Please enjoy this guided sleep meditation that creates positive karma by the talented Kim Carmen Walsh.

‘Karma’ is probably one of the most misunderstood of the Buddha’s teachings, but is so insightful and, I personally feel, one of the most powerfully transformative of teachings, that I thought I best give some background here for those of you who are interested. It is also relevant regardless of your spiritual or non-spiritual background, so whether you believe in multiple lifetimes or not, I hope that this narrative helps you feel more empowered and aware of the positive force available to you in any given moment.



‘Karma’ is often mis-referred to as ‘destiny’, but it’s actual translation from the Sanskrit is ‘action’ or ‘deed’. In scientific terms, we say “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”. In practical terms, we can know ‘karma’ as our habitual tendencies; it explains how we react to different situations, so our own individual karma is influenced by our subconscious response. We can also see the effect of karma as immediate, so that the outcome of any particular action is essentially stored in our subconscious, or ‘karmic storehouse’. When the situations are right, our ‘karma’ or habitual behaviour, causes us to react and consequently receive the outcome of that particular action. We perhaps begin to get an insight that this is happening, when we become aware of a reoccurring difficulty, such as “why do I always end up in similar relationships?”, or “why do I seem to have the same argument with my partner over and over again?”. Positive karma is not about what happens to us, although it can be said that the more positive causes we make the more positive outcomes we begin to experience so our karma does also influence our environment and the way we perceive the world.



So the big question, “How do I gain more positive karma?”. And this is what is so beautiful about Buddhist teaching, because it is about seeing that every lifeforce has what is called ‘Buddha nature’, meaning that every single person or living being is essentially courageous, wise and compassionate; no one and nothing is excluded. When we understand that we all contain the potential for ‘Buddhahood’, we can see that all our energy and actions contain the possibility of gaining an outcome that is correspondingly brave, intelligent and kind, both for ourselves and for others. We begin to perceive our basic goodness, or our propensity to strive for the best situation, regardless of what we are experiencing, however bleak and negative our lives may seem in any given moment. And perhaps we even begin to see all difficulties or challenges as a way of transforming our negative karma into positive karma. In fact, we begin to realise that all difficulties become our enlightenment; if life was easy, we would have no fuel for transformation. It is the very fact that life is challenging that we are pushed to see what we are truly capable of.



Our karma is therefore in a constant state of change, but our awareness of our actions and our ability to see and trust our ‘Buddha nature’ helps us to positively influence our overall state of life. Life will continually give us experiences, where we make the choice to respond with a positive or negative action, which in turn leads to positive or negative outcomes. In this manner, every experience becomes an opportunity for us to look beyond our normal reaction, to make a response that reflects something courageous, kind and wise and strangely or not strangely enough, we begin to experience corresponding worlds, situations and people that are courageous, kind and wise. This is who you are and when you tap into this energy, this is the lifeforce that will continually show you the truth beyond your conditioned mind. Enlightenment is not an end destination, but a constant process of seeing and engaging with the world beyond your unconscious reaction. Karma teaching is both spiritual and non-spiritual; it is basically practical and at the same time the doorway to the freedom spoken about in all religious traditions. When we begin to live and act from a place that is free of expectation, but aware of the cause and effect of your life, that acts from a heart that is brave, compassionate and intelligent, we have entered the world of heaven or nirvana and at the same time our amazing human experience!



Much love and positive karmic transformation, Kim xx

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'Quietude' soundtrack by Christopher Lloyd-Clarke
www.christopherlloydclarke.com/
Royalty-free image by Fotolia