Karma, destiny and free-will

Hi fellow Amarantians,

I do not recall seeing a category for questions that clients usually ask either when we introduce ourselves (who we are including what made us become a past life regression therapist, how we became a past life regression therapist, why we became a past life regression therapist), history taking or during integration sessions. If such a category exists, point me to that so that I can post gist of conversations that I have had with my clients in the right category. If such a category doesn’t exist, maybe it is time to create such a category.

For this post, I have chosen one of the questions that I usually get <=> “What is Karma? Are we (am I) destined to suffer like this for ever? How can I come out of it? What is destiny and what is free will?”

Following is a broad outline or general theme in which I answer this question based on what I know from my life experiences …

Karma has many dimensions (aspects) to it. Action and time are just two of the many other dimensions (aspects).

When it comes to action, I remind myself of this key principle … what I want is balance in life. To enable balance in life, every action has an equal and opposite action. Does this mean that when I radiate love, I get hatred to maintain balance? No. When I radiate love, there is a chance for getting love in return. I say there is a chance because most of the times, results are not guaranteed in life. When I radiate anger and hatred, there is minimal or no chance for getting love unless others around me are enlightened beings. :joy: When I radiate love and get love, everything and everyone are in balance. Just that I need to be aware and realize that I am in balance. There have been many a times that I have not realized that I am in balance … that I have been chasing so much to be in balance that I have not realized that I am in balance :sweat_smile:

When it comes to time, I have to remind myself that while time can exist by itself in an absolute sense without memories and awareness, at the human level of existence, a sensible experience of time (past, present and future) exists because of my memories (of the past), awareness (of the present) and thoughts (of the future that haven’t happened to me yet). When I say that I want to forget the past (without accepting and forgiving), I have to remember (again, memory) to ask myself whether I want time or memories to stop existing or, whether I want to learn how to accept, forgive and let go of the memories? I have to remember to remind myself that letting go is not forgetting. Think of people without coherent memories - with dementia/Alzheimer’s/Parkinson and now think about what do you want to do about your past/present for a better future and choose your actions.

Coming to what is destiny and free will, I lean on a belief that destiny is something that has happened to me in the past and what is happening to me in the present; free-will is the power of choice that I have about what I want to do in the present based on what has happened to me in the past and what is happening to me in the present. There could be other beliefs and explanations. Personally, I lean on this belief than anything else for the simple reason that it gives me peace of mind and a sense of balance. Again, for free-will to exist, time and memories have to exist. There is no running away from the past, present or future. :joy:.

Note: Looking beyond action and time, other dimensions or aspects of Karma that I have experienced are energy-matter (causation) and space-time. Will post about these in a separate post.

Curious to see your responses to this post that, personally for me, is sounding like one of Nithyananda’s speeches :sweat_smile:

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Hi Murli. Wonderful to see such great thoughts. You have very aptly indicated that Karma is our freewill and destiny is result of our past Karma. I often explain to my clients that results depend on our effort and destiny. We only need to concentrate on our free will and make full effort accroding to our beliefs. What beats me is that many of the clients are suffering from similar destiny life after life. I would be grateful if you could indicate your insight on my post on One PLR session that changed a client's life, grief is gone, understood the purpose of life, expanded consciousness, and more

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I am reading this more than a month after the post.
For me…Destiny and Free will are ways of acting out Karma…accrued in the past and being accrued continually. Some action taken in the past created a trail of karma that necessitates a lesson to be learnt. Till the is learn, the karmic pattern will surface as Destiny. Free will is the choice to act in a way that the lesson is assimilated and freedom from one karmic pattern is achieved.
Loved reading this part :
When I radiate love, there is chance of getting love…enlightened beings.
This, for me, was the chain of karma…what you sow, so you reap and it goes on.

And the part…When I want to forget the past…learn how to accept, forgive and let go of memories…Loved it. Indeed it the ultimate choice and the decision seems easy. In the journey of life, caught up in circumstances, this exercising free will is not easy because one may be in tremendous pain.

There is no escaping the time past as it will crop up in time present leading to time future, On a lighter note, the faster it can be sorted the better…

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I reckon as we live consciously trying our best to align with the universal principles we all end up in trying a create a balance (homeostasis) arrive at the same understanding @Murali
you’ve nailed it.
my 2 cent, from humble experience

  1. Destiny – the connotation of which for me is opportunities and outcomes
  2. Free Will – the connotation of which for me is volition or what I decide to do with the opportunities

is that both of these are synonyms of Karma!

Because even 2. is nothing but determined by the “impressions” samskaras :slight_smile:
A man is bound by his past and when presented with choices will chose based on what he has chosen in the past or what his past impressions will make him choose.

Bhartṛhari’s Nītiśataka

karmāyattaṃ phalaṃ puṃsāṃ
buddhiḥ karmānusāriṇī |
tathāpi sudhiyā bhāvyaṃ
suvicāryaiva kurvatā || 1.89 ||

Although the result of his actions is in accordance with his Karma or previous destiny, and his “mind” is also defined by same, a wise man should still undertake to do a thing after careful consideration.

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Hi Murali. Thanks for the call yesterday and for the wonderful discussion. We finally came to conclusion that Almighty’s plans and methods are beyoynd comprehesion of human mind. Thanks a lot for making me realise this once again.

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