Our personal beliefs are created from our interpretation of our perceptions. These beliefs create the perception we have of ourselves, or in other words, our self-concept.
If we were to write a description of our self-concept and then take a look at our lives, we would see that our lives conform to our own self-concept. Why is this?
We form our self-concept as children. Before the age of six, children perceive events and accept what they are told by their parents and guardians as fact, and so register these events straight into their subconscious where they are stored permanently. Some of these more extreme events influence how we behave for the rest of our lives.
A positive example of this is where a little boy is asked at a party to stand up in front of a crowd and sing. People are laughing and joking but the boy takes no notice. At the end of the song everyone claps and praises the little boy for how well he sang. This feedback is taken by his subconscious as encouragement and it has no problem allowing the child to perform again in the future.
A negative example of this would be the same event, with the little boy being asked to sing in front of a crowd at a party. He gets up; puts his little heart into the song and again people are laughing and joking. This time he perceives they are laughing at him and so feels rejected and is too upset to hear the clapping at the end.
This same event, but perceived differently, creates a high emotional state and because of the openness of the child's mind, now registers in his subconscious as a negative experience. As one of the functions of our subconscious mind is to keep us safe, this means from now on standing in front of people is a situation to be feared and avoided at all cost.
Over the years this event might be consciously forgotten but the subconscious never forgets and will not let the child, even as an adult, stand in front of a crowd. This event will now unconsciously dictate the boy's behaviour for life and this in turn, contributes in the manifestation of his life's circumstances.
This boy's options in later life will be determined by his subconscious belief prohibiting him from getting involved in any event or occupation where he will have to speak in front of an audience.
Most people have beliefs resulting from similar events that happened in the early part of their lives and often they are unaware of them.
Some of these beliefs can be beneficial; some are small and are only an inconvenience. Others destroy lives. The positive beliefs serve us and for the most part are not a problem.
The destructive beliefs restrict us from engaging fully in life by negatively affecting how we deal with finances, health and relationships. These positive and negative beliefs combine to drive our unconscious behaviour. This in turn manifests our life's circumstances. What we manifest reflects back to us who we are, and what we believe.
"Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed
by a cloud of comforting convictions, which
move him like flies on a summer day."
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
This process, whereby our subconscious mind dictating our behaviour, causing its reflection back to us through our life circumstances, is commonly understood to be karma.
When we have empowering beliefs, the perceived effect is called good Karma and life seems to flow. When our beliefs are destructive, the perceived effect is called bad karma and we suffer.
"The sower may mistake and sow his peas
crookedly; the peas make no mistake,
but come up and show his line."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The word karma translated from Sanskrit means action. However it is not in fact our actions, but the unconscious intention behind our actions, that creates what is termed as karma.
When the suffering from bad karma becomes painful enough, and as we become more and more frustrated by its results, we are eventually forced to become aware of the real cause of our suffering. This empowers us with a choice, to discard the cause, and with this we grow in consciousness, or to remain as we are and resign to continued suffering.
The suffering of bad karma can be avoided by becoming conscious of what is happening in the moment and observing objectively what is driving our decision making process. This gives us a chance to respond appropriately to events and not react in the way our subconscious memories dictate to us.
Becoming aware or present in the moment to what is happening and choosing to ignore our subconscious input by acting appropriately, will change our beliefs over time. In changing our beliefs, this will automatically change our behaviour and this in turn will reflect in our life circumstances.
This process and resulting new and higher level of consciousness, creates for us good karma.
Karma is not a result of us doing something good or bad so something good or bad will happen to us in return. Karma is because of what we believe. Our actions cause an interaction with our circumstances; this creates an environment that reflects back to us, our subconscious beliefs.
"Behaviour is the mirror in which
everyone shows their image."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Most people believe circumstances in life have us where we are, but it is the way that we believe we are, that brings about the circumstances in our lives.
Ultimately karma is just karma, it is not good or bad; it is only a measure we can use to calibrate our conscious actions.
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