Karma
The Karmic Purpose Of Reincarnation
Do we reincarnate? I know from both personal and professional experience that we do. I also believe we continue to do so, until we have learned all the necessary lessons bestowed upon our soul. We also carry over karmic debt from one life to the next, which we must deal with before we can finally transcend and not return to another lifetime in this world.
Sometimes we experience clear signs and evidence of reincarnation in our daily lives. The most common is meeting a stranger and instantly knowing deep in your soul that you have known them before in another lifetime.
We also witness this in our families and among our friends. I have seen traits and mannerisms of my grandfather, who passed when I was young, in my son who is now an adult. It always makes me smile, as I know where he’s coming from.
I have also come across several people I have known in another life. Sitting in meditation, I have been shown the capacity in which we were connected before. In a past life regression, I have seen how one of my best friends was an archenemy in a past life.
Some people have unusual memories from another time, or a place they have never been, or they often experience déjà vu. Another sign of reincarnation is having recurring dreams about people and places not related to your waking life. Or strongly identifying with a foreign country or culture, or a particular period in history.
The Karmic Trap Of Temptation
I love stories that inspires one to look at life differently. I had the pleasure of hearing just such a tale recently, and it was all about temptation.
Imagine Temptation unexpectedly knocking at your door one evening, bearing a gift-wrapped box. He bids you a good day and asks you to invite him into your home. He then offers you the box as a gift and tells you that every time you were to press a button on this box, it will immediately dispense $1,000! You will never have to worry about money again.
But with such an unusually generous gift there is bound to be a catch! Temptation then informs you that every time you press the money box button, a homeless person somewhere in a poverty-stricken community will pass away.
Temptation reassures you however that all people must die sooner or later. And besides, no harm will come to you or your family. You could even use some of the free money to help the disadvantaged in your own community! So, what do you have to lose?
Being human, we are all tempted from time to time. The question is, would you accept such a gift and press the button? Or would you tell Temptation to take the box and leave?
I remember my late mother telling me that when I was about two years old, she kept my baby stroller outside, in the garden, as she had nowhere else to store it when I no longer needed it. It stood there for many weeks, until a struggling young couple knocked on our front door (the woman appeared to be heavily pregnant) and offered to buy the stroller.
The Karmic Lessons Of Soulmate Relationships
What really happens when we meet someone whom we instantly feel a deep connection with? There is an intense ‘spark,’ or the other person somehow feels very familiar as if we have always known them. We just feel very drawn to them, or it feels like it is ‘meant to be.’ But is it truly fate or destiny, or is it just free will?
Well, it is both. Such a person usually comes into our life bearing the gift of a karmic lesson! This is related to fate, and soul contracts. Certain people are ‘fated’ to come into our lives, but whether we choose to let them walk beside us, and in what capacity, is almost always ruled by free will and influenced by which lessons we are currently working on integrating. With these people we typically share what is known as a soul contract or soul agreement, and often they are part of our soul family or soul group.
So, it is indeed ‘meant to be’ with these people…but, with a big but. We must be very careful what we wish for and remember that we also have free will, as do they. Just because something is ‘fated’ or ‘meant to be,’ doesn’t mean it’s something either of you want.
While the idea of us having a predetermined fate or predestined life path can seem like a comforting, convenient and safe concept, ‘meant to be’ does not always equate to ‘easy,’ ‘fun,’ or ‘pleasant.’ It is about the experiences we signed up for in coming here, and some of us have chosen some very challenging karmic lessons for this lifetime. Beware, karmic lessons are often difficult and really challenging!
What we learn from these people can transform our lives and boost our soul growth in profound ways, but just because something is destined or ‘meant to be,’ doesn’t mean it will necessarily be a pleasant or easy experience.
Karmic Fate Versus Free Will Manifestation
We often say things are ‘meant to be,’ or it was ‘fated’ and therefore out of our hands entirely. But is this really true? How much of what happens in our life is pure luck, chance, or predestined fate? How much of our destiny do we actually control?
Many people also believe that we are able to manifest whatever we want. But how is this even possible if there is such a thing as fate? If predestination or divine will rules part, or even most of our life, then surely there must be limitations or restrictions to what we can manifest?
Well, not exactly. There is fate, but there is also free will.
It is my understanding that fate is related to our karmic life lessons, while free will is our capacity to make choices and manifest aspects of our life as we desire. Many people do this unconsciously most of the time. However, as much as we have free will, the karmic lessons we have to learn are still woven into our life choices and integrated with our manifestations.
So, some aspects of our lives are indeed fated certainties. For example, experiencing certain major life events or traumas. These immutable, unchangeable events or outcomes are related to the karmic lessons we have selected to work through in this lifetime.
If a chosen karmic lesson is, for example, is tied to the experience of infertility it may be ‘fated’ that the person who chose this path will not be able to have children of their own in this lifetime, or will at least struggle to do so. This is an example of how a karmic lesson can limit or restrict manifestation. But, while it may preclude the experience of parenthood in this lifetime, it does not block the potential manifestation of parenting experiences – there are other options open to becoming a parent, such as adoption, fostering, or a blended family.
Healing The Karmic Patterns Of Ancestral Trauma
Sometimes during meditation, I recall past events and childhood memories that had been long forgotten. A recent vision, for example, took me back to the home I was raised in. But the scene was one I do not remember.
I saw myself as a little girl, around three years old, and members of my mother’s family were visiting us. Everyone was singing and playing instruments together. I saw myself watching them and enjoying the music, but then felt guided to look diagonally upward to another scene happening simultaneously.
In the other scene I saw my ancestors; at least that is what I concurred because they were going back in a line. Behind my great grandmother, who was playing the piano, there were people who I sensed to be her parents, and then her grandparents behind them, and so on.
In that glimpse into the distant past, I observed how the behavioral patterns and family dynamics of our ancestors, some of it dysfunctional and unhealthy, had become the patterns of my family. I also saw how these patterns were passed on to me and how it has shaped the patterns in my life and my own family to this day.
I then invoked the Heavenly Light to wash over all of us: myself and my family, my living relatives, all my ancestors who came before us, as well as all of our future descendants. I prayed that all of the disharmony in my family lineage be healed, and also that any other families and individuals we had disharmonious interactions and relationships with be healed too.
In Hawaiian culture this kind of healing prayer is known as Ho’oponopono. It is an ancient spiritual practice of reconciliation and forgiveness, which in English literally translates to ‘to make right,’ or ‘to make good.’ Ho’oponopono is essentially a personal responsibility and forgiveness prayer or ritual to heal, among other things, feuding families and ancestral trauma. When practiced repeatedly, it is said to balance out karma. I do believe in praying for those who wronged or harmed us, because within their healing we find our own as well.
The Divine Justice Of Karmic Lessons
We sometimes feel we have been wronged by others in some awful way, and then we wonder if the perpetrators will get their ‘come uppance’ or ‘just deserts.’ We wish to know if divine justice will be served upon them.
Sometimes we are so upset or angry that we would like to see this retribution happen immediately and right before our very eyes. In these emotional moments we are out for revenge and want to see the other person reap what they’ve sown. We believe it may bring us some peace that justice has finally been done.
As a youngster, I often heard my mother refer to it as “The Law of Return,” suggesting that whatever we put out there, both good and bad, will always come back to us. She would say that it always comes back to us tenfold!
There are also spiritual teachings and wisdom traditions that suggest if we don’t learn our lessons and correct our mistakes in this lifetime, it will become karmic in the next. It further suggests that we eventually will experience whatever harm or wrongdoing we have imposed upon others in our own life, sometimes for several lifetimes, until we’ve truly learned our lesson.
So, will others get what’s coming to them for the pain and suffering they have caused us? It’s my experience that this is rarely the case, but from evidential mediumship messages, I am convinced that a life review, when we reach the other side, is inevitable. The soul who has hurt someone else, will be held accountable and will feel what the other person felt very intensely.
I do know from spirit messages that have come through from certain relatives and family members on the other side, that they have relived what I had felt when they were harsh towards in this life. Spirit often comes through with messages of guilt, remorse and regret. The aim is usually to seek healing and forgiveness.