A LOOK AT THE INNER WORKINGS OF KARMA
I've been reading a lot of James Allen lately, and his words put me in a philosophical mood. Some of the things he wrote made me think about karma and want to look deeper into its workings.
Most people are still unaware of the fact that our thoughts shape our reality. And most of those who've heard that saying and think they understand it, really don't. It's no wonder 98% of people go through life as failures.
Observe the following process:
THOUGHT CAUSE -> THOUGHT EFFECT / ACTION CAUSE -> ACTION EFFECT
In other words: an action sparks a thought, which results in a decision that becomes a cause for the next action, which creates an effect that sparks the next thought. The ACTION EFFECT is the next THOUGHT CAUSE, forcing the cycle to repeat indefinitely.
Once negative energy, or bad karma, is introduced into the cycle, it stays there. Not only that, but each time the cycle repeats itself, the energy's power and influence is magnified. And while it always enters the cycle voluntarily, it never leaves until we identify and destroy it.
Similarly, positive energy is also introduced to the cycle, but more often than not, it has to be consciously planted there as a result of our decision to change a previously negative cycle into a positive one, or to "cheer up."
This is why our mental states snowball. If our day starts out badly, it often ends badly too. And if we trace back our steps from the end of the day to the beginning, we'll often realize that the bad ending would have never taken place had the day started off well.
In other words, our own inability to control our thoughts and the resulting actions are the cause of most of our problems. We have millions of these cycles going on in our heads at any given time: some are seconds old, others have been there our entire lives.
For instance, think of someone who was sexually abused at a young age. That person may be a senior by now, but yet the cycle continues even though it's decades old. And it was sparked by another cycle that could have also been just as old, and so on.
What i mean is that some cycle was responsible for the THOUGHT CAUSE of the abuser, therefore starting a new one. That new cycle ended with an ACTION EFFECT that left another person traumatized for life. Now that person's decisions are influenced by it even decades later, because the negative energy remains.
Let's examine something we're a little more familiar with. For this, we'll create a hypothetical character that has slept with many women who weren't single. He's seen it all, and by that i mean women who he could have sworn would never cheat... up until they did!
The ACTION EFFECT of the cycle (the woman cheating) is the THOUGHT CAUSE of a new cycle starting in his mind. The THOUGHT EFFECT / ACTION CAUSE of that cycle is him thinking all women are disloyal. The ACTION EFFECT is him acting suspicious towards his girlfriend.
What do ACTION EFFECTS do? Start up new cycles. But if others are aware of the effect, the new cycles also start up in their minds. In other words, the girlfriend would witness the ACTION EFFECT of him acting suspicious and use that as a THOUGHT CAUSE for a new cycle that would either lead her to wonder why he's worried, make him less attractive to her and cause her to cheat, or both.
And that, my friends, is karma. If you create negative energy with negative actions, it will come back to you. Maybe not today, maybe not next year, but it will. To quote a certain fictional character, "not even the very wise can see all ends." Or if you prefer, what goes around comes around. I suggest you sit down and think about all this and see if you can figure out how your negativity is affecting your life today.
FOLLOW-UP
Upon further analysis, i realized that one who is able to fully control his thoughts is sometimes exempt from this law. Or rather, his mind is strong enough to bend the law to his will and sometimes avoid the negative after-effects of his negative actions. We'll refer to this person as the Champ.
This is done by dissecting the thoughts that make up the first portion of the cycle, eliminating the negative ones and replacing them with positive ones. In other words, if the actions of an average person, whom we'll call the Chump, cause a NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT, they launch an all-new negative cycle like so:
... NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT ->
NEGATIVE THOUGHT CAUSE -> NEGATIVE THOUGHT EFFECT / NEGATIVE ACTION CAUSE -> NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT -> ...
The NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT of having cheated on his girlfriend would spawn a NEGATIVE THOUGHT CAUSE of wondering if she's doing the same, which would result in NEGATIVE THOUGHT EFFECT of acting insecure about that, and finally end with NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT of her either making his fears come true, realizing why he's afraid or both.
What the Chump tried to do is cheat on his girlfriend. What he ended up doing is inadvertedly letting her know what he did, making her cheat on him, or both. Why? Because he's unable to control his thoughts. He performed an action without having any idea of the laws that would be set in motion by his action, or the reprocussions.
Now let's examine what would have happened to the Champ. Not that Champs cheat on their girlfriends, but for argument's sake we'll assume he was taken over by animal desire and lost his head.
He's got the same NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT to deal with as the Chump, except he knows better than to let it to start up a negative cycle. So what he does is makes a choice to alter the initial part of the new cycle. His next cycle would look like this:
... NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT ->
POSITIVE THOUGHT CAUSE -> POSITIVE THOUGHT EFFECT / POSITIVE ACTION CAUSE -> POSITIVE ACTION EFFECT -> ...
The NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT of having cheated on his girlfriend would spawn a POSITIVE THOUGHT CAUSE of assuring himself she'd never do the same, which would result in POSITIVE THOUGHT EFFECT of increased level of comfort around her, and finally end with a POSITIVE ACTION EFFECT of.. well, nothing bad happening.
I've been reading a lot of James Allen lately, and his words put me in a philosophical mood. Some of the things he wrote made me think about karma and want to look deeper into its workings.
Most people are still unaware of the fact that our thoughts shape our reality. And most of those who've heard that saying and think they understand it, really don't. It's no wonder 98% of people go through life as failures.
Observe the following process:
THOUGHT CAUSE -> THOUGHT EFFECT / ACTION CAUSE -> ACTION EFFECT
In other words: an action sparks a thought, which results in a decision that becomes a cause for the next action, which creates an effect that sparks the next thought. The ACTION EFFECT is the next THOUGHT CAUSE, forcing the cycle to repeat indefinitely.
Once negative energy, or bad karma, is introduced into the cycle, it stays there. Not only that, but each time the cycle repeats itself, the energy's power and influence is magnified. And while it always enters the cycle voluntarily, it never leaves until we identify and destroy it.
Similarly, positive energy is also introduced to the cycle, but more often than not, it has to be consciously planted there as a result of our decision to change a previously negative cycle into a positive one, or to "cheer up."
This is why our mental states snowball. If our day starts out badly, it often ends badly too. And if we trace back our steps from the end of the day to the beginning, we'll often realize that the bad ending would have never taken place had the day started off well.
In other words, our own inability to control our thoughts and the resulting actions are the cause of most of our problems. We have millions of these cycles going on in our heads at any given time: some are seconds old, others have been there our entire lives.
For instance, think of someone who was sexually abused at a young age. That person may be a senior by now, but yet the cycle continues even though it's decades old. And it was sparked by another cycle that could have also been just as old, and so on.
What i mean is that some cycle was responsible for the THOUGHT CAUSE of the abuser, therefore starting a new one. That new cycle ended with an ACTION EFFECT that left another person traumatized for life. Now that person's decisions are influenced by it even decades later, because the negative energy remains.
Let's examine something we're a little more familiar with. For this, we'll create a hypothetical character that has slept with many women who weren't single. He's seen it all, and by that i mean women who he could have sworn would never cheat... up until they did!
The ACTION EFFECT of the cycle (the woman cheating) is the THOUGHT CAUSE of a new cycle starting in his mind. The THOUGHT EFFECT / ACTION CAUSE of that cycle is him thinking all women are disloyal. The ACTION EFFECT is him acting suspicious towards his girlfriend.
What do ACTION EFFECTS do? Start up new cycles. But if others are aware of the effect, the new cycles also start up in their minds. In other words, the girlfriend would witness the ACTION EFFECT of him acting suspicious and use that as a THOUGHT CAUSE for a new cycle that would either lead her to wonder why he's worried, make him less attractive to her and cause her to cheat, or both.
And that, my friends, is karma. If you create negative energy with negative actions, it will come back to you. Maybe not today, maybe not next year, but it will. To quote a certain fictional character, "not even the very wise can see all ends." Or if you prefer, what goes around comes around. I suggest you sit down and think about all this and see if you can figure out how your negativity is affecting your life today.
FOLLOW-UP
Upon further analysis, i realized that one who is able to fully control his thoughts is sometimes exempt from this law. Or rather, his mind is strong enough to bend the law to his will and sometimes avoid the negative after-effects of his negative actions. We'll refer to this person as the Champ.
This is done by dissecting the thoughts that make up the first portion of the cycle, eliminating the negative ones and replacing them with positive ones. In other words, if the actions of an average person, whom we'll call the Chump, cause a NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT, they launch an all-new negative cycle like so:
... NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT ->
NEGATIVE THOUGHT CAUSE -> NEGATIVE THOUGHT EFFECT / NEGATIVE ACTION CAUSE -> NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT -> ...
The NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT of having cheated on his girlfriend would spawn a NEGATIVE THOUGHT CAUSE of wondering if she's doing the same, which would result in NEGATIVE THOUGHT EFFECT of acting insecure about that, and finally end with NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT of her either making his fears come true, realizing why he's afraid or both.
What the Chump tried to do is cheat on his girlfriend. What he ended up doing is inadvertedly letting her know what he did, making her cheat on him, or both. Why? Because he's unable to control his thoughts. He performed an action without having any idea of the laws that would be set in motion by his action, or the reprocussions.
Now let's examine what would have happened to the Champ. Not that Champs cheat on their girlfriends, but for argument's sake we'll assume he was taken over by animal desire and lost his head.
He's got the same NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT to deal with as the Chump, except he knows better than to let it to start up a negative cycle. So what he does is makes a choice to alter the initial part of the new cycle. His next cycle would look like this:
... NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT ->
POSITIVE THOUGHT CAUSE -> POSITIVE THOUGHT EFFECT / POSITIVE ACTION CAUSE -> POSITIVE ACTION EFFECT -> ...
The NEGATIVE ACTION EFFECT of having cheated on his girlfriend would spawn a POSITIVE THOUGHT CAUSE of assuring himself she'd never do the same, which would result in POSITIVE THOUGHT EFFECT of increased level of comfort around her, and finally end with a POSITIVE ACTION EFFECT of.. well, nothing bad happening.
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