beliefs
Rediscovering The Untouched Soul
Our soul is always a clean slate when we are born. Knowing this and living accordingly is true spirituality. However, the virgin territory of our soul is often more or less blemished or darkened due to many traumas and challenges throughout our lifetime.
Along our life path, we often lose much of the spiritual innocence we had as children. Instead, we begin to dwell in shadows of darkness in various forms: indifference to the destiny of others, confinement in our own; laziness, vanity, greed, envy, violence, hatred.
None of us can deny having at times dark thoughts or toxic emotions, malicious habits or selfish behaviors. However, no matter how widespread and ingrained the darkness may become in us, it is also certain that something immaculate always persists in some corner of our inner being. Even if it is tiny, there is an eternal point of light within where our higher self always remains pure and original. The sacred we carry within cannot be defiled.
As much as life may have made us callous or cynical, we always have this sacred stronghold inside. Herein lies the hope of those who practice spirituality: to reach that virgin point and rediscover in it one’s original nature.
This original nature, pure and innocent, we have sometimes forgotten to such an extent that we need someone or something to remind us to look inside ourselves to rediscover who we truly are.
We sometimes need someone to explain that we suffer because we have stopped believing in purity, beauty and what is good. We need someone to remind us that our deepest identity is virginal and fruitful, empty and full, both things, however contradictory this may seem.
Miracles Happen Every Day
A miracle is described in the dictionary as “an event attributed to divine intervention”, and also referred to as “a phenomenon that defies the laws of nature”. The online Encyclopedia Britannica defines a miracle as “an extraordinary and astonishing happening that is attributed to the presence and action of an ultimate or divine power”. In certain translations of the Bible the terms “wonder,” “mighty work” and “sign” are also used to describe miracles.
Most people would say that a miracle has occurred when the medical profession says there is no hope for a particular patient, and then, miraculously, the patient recovers fully, and without the complications which would have been expected connected to their condition.
But miracles are not necessarily always larger than life or dramatic. Miracles can happen for anyone at any time. And don’t expect an earthly explanation, or even to be taken seriously by everyone when the miracle has happened to you.
People have often told me of little miracles that have happened to them. For example, they don’t know how their bills will be paid, and out of the blue they receive a check in the post, or money is given to them, or they would win the exact amount needed to lift them out of their financial dilemma. Although I can’t prove it scientifically, I also know for sure that miracles have happened to me.
Two separate miracles I recall very vividly are both connected to my pets. A dog, and a cat named Miracle!
When my 5 year old Rottweiler, Sophia, was rushed to the vet with what we thought was an upset stomach, a burst duodenal ulcer and peritonitis were diagnosed instead. The vets had little hope, because even for strong humans this ailment can be life threatening.
Following the diagnosis, the vet phoned me and said they had to operate immediately. I asked if I could phone my husband and get back to them. I was informed with a sense of urgency that there was no time to do that, and even if they did operate on Sophia immediately there was very little hope.
The Three Laws of Grace
There are three primary Laws of Grace that function under the overarching Law of Attraction. Grace is generally associated with divine support or spiritual help, but in this context it simply means that we are always free to choose again.
The Law of Love
The first Law of Grace is the Law of Love. The Law of Love does not refer to feelings, sentiments or emotions. Too often it is assumed that love is a feeling we get when we are with someone, but in metaphysics and spirituality love is not a feeling.
Instead, spiritual love is choosing to accept others as they are and to want what is best for them. What most of us know as ‘love’ today is actually ‘like,’ because to like someone or something is conditional. Real love, on the other hand, has no conditions. It is unconditional.
There is also a common belief about ‘love’ that can be very damaging to relationships. Sometimes we create emotional attachments to future events and declare that “this is love.” Yet, it is impossible to love a future other – either you love a person, or you do not.
When people conjure up extensive images and stories about a future version of another person and attach their mental and emotional attention to these things, they often create a strong sense of painful longing, which creates within them the desire to change the other person.
It is this painful yearning that is the key to understanding, because with the Law of Attraction like always attracts like. Painful longing can only ever attract more pain. It does not even matter how compatible two souls are in this life, if one of them is participating in such a painful longing, then pain will inevitably become the result of the relationship.
Love is unconditional acceptance and there is only one love. Therefore, Buddhists believe one cannot have friends and enemies. If you have enemies then eventually all of your friends will become enemies, and vice versa.
How To Clear Your Karma
Karmic cycles are repetitive patterns in consciousness that emerge through a belief that is contrary to the laws of the Universe.
Some religions and spiritual teachings refer to humanity as the ‘children of God.’ When I use the term ‘God,’ I do not mean some off-world deity that is separate from us mere mortals. To me God is the All. It is the Creative Force. Being a ‘child’ of this Creative Force means that we have the same nature and creative capacity.
Many wisdom traditions also equate words, thoughts and consciousness with God’s ability to create. In other words, thought has a creative function in the Universe. Thoughts are words, images, and stories that are repeated in the mind and they have creative power.
Another way of saying this is that whatever we choose to think or believe about ourselves and others, and about the world around us, ultimately becomes true for us. This is important when discussing how to clear away old karmic patterns.
Karma are patterns of thought that are repeated in the mind and influence how we create our life experiences. Free will means that we have total freedom in what we choose to think and believe.
This is not to say that a specific thought, or even a behavior, is wrong or bad. In fact, the Universe or God always takes us at our own value and says yes to all our thinking and feeling patterns.
Karma is a secondary spiritual law to the Law of Attraction, that allows us to evolve continually into our higher potentials. From an esoteric or spiritual perspective this relates to the expansion of love, joy, and peace within our mind.
Karma and the Law of Attraction are also separated by a protective buffer, in that we often experience less damage than our minds can produce through thought, and we also receive more good than our minds can produce through thought. In metaphysics this is known as the Law of Grace. Continue reading
The Karmic Fruit Of Our Past Life Seeds
To be the architect of our own destiny is a spiritual concept that has been spoken of for thousands of years. The Vedas call it Karma. The Bible refers to it as ‘reaping what you sow.’
Karma is a Sanskrit word that means action, as well as reaction. It has made its way into our everyday language to represent the good or bad we create in life that will eventually come back to us.
However, the true meaning of karma goes much deeper than that. In this life it does refer to ‘sowing and reaping’ in the short-term, but it also extends into the long-term, over thousands of years and many lifetimes.
The Padma Purana, an ancient Hindu encyclopedic text of spiritual truths, compares karma to seeds that are sown and harvested in due course of time. It explains that every activity we perform bears four kinds of effects. The first is merely a seed, the second is not yet fructified, the third is in the process of being fructified, and the fourth has blossomed and is already mature.
The karma we are experiencing today, are the sweet and sour fruits of the past seeds we have planted, – not only in this lifetime, but also from thousands of years and lifetimes before this life.
Therefore, we may not be able to recognize why certain things are happening that seem out of sync with the efforts and energies we are extending in the now. Similarly, it may sometimes be disheartening and difficult to understand why the desired results of our best endeavors do not appear to be coming to fruition.
To thoroughly resolve these misgivings, a broader scope of our soul’s journey before and beyond this one body and lifespan must be considered. Clarity can come with spiritual vision and higher consciousness.