Karma lessons.......including ones from Jesus!

We had a tough but enlightening (no pun intended!) lesson today on karma. At the end of the lesson, everyone was a bit shaken thinking of how EVERY action (to include thinking and speaking!) has inevitable consequences that will ALWAYS come back to us. Gulp. Talk about making you become more careful about what you say, do, and think!

So, karma was defined by Sharon as the action of thought (which affects the fabric of time/space), speech, and physical deeds. Basically it is the law of cause and effect. Albert Einstein provided scientific proof for this law when he described space as being curved, meaning that if you throw something out into space, it will eventually come back to where it was thrown from. I think I agree with Sharon, who confided that its her opinion that Einstein was a reincarnated "rishi" (Hindu sage)! But before even Einstein came to this realization, the laws of karma were evident in our natural world itself. Our Earth is orderly and we all intuitively know that what comes around, goes around. :)

This applies directly to yoga because the practices of yoga are purification practices intended to resolve us of our past karmas. So at least we can somehow get rid of the bad karmas we might have accumulated in our countless past lives.......giving us hope. But at the same time, we can also accumulate GOOD karma for the future by performing good acts. The top three things that bring the best karma:

• surrendering to your ishwara (your notion of the Divine) and/or guru


• honoring your mother and father, who gave you your earthly body


• providing service for the most disadvantaged and suffering in society

Gives you a lot to ponder, right?

Another angle I found fascinating was the insight by Sharon about how Jesus himself talked about these laws of karma. She explained that lots of work is being done on uncovering the sayings of Jesus in their original Aramaic script, and in this new interpretation they have an uncanny resemblance to the laws of karma. I think this is great work and only supports what all mystics have told us -- that in the end, all religions are saying the same thing. Here are some examples of how Jesus might have been referencing the laws of karma, courtesy of Geshe Michael Roche who is currently working on a book to come out later this year:

Luke 6: 43-45 Like begets like

Mark 4: 26-29 Seeds grow

Luke 6: 37 don't do the deed, you won't plant the seed and you won't experience the result;
"do not do unto others that which you do not want done unto you"

Luke 6: 38 do the deed, you will plant the seed and you will experience the result (if the soil is right for that seed) "do unto others what you would have them do unto you"

Mark 4:14-20 Seeds need fertile, ample soil to grow and take root. You must cultivate your garden, You need to do the work to experience the lasting results of your gardening.