Learning from karmic bondage

In a culture of avoidance for the sake of ‘solving problems,’ most become oblivious of the lessons in Life. How could we learn from a situation of cheer suffering? We may ask.

Emotional suffering brings the opportunity to observe how insignificant this “I” could be. It doesn’t matter how much we try to “protect” it or to avoid any sort of unpleasant situation, Life will bring a way for us to experience the other half of that duality.

Observe the life of any individual. It has its side of pleasure and its side of pain. Those sides cannot be measured and we cannot compare with another as Life brings the experiences according to our capacity to withstand them. There is no way out, no matter how clever or smart we believe to be. This realization in itself will bring a sense of awe and respect for Life for the rare opportunity to live and experience. After all, it is not about “my accomplishments,” or “my success.” Observe that the other side of the duality, the one we want to run away from, will kick in at some time. This is the part of the story that we never get to learn in society; as the promotion of the “I accomplish this” or the “successful I,” is there continuously. Along those lines is the thought behind “settling a karmic account.” That is, “let me be successful.” “Let me give you the method.”

Let me be concise. It does not depend fully on us. Therefore, it is important to learn to observe and deal with situations as they appear in front of us and not based on some philosophical, idealistic view of Life.

Let me illustrate: Person A knows that person B steals. Person A has a distaste for stealing and likewise for person B. Perhaps in a religious setting, person A has been taught to “forget and forgive” and to “never steal” or perhaps person A has been taught to send “good feelings and good wishes” and he is “practicing that.”

A few years later, Life brought suffering to person A. Person A lost everything he had. Person A experiences hunger now. Person A is ready to steal in order to survive. If person A lacks observation and he is only concerned in protecting that “I” and enhancing it, then his awareness is not there yet and he will continue to deepen the experience of sorrow. Nothing wrong with taking that path. However, this is a great opportunity for mercy and compassion to appear without “practice,” therefore; the real deal. Person A knows about misfortune and he will not be so fast in judging another. That is the value of experiencing a misfortune and taking the “jewels” of that experience with us. That requires an individual with keen observation and above all, awareness.

On the other hand, most will fight back. Through that mentality of “fighting in Life” they may get back where they were before or even above that through their own “effort,” but… their sense of “I” will have grown exponentially . “I overcame misfortune. Let me teach you how to do it. Read my book. Buy my DVD. I am an example.” A “success story” is born and our society likes that. For society and many “spiritual” teachings, there is no need to appreciate the experience of tragedy and be open for a humble beginning where we can understand what is like to feel misfortune and put ourselves in someone’s shoes. Incredibly, it is out of that appreciation how “virtues” will flourish without learning any intellectual “spiritual teachings.”

If we experience what is like to be compassionate, then courage will appear. If we learn to be frugal with ourselves, then we have the space to be generous with others. However, if we take frugality as the way to enrich ourselves (the “I”,) then a penny pincher will be born instead.