The unconscious reservoir
of karma within gives birth to our experience: past, present and future.
-
Patanjali
The understanding that many of us
have of karma is over-simplified at best.
We sum it up in statements like “What goes around comes around,” or “You
reap what you sow.” These are true but
we might have to look a little deeper if we ever hope to disentangle ourselves
from samsara, the cycles of suffering.
Samsara is perpetuated by our long-standing habits of thought and belief
and the actions we take based upon them.
The Buddha made this clear in the opening statements of the Dhammapada:
1. All the phenomena of existence
have mind as their precursor, mind as their supreme leader, and of mind are
they made. If with an impure mind one speaks or acts, suffering follows him in
the same way as the wheel of a cart follows the ox.
2. All the phenomena of existence
have mind as their precursor, mind as their supreme leader, and of mind are
they made. If with a pure mind one speaks or acts, happiness follows him like
his shadow that never leaves him.
It all originates within
mind. Karma is not a law to be
discovered “out there.” Instead it
operates from within us as our thoughts and emotions, ethics and
motivations. In fact, the idea of a
world “out there” is at the root of the whole system. As we awaken we understand more and more that
the world we live in is a projection of our psyches, both individually and
collectively.
Yoga psychology teaches us that
our karma is rooted in deep collective unconscious patterns. These are five-fold: ignorance,
ego-identification, desire, aversion and the fear of death. We are present in this experience because we
have forgotten that we are spiritual beings having a temporary human
incarnation. As spiritual beings our
nature is light, love, joy, freedom and immortality. Because of our spiritual amnesia we
experience ourselves as ego-beings whose illusory nature is darkness, fear,
bondage and limitation.
We can modify our karma by doing
good deeds, however if there is ego attached to these they become
contaminated. This seems very tricky but
through meditation, discernment, devotion and acting without attachment we have
a chance.
