The Heart of the Matter
Part 1 Part II Part III Part IV
Yoga and Health Visualization Waking Down Movement with the Mind's Body Karma Running Over Dogma Yoga as a Pyschology Dissertation Topic Yoga Symposium.15.327
kevin wood (sahaj, 7/27/99 11:54:18 PM)
It is a form of concentration, as well as a way to empower a particular form [what you are visualizing]. The mind when focused is very powerful this is called Samyama and can lead to powers beyond the ordinary. If you are visualizing an archetypal form [such as a Goddess] this will tune you to its energy pattern with all its attributes. A visualization is a focusing of the mind as well as a creation of a form within our minds that can lead to it's formation in the material plane as well. So I guess we should be aware of what we visualize unconciously and therefore create, before we venture into creating new forms. But an unclear mind will not have enough power to visualize.An asana visualized beforehand could help its eventual execution, but why limit ourselves to this? I feel like if we can tap into higher forms of power and insight then the asanas will happen by themselves out of our simple daily practice. The inspiration that comes out of the visualizations of the divine source [in whatever form] seem to be the best use of this power.
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Sharon Shultz (Sharry, 7/28/99 9:13:32 AM)Kevin, I would like to know what mean about visualizing the divine source. I have a hard time imagining this as I don't have a clear representation of the divine source since I believe it is everything. Could you give me some clarification? Thanks
Sharry
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kevin wood (sahaj, 7/29/99 12:15:49 AM)I don't know how you best relate to the divine source visually, but possibly white light or a flame burning in the cave of the heart? Maybe if you ask for a symbol or some inspiration for a particular meditational form it will be given to you in a dream or perhaps you already know? It is true that the divine exists in everything so anything could be an object for visualization. The key is to find that symbol that you resonate the most deeply with.
Shanti Om
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Sharon Shultz (Sharry, 7/29/99 1:13:13 PM)Kevin:
Thanks for the clarification. I do have a symbol I would use and now wonder if you could explain more how to use it. In using visualization in asana it's very clear. Visualize and then perform the action. You said why limit ourselves and that sounds very interesting to me. I would like to know how to proceed. I can imagine visualizing during meditation, but also know in the Gita and Bhakti Sutras you're asked to keep focused on the divine always. Could you explain?
Namaste, Sharry
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kevin wood (sahaj, 7/30/99 4:00:02 AM)Sharry, I guess that the intention to hold the divine always in our mind, as the way of connecting to our highest pontential, is different than a specific meditational practice where one uses a specific symbol during a particular asana {say, padmasana or sidhasana]. The yoga of the gita has many different forms depending on the chapter you read.
I assume that you mean the practice of surrendering all actions to God and not being attached to the fruits of our actions. In the Bhakti sutras the entire yoga consists of surrender to God in our totality.
To me, the intention faith and Knowledge that there is something bigger than ourselves that is guiding and teaching us is the essence of the spiritual path. The specific practices aren't that important but the intention behind them is everything. So whatever you do with the right motivation,[finding truth] will end up being the path to that truth.
As a specific meditation, I sit often in padmasana and feel the connection to the highest within the heart center having the hands in anjali mudra [prayer position, at the heart]. This I visualize as light and power and conciousness.
Traditional visualization practices often stabilize the visualization at the heart center or between the eyebrows. So you might try that, or deeply look within and ask how to use that symbol for your own personal meditation and follow that guidance.
Shanti Om
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Sharon Shultz (Sharry, 7/30/99 1:29:19 PM)Kevin: I've thought about intention all day and how it enters into my yoga practice. I wonder if intention and will are the same. Both seem to depend on a me. I know that we need a self to be in the world, and that's where we are right now. Yoga seems to lead us toward and expansion, like looking from the top of the mountain instead of from the bottom. Will seems more forceful than intention. So do we surrender the will to the divine in yoga, but consciously, with intent?
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kevin wood (sahaj, 7/30/99 11:29:21 PM)When to act and when to surrender is very subtle and requires the wisdom of intuition. This, I think, can only be developed by trial and error[in other words, our life!]. Intention is will and there is no contradiction between surrender and will as long as one is attunement with our inherent wisdom.
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visualize (YogaSuz, 8/2/99 9:52:08 AM)I'd like to offer Sharry something between visualizing a specific pose and visualizing the infinite. When I do asana, I sometimes find it helpful to visualize myself, say, " getting tall" before going into inversions. So, for backbends, a good visualization might be "getting strong" or "long arms."
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Karen (KFN, 8/2/99 6:15:03 PM)The word for seeing with the mind's eye is visualization. Hearing with the mind's ear might be ' auralization'. What do you call movement with the mind's body?
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Bob Cox (crotalus, 8/2/99 10:25:26 PM)Embodied and entheogenic?
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Erich Schiffmann (schiffmann, 8/3/99 12:24:45 AM)Embodied is a good answer, a very good answer. "Creation" is what popped into my mind. These are the same thing as far as I can tell. Life or Creation is the infinite movement of Conscious Being. To quote myself, from the beginning of the book, "Creation flows, for life is the movement of Being. Immerse yourself in stillness and become consciously one with the flow. Conscious union is yoga."
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Karen (KFN, 8/5/99 8:09:33 PM)
Well, I tried to get back to this a couple of days ago and say "Bravo! Wonderful answers!" But, first we had this awesome storm, and then our server was down due to drowned phone lines all the next day. So, Bravissimo!! I was stuck playing with words like "kinesthization" -- doesn't really roll off the tongue. And "intention" isn't quite it, either.
So Bob, "entheogenic" was a new one for me. Thanks for the link! Loved the legend.
And Erich, thank you for writing this glorious book! I'm almost throught a first read. Tracked it down because I enjoyed your Yoga Journal articles so much. We sometimes do the pigeon pose series in the classes I attend, and lately have been doing the triangle/halfmoon flow series from the book -- as my teacher says, "what a journey!"
NamasteYoga Symposium.15.318
yoga and health (Kit Spahr, 7/10/99 3:37:59 PM)
The idea of blaming people for their illnesses doesn't sit well with me. I think on some level we can be responsible for our health and certainly participate fully in the process. Stephen Levine said once something like...being healed doesn't neccessarily mean that you are no longer sick. Yoga cannot (or should not) promise that you will be free from disease (major or minor) forever. But I think it can support your experience of illness or even dying, in a healthier way.
I still feel better about doing yoga to do yoga rather than doing yoga to fix, cure, prevent something. If I become terminally ill do I let go of my practice because it " failed" me? Or do I continue with it on whatever level is available to me to stay present with the experience of dying?
KitYoga Symposium.15.502
Waking Down (Shakti Das, 12/8/99 1:20:26 AM)
The pelvic girdle is a big topic and one could articulate between the pelvis and the sacrum and how they are meant to move independently. When I ask a class if there is anything that they would like to work on, hip openers always come up.
Some people say that it is not spiritual to even consider the body, let alone the pelvis -- my my where is your mind -- tsk, tsk. Somehow heaven has become up and hell is down -- up is good -- down is bad? But really in yoga (at least to me) it is balance and integration that is most valuable. In the West many are already too far "up" and overly objectified. What is needed for balance to occur is to wake "down" and embrace life, the body, nature, and healing. There was a book written recently called "Waking Down". I forget the author's name (he lives in Marin), but it was all about this "up" bias/prejudice and how it has caused all sorts of anti-nature and destructive behaviour. His teachings focuses on bringing our consciousness down into the arena where spirit meets the earth -- where we become more fully embodied and empowered, where we lose our fear of existnece, etc.Awakening the kundalini so that it rises up the spine may be seen more simply as a joining (through the sushumna). In the joining does something really arise or does something sink down or really do the two merely meet, conjoin, and become as one (ida and pingala join at sushumna). Then "flow" is activated in the central column -- earth and heaven, nirvana/samsara become of one trans-dual taste. (Too much philosophy?)
When I am uptight, my pelvis is always jammed up, and as a two way street, focusing on unjamming the pelvis, helps re-synchronize my energy. Just to avoid confusion (I know I was confused for a long while) when anatomists say backward tilt or retroversion they mean that the top front of the hipbone (anterior superior iliac spine) tilts back (it also tilts caudal) away from the femur. After all the pubic bone is also part of the pelvis and I didn't know which bone to move backward (as these would be two different directions).Likewise anterior tilt or anteversion of the pelvis is when the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) tilts forward (and down) toward the front of the femur. I know that most of you already knew this, but it is an easy thing to mix up.
The details are endless and eventually if you tried to detail everything that was required in a movement -- all the subtle fine points that further accelerate flow, eventually the brain would get totally exhausted. Although I try for balance, its the Energy/Shakti, intuition, flow, and awareness that is most important, while the details are just there to augment the energy, etc.
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kevin wood (sahaj, 12/8/99 2:23:50 AM)
Down into the earth, the roots will find the source. The deep wisdom of the earth will raise the energy naturally and it flowers upwards towards the sun.
I agree that the most important way to liberate energy is to release the base of the spine. If they are joining ( the polarities ), as you say, then the integration is there, if raising the energy upwards is the intention (is this better?) then there is a feeling that somehow the lower is less than the upper. I don't feel this is true. I feel that the connection and integration is the most important aspect of using yoga, not raising anything, just realizing the truth as it is expressed in the prana movement and letting the movement teach us to liberate ourselves.
Up is better could be a way of escaping the world rather than seeing that all is an expression of the divine.Yoga Symposium.53.7
Questions (Loree, 3/18/00 11:59:54 AM)
Hi! I have been enjoying this web site for months. What an amazing source of information and inspiration. Thank you all so much.
I have a question..First, let me tell you a little about myself. I am a seven year graduate student, in no hurry to finish at least in part because of my utter disillusionment. I was looking for answers and understanding. I found confusion and chaos. It's not that I don't think psychology can be helpful, it most definitely is to many people. However, it is not beyond harming either. Whoa, I am digressing here, I could go on for a long time on that subject...
About four years ago I discovered yoga. It has been a large part of my life ever since. Then I discovered Erich's book. It was like a wave of clarity. I have often felt that when I am in the role of therapist (and yoga teacher), I am simply assisting others in listening and trusting their inner wisdom. Just to be still and listen. It is a beautiful thing to experience and just as incredible to watch.
I would like to actually graduate! I recently realized that I could incorporate my love of yoga into this whole school thing. I have finished all my requirements except for the dissertation. To my surprise I found many empirical studies investigating yoga's effects on such things as, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, self-esteem, anxiety , self-ideal disparity, mood, scholastic achievement, hyperactivity/impulsivity, stress, substance abuse and autonomic/respiratory parameters.
My advisor loved the idea. But then he asked, "So, what's your question?" What's my question?
So, my question is...any ideas on questions?
Thanks- Namaste.
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Marggy (marggy, 3/21/00 12:01:27 AM)Loree,
I think you are on a great track. What about taking just one or two of those human ailments and asking -Does Yoga have a positive, reversing effect on them?
One thing I am fascinated by is knowing which asanas have which effect on different moods. Ex. NOT doing foreword bends for depression because too much inward looking may agrivate the depression. Instead do chest openers. When I heard that it was news to me and I would like to learn more about that.
Also Loree, have you read Living in Process by Anne Wilson Schaeff. I think you may enjoy it. The first part talks about the author's disillusionment in the world of psychology and what she did about it.
Good night, Marggy
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Altered States (tympanachus cupido, 3/21/00 8:32:28 AM)Loree, It's been a long dry spell, nearly 30 years, of almost no research on the pros & cons of altered states of consciousness. Have a look at this seminal paper, at Stan Grof's work in general, and in particular, his The Adventure of Self Discovery.
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Erich Schiffmann (schiffmann, 3/21/00 11:49:30 PM)How about something to do with whatever the connection is between "depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, self-esteem, anxiety , self-ideal disparity, mood, scholastic achievement, hyperactivity/impulsivity, stress, substance abuse and autonomic/respiratory parameters" [what you said above] and" listening and trusting their inner wisdom" [which is how you described your role as therapist], and what that has to do with you experiencing a "wave of clarity."
Is there a question in that [that arises from within you]? I'm just thinking out loud. In other words, if I were you I would not want to be writing about something that wasn't fundamentally important to me.
So, what is your question? I'm curious.
:)
Erich
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Peggy Breckinridge (inner, 3/22/00 6:43:40 PM)This discussion about yoga and psychological states comes at a wonderful juncture for me. I have recently (like 2 weeks ago) taken a 1/2 nurse case manager position with a residential home for women dealing with addiction. And as you might imagine by the time you are in residential treatment, it is not the first thing these women have tried. The home can house 9 women. The length of stay (for those who can stick with the VERY structured program) is 6-9 months and then graduating to an appartment next door for approx 3 months before totally soloing. When I interviewed for the job, I said I would like to bring my yoga/mindfulness practice with me and teach. Today we worked out the schedule (I am there M, T, and half of W). I will teach a 1 hr yoga class on Monday and a 1.5 class on Wednesdays. I am very pleased at this unfolding. Much of the funding of this facility comes from community grants where emphasis is placed on measureable outcomes. Today I have been pondering what I could easily assess/measure that I could use in verifying the value of yoga for these clients/peers/residents- human beings. Is an exciting time for me.
Loree, it looks like we are seeking in the same area. I suspect others may have input. Does anyone know of work with folks with addiction issues (these women attend detox before moving to the home. So they are recently " clean & sober". Acupunture-in the ears, is available each morning for those who want- including staff!!.)? Also many of these woman have dual dx as you might suspect. I am not sure what exactly I will find but I sense I am in the right place and it will unfold. My task is to be aware of my clues!!
Daya
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Hi Peggy (denice, 3/24/00 10:06:44 PM)You must be fairly new to the symposium, I haven't seen you post before. But then I haven't been looking regularly anyway. In regards to your question about yoga work with addiction, there was an article in Yoga Journal a year or two ago, can't remember how long ago really, that dealt with that subject. It reported on the success the addicts were having in staying off whatever substance was their addiction. Wish I could remember more details but you could probably query YJ and find out which back issue it's in. What a thoroughly fulfilling job you are doing. Good luck to you and the ladies you are helping. Blessings, Denice
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Loree Shrager (shragerl, 3/26/00 4:56:41 PM)Well, I have come up with several ideas. But it seems that what is "fundamentally important" for the time being, is to actually, really graduate! I would like to do the most clear cut, simple study that I can! Something I have noticed and experienced, is a feeling of calm. Just a sort of, step-back-and-watch-it-unfold kind of feeling. I think it is something I have seen in other yogis. So, there is all this research which shows the positive effect that yoga has on all sorts of psychological and physicological things. I'm wondering if I can show that practicing yoga reduces stress reactions on a daily basis, not just immediately following a practice or at just a resting level.
But, I don't know. It will come to me, I'm sure. All those ailment I listed in my previous post have been show to be positively effected by yoga (Although some of the research designs are a little bit questionable) But if anyone is interested in references, let me know! I have managed to gather together a pretty hefty collection of articles. They don't mess around with this dissertation stuff. Peggy, here are some good articles concerning substance abuse and yoga- Lohman, Richard (1999). Yoga techniques applicable withing drug and alcohol rehavilitation programs. Therapeutic Communities, 20(1), 61-72 Nebelkopf, Ethan (1989). Holistic Methods in drug abuse treatment. Calajoe, Anne (1986). Yoga as a therapeutic componenet in treating chemical dependency. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 3(4), 33-46. Cernovsky, Zdenek (1984). Es scale level and correlates of MMPI elevation: Alcohol abuse vs. MMPI scores in treated alcoholics. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40(6), 1502-1509.
I think it is so wonderful that you are bringing yoga to these women! Studies are good to get grants and to maybe learn a little bit. But, I think you'll learn the most by just doing it and watching for those "clues." I work at a school for emotionally disturbed kids and I teach them yoga all the time. They love it.
Bob, thank you so so much for the beautiful article! [ 8<) finally! A fellow traveler who can find the jewels amongst the pedantic poop - Ed.] I went to the beach yesterday and took it with me. It was an absolutely magnificently beautiful day. I went with some friends who got interested in what I was reading, and we took turns perusing the aricle, reading aloud anything that struck us. It just really makes you take a look at what this thing called consciousness is. It gave me a lot of ideas and opened up my mind a little, very cool.
And, me too, I am also very interested in how different postures effect moods. I have found NO research on this. Which is surprising given the number of times I've read magazine articles or heard yoga teachers discuss this relationship with confidence. I have the same difficulty with hearing that certain postures are good for certain organs or systems..how do they know? Being the very skeptical, somewhat cynical person that I am, it is difficult for me to take things at face value. Somewhere not too long ago on here, there was a discussion about this. How did Iyengar know that certain poses "cure" sciatica and "cause" happiness (etc. etc.)?
So, I'll keep you updated on my progress. I am lucky to have a great advisor. He is very enthusiastic, to the point where he is going to take some yoga classes so that he might have a better understanding. He also is in the process of learning all he can about this subject and asked me to give him "the big names" in the field as he feels it may be helpful for him to talk to someone about this type of research. By the way, anyone have suggestions about "big names"?
I am so grateful to be able to reach out in this wa. This cyber world thing that has been created is really an amazing and powerful thing
Thanks,
Loree
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earthworm (earthworm, 10/30/98 2:49:56 PM)
Hello,
I'm looking for feedback on a question with karmic dimensions.
As an old pattern of mine unfolds, pieces of my karma are rising into my awareness. Almost all of them can be attributed to a pattern of response to a close friend emotionally challenging me which triggers a very unconscious fear response. I generally responded by angrily and assertively pushing them out of my life.
Here is my question. Does my penance require that I contact the people I have wronged on the physical plane in order to apologize and then, what if I cannot find them? Two of these people have been out of my life for almost 20 years.
When in the past I have apologized in similar situations, it seems to soften the emotional trauma I caused, and over time the karma seems to dissipate. Is there another way to dissipate karma? Do I have unilateral control over the karma? Can effects of astral apologies make their way to the physical? Does it matter?
Each day I am meditating and doing asana practice which is honing my awareness of this pattern. As I soften the pattern, I feel I must take conscious action about these past relationships, but I don't know what form of action.
Namaste, Gena
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Bob Cox (crotalus, 10/30/98 6:55:24 PM)
We usually turn out to be what we perceive ourselves to be. If we think of ourselves as confident and worthy of however we think we should be, then that's what we'll get because we'll act in ways that make it happen and reinforce the mind set. The converse is true also - symmetry is always comforting but sometimes not so nice.
At my very core I think karma is a delusion and, on a personal level, an excuse for failure or for accepting limitations. On a social and political level, as Kramer and Alstad point out, it is about as authoritarian as it gets and is meant to cause you to accept your caste wherever you might be in the world.
Sure, we're left with the problem of cosmic injustice as we vainly look for retribution of evil. But how does focusing on that make us more whole and able to realize life's potential?
I like to think "Time wounds all heels," but it's more for the play on words than any real fear that someone might be getting away with something. Taking responsibility for the quality of your life is tough enough - introducing outside influences into the equation is an unnecessary complication and seriously gets in the way of applying awareness, compassion and gratitude, first to ourselves and then to others.
I've been struggling mightily lately with the nasty fact that the Christian churches seem untainted by the burning times (that it had nothing to do with Y'Shua is beside the point). Knowing it happened gives me some protective coloring (it could happen again) but as I see no agent of retribution on the horizon, I've decided to let the fear and disgust go and simply get on with the enjoyable task of getting along with people who happen to have that belief system.
Seems to me, Gena, that becoming conscious of your past problematic behaviors as you describe them above is the awareness part; you show compassion for yourself by acceptance; gratitude for yourself appears in your resolve to refrain from such reactions in the future and to not dwell on those of the past (best to remember also that sometimes it might be best to have some people out of your life). If you want to reconnect, then tell 'em you now feel more worthy of the association and ask for a clean slate.
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IMPLOSION (earthworm, 10/31/98 10:18:07 AM)
Karma.
Another dogma held over the burning flame of clear thinking.
The point of view you express Bob resonates with my experience much more than the dogma of karma. I was trying to make my experience fit the dogma. If I extrapolate I find myself bathing in the words of Carl Jung in his autobiography,The Schoolmen left me cold, and the Aristotelian intellectualism of St. Thomas appeared to me more lifeless than a desert. I thought, "They all want to force something to come out by tricks of logic, something they have not been granted and do not really know about. They want to prove a belief to themselves,whereas actually it is a matter of experience." They seemed to me like people who knew by hearsay that elephants existed, but had never seen one, and were now trying to prove by arguments that on logical grounds such animals must exist and must be constituted as in fact they are.
As you say, stay with the core of experience, awareness, compassion, gratitude. It seems so uncomplicated this way. My ego likes complications.
Yoga Symposium.6.62
Karma Running Over Dogma ( SuZie Coyote, 11/4/98 3:11:25 PM)
Hello All. I’m back off the road and sick of airplanes. My butt hurts from sitting.
I haven't given up the notion of Karma yet (Bobby and I have debated the point.) But, to me, I think the concept of Karma is far more complicated than simple retribution for sins in this life or in past lives. I agree with Bob that the concept of Karma has been used as a controlling mechanism by authoritarian cultures. It has also been used as a foul excuse for practices such as suttee (widow-burning), child sexual exploitation, and other evils.
There’s an interesting book called Karma Cola, written by Gita Mehta, in which she “recorded her razor sharp observations… describing, in merciless detail, what happens when the traditions of an ancient and long-lived society are turned into commodities and sold to those who don't understand them.” It has been described as “is hilarious, provocative, and sobering as it exposes the philosophical misconceptions underlying the "invasion" of India by foreigners who flock their every year, seeking to soothe their troubled souls,--and the Indians, who cheerfully exploit them for fun and profit.”
In Karma Cola, Mehta, tells a story of a six year old girl who a young American couple find and “rescue” from a man who “rescued” her from an orphanage and taught her to perform oral sex for money (and who occasionally beat her). She was dirty and exhibited bizarre behavior, but she kept herself and her patron in food and shelter. Their “guru” told them that her plight was her “Karma,” and to give up trying to save her. The couple could not accept this and bought the girl, at considerable expense, from the man. The situation turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. The little girl was constantly trying to fellate the husband and any male friends who came to the house. Some of the “friends” allowed the child to do this, when the couple wasn't at home. The pitiable girl could not understand the sudden change in her life. She got her benefactors into tremendous trouble, repeatedly, by stealing (which she had also been taught to do) and refused to bath. She was weak and continually sick. The couple did not have the training, money, insight or skill to change the fruit of the previous actions as regards the girl. They could not help dissipate her “Karma,” which began when she was orphaned. The girl was traumatically confused and needed emotional help, but what was a young couple in a foreign country with very little money to do? Finally, they dumped her at an orphanage, where her situation most likely ended up being even worse than when the whole thingstarted. Pitiful story. Yes? Did the couple mean well? Yes. The lesson? “Karma” is amazingly complicated.
If Karma were simply tit-for-tat, it would be easy; an arithmetic problem to solve. But it is not. It is, again, fruits of action, effects…and effects are always difficult to gauge in advance. Those who are spiritually advanced, I guess, are better at predicting the outcome of their actions and refraining from those actions that harm themselves or others (wisdom?) .
Do we each have a “Karma” that must be overcome before we can spiritually progress? In a manner of speaking – maybe. Some of us get wise, some of us don’t. And we usually consider the wise ones to be “more enlightened.” Karma is (as the early Hindu writings say) simply the result or fruit of action. “A” leads to “B” (except of course, when something changes and it leads to “C”).
When we do self-destructive things, they usually catch up with us. When we do outwardly destructive things, they catch up with, well, somebody… eventually… but maybe not us directly. Regardless, each of our actions has an impact or effect on the rest of our lives and on the lives of others. When you reacted angrily at your friends and pushed them out of your life, Gena, the effect of that action was not having them around to affect your life in other ways. This is your “Karma.” You’ll get
some other “Karma” (or fruit of action) if you seek them out to apologize. You may or may not like the outcome; it may or may not be good, but it would probably teach you something (which you may or may not need to learn). If you “got it” that your behavior was not the appropriate response to your situation and have changed your behavior, you have grown.
One of the teachings of the 12-step program (which can be quite an authoritarian dogma itself) is to make apologies and reparations only so long as it doesn’t cause more harm not doing so. I.e., the person you beat up in a drunken rage and stole $200 bucks from may not benefit from having your apology or even the $200 bucks (you can always send it anonymously.) If it serves one’s own ego and not the other person’s needs, then it is simply another ego activity. Karma, to me, is best understood as a collective thing. For example, we in the US are building up a truckload of "negative” Karma by supporting tyrannical and terrorist regimes throughout the world. You and I haven’t directly done this, most of the dirty stuff we don’t even know about (but perhaps have supported by our voting or non-voting actions or by our consumer habits), but we collectively share in the Karma that will most likely resolve itself through war. The pollution in our air, water and food is another example of collective Karma – created by individual acts of greed, but affecting us all.
Self-reflection, making up for past wrongs, helping others deal with the mistakes WE make which negatively impact THEIR lives are all good actions. These actions bring balance and peace. But they don’t wipe a Karma slate clean. They do help our spiritual growth, though, because they cause us to confront the results of our actions.My take on things……
SuZThe words here belong to the writers - please provide attribution if quoted on other web sites or in other media. These excerpts have been selected and edited for clarity by the editor. --R. Cox
