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To say that we live in unprecedented and turbulent times is not something that you haven't already heard or thought or experienced before. Look, we have a global pandemic happening right now we have climate change. We have civil unrest, we have inequities on all levels. And as a yogi, we need to look at how we got here and consider the fact that everything that we're experiencing right now is a symptom. It's a consequence of our past actions. So in today's episode, we'll look at how our actions and more specifically our misinformed actions can be traced back to one fundamental cause. Stay tuned.
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Hey there, Yogi's and yoginis Welcome to Episode Two of the karmic or your podcast where I'm here to show you how to apply yoga wisdom to live in extra ordinary life. I'm your host, Lisa Engles Witter, and be sure to subscribe to the podcast here on YouTube and anywhere that you can find podcasts. So today, we'll be talking about one of the most fundamental teachings in yoga tradition and how it plays out in your day to day life, whether you're aware of it or not, but before we get into it, I do have a free PDF for you called karma demystified that you can download for free at karmic dash warrior calm. The law of karma governs all of relative reality. So as a yogi, or yogini, who's committed to living the yoga lifestyle, this is a key principle that you need to understand. And in this PDF, I lay out what karma is, how it's created, and how to work with the law of karma so that you can break free from unhealthy patterns and live a freer, fuller life. I put the link in the description below to make it easy for you to grab. Welcome once again to today's episode. And to dive into our topic. Today, I'm going to read you an excerpt from my chapter in this book that I was a co author in called soulful leadership, a path to health, wealth, and love. So this is from an excerpt from my chapter in this book, and I just thought it would be a great way to start out our episode for today. So the chapter that I wrote in this book is called a case of mistaken identity. And let me just go ahead and dive right into it. And then what we're going to do is unpack this whole concept. So here we go. To say that we live in unprecedented and turbulent times. It's not something you haven't heard or thought or experienced already. The big question on everyone's mind is what's next? global pandemics, civil unrest, climate change, economic collapse, every day, we're hit with another piece of shocking news and confidence is dwindling as uncertainty mounts. So how did we get here? How is it that we find ourselves in arguably the worst global crisis that we've ever faced? From the perspective of yoga wisdom traditions, we need to consider the idea that everything that we're experiencing right now is a symptom, a consequence of past actions. The crisis we're currently facing, and the tremendous suffering that's resulted, both personally and collectively is caused by our conscious and unconscious actions. The law of cause and effect, every action has a consequence. It's a simple enough idea, right? For every action, there's an effect or a consequence. In Eastern spiritual tradition, it's called the law of karma. Our actions are inseparable from an interdependent with other people. It's impossible for the action of one person to not affect another person in their sphere of influence, and ripple outward across time and space, creating a complex web of causes and conditions that result in an inconceivable number of situations, circumstances and events, some of which we think of as good or pleasurable and others, which we think of as bad, or painful. And right now, we're experiencing a Mount Everest of consequences at the collective level.
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If everything that we're experiencing right now, the pain and suffering, the global crisis is a result of our past actions, then we need to ask ourselves another question. What type of action leads us to our current situation? You might be thinking, Hey, I didn't create this situation they did. Were they means the politicians, the government, the other party, the lobbyists, the 1%, who owned the 99% of the world's wealth, the bad guys. They not me, is precisely the type of thinking that got us into this situation because thinking is an action. And misinformed thinking leads to misinformed action, which leads to climate change, civil unrest, economic breakdowns, global pandemics, and every type of injustice and then equity humanity experiences. The solution, of course is to take responsibility for our misinformed actions. And we've all taken misinformed actions and the hurt our actions have caused others and ourselves. We need to recognize that our actions have far reaching effects, sometimes years, decades, or even lifetimes into the future Case in point, and 1864. The 13th amendment was added to the United States bill of rights as a constitutional guarantee of perpetual freedom.
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However, it the way it was written, argued, then Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, was simply a deceptive way to reestablish slavery by another name. This created America's carceral state, and the disproportionate number of black people who are incarcerated today over 150 years later, are misinformed actions, however, can be traced back to something more fundamental, a case of mistaken identity. The reason why we're experiencing social and global crisis right now is because of a case of mistaken identity, we've mistaken ourselves and others to be something other than who we really are. Our minds and hearts have been confused, making us believe that we are our religious and political preferences, our race, color, creed, and gender. We've been confused into thinking and believing that we are our social status, our personality, our intellect, this case of mistaken identity, has caused us to take misinformed actions in the name of protecting something that we are not. Now is a time for us to reclaim our true identity as a reflection of the one divine love intelligence. It's through this reclamation process that we come to recognize that it's not our body, or our beliefs that we need to protect with our actions rather, are one human race and the great mother Gaia, that provides us life. So again, that was an excerpt of the chapter that I wrote in this book, soulful leadership, which you can find on Amazon. If you're interested. There's actually a whole bunch of authors in here, a lot of my colleagues. So that was a fun project that I did, and that we published earlier this year. But what I want to do in today's episode is unpack this concept of a case of mistaken identity. So we'll we'll start back with karma. And what is karma? So karma is simply the Sanskrit word that means action. However, most people use the word karma to refer to karmic results or the law of karma. So again, the law of karma simply means that for every action, there is a consequence. So an analogy that's really easy to understand when it comes to karma is this idea or this analogy of a seed. So if you are to take, say, a sunflower seed, it needs the proper conditions in order to grow into a sunflower, it needs light, sunlight, it needs soil and it needs water and when it's given those correct conditions, then that sunflower seed turns into a sunflower and about 80 to 100 days. However, it If you were to plant an acorn, right, and also give it the proper conditions, which happened to be the same condition, sunlight, soil, and water, it will turn into a tree, right an oak tree. But in order for an acorn to mature into a full oak tree can take up to 20 years. So this is sort of a, you know, the best analogy that we have, and no analogies are perfect. But this is as the best analogy that we have for how the law of karma works. An action creates an effect, whether it's a sunflower, or an oak tree. But how long into the future, that effect will manifest is determined by the proper conditions being present. And again, this is sort of where that seed analogy might sort of fall short a little bit, because of course, some flour and an acorn need the same conditions, but one just takes longer than the other. And this is where,
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with the law of karma, it can become very complex, because there is a complex web of causes and conditions that weave together in order for a karmic seed in this analogy of karmic seed to manifest. But the point isn't to get deep into karma theory here, rather, just to give you a broad overview without losing the essence of what the law of karma is, and what karma means. So the thing about the law of karma is, it's not something that you need to believe in, because you can verify it. In your own experience, it's one of the things that I love about yoga wisdom, is that it's not a religion, it's it's a set of ideas that are meant to be verified in your own experience. And they're not just any ideas that were developed by the latest pop, you know, pop psychology, Guru, famous person here, there who has good social media and great marketing. These are ideas that were that were that are time proven and tested. They were brought forth by enlightened beings, the the rishis, the the Yogi's, the masters. So this is one thing that you'll find, as we continue on in these episodes that I'll keep coming back to verify what we're talking about in your own experience. So again, the law of karma can be verified in your own experience, you can think back to any action that you've taken, and surely you can say, yes, there was a consequence to that action. And even if you're thinking yourself, haha, Lisa, no, there wasn't, I did something really bad over here. And there was I had no consequence to note, nobody found out and nothing happened. Well, what the teachings tell us is, maybe there wasn't a physical manifestation of a consequence yet. But certainly there was a mental or emotional consequence to your action. And actions can be thoughts, words, or deeds. So the point here is that you can verify the law of karma in your own life, it's not something that you need to believe in. So the law of karma The other thing to understand about the law of karma is that it governs all of what in eastern spiritual traditions they call relative reality. We're not going to get into it today, in this episode, but there's two levels of reality, there's ultimate reality, and there's relative reality and relative reality is the reality, our day to day lives that you and I live in here and now and everything that we do in our day to day lives. So the law of karma governs all of relative reality. So let's go to the second piece that we talked about from the excerpt which is this idea of a misconception of who you are a case of mistaken identity. What the teachings tell us what yoga wisdom tradition tells us is that when we have a misconception of ourself, we operate from a place of not realizing the fullness of our being, we don't Remember, or even realize that we, that the divine love intelligence lives in us as us and through us. And we think that we're separate from that divinity from that divine love intelligence. So it's this particular type of misconception, which is fundamental to every single one of us, if you're living this life, you have, at some level, this misconception. So it's this misconception of who we are, that leaves us with a feeling that something is missing. It's that nagging feeling inside that I'm not complete. I'm not whole, right? So then it's this nagging feeling that I'm not complete, I'm not whole, which is experienced as a longing. And in some yoga traditions, they call it desire, but it's experienced as this longing to fill, what feels like this vast void, this inescapable void that we have. So what we're doing is we're always searching to get something or to avoid something in order to feel fulfilled, in order to feel whole, again. And it's said in the teachings that this type of longing or desire comes in two different forms, it comes in the form of attachment, or aversion. And attachment is simply the, the mental construct the belief that I need something outside of myself, money, a partner, more clients, you know, a bigger tribe,
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whatever a better house, whatever it might be, I need those things outside of myself in order to be fulfilled. A version on the other hand, is exactly the opposite. It's the belief that I'm going to be fulfilled, if I can just get rid of this thing in my life, whatever, that if I can just get rid of this debt that I have this financial debt that I have, then I'll be fulfilled, if I can just lose these 20 pounds, then I'll be fulfilled. So what happens then, is that we start searching for ways to fill that inescapable, void, and we start doing, taking action, doing things that are motivated by this attachment or this aversion. So actions that are motivated by attachment or aversion lead to karmic results. So this is how it all fits together. And what the teachings tell us is, the more extreme our attachment or aversion is, the greater Our karmic repercussions are going to be. So at this point, you know, you might be thinking to yourself, well, isn't there a difference between good karma and bad karma? And Shouldn't I be looking for creating good karma in my life? And the answer to that, what what yoga wisdom tells us is that the answer is no karma is karma. If it's Swami Vivekananda, who was one of the Yogi's who brought came from India in the late 1800s brought yoga to the United States, it was Vivekananda. And then Yogananda who's who is my route guru, who were the two Yogi's that really brought yoga to the United States. Way back when wasn't really that long ago. Now. You think about it, but Vivekananda he has a famous quote, that was from taken from the song of this and eosin, which is a poem that he wrote. And what he says is who sews must reap, they say, cars must bring the sure effect. So of course, he's talking about the law of karma there. And then he goes on to say, Good, good, bad, bad, and none escaped the law. But who so where's a form must wear the chain? So what Vivekananda is saying when he says Good, good, bad, bad, and none escaped the law? The saying yes, good moral actions create good results, pleasurable karma and other Words, bad or immoral actions create pain and suffering, but he says none escaped the law. But who so where's a form must wear the chain. So what he's saying is that whoever and this is all of us if you are born, then you were a form called a body, and a mind and thoughts and intellect. So these are all of the form that we inhabit. Whosoever wears a form must wear the chain. The chain is the karma. karmic bond. So what what yoga wisdom tells us is it doesn't matter if your actions are moral and good, you are still going to create karmic results. So the and they also he uses this analogy of steel handcuffs versus gold handcuffs. They're both handcuffs so bad karma can be thought of is steel handcuffs. Good. Karma can be thought of as gold handcuffs. But who cares? They're both handcuffs, do you want to be handcuffed? I don't care if my handcuffs are gold, I don't want to be handcuffed. Right. So this is the law of karma. And the the piece that I wanted to say there is that the reason why
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karma good karma is still quote unquote bad is that any type of karmic results in the end will lead to some level of unhappiness. And in yoga tradition, or in Buddhism, particularly they call it suffering. Sometimes suffering might sound a little bit too extreme for what you know, maybe it's just a mild sense of unhappiness. But regardless, there's some sense of unhappiness, that, that ultimately, you don't need to experience if you understand the law of karma and how it works. So here's the thing, if you were to put that sequence that I just went through in a circle, you can see how a karmic pattern is created. So imagine this as a cycle or a circle, it begins with a misconception of who you are. This misconception leads to a desire to fill the void, that that inescapable void, that nagging sense that something is missing, that desire to get or avoid things that we think are going to make us happy and fulfilled leads to us taking actions. those actions, which when I say action to actions can also be interactions and reactions. In any case, those actions, create results, either pleasurable or painful. And those karmic re those karmic results, then reinforce our misconception of who we are. And if you put that into a circle or a cycle, you start to see Oh, okay, now I'm back at the beginning again, I've reinforced this misconception of who I think I am. And then I, I'm back in the cycle all over again. And the pattern starts all over again. Now, from the perspective of yoga, wisdom, traditions, all of our suffering, and unhappiness in life comes from this case of mistaken identity, not knowing the true nature, of the self of yourself. So the goal of our spiritual practice, as a yogi as a yoga need, then is to number one, liberate ourselves from the stories and the mental constructs that keep us from knowing the truth of who we really are. And then number two, awakening to our true nature and abiding in our true nature. Having that be the ground of being from which we think and we speak, and we act. So according to yoga, wisdom, tradition, this really is the goal. The goal is not to do spiritual practice. In order to manifest more money, the goal is not to do spiritual practice in order to manifest more love in my life or more, you know, a better house or a better job because all of these goals are based in things that are impermanent. And for most people, most of the time these types of goals are motivated by attachment. And aversion so they'll keep us stuck in that karmic cycle in those karmic patterns. By the same token, yoga wisdom teachings tell us that karma isn't our destiny. This is one of the main messages of the Bhagavad Gita. In fact, and maybe in some future episodes, we'll we'll talk a bit I'm sure I will do some episodes on the Bhagavad Gita to beautiful scripture, and a very, very important one if you are on this path. So when we commit to the practices that lead us towards liberation and awakening, it's inevitable that will create less and less karmic results in our life. So in closing our episode today, it really is my belief that to be a yogi, or yogini, is to be what I call a karmic warrior. So that's really my invitation to you as a karmic warrior. you're someone who takes this internal vow to if we're using the term warrior in battle, you know, thinking in those terms, as a karmic warrior, you're someone who takes this internal vow to slay the ignorance and the fear that leads to misguided action on the battlefield of your own life, with the sword of wisdom, of discernment of truth, and love. And as a karmic warrior, you are someone who always takes actions that contribute to the flourishing of yourself, and the flourishing of humanity in this planet. And finally, as a karmic warrior, your spiritual practice is always geared towards that goal of knowing the answer to the question, Who am I? and, in turn, what happens is your life and the results in your life reflect that exact knowledge?
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So thank you so much for joining me in today's episode, let me know your thoughts in the comments. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, be sure to like this video if of course you liked it. And be sure to go to karmic dash warrior.com to get that free report, karma demystified and until next time, take care and namaste day
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
