Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for midnight, so we can proceed with a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. (Any question received after then will not get an answer, and will likely just be deleted.) If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 143,916th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.0 of The Magic Monday FAQ here

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With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed. See you next week!***

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

A few questions about how karma works:

1. If someone has bad karma coming their way, does a certain amount of bad stuff have to happen to them and the universe will keep throwing misfortune at them until it has? Or do they just need to have a certain amount of potentially bad stuff thrown their way? Then if they handle it so well very little bad gets through, the account is still considered settled?

2. You've said one of the ways to burn off karma is to realise the full consequences of your actions on the astral plain. Is this limited by your current incarnation's knowledge and empathy? Or can you also clear actions where you didn't know you did anything wrong, or even from a previous life you don't remember?

3. According to occuly philosophy, souls have to experience pretty much every bad thing as part of their development. What happens if a soul needs to experience something but either doesn't have bad enough karma to bring it on, or they have enough karma but it's for a different specific kind of bad? Is the learning experience put on hold until they've done the right kind of wrong to earn it?

[(Anonymous)]

Former Buddhist with about a decade of fairly serious practice here:

1) Karma is simply action, and by extension, causality. It's not a cosmic checking account that has to be balanced out down to the cent. Actions have consequences, harmful ones increase the amount of harm in the world, benevolent ones increase the amount of benevolence in the world; and in either case, the person doing things is in the middle of that change. The most common understanding of "bad karma" is that it is forcing you to realize that you are not separate from others, and the resulting negative events are to help overcome the illusion of separation. It is possible to handle things so well that relatively little suffering arises from unwholesome actions, this is usually called "skillful means". Your next question makes it clear you are familiar with at least some of how it works.

2) This actually varies widely. Usually, all your karma is present in your current incarnation even if you don't remember your past and aren't required to deal with all of it at once. In this case, the distinction between past and current incarnation as a source of karma isn't terribly valuable, you are still dealing with the same karma and the same patterns and modes of being. Sometimes, past lives become the spiritual equivalent of a cyst; they are a minor but chronic problem until they are removed, then they temporarily turn into a large problem until they are dealt with.

3) The common western formula, as I'm aware of it is "The soul must know and experience all things". My understanding is that this doesn't mean every bad thing has to happen to you, it means that the soul needs some sort of balance and communion with everything it is in contact with. Once it does that, it is allowed into a wider circle for new lessons, and so on.

An important addendum, the Buddha himself taught that trying to uncover the workings of karma is a barrier to enlightenment. The thing to focus on is restraining your own vices and cultivating your own virtues; growing in understanding and allowing the three poisons to fall away.

If you are trying to puzzle out suffering in your own life, you might be better served by asking a more specific questions. Also, the FAQ has some really good techniques in it, and the books recommended are top notch as well. Hopefully this helps.

[open_space]

Thought it doesn't tackle your questions precisely, I'm currently reading a book called Karma by Sadhguru which is worth reading if it interests you. It's fairly basic but it's accurate and has good info.

[ecosophia]

In terms of Western occult teachings:

1) It's not a matter of a fixed amount of bad stuff. It's a matter of getting hit with the consequences of your actions until you get a clue and outgrow the aspects of your character that caused the problems. That can be fast, it can be slow, it can involve a lot of fancy footwork on your part, but until you grow up, it just keeps on coming.

2) Part of the way it works is that you keep on getting hit by situations like the one where you messed up, so you don't have to remember -- you'll be reminded.

3) There may be a soul like that. I've never encountered one.

[open_space]

2) What about repeated good situations where you are reminded of something you need? Is that a consequence of good karma? If so, what is the role of good karma?

[ecosophia]

That gives you a chance to build on what you've already accomplished.