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Copyright © 1997 by Bettye B. Binder
All rights reserved. Inquiries should be addressed to
Twelve Star Publishing, P.O. Box 123, Jefferson, MD 21755
Karma is frequently misunderstood in Western culture.
It is often thought to be "unpaid debt" for some wrong
we did in a past life. In reality, that is a very narrow and even
misleading idea because "karmic debt" applies to matters
where we literally owed someone something from a past life. It
is rather like having to pay off the mortgage on your house.
The classic definition of the Law of Karma is the Law of
Cause and Effect. This idea is very commonly interwoven into Western
thought without being identified as Karma. Here are examples:
"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
"What goes around, comes around." "As ye sow, so
shall ye reap." Even the Golden Rule is the Law of Karma.
What Karma actually is is a "lesson plan" or
"curriculum" which each Soul selects between lives the
way a student chooses courses to study before returning to class
each semester. This "karmic lesson plan" is brought
into a new lifetime at birth as a blueprint which unfolds as the
lifetime develops. An astrologer can identify the terms of this
blueprint in your birth chart.
Each challenge, block or lesson which a Soul encounters
is a chapter in this lesson plan. As events unfold, it may feel
like you are being punished for something. However, it is really
nothing more than "the courses" in which you choose
to enroll: Remember: you go to school to learn, not to be punished.
Karma is often mislabeled as punishment because it is confused
with the Christian idea of "sin." By implication, one
might conclude that the only karma is "bad karma." That
is not so. In reality, "bad karma" is nothing more than
lessons we did not learn in another lifetime. We may experience
these unlearned lessons as blocks, problems or challenges in the
present life. That does not mean we have been "bad"
or we have "bad karma."
One way of reframing this idea might be to think of "bad
karma" as courses we dropped or flunked in a past life. Since
they are "requirements for graduation," we have to take
these classes sometime, and perhaps this is the lifetime in which
we decided to enroll in them.
Once we have mastered these subjects, we develop "good
karma." These are the lessons, problems or challenges we
have overcome. Unfortunately, many people tend to discount things
that come easily. I always urge my students not to do that. It
is important to realize that "good karma" is what Edgar
Cayce called "the Law of Grace." It represents what
we have already learned and no longer have to work through in
this lifetime.
For many people, this is a painfully difficult and challenging
time in which to live. For some, it is more challenging than for
others. I suggest the next time you are karmically challenged
you might ask yourself this question: "What am I learning?"
Although asking this question may not decrease the emotional
pain, it might help to understand that as spiritual beings or
Souls we chose these difficult and challenging courses, not to
be punished or made to feel sinful or "bad." We chose
these challenges to work through and master them, and to grow
from our experiences with them. This is what karmic learning is
really all about.
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This article first appeared in "Intuitive Explorations,"
and is reprinted with permission.
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