Food #28: "Six Powerful Ideas"
that Create Better Karma
"With words and ideas we govern men." (Benjamin Disraeli)
Ideas silently guide our lives: they create beliefs,
drive thoughts, feelings, and actions, and create results.
In 1980, philosopher Mortimer Adler came up the "Six Great Ideas" that
he believed governed the development of civilization as we know it in
modern life.
Here is the karmic view of them:
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Freedom (Liberty):
Freedom is the most powerful idea of all.
Ideas can only flourish and flow freely in an environment of freedom.
Unless freedom exists, truth is suppressed, justice is non-existent,
inequality is the norm, kindness is restricted, and empathy is often
unrealistic. Where freedom is absent, bad karma is present.
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Truth:
Adler was famous for saying, "Philosophy is everyone's
business." Truth is the cornerstone of both philosophy and karma.
For those who wish to rapidly clear their karma, it is essential to
practice utterly truthfulness in thought, word, and deed. Dishonesty
always creates bad karma that comes due very quickly.
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Justice:
Justice is simply another word for karma. It is the
recognition that when you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences.
Or as the popular sayings go "you reap what you sow" and "what goes around,
comes around!"
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Equality:
The main function of justice is to determine truth and
then to enforce equality. All are equal when it comes to the law of karma.
Karma applies equally to all people everywhere all the time, no exceptions,
and no favoritism.
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Kindness (Goodness):
A secondary function of justice is to ensure
that people will be good, especially when they do not want to be.
Practicing loving kindness is the surest way both to create good
karma and to reduce bad karma.
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Empathy (Beauty):
The way we blindly worship beauty today only
creates bad karma. A better idea is to practice empathy: empathy for those
who are not beautiful, for those who are not whole in body, mind, or emotions,
and for those not like us in gender, race, religion, or ethnicity. That is
the best karma of all.
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Mercy:
I added one more idea: compassion, tolerance,
forgiveness all rolled into one creates mercy. Those who are merciful
experience true freedom, live their truth, express justice, promote equality,
act from kindness, and practice empathy.
"We who lived in concentration camps can remember
the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their
last piece of bread. They may have been few... but they offer
sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing:
the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set
of circumstances." (Victor Frankl)
Freedom is the most important thing in life… because it is what makes the
pursuit of happiness possible! Freedom is a lot like air. When it is around,
you hardly notice it. Once taken from you, you notice it instantly. Not
long afterwards you choke and later you die. Without freedom, there is no
real life or happiness.
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Freedom of Thought:
Individuals in the past were only free to
believe what they were taught to believe. Those who thought for themselves
were instantly suspect, always controversial, and often risked their lives
for their beliefs. As history teaches, although people can be killed,
ideas can never be stopped. That is why those seeking to deprive others
of their freedom first try their best to restrict the individual's ideas,
to control their beliefs, and to manipulate their thoughts.
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Freedom of Speech:
Individuals in the past, who dared to speak
their truth when it conflicted with mainstream beliefs, were almost certain
to be punished. These punishments usually involved the removal of one or
more parts of the body resulting in permanent impairment or incapacity.
Speak out long enough and it was a death sentence. This is one of the
reasons why most people fear public speaking… and why this fear is so
difficult to cure for many.
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Freedom of Action:
Individuals in the past, who acted on their
spoken beliefs, exercised the ultimate freedom and paid the ultimate price
by being tortured to death. Yet the sacrifices of all these brave individuals
is what has created modern societies where we are free to be, do, and have
all that we work toward creating and manifesting. It is this level of freedom
which has unleashed the talents of the best and brightest to make the world
better for everyone.
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Freedom from Interference:
Those who are truly free are able to
control what they do from the time they wake until the time they sleep… and
they control how long they sleep. This freedom is something only the rich
and powerful in the past enjoyed… and even then not to the level we take
for granted today. This freedom from the interference of governments and
criminals to live our lives as we please is a rare gift that must be
appreciated as it seldom existed in the past.
"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never
simple." (Oscar Wilde)
Truth is the Daughter of Time: and in time, after enough time, all truth
becomes pure and simple!
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Truth Model:
Most "models" for the quality and integrity of
information include the following attributes for truth. Here is the
Information Technology Information model. How does the truth you are
speaking measure up to it?
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Accuracy:
Is your truth factually accurate to the best of your
knowledge? Do you separate fact from opinion? For example, a fact would
be "My eyes are blue" while an opinion would be "Blue eyes let in too much
sunlight." Are you sticking to facts and labeling opinions as such? If
so, then you are being accurate.
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Objectivity:
Is your truth as objective as you can make it? Would
someone else describe the same set of circumstances in a similar manner?
Would another person call your presentation a "fair and balanced" one?
Have you spoken as if God were watching and judging you? If so, then you
are being as objective as you can.
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Timeliness:
Does your information have "time value" (something
that needs to be communicated by a certain time to be meaningful to the
person most effected by it)? Have you transmitted it with the appropriate
sense of urgency in the proper time to the right person? If so, then you
are being timely with your truthfulness.
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Completeness:
Is your truth "the whole truth and nothing but the
truth so help you God?" Have all the most relevant details been included?
Have the most important points been highlighted? Would a reporter be unable
to dig up anything else of importance on the topic? If so, then you are
being complete with your truth.
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Authentication:
Would your truth hold up to the independent
scrutiny? Could they be verified against independent sources or third
parties? If an investigative journalist were to look into the truthfulness
of your statements, would they still hold up as truth? If so, then you
are being authentic with your truth.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality... Whatever
affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
(Martin Luther King Jr)
Karmic Justice - which is administered over many lifetimes by reincarnation
- is perfect and precise.
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Reason:
One definition of law is reason free from passion (relying
on emotions not evidence), prejudice (judging the personality instead of the
facts), and pre-determination (a verdict decided in advance). Laws that are
internally consistent and consistently applied are one way that reason
manifests inside of justice. Good laws are those which the majority agrees
are fair and necessary for the proper functioning of a civilized society.
Good laws are based in reason which reflects the core values of society like
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
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Fairness:
For justice to prevail, if 99 out of 100 people would
look at a case and come to the same conclusion about it, this is a fair
resolution. If 99 out of 100 people would look at cases with the same set
of facts and circumstances and come to the same conclusion about them, this
is a fair resolution. Fairness is essential to justice because when people
choose the behavior they should know in advance what consequences they are
choosing for themselves and for their family.
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Mercy:
For justice to prevail, it must be
applied with mercy. When the spirit, not the letter, of the law is most
important consideration, then justice is being tempered with mercy.
What often separates karmic justice from human justice is the presence of
mercy, compassion, and love.. taking the individual into account.
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Equality:
For justice to prevail, the laws
must be applied to all equally all the time. There should be no such
thing as celebrity justice (different standards for the rich and famous)
or watcher justice (where those who are supposed to enforce the law break
it without consequences). The law should be "blind" to the gender, race,
religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and any other differences. History shows
that unless justice can be applied to all, respecting diversity, it will
end up applying to none.
"Believe in no other God than the one who insists on
justice and equality for all." (George Sand)
Life on Earth is a series of lessons about the illusion
of inequality. Have you seen through it?
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Equality:
We are all equal because we are all divine creations
of a loving God. Yet everywhere we look, others are quite quick to point
out the differences between us... and to claim that some differences are
better than others.
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Gender:
Many men will be quick to say that men are better than
women. Many women will be quick to say that women are better than men.
From a karmic view, there are equally valuable lessons to be learned during
both female and male incarnations. These differing lessons equally
contribute to one's growth as Soul.
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Religion:
People follow religions because they are convinced theirs
is the best one. Perhaps they follow it because their parents did, because
their spouse does, because they found something appealing about it, and so
on. Yet all paths lead to God, each one contains wisdom and beauty, and
each one is different not better.
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Birth:
Many societies believe that birth into certain segments of
the population makes some individuals better than others. This is because
they have greater opportunities from the human perspective... or do they?
Karma teaches that each path of life is equally rich in learning opportunities
regardless of where it had begun.
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Money:
Most believe that money creates inequality between people.
Money gives one the ability to acquire goods-services: the more money one
has, the greater their range of opportunities. Yet, karmically, the presence
or absence of money creates differing lessons that will equally contribute
to one's growth as Soul.
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Advice:
When you look at someone else and perceive differences,
remember that these perceived inequalities are driven by human value
judgments. As Soul, we are all equal and any inequalities are merely
illusions that we must see past so that we can learn to love others as
much as ourselves... and to transcend our karma!
"If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it
shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut
off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them." (Francis Bacon)
The moment we focus on showing loving kindness is the moment we heal our
personal karma.
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Showing Kindness
does not take time... it only takes thought and
action. Can you spare at least five minutes each day to think a kind
thought and to do a kind action? If you can be kind...
then you can heal your personal karma. Karma is simple: follow the rules
and your life is good but break the rules and your life is bad. It is
lots easier to follow the rules when you know what they are...
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What is "true"
is always factually correct to the best of your
knowledge and totally honest to the highest standards of conduct and
integrity possible.
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What is "necessary"
is communicating something that "must be said"
so that all concerned in the situation can clear issues and blocks so that
all can move forward.
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What is "kind"
is how you look, how you speak, and the words you
use when you convey your message. Any message - no matter how hard or
unpleasant - can be delivered and received with the spirit it is intended
if it is done kindly enough.
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Loving Kindness:
The wheels of karma will continue to spin - around
and around - until you have learned all that life has to teach you. Showing
loving kindness
is an easy way to work off just a bit of "bad" past
life karma each and every day and to move toward living each day in a
karma free space.
It all starts with speaking only what it true, necessary, and kind.
"Do not judge another until you have walked a mile in
their moccasins." (Native American Proverb)
Empathy... is being able to understand what others think and feel from
their point of view.
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Importance:
Empathy is what separates people who live by society's
rules from those who break them. Most "criminals" like serial killers are
lacking in empathy. It is their total lack of empathy which allows these
criminals to be unconflicted about their actions. So what does it take for
someone to have empathy?
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Understand Impact of Actions:
The first aspect of empathy is
understanding the impact of one's actions on others. Some serial killers
claim that they do not understand why their actions are hurtful. They
believe they are superior and others are inferior. Superiors have no
need for empathy or to understand the impact of their actions on inferiors.
Empathy relies enormously on a person's ability to treat others as equals and
to relate to and sympathize with the suffering of others.
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Feel Impact of Actions:
The second aspect of empathy is being able
to feel how one's actions will effect all others. Most serial killers
started out life being physically, mentally, and emotionally abused. They
are so used to being in tremendous amounts of pain that they cannot even
feel it any longer. This allows them to inflict horrifying amounts of pain
on others. Empathy relies largely on a person's ability to feel pain
enough so that they become reluctant to inflict it.
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Care About Impact of Actions:
The third aspect of empathy is caring
about the impact that one's actions have on others. Most serial killers
view their victims not as people but as projects that they are working on.
Just as most people do not have warm feelings about their work projects,
serial killers do not have warm feelings for their prey. Empathy relies
hugely on a person's conscience guiding them to act towards others in loving
ways by respecting their bodies, minds, and emotions.
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Limit Impact of Actions:
The fourth aspect of empathy is limiting
one's actions towards others to only those that are kind and loving. Most
serial killers believe in abuse: if they are not taking abuse, they are
giving abuse to others. They believe that abuse, pain, and suffering are
the natural condition of the world. They do not believe in love and view
others' belief in it as lies and manipulation. Empathy relies on a person's
ability to give and receive love freely and to spread it to others.
"The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as
the gentle rain from heaven, Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes..." (William Shakespeare)
"All great things are simple: expressed in a single word: freedom,
justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope..." (Winston Churchill)
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Mercy & Karma:
If there is one thing that will cut right through
karma: it is through the giving and receiving of mercy. To receive mercy,
you need to learn to give it first. Here are some ways you can be merciful.
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Desire Loving Kindness:
Mercy is another name for loving kindness.
To be merciful is to show others loving kindness when you or they feel that
kindness is not merited based upon what has been said or done (or not said
or not done). Mercy is love so great it can say, "Go away and sin no more",
and really mean it.
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Release Unfair Advantage:
Everyone will receive an "unfair advantage"
over another. To be merciful, you will want to release an "unfair advantage"
whenever you receive it. Instead you will choose to be fair because you
know that the wheel of karma will turn and you will be on the other side.
When you are on the wrong side of the "unfair advantage", you will want the
same mercy to be shown to you.
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Pardon Wrong Doing:
No matter how hard you try to do your best,
you will make a mistake... that is part of life. So to be merciful, pardon
and forgive those who have wronged you. Recognize that others will make
mistakes just like you will. If you can pardon wrong doing by others,
others will pardon yours.
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Stand Firm in Truth:
Mercy is the loving response to discovering
a painful truth. So to be merciful, face the truth, accept it, and react
to it with compassion. Be firm in your honesty and integrity. Be fair
in your response to the situation. Treat others as lovingly as you would
wish to be treated in the same situation.
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Understand Like God:
No matter how you have acted or failed to
act, God understands. So to be merciful, strive to understand how others
have acted or failed to act. Step back from your point of view and try
your best to rise above it. Try to understand others as God does... and
you will achieve mercy.
"With words and ideas we govern men." (Benjamin Disraeli)
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