural state of living if we but only enter this level of realization. Earlier, I related my story to you about the tiny, simple caterpillar and, if it did not have life, then neither would we. One part of creation may not survive without the other. The truth is a clean world simply requires clean people. We are not talking of physical cleanliness we are talking of our inner nature which means we should not judge negatively or even feel this way nor create a negative act. Let us all create harmonious acts and we have a world of harmony. This is cleanliness. Which begs the question are we clean? It begins with a clean mind and a clean mind is free of clutter meaning no judgments and now, karmically speaking we have a clean world. This also covers our emotions that today are filled with so many variants on life when all we might have is one emotion while the rest is also unclean. To Kiela if we clutter our selves internally as we are wont to do then the same is going to occur in the outer world and there is no way around this. Does this all seem trivial to you? If so then truly consider this principle as the thing that you may be overlooking in your own life it may be worth the journey.

   Along with equality comes the next idea that we would like to present, it is the concept of our connectedness with all things in our world. Yes it was talked of earlier in the introduction but we would now like to further this concept for you as it applies to this law. Under the Law of Synchronicity, the notion of separation perishes from all thought,   the fervent belief that we must live in struggle or chaos silently and easily slips into oblivion. Figuratively speaking, it is my hope that my repetition does not beat your horse to death; yet, I feel this requires a repeat. Every thing is connected, from the tiniest insect to the human; in fact, from a single atom to the farthest star in the farthest galaxy, for this is what Rinpoche Kiela explained to me that evening, “We are just as important as the stars in the night sky. We are the only ones in our world who have the ability to realize these stars are even there. Does any other creature realize their existence? Instead of understanding our connection to them, we have established the notion of separation from them along with all things, which is falsehood. Not only this, but we have even separated ourselves from what we term as God, our Creator.”

He continued, “No living thing is truly separate from any other, for one may not live without the other. On the other hand, you in your part of the world seem to treat everything almost as being insignificant and separate from you, except that which you individually consider and judge as most important.” If I may ask, “Is your career most important?” “Or is your family the most important to you?” “Or do you feel in your heart that the love of your life is the most important?” If your answer is yes to any one or all of these questions, I submit to you that the last principle of karma, the Law of Mirrors, is reflecting right back to you all those aspects and people of your life who are truly in control of you. Of course, it is fully understood that they are a major factor in your life; yet, to have a life of synchronicity, you must find equality in every aspect of it before life can truly flow as it is meant to. The intention for one to understand here is that you the individual are the most important idea in your life. This is not to say that you are to be arrogant or be filled with self importance it simply represents the idea that for any other thing to be important to you then it must be in you first. By so doing it actually brings things closer to you and may even give you the impression of a closer relationship to all of life. All things are special including you simply treat all things in this manner and separation melts from you.

   Have you ever stopped for awhile to purposefully and genuinely observe wildlife in their natural habitat, to watch how they operate within their environment, with life, to notice their interactions with others in their family unit and other species? It can be both a learning and amusing experience, for I have noticed a few things about them: 1) They remain constantly present, fully in the moment and know this is the only place they are able to live, 2) their marked territory is neither smaller nor larger than is simply required to satisfy their food source and family protection, only protecting it for these reasons, not because they feel superior or inferior to their neighbor, 3) besides building and maintaining their home, playfulness is a genuine and necessary part of growth, 4) they “go to work” to feed the family unit. It appears wildlife lives as we humans do, right? There exists a big difference in one aspect. They live in perfect harmony, seeming utterly unconscious of any inequality and time. They interrupt nothing; we interrupt everything. Why one must ask do we do this?

We are the only living creature with the ability to truly think independently of life, and herein lies our break from synchronous flow. It is our independence of life. Have we become too independent? While studying in the Far East, it is vividly remembered how rarely I ever knew either the day of the week or time of day simply because I rose with the sun and went to bed with it at most times. No, I did not take the sun to bed with me! You gotta love English literalism and possibly this is the issue for us as we are for the most part very literal. Only my rooftop stargazing during those brilliantly clear nights interrupted bedtime. They were well worth the small interruption if one could term it as such.

Independent thought, in and of itself, is not at all erroneous; rather, my point is, we utilize our thought, our independence, in an extremely erroneous fashion. Those in the Western culture are taught to only focus on how and what to think with their lower thought forms. Generally speaking these are more regarding the external environment and physical possessions, thus providing miniscule attention to higher, non-physical endeavors and divine thought. Herein lies the key to the proper use of our mind, being mindful as the Zen monastic traditions term it. Although our mind is one of the most amazing and powerful aspects we have, we take it all for granted still to this day. It seems that we are treating our ability to think independently as though it is an insignificant, ho-hum activity. Yet in all honestly we genuinely believe there exists absolutely no consequence to all what goes on between our ears.

From what I have personally experienced with my master teachers in the Far East, this body organ cannot, by any means, be labeled as inconsequential or be taken for granted, since I now realize the truth of the matter. It is our very own mind which shapes our lives, and we are the only creatures in this reality that are capable of accomplishing this task, shaping our lives to what ever we so choose. Do we shape them in the manner in which we choose? More times than not in reality this is simply not the case even though one may think so. Do you recall the second law? If not then you may possibly want to take another peek into what it offers. Look at our world today and you now see just how we use this transcendent attribute, mind and thought. The connection or even disconnection is now shown to us only because it may not be denied. This is so because of our connection to consciousness and each thought that emanates from us contributes to the idea of consciousness. This is why it is advised that we know what our mind is doing in all moments as it is our personal contribution to consciousness. As the individual thought goes ultimately goes the masses be it positive or negative thus global or local karma.

   What was learned from my teachers is that the inhabitants of our world, overall, totally misuse their ability to think. It appears the world prefers to think only for physical material success, ego-based domination and/or control, even for destruction just to prove a point. How truly fascinating! It appears we would rather use our faculty in this fashion rather than in the fashion for which it is truly designed, our divine nature, which has been embedded within us all along since the beginning! While on the rooftop with Rinpoche Kiela that starry night, he said something which really surprised me. It was something that I had never even considered and I believe this to be the case with most of us in this part of the world. It comes from the way that we have all been taught.

Consider for a moment what he shared with me that night. “Our ability to think independently is as our Creator is. It is divine.” The ability to think and realize what we think will place the individual in overwhelming awe the moment they recognize what this truly means and the extent of it. Our mind may be material and operate in the lower realms, or it may reach much higher and operate in the divine realms. Our choice! Simple as that. The truth is, we need merely align with it and nothing more because it is already present; therefore, when we put forth only our divine nature then, according to the principles of Karma which you are now getting to know quite well, only divine nature shall return to us, no other. On the other hand, when any thing is taken for granted we invariably overlook its significance, and the Law of Synchronicity awakens, fully illuminating its guiding reflection right at us, hoping to snap us back to attention, to remember the importance of all things.

"A Metaphysical Interpretation of the Bible"

What is Karma?

“And when we realize the essence of mind

Even for one moment then

Truth is known to us.”

Buddha

Excerpt From ‘The Twelve Sacred Principles of Karma’

Chapter I

What is Karma?

Welcome to the experience of monastic teachings, we shall term it Monk 101! Most of the individuals in our part of the world seem to be seeking personal empowerment; yet, you are not certain what that is exactly. Allow me to assure you that it is not about having power over other people it is more in line with realizing your own power in your own life and the situations that we seem to encounter. If we understand the principles of karma and what it actually is then we may realize outcomes which give us power over it. In this book, the information that is being offered on Karma will assist you to not only attain the sense of being empowered, but it will also guide you, most assuredly, on the path of enlightenment or consciousness along with having you realize how all things are connected one to the other. I only ask that you “hear” and internalize what is shared with you in each chapter and, using the teachings with purpose, you will gain all the desires of your heart.

You see, an empowered individual must first have power over them self, over their lower carnal nature. And by understanding Karma, this sense of being empowered is attained in a much easier fashion with the added bonus that you will go through life in a much more purposeful way. I have often asked myself how an individual would explain a very ancient principle to the vast majority of people in the 21^st century. Having studied in the Far East for many years, I personally have come to understand and internalize these principles, observed how they operate irrespective of one’s belief system. And confirming my own belief that people in this part of the world truly do not pay attention to the consequences of all what they do. Most people attach no meaning to the word “Karma” when overheard by another, or it is frequently mentioned through trite humor such as, “Oh, Karma will handle it,” while internally believing Karma as a tool designed to punish. In truth, the above quote is accurate and, more times than not, Karma does not return in humor because it returns in like kind, its sole purpose is to make sure the playing field remains level, to maintain equality in all things. This is true simply because all things were originally equal in their creation, and Karma ensures it stays this way.

So, what is Karma, and how may we define it?  My first answer would be that Karma is a genuine, natural, unrelenting law of the universe, the mechanism through which gives us experience as the law of return action. Karma gave birth to life, in a sense, because the physical human and all things are the return action of the original energy of the Creator. We are the end result of the original Cause and, with us; Karma was given birth as one of the primary principles of Life. We could go so far to say that Karma was and is the original creative power of the universal Divine mind, a purposefully empowered mind and thought. To think we are in Its image and likeness is simply staggering! No thought, no emotion, and no physical activity can be above or exempt from this Principle, which is why it is connected to the grand pool of Consciousness, thoughts, and their ripple effects on consciousness, personal and otherwise. Do you realize that Karma, as a word and philosophy, reach all the way into physics?

Newtonian physics states it as the Third Law of Motion, “For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action,” with the prime idea that if this happens in one thing then it must happen in all things, or it becomes invalid. Karma is also a principle underlying the way Doppler radar performs. How? As I understand it, when mathematician/physicist Christian Doppler was attempting to develop his idea, he became frustrated. After a rain, he went for a walk. He sat down on a bench and began throwing tiny pebbles into a small pool of water, noticing the ripples traveling across it and wondered, “Once they disappear, where do they go?” From controlled experiments back in his lab, Doppler realized the ripples did not disappear at all; in fact, he discovered that every ripple, viewed as a concentric circle moving away from the point of impact, spread to all edges and depths of the pool, only to then return from whence it originated. This is the purest evidence of Karma in action as all things return to their point of creation, including thought, for once it is generated it goes forth to contact its like vibration only to return to its creator, the originator of the thought. Once the absolute power of Karma is fully realized, we could truly greet the circumstances of our experience, and to also comprehend the power of creation in the very act. So now I ask, “What pebbles do you cast into your pool of consciousness?” “What would you like to have as an experience?” “What would you like your life to become?” Karma has both the power to deliver it to you and the power to block it, thus taking it from you. Karma is a very powerful concept to learn and understand, let alone to work with; yet, our very key is to actually work with it because we absolutely can not avoid it! And to understand its operation, we must first understand the idea of consciousness, another concept we simply can not avoid. Quantum Physics proved it mathematically and now uses this word very regularly and accepts it so should we as it is as real as the rising sun. I presented the idea of consciousness in the introduction and, throughout Monk 101, we shall expand its idea so as to leave no stone unturned.

You may ask, “Does Karma have this kind of power?” One would think so if Newton and Doppler were correct in their discoveries. After all, Karma was a key factor in the creation of life! We should realize and appreciate the power we have and the power behind Karma. What goes on in our mind and what we think creates our life and experiences, both of which are 100% Karma and the action on its return; in other words, our circumstances or experiences are precisely what we each have produced. The question now is, do we believe in it? Our personal yes or no answer is actually totally irrelevant because Karma is real, constantly and continually, 24/7. I have a better question, “Do you accept it?” The proof is always present and right in front of you! If accepted, you then are able to choose to watch this ever-present principle in constant action before your very eyes. You will see it from everything you do through your thoughts and feelings, each and every moment, as you then gain the power to shift any and all things in your life and in our world. This is true empowerment! If declined, then your personal pool will remain cloudy at best with no chance of clearing or filtering the water to its original state. Aside from us referring to Karma casually or in humor, I find it interesting that we do refer to it in the United States as, “What goes around comes around.” This is Karma, American-style, and it states the same idea precisely; yet, we must accept it more literally and genuinely in order to ever have it work for us instead of against us. Correction here! Karma does neither because it simply works tenaciously in any direction we choose to create our experience, since it takes the human in a very literal context, even if we think otherwise. Being the producer of results in all we do or perpetuate, Karma returns to us exactly what we produced. In essence, whether we act responsibly or not is totally irrelevant, for every action carries its own consequence, as like attracts its like kind. Please remain ever present and aware of this concept; otherwise, you may surely stumble on your path if you do not.

Karma is our ultimate teacher, the teacher of our true nature and the true ego less self, as you will see while we journey together through the twelve principles of Karmic law. Its purpose is to have us realize the truth of life and our relationship to it and to each other. I have stated in previous works that the divine only creates in equality from divine substance into divine substance and Karma ensures we live in that divine principle, exclusively. If we were to operate fully under the concept of Karma, a very natural divine law in the full sense of the word, we would have no use for human-made ideas of law. Now what would we do with the law-makers! Humor aside, in truth, the only reason we have human laws is because we ignore the natural ones, ones which require no income and operate on their own accord without human intervention! How so? They are purely causes and effects as stated in Newton’s third Law of Motion, with Karma being, to its very core, a universal condition and divinely-imposed to every individual. Interestingly enough, the Bhagavad Gita states that anything which is embodied cannot escape it, Karma, or deny it as it is ever-present. If I may add, Karma is the cause behind evolution, constantly changing, though we attempt to prevent it at times in our personal life. If evolution of life and species are not able to avoid it neither are we as the individual. Ponder for a moment, as long as we think or believe we can prevent or even avoid Karma, which in truth we can not, our true personal empowerment shall continue to avoid us. However, our life will work wondrously more smoothly in every activity once we consciously begin to work with it directly, learning to accept it and what it brings to us, which may very well be our special gift. Karma is the prod attempting to move us when we become seemingly stuck in our own quicksand due to the build up of silt that we placed in our pool of consciousness. It is as eternal as the Creator, and the only law to which we are bound to follow, knowingly or unknowingly matters not. We have every advantage when followed consciously; otherwise, we are at the mercy of apparent circumstance.

To truly understand the principles, we must first realize it is not possible for any living being to exist without any level of activity, though we actually think we can be inactive at times. Even sitting on the sofa we could still be active mentally and or emotionally which is still creating karmic effects. In truth, we are created as living activity, moving matter, and we learn the impact of Karma from all activities in which we find ourselves, whether they be physical (implying movement,) mental, emotional, or even a combination thereof, including the conditions to which Karma applies in these activities. By observing each activity, we then realize its cause and, from this process, we begin to recognize that our path is outlined for us, thereby creating the simplest and most fruitful of routes. As a simple example of this we could easily say that we learn to walk as children through the use of cause and effect, karma, something as adults we think is simple. By only paying attention to the Karmic return of what we so created through each activity is how we learned to walk and this we could apply to anything in life! Otherwise, by stubbornly remaining non-observant and resistant, the very same path may become quite difficult, wherefrom we actually learn very little as we attempt to become so-called inactive. Besides, from the mere act of resistance, Karmic pressure increases, following Newton’s Third Law, because the act of resistance only creates more of itself, as does peace creates more peace, for each activity creates more of its like kind, each showing up as circumstance. Truly, there is simply no other way since this is the primary focus behind Karmic law.

As a student in Monk 101, the first area of focus for us neophytes would be self-observation with pure objectivity, learning to observe our self while in each activity without any self-judgment whatsoever. Judgment will quickly blind you to your true self; therefore, be purely objective in your observation apply no condemnation. At first this will be difficult, but with practice it becomes much simpler to accomplish. From this viewpoint we can distinguish the sequence of events to the same degree as a monk, knowing precisely where we need to be in any given moment, and seldom be caught off balance. As an aside, a monk is rarely caught off balance, if ever, because they understand balance as more of an internal event, not an external one as we think of it. If we do not prefer the results which create our imbalance, we simply change the preceding conditions, thereby shifting the results and returning to a state of balance.

Continuing, we would learn to realize that we live in a world of natural laws and to not only observe them, but also to master and utilize them for the benefit of self and humankind. Imagine a planet with a truly balanced state of consciousness. The world would achieve a greater state of magnificence with its people! Monks understand these laws so well that they are able to teach them to others, as I am attempting here, teaching that we are not in the grip of so-called circumstance, that we are instead in a world of natural principles and forces which may be used to bring about all we desire, as long as we understand them, not violate them as we do constantly. It is this very violation which has brought about the world we have today. Do you understand?

Karma is not a force that crushes; rather, it establishes a statement of conditions by which we are to live. Out of these conditions results will inevitably occur. It is these occurrences that we see as results created by our own actions. They are not punishments, unless we live in punishment or dole it out by stealing or taking from others. And I am not talking about just the physical things as you shall understand later. If we live in a fashion which is happy-go-lucky in a careless sense, ironically, this is exactly what will create our issues because we do not pay attention to natural circumstance. We will essentially become helpless and at the mercy of nature’s forces while we remain ignorant of the natural process. While living in this fashion, we will most certainly experience misfortune and seeming failure, finding it a struggle to be truly happy and content with our lives. On the other hand, if we understand and are wise to these forces, we can master them, allowing these natural laws to serve us as was originally intended. We must learn to realize that all natural laws exist to enable us, not disable us, that our knowledge of them is necessary in order to utilize them, not to manipulate or violate them. Being a natural law, Karma has a direct influence upon each of us due to its very natural state, enabling us to virtually change our nature by altering how and why we do the things we do, only from the true knowledge of it. If we learn to observe the laws then we do not become caught in the stream eddies, nor do we run into the rocks or logs which lie submerged, for we safely and securely pass them by. I wish to first offer a few scenarios to help you understand how Karma works and interacts with us before we probe into each principle individually.

My first scenario that will demonstrate how karma returns, at first it will seem innocent enough, is that of a homeowner who does everything in an attempt to burglar-proof their home. Let us also say that the only reason they are doing this is out of fear. Even though they think they are taking care of house security during this whole time, they are actually sending out waves of fear into consciousness. Just as my Master teachers drew me to them at the roadside shack, so too is the homeowner attracting the burglar to the residence by sending out the necessary energy. What energy? Why on Earth would this even occur when the purpose is for safety? Their underlying emotion is fear and fear is very powerful as a charge to thought.  It is one of the most powerful human emanations that we have! In fact, the two greatest powers a human has through emotional energy are love and its exact opposite, fear. Back to the scenario, the above could be termed as like mind or like vibration, one attracting the other. Or it could be termed as the Doppler Effect or the pull of electromagnetic fields, one attracting the other. Fear generated the event, prey attracting the predator. This homeowner was truly focused more on their fear of a break-in than simply seeing their home as completely safe and secure, which by doing so, only safety and security would have been attracted to the home by the very same Karmic principle. If the home is burglarized, it is neither Karma’s “fault,” nor is it a form of punishment. It was simply matching the originator of the vibration in reality to its opposite as though a magnet or a magnetic force drawing its opposite polarity. Think for a moment, if the monks could contact me from 9,000 miles away through the proper use of consciousness, imagine what we send out in our very own neighborhoods each and every day? Okay, what about the thief’s Karmic experience?

From the thief’s perspective, the Karmic circumstance has a more far-reaching effect, aside from the potential jail time which is ultimately part of the Karmic return. Most thieves do end up in jail only because they do not know when to cease their activity. The Karmic return begins to set them up when the person starts to think it easier to take from another person, thus deciding to no longer work in the traditional sense, thus stealing at a higher rate. They honestly believe there is nothing erroneous in what they do! Of course, it can take time to catch them, but the more they steal, the more tightly Karmic principles take hold. When looked at in depth, what are the long-term Karmic effects? From the very first effect, once they have stolen something, they are no longer able to completely trust any thing or anyone else, even to the degree of distrusting their own experience. Why is this so? In truth, we can only know others by how we know ourselves, yet another principle monks understand and utilize. You see, what we are, we see in others. I will expand on this principle in a future chapter. The bottom line is if a thief is going to steal then how can they trust? This not only affects their material reality, but also their emotional reality because, if they truly wanted another person to love and trust them, how could they return that person’s love and trust? They simply could not because the wheels have already been set in motion by their own hand.

The next effect coming into play is that they run a very high risk of having things being stolen from them, following again the Karmic principle of equality; in other words, one may not have what does not belong to them. In truth, I could almost guarantee they will have things taken from them, for these are simply warnings given by Karma. To summarize, the thief has lost their traditional job, if any; they have lost the ability to trust; they have lost the ability to love and to be loved; they have lost the things they stole, and they will lose their freedom. All because of Karmic circumstance! Let’s stir in two more effects on the thief: frustration and anger. Okay, why would these come into play? Frustration will enter because, once the Karmic returns occur, they will compound themselves in the thief’s experience because “nothing is going my way.” The anger comes into play because of the jail time they will experience, about which they will always claim their innocence and, of course, no one believes that. The thief got “hit” from every direction through Karmic return action, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Oh, one last thing. Thieves actually attract jail to themselves because of what they have now become: “trapped” in distrust. Even after all the Karmic effects have piled on top of the so-called thieves, they still have the ability, from understanding the principles of Karma, to shift their experience into a totally new dynamic by accepting the flow of a new direction, thereby creating new activities to which Karma may respond. Will the thief learn their lesson?  Well, that is their choice, honest or not.

“What is the experience of a Karmic return from our emotional body?” I ask you. Love - true love - is vitally important to each of us and is the quintessential reason why we experience life; we want to attain it in physical form. As energy beings before we enter life, love is all that is known; however, as physical form, we get the full and intense impact of the idea. Do we not dream of love or seek it in some fashion in our world, to know there is someone who simply loves us for exactly who we are? This person loves us in all respects, no matter what we say or do, loving us completely from their heart, free of any conditions with absolutely no mental apprehensions or judgments whatsoever going on. My Master teachers informed me that we each have a twin flame or vibration, that we are too impatient in our search for them, hence the reason for such a high divorce rate in this part of the world. You see, if we would simply wait and search from our heart, we would find our twin flame very easily because the natural law of Karma would lead us right to them.

I would like to share from personal experience because I finally have the twin flame of my life. My wife is an absolutely amazing person to be around, and I have absolutely no doubt or question as to how much she loves me. From our love comes such strength, depth, and magnificence, abiding constantly, 24/7. I truly feel it is the most extraordinary relationship of which any human could ever conceive. Can you have this, too? Absolutely! But, the truth is, you must be willing to walk this path with the other person, not for or because of them but because of you. Additionally, from the perspective of Karma, you must become that person before they are even able to show up in your life, to then become attracted to you. Love, in its truest sense, is like the purity and tranquility of the driven snow until shattered by our early experience of rejection, which will condition our subsequent experiences; hence, rejection in this area becomes fairly common for most. At a young age, we can easily imagine rejection, whether perceived or real is totally irrelevant. Why so? As youngsters we simply do not have the wisdom to discern as we do when older or when we have more emotional experience in life. So, here we are, holding onto the pain in our emotional bodies wherefrom we actually create even more pain due to Karmic return action as we draw yet another experience of love and rejection to us! Does this make any sense? It becomes, therefore, one of the greatest errors we may have in the arena of love. In truth, it is all in how we perceive it! When we cut our finger we know where to place the antiseptic and band-aid; however, when it comes to our heart there is no antiseptic, nor can we place a band-aid on it. “So what do we do then?” you ask. By understanding Karma, we grow through it to negate any future Karmic influence; we simply learn to realize that the idea of rejection is nothing more than a teacher of self-acceptance. So forgive the experience and bless it as a lesson and move on to find the true love, your twin flame.

One day I asked Master Lobsang about the idea of love to which he replied simply and with deep wisdom, looking at me straight in the eye, “Young man, love does not know time nor distance; it only knows love.” Are you certain you even want true love in your life? Because, once you truly realize what this unconditional love thing is all about, you just may develop a fear of it. You may chuckle, but I’m here to suggest to you that I most certainly did fear it! You see, after my early experiences of emotional pain, I withheld my emotions from this idea of love, subsequently finding myself blaming my partners for my lack of feelings toward them. It actually became easier to show anger than to simply allow love to flow. How could I when I had no real experience of it with another human? I only thought I had! Therein lays the answer to the issue. I thought I loved them; yet, I held myself from its experience. Love is not a thought; rather, it is an emotion, a feeling. If one thinks they love another, it is not from their heart. It is from their mind. I came to realize that, since I did not love myself, Karmic return brought me a person who also did not love me. We must love our self first so the other may do the same. Remember, you and I are the originators of all our experiences. Once I realized that the necessary ingredient was love of self, well, both you and I know the rest of the story.

Have you ever experienced a new relationship developing very rapidly? To instantly destroy it, you need only say to yourself, “This is going too fast,” which indicates that the relationship must be controlled. Ponder on this idea: if you are attempting to control love, how can it be love? Your control may very well be based in the idea of your fear from the very thing you would like to have the most. If this is the case, look at your need to control. Besides, this will only create a controlling relationship or a controlling partner through Karma. Master Lobsang also told me that if it takes longer than five seconds then it is not the twin flame. You may ask your self this; five seconds is not long enough to know a person! Or is it? Here is the paradox. Love is instant, but learning who that love is may take a lifetime, then being amazed by them. The key to the Karmic process is self-love first. If you do not, then you must ask yourself, “If I am not able to love me, then how may I love another? If it is not in me first, then how may the other love me?” Remember, what begins with us must end with us. This is the truth in all things no matter how it may appear in the moment. Who created it? You did for your experience. So, in reality, you must become open to the idea of like attraction, Karma on both ends of the scale. “Become what you seek and it shall find you,” is the essence of Karmic law, which will show more of it self as we journey together through the principles.

www.hairfield.com                       From my book ‘The Twelve Sacred Principles of Karma’

2012 Predictions

Karma 'The Law of the Mirrors'

Law of The Mirrors

“If you wish to see truth

then hold no opinions for or

against anything”

Seng-Tsan, Zen patriarch

Chapter VI

The Law of Mirrors

After painting for several days in late summer, I felt a great relief from this apparent endless but enjoyable task when master Lobsang approached me one morning and stated, “Young man it is time for you to learn the next principle of Karma. Come. Walk with me for awhile.” I easily admit I looked forward to these walks with such a great teacher. He had such depth in his understanding of life and its intricacies most of which we all miss in this part of the world. As informal or fascinating as they may turn out, I always gained an immense amount of information and understanding when we walked and talked. Master Lobsang turned to look at me and I remember him saying, “Young man, your life is a direct reflection of you as is true for any individual you are always the first cause in your own life,” he informed me with smiling eyes. “Every thing in your life is attempting to tell you who you are in any given moment.” Continuing, “What you see in another human is actually you looking at your self in the mirror of life. All of life reflects your image of you.” The truth is I can now say, by not knowing or understanding the Law of Mirrors, our ignorance of this single principle can produce self-imposed slavery to our life and events. This is true because we may never know the cause of all that occurs around us unless we look at ourselves first in complete objectivity. We should always be objective with our own actions and activity whether it is external or internal objectivity is the most important approach to understanding and appreciating ourselves and our lives. It is the only path for seeing the truth of the house, you, we have built as we have created our lives by placing one brick at a time with each seed we have planted along the way.

“Through all our personal experiences in each and every moment, life reveals to each of us, individually, precisely who we are. It is this principle that attempts to show us only our self in all its aspects, no one else’s,” master Lobsang offered. Of course, my face once again wrinkled into a look of utter bewilderment as images of other people I have known flashed into my mind like a slide show on fast forward. “I am condemning myself? Not them?” as I crooked my head only slightly. He further explained, “This concept of your reflection through life is correct and is part of the reason for the Law of Attraction, the major reason. This is why we attract to us what we are and not what we may want or desire to have in our life. This is the basic idea behind the Law of Mirrors.” Master Lobsang paused then continued, “What we see in another person or, more importantly, what we think we see as wrong about them is actually Karma’s way of showing us what we do not necessarily like about our self. Whether or not we acknowledge this, is totally irrelevant.” Master Lobsang concluded his thought, “Whenever you think there is something wrong, the truth is, there is something wrong in you is the essence of this law.”

He could easily see my expression of deep contemplation about this totally new concept of life. Americans can be so completely befuddled by these principles, for I certainly was! In this part of the world, we generally look only through filters of right or wrong, good or bad, without ever considering the concept that every thing and every one is exactly as they are supposed to be right where they are! Excuse the grammar but, you see, there is nothing wrong out there in this wonderful world of ours, and there is nothing wrong with any other human being because they are simply who they are. To this very day you will not hear me utter or write the words “right” or “wrong,” “good” or bad,” unless used for explaining truth, for they do not exist in my vocabulary nor any monk that I have ever encountered. Besides they are forms of judgment or opinions as stated above and nothing else. After all the Christ Himself stated very succinctly to not judge and it is my sense that this is what He was attempting to tell us that all things are precisely the way they are supposed to be and that we have no right putting it into some form of personal concepts based on judgment. Besides the truth is that when we judge it actually has the power to blind us to what is real and not illusion.

            Now a question for you, “Do you believe in coincidence?” Please do not jump right to your answer. First consider the question and acknowledge how you feel about it, for this question will assist you to understand this principle, along with the others we have looked into thus far. If your answer is no, you then believe everything has a reason or purpose attached to it, that all things are precisely the way and where they are supposed to be, is this correct? This reasoning further implies there is neither any such event called an accident, nor any failure, nor any mistake, for there exists nothing wrong out there in our world. Bluntly put, those words are human labels, illusions, and are not real. Perhaps without even being aware of it, this means you believe in Karma because you do not believe in coincidence!

The ever-present, guiding principles of Karma bring these events to us purely as an opportunity to become further educated and to understand the truth of who we are in those moments and to grow from them by making a different choice. I ask you, “With Karma, just where is the coincidence?” The truth is, every moment and experience, in and of itself, is neither right or wrong, nor good or bad, because they all just are; rather, it is each of us, in and of our self, who simply do not agree with what we are seeing in that particular moment or experience. What am I offering here? We are simply looking at life backwards, from the outside in! Does this make any sense to you? This powerful concept is simply letting us know that we need only spend our time making the necessary internal adjustments in our own mind instead of expending all our energy and effort with making external adjustments to others and our environment. By doing so, we rectify our self rather than the outer world. Master Lobsang simply stated to me, “Change you and this changes how you see events.”

Using the same analogy as mentioned in chapter one, I feel it best to realize the full composition of that brown silt resting at the bottom of our individual pool of consciousness rather than to completely ignore it. Which is what most of us do thinking it will remain settled permanently or, worse yet, believing it will all utterly disappear through some miraculous future event all the while we ignore it. Wait! Forgive me, for I just now realize there can be a miraculous future event! It shall arrive when Karmic action returns to us that perfect moment of turbulence, an experience wherein our peaceful silt becomes totally agitated, swiftly cavitating towards the surface of our pool yet once again. And the so-called miracle moment occurs because now we understand Karma is our guiding, prodding principle for personal growth. And we now fully realize and seize this event to rid ourselves of the brown silt entirely, or we have this option once and for all or at least rid that part which had agitated and created the apparent turbulence.

Wherever you go, there you are, remember? While looking directly into my eyes, master Lobsang softly said, “Young man, when you become angry, remember you are still there. What does your anger prove to you in that moment? It simply proves that the reflection of that mirror upon which you look reminds you of who you are, bringing to the forefront your anger rising from within. It does this because you thought you had changed; yet, you have not, so the reflection remains the same.” This is precisely why the settled silt stubbornly remains within us, traveling with us like gum on a shoe, no matter the direction or distance of our journey, and is why Karma will cause it to rise, providing us the perfect experience at the perfect time to remove it forever. If we could see it through these eyes then we would understand the circumstances and why they appear as they do in any given moment.

My insightful teacher asked me four questions during our walk that day in late fall, important questions intended for my deep consideration regarding my path of life and impetus for a crystal clear pool of consciousness. I now pose them for your careful consideration regarding you and your life: 1. Do you believe you are immune from what goes on around you? 2. Do you blame others simply saying that someone else did it, that you had nothing to do with the event? 3. Do you try to excuse yourself from the parts of life which are too difficult or hard? 4. Do you accept life with grace and see yourself as contributing or creating a difference? Remember, the Law of Mirrors revolves around the idea that things are not the way they may appear, solely because there is nothing wrong out there, keeping in mind that there are no coincidences. Let us peer more deeply into the above four questions, one at a time, to find what they may reflect back to us about our self.

1. Do we believe we are immune from what goes on around us? If we go around thinking we are immune, then are we not actually saying we are better than others or too good to have this kind of experience? This is an incredibly large illusion for no one is immune from any experience. By believing in personal immunity, then things only happen to others, not to us; in fact, we need not accept any responsibility, correct? It is believed that a young insightful man who lived around two thousand years ago said something like, “Nothing is above the Law.” It is strongly guaranteed that Karma, through its return action, will bring an eye-opening experience directed specifically to that person whose mind is rigidly entrenched with personal exemption, a mind stubbornly thinking all the while that the event belongs to others. Do you suppose they are denying the reflection in the mirror? It is repeated that no one and no thing are immune because, remember, our experience is exactly what we already are. So it is suggested that you neither deny nor avoid it. As my teacher offered, sometimes it is best to go ahead and climb over the arduous mountain, for it may be the best path even though it appears frighteningly formidable.

2. Do we blame others by simply saying someone else did it and we had nothing to do with the event? Allow me to follow-up with more questions: “Do we blame others for our anger? “Is it the other person’s fault for the argument?” “At times, do we think another is stupid; yet, in reality, do they not think as we do and we now think they are stupid because of this?” Employing subtle expressions, blame takes on many faces, the most obvious one being the “you make me” complex, which has already been discussed earlier in this book. Forgive my repetition on this subject; however, I feel its level of importance is worthy of repeating, especially in light of our current subject, the Law of Mirrors.

When operating under the “you make me” complex, we lay the blame on either the outer circumstance or the other individual, essentially transferring personal responsibility to an external event. By doing so, we dis-own our personal feelings and actions by attempting to dis-connect their integral part from us. By so doing we end up actually denying our ability to control our own emotions and to properly look at our very own mirror, its glaring reflection now showing we are not in control of our own life. Just how can another person or thing, external to our self, physically control how we feel internally in any given moment? If we do this what we are actually doing is admitting another is in control of us and this law is here to assist in this for us so that we see our selves. The Law of Mirrors attempts to correct the current situation, guiding us to reclaim our personal responsibility of our emotional energy by watching what we do in that particular moment, as the observer, instead of what we think we are seeing as the victim of the “you make me” complex. The truth is what we actually see is how we are judging that moment, nothing more.

Perhaps another perspective may give clarity. You tell a friend, “So-and-so makes me so happy!” for example. Notice your word choice? Without ever realizing it, you have just given up or released the responsibility for your feelings, your power, over to so-and-so. Guess what? They now have the ability to also make you angry or sad as you have now given you away. Have you ever felt drained? If so here is why and we shall cover more of this later. And what do we generally call such an individual who “makes” us feel or do a thing, one way or the other? A manipulator perhaps? Unfortunately, I hear the following all too frequently today, “I love you because you do things for me and are so good to me.” Or, “Because you never do what I want, I no longer love you.” By literally giving our self away in these moments, we have just become easy to manipulate, even though we do not enjoy being manipulated at all, no one does. Why would we do this to ourselves? We have been conditioned away from personal control of our own selves and our own lives.

Alright, I understand your desire to feel empowered all of us look for this in our individual lives. So what does the Law of Mirrors do for us in this arena? Two things are going on here. First, it shows we have transferred our responsibility to an external source and, second, it lets us know how to accomplish the feeling or sense of empowerment by not giving ourselves away in the first place. In fact it shows us where we are giving it up simply look at your reflection and it will show the cause to you. Ultimately our personal responsibility is non-transferrable, non-promotional, non-discountable, and non-refundable, with no expiration date. To believe otherwise is an illusion. You see, when happiness is an innate part of our own nature then we are purely happy, through and through, for if it truly belongs to us. No other human or thing can give or take it away since we can only share in our idea of happiness that is generated by us. Such is genuine happiness, unlike its façade. If another can take it away then 1) the happiness was not genuine in the first place, 2) the other person has just stolen the happiness from us, which now becomes their Karmic return. The reason is that this principle now sees them as no different as a thief. Stealing is the same action, whether taking an object or an emotion, since both are taken away unrightfully so. It is suggested that it is best we turn things around, to objectively see our self as clearly as does the mirror right in front of us, the so-called manipulator, be it person, place or thing, and watch it instantly transform into one of our greatest teachers. There is a simple rule of thumb here. Each time you point your index finger at a person or an event in the name of blame, notice how the three fingers below it point right back at you! As a gentle reminder, allow those three fingers to represent an aspect of your self in that moment: 1) how you are thinking, 2) how you are judging, and 3) how you are feeling. They are all yours simply because they belong to you first and they are all emanating from within.

            3. Do we try to excuse ourselves from the parts of life which are too difficult or hard? This activity has become all too common in our part of the world. Yet on the one hand it does make sense because who among us truly enjoys a difficult mental or emotional experience? Is a difficult moment nothing more than how you perceive and judge it to be? From my teachings in the Far East, it has been realized that life is not about personal enjoyment; rather, it is solely about personal growth, change, and the comprehension of our true nature, with which difficulty may at times be associated. Though for the most part our physical aspects can be worked out with general ease, it is our internal affairs on the other hand, which can be significantly more difficult to resolve due to their depth and complexity.

Are we doomed to difficulty? Not at all unless we choose this as our experience! By no longer participating in the blame game and the “you make me” complex, the burden of difficulty will lift, for the truth is, when anything becomes difficult we are simply applying too much physical, mental, and emotional energy on the event, thereby creating resistance. And it is this very resistance which increases the level of difficulty. Why? Newton’s Third Law - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction which, by the way, works together with the third law of Karma: whatever you resist persists for you. Coincidence? Nope! No exceptions. Even the second principle of Karma concurs: you attract to you what you are, not what you want. This applies simply because if we resist, we actually attract more resistance. There are now three laws working against us? No, not against us, yes and think to in reality that they could work for us instead. These are just three simple and natural principles, all of them behind us, prodding us and supporting our personal growth toward full realization and empowerment. This is their purpose!

What is really going on when we run into a difficult moment? Instead of throwing wide the stage curtain as we frantically stumble into a multi-act drama as we generally do from the material sense, it is suggested that we rest in our peaceful nature as we calmly stop the chattering monkeys in the tree of our mind. For we know there is a perfect reason for this moment to occur, right here and now, because there is no such thing as a coincidence or accident. Perhaps soul is attempting to attract our attention in the only manner it can, communicating that a different direction has now become necessary in our life, or it has placed something right in front of us yet again since we successfully avoided this issue in the past. In truth, our higher divine self works in union with Karma, constantly and continually. Not to harm or punish us, please, but as its attempt to bring on a natural and complete healing to every individual involved in our so-called difficult situation.

“So if Karma and my soul are working for me, to heal me, then why so much difficulty?” you may be rightfully asking. The apparent difficulty is nothing more than your commitment to judging the situation as difficult! That is all. You see, our judgment determines whether something is easy or difficult, good or bad, pleasing or objectionable. I hear people in our Western culture declare judgmental statements nearly every moment, each and every day, regarding their situation as they focus purely on their judgment. Not surprisingly, through Karma, the individual gets to experience exactly what they pay the most attention to, their judgment. May I offer a change in mind and heart? It is suggested that we strip away all judgment from our vocabulary as we graciously accept the alleged difficult moment as our teacher, and step into it full tilt so we may receive the greater understanding which is about to take place. By doing so, chances are this issue will never return, for it has been fully cleared by our realization of the true purpose of the supposed difficulty. Yes, we then get the message this time, finally! Once gotten there is no need for a repeat performance to occur at anytime in our lives it is now understood so it is now over. The suggestion here is to end things as they occur and the silt is removed from your pool of consciousness and if not it shall rise at a later time for another experience.

            4. Do we accept life with grace and see ourselves as contributing or creating a difference? Most of us believe we do; however, from personal observation, it can be assured that you are way off, for the most part, especially when it comes to the idea of grace, the first answer to this two-part question. Does this really surprise you? I list here a few synonyms for the word grace: balance, compassion, decency, ease, etiquette, forgiveness, nimbleness, pleasantness, tact. Are these attributes abounding all about us and through us in our world today? When truly walking or living in grace, would you ever become irritated, frustrated or angered? Would you ever be bothered by what another says or does? Living in grace means: first being grateful for life which naturally leads to grace. Then become totally patient in life and with all people. This allows us to be utterly free of stress, holding a door for another, giving up your place in line for another who is truly in a hurry. Always be aware of honoring and treating others in a graceful manner, remaining calm and peaceful while driving in traffic, and never rude to another. Most importantly, being graceful is fully living to assist others at all times, not just in those moments when it suits our fancy or appears necessary.

Once again, when judgment filters our perception of either an event or person, there remains no room for grace at any time. Why do we judge what we see? I offer this quote by Jean-Yves Leloup, author of “The Gospel of Thomas,” translated by Shambhala Publications, “The eye with which I see God is the eye with which God sees me: one eye, one vision, one knowledge, one love.” From a life filled with conditioning and habits, our vision has become completely prejudiced by our judging minds to the degree we no longer can truly see clearly. It is like watching a blurry movie because of a dusty and oil-smudged projector lens. On the other hand, if we operate through the boundless idea of grace, then our judgments toward life are removed and life now becomes an honor, for we begin to clearly see and witness its true nature and beauty through the guiding principles of Karma. From the perspective of my teachers, if we are not at first internally graceful, then there is absolutely no way we can behave gracefully with any other externally, at least not consistently. We vacillate from being graceful externally to stumbling and mumbling within through self-condemnation, along with our other issues. We, therefore, hopscotch between truth and error, transforming our divine greatness to unnatural smallness all because of how we operate our mind, simply by seeing through a judgmental lens, colored and opaque at the very least.

My answer to the second part of the question is the same. Although most of us believe we do contribute or create a difference, I beg to differ. I am not talking about our career choice or professional accomplishments; instead, I am talking about our personal interaction with all the people whom we encounter each and every day. I am talking about total strangers and those who truly need assistance in that moment when we just happen to appear in their space. Coincidence or chance? Do we stop to help them or to lift their spirit? “First, what is in it for me?” “I do not have the time right now!” is written all over most everyone’s faces. I am not kidding because, again from personal observation, there is a tremendous number of individuals in this part of the world who will assist another, but only when there can be something gained by doing so. Do you recognize any grace in this mindset? This approach is more self-serving and one of vanity than anything else. It is actually manipulation, the truth be told.

If you wish to genuinely contribute or make a difference, it is simply suggested that you give of yourself in silence and grace, being of service to one human at a time, being genuinely humble in your nature as you do so. No need for fanfare, a ticker-tape parade, or major media coverage. If these are offered then why not? As you are now more fully aware of Karmic return, do you truly desire to toot your own brass horn at the expense of the other? It is suggested that you think twice because, rest assured, you will not take too kindly when another toots their horn at your expense. Besides, these external affairs will only feed the ego by eroding your true nature, a nature of harmony, peace and synchronicity.

An Excerpt from ‘The Twelve Sacred Principles of Karma’

The Fifth Principle

Law of the Mirrors

www.hairfield.com

3rd Principle of Karma "The Law of Humility' Chapter IV

“When you have thrown off your ideas as to mind and body,

the original truth will fully appear.”

Zen Master Dogen

Chapter IV

The Law of Humility

      Let us now enter into the third principle of Karma. It is known as, the Law of Humility; it is truly magnificent in its precept and is the one principle which has assisted monks to simply be who they are, each and every moment of their life. Do you easily envision monks as a very gentle and easy-going people? This is readily affirmed as the depiction was witnessed at every monastery I visited. No matter the circumstance in which they may find them self, their demeanor and nature remains totally unfettered. They never were at odds with any thing or any human because they will simply stand aside in their humility. Monks are appreciative of life, honoring it in each moment, continually enjoying just being alive and aware of that life. Interestingly enough, the monks did indeed give up their own country in the name of this law because they believe so much in these principles, deeply committed to firmly live by them rather than merely think of them as a matter of convenience.

      Monks know they will live on, no matter the location, since where they live is not a concern, for there will always be a roof over their head and food to nourish their bodies. They remind me of a young supple tree, its limbs and trunk gracefully bending in the wind without any concern over the wind’s strength or direction. The Law of Humility is about learning to be humble, rather than being so gregarious about our selves and life, to honor all aspects of life for what we are, instead of what we are not. Contrary to the monks, we in this part of the world have become very rigid and brittle when the wind blows, snapping or breaking apart in direct proportion to wind speed. But do you realize that we can be just like the monks in the way that we live each day and without really giving up anything! By understanding the ideas of this principle, then to live it, our humble nature would be a breath of fresh air because the western culture is entirely consumed at being the best at whatever wherever with whichever. I am willing to bet that you may think humility portrays weakness. Not at all! In truth, it is from humility that we shall become aware of our divine nature and is the source of our sovereign strength. We call it flexibility. It was also once stated that the meek shall inherit the earth, could He have intended us to understand the law of humility?

      As you continue reading this book, you will soon realize the most significant goal of Karma, is to guide us towards that level of awareness, suggested above, when we simply transform to the best divine human we may possibly be. It is each person’s individual birthright to live. The bottom line truth is that these principles shall make certain of this outcome, assuring us of reaching this goal, whether it occurs in this lifetime or another, that is up to us. The sole reason for life is for each of us to overcome the pull of the body and the lower physical natures. In fact, the faster we master these principles, the easier our life actually becomes. Humility is an integral part of our divine nature and, to achieve this ideal, we must journey under the principle offered by its Law, a Law wherein many of our most significant lessons of life reside. I say the following with my full encouragement and support. When traveling under the Law of Humility, its path can become the most arduous one you may ever undertake in any one lifetime, purely because this Law is the greatest teacher as it reveals who you truly are. Is this really possible in one lifetime? Yes! From your perseverance and acceptance, this one principle is about facing your self for what you have become, which is exactly what most people do not wish to do! With this realization you can more easily shift into your proper direction. I now ask you a question, “Why is it best to use a map when undertaking a cross-country trip? Well, would it not be significantly more efficient and easier to arrive at one’s destination rather than to turn any which way at any which time?”

      Similarly, the principles of Karma are the road map to our full realization of life and who we are, but only if we follow them. The third principle will guide us to understand that it is not about what we are; rather, it is about who we are through realizing that we are not our things. We are not our hair, our partners, our children, nor are we our house, our car, our career. These are the “what’s” in our life. And they have created the “what” we have become in our lives. You see, even though these things may possibly contain the ability to power our divine creativity, if properly utilized but they have most certainly, however, diminished our ability to accept divine humility. The reason for this is because the “what’s” have done nothing more than fed our physical ego. When utilized as a tool, they are quite wonderful because we gain experience through the use of the “what” simply as a learning tool, assisting us toward our self-realization of “who” we are, not “what” we are. On the other hand, when used solely to accumulate more “what’s,” then this goes in the opposite direction of the original intention since the “what’s” totally diminish our Creator-given ability. Besides the “what’s” are what have created our illusions and judgments of life and of people. One could easily say that they now have become our very stumbling blocks in higher attainment in our world as the desire for more simply overpowers us and our ego based minds. In truth they bolster the ego in all respects.

      What is the Law of Humility? How does it work and how do we apply it? In answer to the first question, the law simply states: What you resist persists for you. Interestingly enough, as a start to the second question, the idea behind this law is that we not only choose our enemies, but we also give them strength. Oh yes, we do indeed choose our very own enemies, and we then bolster them into what appears as an infinitely strong and insurmountable position. This may sound very ludicrous to you; yet, it is an accurate assertion based on personal experience and understanding Karma. Before you balk completely, allow me to explain. First, though, a few questions may rightfully be in your mind now, “Why would I create my own difficulties? And why would I create a struggle when I do not even desire one in the first place?” Keep in mind that an enemy is not necessarily limited to an adversarial human, a person who is going to physically attack or thwart you in some fashion. An enemy can also (most likely) be a negative thought or emotion, such as sadness, frustration, anger.  It can be your career, partner, child, a family member, or even an item you own. Metaphysically speaking, an enemy is any thing, animate or inanimate, which takes away from your peaceful nature. It is any thing which pulls you from your divine source. It may even be you yourself, which reminds me of the old saying: You are your own worst enemy. Unquestionably, this is precisely the path we are going to venture on for the duration of this chapter, the concept of internal enemies. After all consider the idea of this principle, the law of humility now it should make sense to you.

It is sensed that you may possibly be a bit befuddled from the above paragraph; therefore, allow me to explain further by sharing an experience that I had with my own internal enemy. It is one that is probably the most common amongst humans. It also is seemingly the strongest in any given moment, one considered as the root of most enemies, if not all of them. This experience may also answer the second question: How does it work? Returning to my stay at the monastery in northern India, I remember Master Lobsang approaching me one day while I was planting rice. He calmly and flatly made a statement, “You are going to meet a great teacher,” and while looking straight into my eyes he asked, “Young man, what is your greatest fear?” Considering for a moment what I felt that would be, I looked into his twinkling eyes after a momentary silence, stating without hesitation, “Master, I feel that it would be a slow and agonizing death.” He responded with another question, “Do you actually fear what humans’ term as death?” “No,” I replied, “I just don’t want it to be slow and agonizing.”

He smiled thoughtfully, bowed in his humble manner, and then walked away, leaving me puzzled as I watched his graceful return to the monastery. After a minute or two, I shrugged my shoulders and resumed my planting without giving the event another thought. Do you realize that fear in and of itself is one of if not the greatest enemy of all our emotions? Even to the degree of physically immobilizing us? It can instantly turn success into failure. We would commit to a lie if we fear the truth. A person may even have a fear of losing their loved one, a situation occurring quite frequently nowadays, a fear so deep-seated that the one with fear will possibly be the first to leave the relationship, actually believing they can avoid what they fear! We simply cannot avoid what we fear. How do you avoid the emotion of fear? I will explain as we travel. Aside from the fact that each scenario above carries its own Karmic return action, the first associated with lying and the second with leaving, one must deal with the third principle: What you resist persists for you.

I continued planting when, a few days later, a runner greeted me in the field, breathlessly informing me, “The Llama wishes to see you!” Oh my, what a great honor to have an audience with the Llama, the head of a monastery, for they have such a wealth of wisdom. I knew in my heart this was going to be a very great lesson, coming from the great teacher! What I thought was absolutely correct, in a sense, but I had no clue what was in store for me. You see, when a teacher at a monastery has a lesson for you, that lesson will also contain the associated experience so that it becomes ingrained in your mind. In other words, the lesson is first spoken, and then experientially applied in a manner and at a time unbeknownst to the student. Such non-traditional teaching creates a rather exciting and mysterious process for the neophyte and, more times than not, the arriving experience unfolds quite humorously. Generally, master teachers use a variety of methods to carry out the lesson, from the use of words, to actions, even to the waking stick, each method being unique and extremely effective.

As I entered the Llama’s chamber, I remember distinctly how thrilled I was about my anticipated lesson, yet having absolutely no idea what it could specifically be I was thinking as I bowed. Based on previous discussions on this particular principle with Master Lobsang, it was only sensed that it would apply to my inner enemy, whatever that was. The Llama looked at me as I bowed, and while quietly handing me a piece of paper with a short list of items written on it, along with some rupees, the local currency, he said, “Please go to the local village and get the items on this list.” Whoa! I was startled as I said to myself, “I am just going shopping?” Okay, on one hand I felt let down because I was simply walking to the nearby village to get thread, spices, and some material. Big deal! However, on the other hand, I was excited because this shopping trip would provide me the opportunity to practice my Hindi linguistics while on my own. I bowed in acknowledgment and quickly headed toward the main door.

Shortly after I passed through the doorway, I unconsciously looked up from my feet to see the path ahead. Yes, there was the path alright. Uh-oh! Along with an adult Bengal Tiger staring right at me about a hundred yards away! I froze right where I stood but my mind was thinking that I must run back inside but still I could not move! Too late. My face flushed with hot blood from the adrenaline rush while my legs lost all motor function, for I just stood still, totally frozen with fear, peering into the eyes of my greatest nightmare.  And the door for my safe passage stood a mere twenty feet behind me! “Run Steven!” But I absolutely could not move an inch! Why not, for nothing was wrong with me physically, fear! My eyes remained locked with the tiger’s for what seemed like forever, and then he started pacing towards me. “Okay, don’t move and he won’t see you!” my mind informed me. My mind made no points in that moment because the big cat was now charging at me in what seemed slow-motion. I even lost my voice as I stood there, my feet super-glued to the pathway, watching in complete terror to what was about to occur. Have you ever seen a tiger jump into a full head-on leap? As you stand below it? I vividly recall his graceful, silent vault into the air, each front paw the size of my head reaching forever forward, inviting me into his grip. “I am going to die” was the last thought on my mind in that moment. A slow, agonizing death, for I was going to be eaten alive, the greatest of fears that I believe any one could ever have in their life!

Like all my fellow monks, my head was clean shaven. Here I am, writhing on the ground below the weight and jaws of a 400 pound tiger, his hind legs constantly pawing me into position while licking my shiny head. “Oh great, he is tenderizing my skull before he takes a bite out of it!” as I waited for the impending crunch. By now my voice returned in full volume as I was screaming and wailing at the top of my lungs, pleading for the big cat to just “do it” and get it over with.  Although the noisy commotion between the tiger and me could easily have filled a concert hall, I detected faint laughter in the background. I unconsciously moved the tiger’s mouth from my head…wait, this is amazing. What? The tiger actually let me! I turned my head slowly to look in the direction of the merriment and there I saw Master Lobsang, Master Kiela the Llama, along with two other monks uproariously howling, hands holding their stomachs, at a sight I did not at all consider funny. The tiger remained on top of me, his legs relaxed and sprawled outward, until he heard Master Lobsang slap his thighs. To this day, I have yet to observe another fully-grown tiger spring upward and forward as fast as my so-called attacker that day, jumping onto the Master, who laughed all the while he and the big cat rolled and wrestled on the ground.

“What a minute. This is not possible!” as I entered a shock of sheer disbelief over what I was observing right in front of me. After a few minutes I noticed Master Lobsang and the tiger gingerly walk towards me as I was washing my robes and myself down at the river’s edge. Lobsang looked at me with a gleam of humor in his eyes. “His mother had been poached by hunters and we found him just barely a month old at the front door to the monastery,” he notified me while the humongous cat leisurely lay beside us, just looking up at me. Lobsang continued, “Basically we all raised him from a cub until he was almost full-grown and could take care of himself. This tiger sees monks as his family. We are all brothers and we are one with each other. He would not harm a monk, or any other human for that matter he has only known humans even though he is wild. He was simply playing with you, intending no harm whatsoever.” Initially, fury and embarrassment enveloped me simultaneously as I exclaimed, “I cannot comprehend anyone perpetrating such a thing!” as Lobsang only continued to smile quietly. “Come, sit next to me here,” he requested. As I scooted over, the cat stuck his head between my forearm and rib cage, to which I involuntarily recoiled. “He just wants his head scratched,” Lobsang informed me. I returned to the position and, when I began scratching his head, I heard a deep, throaty rumble, a soft vibration coming from somewhere. Oh, he is purring! It is just a couple of octaves lower than a house cat but with volume that I think you can only imagine.

The big cat’s friendly purr and contentment rubbed off on me, for I regained my composure and cleared my mind, enabling me to then listen to my teacher as he began to explain the concept of fear. “Do you remember how you reacted in total fear the moment you first saw the tiger?” he asked. “Do you now realize what your greatest fear is capable of doing?” and, “Do you realize that fear, by itself, is your worst enemy?” “Yes,” I responded now having the full implications of the teaching and the full extent of what one emotion has the power to do over us. I knew in that moment that the relaxed tiger was not my fear, as he continued his “purr” concerto next to me. Fear, along with so many things the human creates, is indeed our worst enemy; yet, it is exactly the one we most need to face. We are all personally responsible for what is created internally and it may freeze you in place. I knew in retrospect that I could have gotten back in the door in plenty of time yet fear prevented it.

In truth, we must face all that we create, as each creation comes from within us. I now understood this critical concept. The magnitude of our circumstance is directly proportional to our level of resistance to an internal enemy. During my ensuing days and months at the monastery, that Bengal tiger and I forged a deep bond. I felt like “Tarzan of the Jungle,” knowing there was nothing to bother me because, whether I was running through the jungle paths or walking to my favorite meditation spot, he would always show up and approach my side, either running with me or laying beside me during my meditation. Oh yes, there were many an occasion when he and I would wrestle in fun, each in a zestful manner. In fact, he initiated most matches. And he never allowed me to win even a single one! From this experience it showed me the true danger of any emotion if it overpowers us. As each day passed into the next the tiger, Shanti Che was his name, taught me so many things of life simply by watching and I will share more of him as we progress through this book.

      Karmically speaking, if we resist fear, or anything else in life, then it has no other choice but to reveal itself even more strongly through a later experience and quite possibly be expanded. This may seem unreal but here is a very simple example of a physical experience in this matter. What happens when you get a headache and begin to fight or resist it? You are correct it gets stronger so why not simply allow for it, accept it and by so doing it will begin to dissipate and disappear. If this is true in this case then it would be true in all that we are offering in this principle and all of them to follow. To be sure, this is true in all things concerning our enemies, both internally and externally, hence the reason for the Law of Humility: what you resist persists for you.

The Christ once stated that when your enemy strikes you on one cheek, offer them the other. I feel He was talking of this very same principle because we create our own enemies within and without. In essence, His message tells us to no longer fight anything internally, for it will merely magnify itself, gaining strength to ultimately overpower us, with fear as the greatest of enemies. I admit I certainly and instantly metamorphosed to a human pillar, completely frozen as the cat bounded towards me on the village path that day; however, you must realize that the tiger did not freeze me in place; rather, it was my internal enemy, my fear of the tiger, which kept me transfixed. It is our fear that gives any enemy its power no matter what it may look like and my enemy the cat became my friend and teacher all because of the power of fear and using it.

When it comes to our life-long dreams, we are actually our own worst enemy, due only to how we feel about our dream actually becoming a reality by stirring up emotions such as our sense of unworthiness, doubt, and overwhelming fear in most cases. You see, we actually unseat ourselves innumerably more times than anyone else. And here we go on blaming them when, in the very first place, it is us! In my case it was me, not the tiger. When we sense fear as we focus on a magnificent dream, it enters from our sense of unworthiness or self worth, which are the same, to have the dream. So I now ask you, “What is the issue here? Is it the dream? Is it other people? Or our current circumstances?” The true issue, our so-called enemy, is simply our sense of unworthiness, not the dream, not anyone, not anything else. With the door of opportunity now opening for us to transform that seeming enemy into our internal teacher; otherwise, as we continue down the path of unworthiness, the odds significantly increase that our dream shall remain unrealized, for we create its opposite, failure. The vital key is where we place our focus. My intense introduction to Mr. Tiger transformed my fearsome enemy of a slow and agonizing death to my fun furry teacher as suggested, the friendship from which our bond grew deeply and wonderfully. From just that one incident, no fear rises within me even to this day, and I now answer every question thoughtfully and very cautiously because my desire is to give only truth. Fear and its subsequent trauma are both great teachers, though I caution you, you should be ready to use them only as your teachers; or else, do not create the fear unless you allow it to teach why you are afraid. Why are you afraid of your dream? Does love hurt? Is this what holds it away from you? Is this what keeps success at bay? Journey through fear as one of my teachers once said it is sometimes better to go ahead and climb the mountain instead of going around it.

      Aside from being an excellent teacher, fear is a very dynamic tool. “Fear as a tool?” you might ask, “What do you mean by that?” Fear really occurs from or through what we may term as the unknown, meaning that we simply do not know what the outcome will be. This is also why change is difficult as we journey from what we knew. Therefore, we hesitate or freeze-frame, immobilized as I was when the tiger playfully pounced on me. Looked upon another way, the unknown can truly be an adventure when absolutely no fear is involved in the process. Just where is the adventure and personal growth when we follow the exact same path or do the exact same thing over and over because we already know and are comfortable with both outcomes? There is an answer to this question which I will discuss in a few moments. First let us look at how our so-called fear may be used as a tool.  Because the status of material success is heavily reinforced in this part of the world, it becomes evident that harboring any fear of failure significantly increases the probability for that failure to occur. Failure, therefore, becomes the experience. If my supposition rings true for you, I offer an idea. Change your mind! Rather than fearing failure, allow yourself to harbor a fear of success, thereby increasing the probability for success to occur. This idea may certainly sound bizarre; however, it definitely has merit, does it not? In other words, if you fear failure and it happens time and again, why not simply apply the reverse by merely utilizing self-imposed reverse psychology? We obviously do this with each other, so apply it to your self in this instance.

Here is the next point: What do fear and humility have to do with each other? Their concepts appear quite the opposite, do they not? In truth, fear is one of the teachers of humility, and herein lies their relationship. If one is humble and operates from this arena they would fear very little, if at all, for a humble person is very flexible, contrary to being rigid. A rigid nature actually creates fear, Master Lobsang taught me, and it has proved itself over time and again. Rigidity creates an unbending nature; whereas, humility does not. “If rigidity or inflexibility creates fear, what then do fears actually tell you?” The answer is: You are too rigid in the arena of which you harbor the fear. Does this make any sense? Imagine a stiff, rigid tree. How long would it stand in high winds, no matter its age? I would venture to say not very long.  The same is true when it comes to the winds of fear, created purely by our rigidity, which means we are destined for a fall, all because of an internal enemy. Even during times of change, fear can strike as the old drifts away, thus immobilizing us into a pillar of salt while we venture into the unknown, even when the change is for the better. And it usually is, of course. When the wind of change blows, it is all about humility; therefore, simply apply the greatest level of flexibility in those moments by allowing the wind to blow upon you, by accepting the change about to take place, never blocking or getting in its way because, doing so, you are guaranteed a struggle.

We, as individual thinkers, do not necessarily accept change with any level of grace or ease, even though the reality of life blatantly reveals change as a constant, continuous, and harmonious aspect of nature. I find it interesting to observe how the unknown can instantly block us during a time of change as our innate fear rears on its hind legs to resist it.  Both personally and globally, resistance is futile, for the bottom line remains constant. Change is evolution. Yes, we seem to tenaciously prefer the well-worn path and all our creature comforts because, during times of change, we become stoically rigid. If we were to instead peer into the unknown as an adventurer, approaching the change with a high level of anticipation and excitement for entering yet a new experience, certainly flexibility will engulf our whole being; hence, fear and the resulting emotional trauma cannot exist throughout these moments. Though I had never been there, when I began my journey towards northern India, I was excited the whole time because of all the new adventures that would be encountered along the way. This remains with me much the same way to this very day, always looking to the new events. Do you know change can bring wisdom, whereas the same thing each day can only bring entrenched limitation? Remember, struggle is the old comforts colliding with the fear of new events to come; therefore, by objectively observing your struggle, it will plainly reveal where you have become rigid and, by so doing, you will derive the greatest of benefits that you could ever imagine, your dreams. As you progress through this process by always looking to the new, you would begin to anticipate change and effortlessly allow it to arrive totally free of all struggle, thereby experiencing your flexible nature. At the same time you will also head into a new direction in your personal evolution allow nothing to hold you from your change, no one or no thing.

There is another aspect of the Law of Humility which is felt important to share with you. It is this: what we object to reflects who we are inside. “Really? Where did this come from? How in the world does this relate to humility?” you may ask. In truth, the seat of our internal enemies rests with our outward objections or denunciations. You see, monks will suggest in their monastic teachings that if it is not in us first then we are unable to see it in another living being. In other words, it must be part of us before we see it in another. Conversely, if we know nothing of it in the internal sense of the word, then we would not be capable of seeing it in any other. Are you staying with me here? Let me put it another way. Simply because we leveled a criticism about another, that judgment had to come from or resonate within us first in order for us to even see it in the other. Metaphysically, we are actually admonishing something we dislike about our own self; therefore, when we view something in another person about whom we find fault, this is Karma showing us what we are or what we have become. Herein lies the key to this aspect of the third principle. More than likely, the objection is not only something we dislike about our self, but is also an opportunity for us to acknowledge it so we may then be able to change or remove that particular character trait from within us. In truth, at the same moment our denunciation is raised, the Law of Humility is also offering us an inner resolution with the exact same trait, but only if we do not object to what we see in the other being. My personal experience with the tiger was very humbling in so many ways, from my initial hair-raising objection of him through my fears to my awe and appreciation for him, a huge, powerful, yet gentle creature, my traveling companion. Keeping in mind this big cat weighed between four and five-hundred pounds, he moved in graceful silence, never hearing him in the forest unless he wanted me to, and became a great teacher to watch and observe. Aside from his natural ability as the fearless hunter, his behavior remained flexible and so gentle, very humble in each activity to the degree he seemed to actually honor life, taking only what he needed. What did I learn? Simply begin to accept my objections and, like so many other things, they will soon begin to dissipate. Let us take a look at how this all works in our everyday interactions.

I first recall the last principle that we covered: you attract to you what you are, not what you want. Are you beginning to recognize how these principles overlap and lead into the other? As an example, let us choose an everyday interaction. Suppose you fault another person for handling themselves in a glaringly arrogant fashion. In that moment of judgment, what you may not realize is that their arrogance may simply be stronger than yours, or they may be better at showing it, in which case you could feel a twinge of envy in that moment, the undercurrent. What if they are truly confident in what they do? Confidence and arrogance are two distinctly different ideas but may appear to be the same, when they are not. The first has its basis in truth and the second is based on fear or illusions. The first is solid and the second is actually weakness. The first does not explain itself and the second shall. You see, the essence of humility is when an individual is truly peaceful and loving life, applying absolutely no admonishments, always allowing others to solely be who they are.

Through our objection to the behavior or personality of other beings, we are essentially telling them they cannot be who they simply are and, when doing so, we have now transformed ourselves into a rigid, inflexible mode of operation. Of course you now run the risk of creating a physical enemy when initially there was none. In truth it is up to the other person to decide how they choose to act, not us. In fact, we have no right to determine how another person should or should not act. The behavior exhibited by every being is theirs alone, for it has nothing to do with us. We have no reason to judge them for whom they choose to be. Consider this, if we do not initially have that internal attribute to which we strongly object, how could it ever become an issue with any other? It simply cannot be an issue. We could all learn to not admonish others as much as we do and living humbly will create this for any individual while giving awe to life. There is one caveat in this and that is there are times when truth may appear to be judgment and the way to discern the difference is this; are you looking at the physical only through physical eyes or are you looking at it through your higher nature. Do not fool yourself by allowing your ego to answer this question.

      In this part of the world, it appears we have a high level of urgency to constantly tell other people how they should or should not be in any given circumstance, a compulsion to which I believe we have been conditioned. Who are we for doing this? What right do we truly have to do this? Do we really want others to be just like us? Would that not be a bit boring? Who knows you better than you? Wisdom dictates that we are better off tending our own house while leaving other homes alone. I am not surprised to see and hear so many disagreements, for we are all plowing malevolently through life, apparently behaving quite contrary to our truly humble natural nature. Another contrary behavior that has been observed is an individual’s insistence for being correct in all things. This begs the question, “Is it right to impose our right on another individual?” Just because other people do not see or do things our way does not imply we are correct to object. What is the bottom line here? Remember to be who you are, not what you are. If you spend all your time listening to what others are telling you about you, and you choose to change you only to please them so they like you, you have then lost who you are. At some point, because of this, you will not be a happy individual nor shall you ever become empowered in your own life by living in this manner and besides Karma says that at some point you will have to learn who you are. The message is to not give you away and this will not have to occur.

To read the rest of the chapter it may be found in my book:

‘The Twelve Sacred Principles of Karma’

www.hairfield.com my web site