Questions And Notes On Understanding Karma

[Guest username]

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The universe is vastly more intelligent than you. Human intelligence, and your personal intelligence, is a tiny filament of universal intelligence. The sooner you can grasp this, the smoother your life will flow. Here's why:

Your life is not random. The universe conspires to give you exactly what you need to grow. Not what you want, but what you need.

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Question: 

I'm confused about this. Where does this insight come from? Is this a deep metaphysical truth, or is it simply a model that facilitates spiritual growth?

I thought the universe didn't care what occurs to the individual.

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Think of yourself like a rough jagged stone. It can roll, but not very well. There's a lot of bumps and friction compared to say, a glass marble. The glass marble represents the ideal frictionless state. A state of full surrender. A state of full consciousness. A state of highest human maturity and development. A state where human intelligence becomes one with universal intelligence.

That is NOT your current state. Your current state is that of a jagged rock. So when you try to roll, it's painful. The pain points you experience every day of your ordinary life are PRECISELY those jagged edges which the universe wants you to smooth out. That's why your suffering keeps recurring and doesn't seem to end. Because you're failing to learn the lessons! The universe wants to turn you into a perfect marble. But you create very inventive ways to avoid the polishing process. You view it as hostile to your self, when really it is loving. You create ways to weasel out of it. Because its painful to get polished. If given the option between getting polished vs having an easy day, you'll probably pick the easy day.

The problem is... life is one loooong downhill slope. It's all about rolling. So when you avoid getting polished, you're just setting yourself up for a rocky ride. You can't be alive and not get rolled. The only question is, will you roll easy, or will you roll hard? Will you learn your lessons? Life is long and hard when you're jagged. The universe's purpose is to polish you. The reason you're alive is to get polished. This is the point of your life. If you don't understand this, you'll keep running away and keep experiencing a rocky journey. But if you understand this, you'll let yourself get polished and you'll have a silky smooth ride towards the end.

Your suffering is not random. In your suffering is great intelligence. Your suffering is literally your unenlightenment — is your specific ignorance. The intelligence of the universe is presenting you with life-scenarios which are designed to smooth you out in the EXACT ways you personally need smoothing. When you get into a fight with your Mom, when you get into a financial difficultly, when you fail at school, when you get into a car accident, when your spouse cheats on you, when you get a health problem, when you feel like quitting your meditation practice, when you distract yourself from self-inquiry — these are all messages of growth, calls to adventure, calls to your highest self. Guess what? The universe is not going to send you an email or text message saying, "Wake up!" It's much more elegant than that. It embeds the message straight into your life. How can you tell you have a message? Your suffering is the universe's "you've got mail".

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Don't go looking elsewhere for growth. It's all the stuff you're avoiding. Money is not growth. A new relationship is not growth. A thriving business is not growth. Employee of the month is not growth. Growth is how you are BEing.

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This, in essence, is karma. Karma is not some silly law of universal justice. It's the universe trying to optimize itself, the same way it smooths out rocks in the sea, turning them into elegant pebbles. When the rock doesn't understand the bigger picture, it's in for a grind. If the rock resists the process, it's in for a grind.

Happy living requires obeying certain spiritual laws. One of these laws is: let yourself get polished, dummy! Learn to read the messages and enjoy the process, because you've probably got a lot of rough edges on you.

Question:

Is the universe really trying to optimize itself in the way that there is some goal or divine will? I'm not speaking from my direct experience, but based on what I learned, it sounded like reality was already this perfect thing at every moment, absolutely infinite.

Edited April 5, 2017 by username

[Prabhaker]

3 hours ago, username said:

I'm confused about this. Where does this insight come from? Is this a deep metaphysical truth, or is it simply a model that facilitates spiritual growth?

This is a model that facilitates spiritual growth but this a deep metaphysical truth too. 

3 hours ago, username said:

I thought the universe didn't care what occurs to the individual.

From the smallest blade of grass to the biggest star, everybody is needed, equally needed. There is no hierarchy in existence. You are not accidental. Existence needs you.

3 hours ago, username said:

Understanding Karma

One cannot avoid action. Action will certainly be there as long as we live. But you can live your life without getting affected by karma. Remember, actions can be of two kinds: one in which there is a doer, and the other in which there is an actor. If the actor replaces the doer, the action will continue on the surface, but there will be total transformation within. Acting does not bind you to the action, it does not affect you. It remains entirely outside, it does not enter within.

[Leo Gura]

13 hours ago, username said:

Is the universe really trying to optimize itself in the way that there is some goal or divine will? I'm not speaking from my direct experience, but based on what I learned, it sounded like reality was already this perfect thing at every moment

You're holding perfection as in opposition to evolution. But that's a false choice. It's both.

A jagged rock is as perfect as a smooth pebble. But there is also optimization happening.

[Guest username]

@Leo Gura I realize that there's a distinction between perfection and evolution, but when you say "optimization", doesn't that refer to the process of becoming better than already is?

Is this still unclear to me due to my lack of awareness, or is this something that can be understood mere simple critical thinking?

How did you become aware of this?

[Prabhaker]

14 hours ago, username said:

Is the universe really trying to optimize itself in the way that there is some goal or divine will?

Existence is not a business, it is a play. And a play has no purpose really, it is nonpurposeful. Or you can say play is its own purpose, to play is enough. It is not evolving towards some ultimate; this very moment, here and now, it is ultimate.

Life as it is, is accepted in the East. It is not moving towards some end, because if there is some end who will decide the end and why? If God decides it, then you can ask the same question about God: ”What is the purpose of creating a world with purpose?” or, ”Why should he create a purposive world?” or even more deeply, ”What is the purpose of God’s existence?” Maybe life has a purpose and God decides the purpose, but then God’s existence has to be questioned – why he exists – and that way the question is simply pushed one step ahead.

In India we have always depicted God as a dancer, not as a creator -- God as 'Nataraj', the Master Dancer. Why? There is something immensely meaningful in that concept. God is not the painter, because when the painter does a painting, the painting becomes separate from the painter. When the painter has finished with the painting, the painting has its own existence. The painter may die, the painting can live. And when the painter has finished the painting, it may be a beautiful painting, but it is dead because the painter cannot put his breath into it. That is not possible. He cannot pour his vitality into it, his life into it. The painting may be beautiful but a painting is a painting -- it is dead. God is not a painter, God is not a potter; God is a dancer. What is the meaning of it? In dance, the dancer and the dance are one, they can never be separated. That is the beauty of the dancer. The poet is separate from the poetry, the potter is separate from his pottery, the painter is separate from his painting, the sculptor is different, separate from his creation, and so on and so forth. Only the dancer is not separate. The dancer is the dance.

[Guest username]

@Prabhaker I see,but then what's all this with reality trying to optimize itself? Wouldn't that suggest that there is a directive?

Edited April 6, 2017 by username

[Leo Gura]

2 hours ago, username said:

when you say "optimization", doesn't that refer to the process of becoming better than already is?

Depends on your point of view.

Primates have been evolving for over 5 million years. Does that mean Homo Sapiens are "better than" Neanderthals?

What is better, a chicken or a pterodactyl? Both are highly optimized forms.

Is Windows 10 better than Windows '95? Not in any absolute sense. Both are perfect at the being level. But there are differences in optimization at the relative level.

[Guest username]

@Leo Gura Thank you, I think I see what you mean now.

Edited April 6, 2017 by username

[Prabhaker]

4 minutes ago, username said:

reality trying to optimize itself?

No, everything is perfect. Life repeats itself mindlessly – unless you become mindful, it will go on repeating like a wheel. That’s why Buddhists call it wheel of time. 

[Shin]

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Your life is not random. The universe conspires to give you exactly what you need to grow. Not what you want, but what you need.

Life becomes so much smoother once you grasp and accept this

Here is how you'll feel !

Edited April 6, 2017 by Shin

[Arkandeus]

5 hours ago, username said:

@Prabhaker I see,but then what's all this with reality trying to optimize itself? Wouldn't that suggest that there is a directive?

yes, the directive is for your soul to grow and expand, to express the infinity of your soul...you are consciousness, light, with an unique and infinite essence inside you. 
as you grow you can express that unique essence more. 
it's not optimizing it's expressing. 
the universe wants to express it's infinity through all its creations. 
Just as you want to express your creativity, your curiosity, your projects, so does the universe, but through us. 

the goal is not to get someplace, the goal is really the journey, the ''optimizing'', the expressing is the goal, growth is the goal.  
There's nothing to do, we're all perfect....so what are we doing? simply playing with ourselves. 
see it as a video game, you start a lower levels, and end at higher levels, there's no point to finishing a video game, it's just about having fun. 

but to realize that you're just playing you have to awaken, and shake off negative definitions.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Arkandeus

[TeamBills]

Leo's insight post about karma confused the hell out of me. I kept rereading it trying to take stuff from it but it still made me just as confused. What did you guys take from it?

 

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Not what you want, but what you need.

How? What is happening in Syria right now is needed? 

 

In general I don't get this topic.

Edited April 7, 2017 by TeamBills

[Guest username]

@TeamBills I think it's what we need not from the ego's perspective but from reality's perspective. For instance, there are infants who die in the womb; from a selfish perspective, that is not needed, but in the bigger picture it may very well be serving reality.

[TeamBills]

1 hour ago, username said:

@TeamBills I think it's what we need not from the ego's perspective but from reality's perspective. For instance, there are infants who die in the womb; from a selfish perspective, that is not needed, but in the bigger picture it may very well be serving reality.

How would an infant dying help reality? In what way?

[Guest username]

@TeamBills I haven't still really resolved why or why not anything would serve reality; my understanding of how karma works is pretty poor, hence why  I made this thread.

I'm not sure, if I'm reading you correctly, but I'm sensing that you are suggesting that a thing like an infant's death is bad. Am I right?

[TeamBills]

23 minutes ago, username said:

@TeamBills but I'm sensing that you are suggesting that a thing like an infant's death is bad. Am I right?

yes I am but you could substitute a lot of things in that place

[Guest username]

@TeamBills What do you think is bad?

[Leo Gura]

9 hours ago, TeamBills said:

How? What is happening in Syria right now is needed?

Pretty obvious that that's karma from that last 50 years of unconscious actions and ideologies of the USA and the Arab world.

When people behave in egotistical ways, they get egotistical results.

It would be silly to kick a hornets nest and then exclaim in surprise, "Why, why, oh why???!!!" when you get stung.

[Prabhaker]

7 hours ago, TeamBills said:

How would an infant dying help reality? In what way?

Rather than finding explanations , always look at the naked truth. It is sad, it hurts, it is painful: see it, that it is so, but don't try to somehow whitewash it. All explanations and all philosophies are nothing but efforts to whitewash things which are not white, which are very dark and mysterious.

When such moments come, they are of tremendous significance because in these moments, awakening is possible. When a child dies, it is such a shock; you can awaken in such a shock. 

Life and death are both parts of the mystery which knows no answer. The question mark is ultimate. So all that can be done in such situations is that one should awaken, because these shocks can become a breakthrough. Thinking stops, the shock is such that the mind goes in a blur. Nothing seems to be meaningful, all seems to be lost. One feels an utter stranger, outsider, uprooted. These are tremendously significant moments; these are the moments when you enter into a new dimension. And death is one of the greatest doors that open into the divine. 

So just see that life is a dream, that everything will disappear sooner or later, dust into dust. Nothing abides here. We cannot make our home here. It is a caravanserai, an overnight's stay and in the morning, we go. But there is one thing which is constantly there and permanently there - that is your watching, your witnessing. Everything else disappears, everything else comes and goes, only witnessing remains. Just be a witness, a silent watcher and that watching is the only key which opens the doors of mysteries.

[TeamBills]

14 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Pretty obvious that that's karma from that last 50 years of unconscious actions and ideologies of the USA and the Arab world.

When people behave in egotistical ways, they get egotistical results.

It would be silly to kick a hornets nest and then exclaim in surprise, "Why, why, oh why???!!!" when you get stung.

What about someone who gets cancer and dies? Are we supposed to blame people for not coming up with a cure?