The Karmic You

First Published 14-January 2011

What you are when you were born is pre-determined by what you have done - physical, physiological and psychological. What you are today is pre-determined to the extent that what you do today has not altered such pre-determined state. However what you do today may not materially alter the state that you were born in.

What you are today is the result of past actions and your future will be conditioned by present and future actions together with your past actions.

If you want to know what you were in the past you only need to examine your present deeply. If you want to know what you would be in the future examine your current deeply.

You can change the immediate future (this life) and future lives if you prevent current actions of body, speech and mind from adversely conditioning your future (these 3 make up the Karmic activity).

This is Karma - the law of Karma - the law of cause and effect.

Each one of your actions, whether of body, speech and mind creates a mental imprint, like a seed that is planted. When conditions are right the seed with the help of other things (like water and soil) will grow in to a tree and bear fruit with new seeds. The new seed is not the same as the old seed. It is a transformed seed. If the conditions are good it will give a good seed, and bad a bad seed. Likewise acts your mental imprints created by karmic activity. Good and bad and the potential for both are latent in us, only to manifest when conditions are right.

The notion of "self" perpetuates this process. We tend to grasp at a "self" which give us the false impression that the self and everything around us exists as something permanent - that is that it exists inherently, by its own side, in its own right, by it self - and has solidity.

If you find difficult to understand this just think of

(1) Your body which you consider "self". Is your body really your "self"? If so, where are you in your body? How is that you have no control of your body? Or, how is it that you say bye-bye to a part of your body that goes out when you excrete? And, why is it that you can, today, replace almost every part of your body? How difficult have you felt to get rid of a part of "you" (your "self") when the doctor said he has to take your appendix out? How long did you take to come to terms that your self was no longer in that appendix? Then, if your self was in the appendix how is it that you are able to get rid of it and "trash" it after the operation?

(2) Everything you see, touch, taste smell, hear and think has "self" bathed allover it. It is the "you" quality that you give to it. When you discriminate anything (you will find you discriminate everything) isn't that the result of you passing judgement on it? When you say this is red color or mauve color or wine color, isn't that "you"? Wine for you maybe mauve for me? Have you seen your "self" extended to outside objects? How many of us have seen it in our new car or new mobile phone? When the item is new we look after it like an extension of our "self", not allowing anyone to touch it, and so on. But as time goes on, our "self" nature starts to recede back to our body. We no longer seem to care too much about anyone handling it. Think about it.

If you look deeply within you, you cannot find yourself. So in addition the 5 sense consciousness and the mind consciousness we have this grasping to a self consciousness.

This "self" notion makes us see everything and experience everything in relation to this self. We therefore get angry, emotional and perceive all things as being either good or bad to this "self". No event or happening is good or bad in it self. It is good or bad in one's perception. Everything we see is not what it really is, we only see an image of what we think it is. The same applies to our impressions of people. Everything including people react and change every second. It is never a snapshot image. But we tend to make our inferences based on the image we have which is one of several retained in our mind and that too perceived through our own standard - one molded by all things present, past and inherited including religion, culture, education and upbringing - our notions, concepts and creations.

We are in fact no better than every other creature we think lesser of, say, such as an insect, the omnipresent cockroach for instance. When a cockroach's feelers connect with an object a whole world lights up. Its sees its world as much as we see ours. But who sees what is real?

A way to lessen the effects of karmic activity is to stop or minimize the self from experiencing and thereby conditioning our thoughts, feelings, emotions, metal formations and consciousness. This means to view all things "selflessly", with equanimity. This state is not an easy state to reach. A mere intellectual understanding does not do the trick. One has to actualize it and attain it. This will certainly require a lot of practice.

What is the effect of good deeds or good karmic activity?

In your current life and immediately - will help you see things differently - so will affect your physical, physiological and psychological being.

In your future life - you may prevent the manifestation of bad. But of course you cannot expect to be transformed in to a life of comfort immediately. You may however experience mental happiness immediately.

And by continuing these practices you will transform your future.

And, simply put, STRESS is the psychological effect, which will affect you physically and physiologically.