Quick Post on Karma – as I know it
I went through a year long Yoga Teacher intensive training in the style of Kriya Yoga, one of only two styles of yoga mentioned in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (not that this means anything necessarily). Kriya Yoga is the yoga of change. As such there were some lengthy discussions about Karma during retreats. It seems the deeper I travel in life the more I am made aware of differing views on Karma.
There are dozens so far that I have heard, some I know are from legitimate theories / religions / sources (not that any are illegitimate – I simply mean that the view is not a misunderstanding by the person relating to me the idea from a certain lineage).
I have heard so many such as: the idea that we are born with so many pounds of Karma and our actions add to this weight, or every year you add so many additional pounds, there are other thoughts that you carry your Karma from your past life into each subsequent life until it is burned off and you become enlightened, or that your form in this life is based on your Karma from a last life (if you were glutinous you are reborn as a pig, working off that Karma by being the best pig possible), there are others that believe each action results in either Good or Bad Karma, that Karma comes back Four Fold, that you get as much as you give…and so on.
I will try to put into words what my belief is based in Kriya Yoga. In most basic terms I was taught Karma is like a rut in the road. It is a well worn path that you continue to travel because you are not aware that there are other paths. I take this a step further in my classes for people who hesitate or balk at spiritual philosophy and say neurologically it is your synapses firing the same way over and over until there is no other way they choose to fire or respond.
To test this, sit in Sukhasana -crossed legged- notice which leg is in front, is it always the same leg? Switch legs, does it feel the same? Hold your own hand, which thumb is on top? Switch so that the other hand is dominant, and don’t just move the thumbs, move each finger down one – does it feel as though your hand is not your own? It shouldn’t for your legs or hands, your same skin is still touching itself, you just have become stuck in feeling yourself a certain way, or doing things a certain way – this is your rut or your Karma. It is neither good nor bad, but it does cause an imbalance, a dominance of one side versus the other – this is what yoga strives to change. To help you get physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally – passed your Karma, to remove the root cause of suffering.
There is always new Karma to get passed, the point is to notice it, get passed it and move on. See the bigger reality of life, and of the universe. Lift the veil and get a glimpse of enlightenment. In order to do this you need to be in the present. "Each day is a gift, that’s why it is called the Present."
