The Man Of Steel

Okay so the whole “I’ll blog during the de-armoring process” didn’t really work out. Here it is a full two weeks after the end of the two-week ceremony and I have absolutely nothing ready. I’m okay with that however because lots of great things have risen to the surface to share with you and I now once again have the motivation along with the desire to share it. My motivation was the missing component before the De-armoring ceremony but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It seems that all I wanted to do before the event was sleep as much as I could and since I blog in the quiet early morning hours, the two were in conflict and sleep always won. I can be very lazy.


In truth, my motivation was the missing component for doing a lot of things in my life. It felt like so many things in my life required me to push myself so hard to get it done that everything was a chore. That feeling that it was a chore caused me to build up a lot of resistance to doing it and that just made getting anything done even more of a challenge. Without realizing it, I was becoming my own worst enemy to accomplishing anything. I have a to-do list that is always full of things I want to do but desire alone doesn’t accomplish much.



SHAMANIC DE-ARMORING

I remember when I first heard about the Shamanic De-armoring experience at the Association of Sexual Energy Practitioners (ASEP) conference in Mesa, AZ a couple of years ago. http://peacefulmichael.blogspot.com/2009/09/synchronicity.html  The leader of the Sweet Medicine Sundance Society, Thunderstrikes, spoke at the conference about the ceremony. One of the leaders of the De-armoring ceremony, John “Spinning Coyote” also discussed the process and something about their words let me know that I needed this. I wasn’t exactly sure why. It felt right but the timing wasn’t right for me just then. A year later, one of the guys I go to for massage went through it and his experience inspired me and I felt like “YES, I WANT THAT!” But again the timing wasn’t right. Finally this past September a dear friend went through it and I thought “here it is again…3 times this has been presented to me…I better move on it.” The timing was finally right for me and so in I went.

I won’t spend a lot of time going over the armoring/De-armoring process because it’s probably best to read their site for info on that. That is www.ShamanicDearmoring.com. It’s really a beautiful site. It will speak to some who read it and others will write it off because it is too “out there” for them in their life or the timing isn’t quite right. Our Spirits always make the things that we need to do attractive to us. Those things which we do not need will also become unattractive to us. That simple act is how our Spirit works. It’s not about words, voices, thoughts, detailed discussions, visions or anything complex like that. Our Spirits are pure energy and energy doesn’t have words or images. Those things are products of the mind, not the Spirit. Our spiritual energy works like a magnet and attracts and repels what we need and don’t need. It’s far less complicated than our human minds want to make it. It is time that we all wake up to that knowledge.



OUR ARMOR IS OUR DEFENSE SYSTEM

I will share a tiny bit about the shape I was in when I went into the ceremony because it fits within the context of the sharing I’m doing here. I guess you could call me the “Man of Steel” because my armor was layered, shiny, polished steel. It really makes me smile to think of that because after breaking it off, I feel like Superman. The armor that we choose to create as a protective barrier is of course energetic. None of us are walking around with visible armor but we all “know” it’s there especially when we are honest with ourselves about our behaviors and “our stuff”. We choose to begin creating this armor from the moment we enter the world because we have no other defense systems in that helpless, infant state.

This energetic armor helps to shield things that we are not equipped to handle from reaching the core of our being. The skin and muscles also function as shields but they aren’t incredibly effective at the energetic level. We are born helpless and trusting and we don’t possess the verbal skills or knowledge to defend ourselves so we have to rely on our Spirit and energy field to shield us. In response to our surroundings, we begin building defenses to the environment as well as the people in it, even our parents. Despite the love that they had to bring us into this world, they too were wounded and armored beings and began projecting those wounds onto us right away as part of their drama.



ARMOR BLOCKS ENERGY

Now that I have completed the de-armoring process I can feel the difference between having the full suit of armor and having a body which is free of it. If you think about how our energy system works at the most simple level, you can see how this armor affects us. Our life-force, or sexual energy, begins down in the lowest part of our bodies at the base of the spine and wants to move upward through our system and out the crown of our head. As this energy encounters each of the armored plates surrounding our body (see the graphic of that on the De-armoring site for reference http://www.shamanicdearmoring.com/produced.htm), the armor restricts the flow of that energy. Whatever amount makes it past the first plate, hits the second plate and is again restricted. As each plate is encountered more and more energy is blocked and unable to continue upward to the higher spiritual centers of our energy body. Is it any wonder then that we feel so cut off from our true spiritual nature?

During the Dearmoring process, as each plate was cracked open and eventually destroyed, I began feeling more and more sensations in my body. Of course as each plate was opened all of my old “pain tapes” held in that armor were brought back up to be played again. The pain tapes are our memories of all the times we caused ourselves pain either mentally, emotionally, physically or spiritually. Fortunately the things which seemed too traumatic for me to deal with as a small child were either no longer an issue in my life (people, places, events) or as an adult I was able to see them from a more mature point of view and realize that those were the fears of an uneducated child. I was easily able to release those issues without them even needing to be processed. There were issues however which were more current and that needed to be dealt with. The armor we create isn’t just from early childhood. It’s a lifelong process that we continue as long as we are unconsciously moving through our lives in victim mode.



WHY MAKE ARMOR?

Below I’ll share one of the things which surfaced for me as I worked on cracking my pelvic plate because I believe it might help others, especially those reading this blog. The pelvic plate protects our life-force and our sexuality. As children, exploring our bodies is natural and beautiful and we hold no shame around this. Once the adults in our lives begin projecting their own sexual wounds (which have a base in family, religious, cultural and societal taboos imprinted upon them) onto us we begin to feel shame around our sexuality. Add the extra dose of hatred which is projected onto gay children about the expression of their sexual desires and the plates really begin to thicken. If there is sexual abuse, especially during our childhood when we are ill equipped to handle it, the shame and fear we feel about our sexuality not only leaves deep emotional wounds but also causes us to create layer upon layer of protective armor to try and stop the pain.

We are taught to feel shame. Shame for our bodies. Shame for our emotions. Shame for our sexuality. Shame for our desires, our needs, our thoughts and for our deeds. Is it any wonder then that we judge ourselves so harshly and punish ourselves so cruelly? Shame is the result of judgment. One must evaluate the object against some set standard to determine worth or value. This is how we determine if it is right or wrong, good or bad. All of that judgment comes from the summary of what we have been taught, what we have experienced, what we believe and how we see the world. Based upon some ideal criteria (that we choose), we judge ourselves and those judgments rarely seem to go in our favor. If we believe that we are not good enough, that belief will color our entire world and we will never allow ourselves to love ourselves fully enough because we are not worthy.

The truth is that we are all worthy and capable of infinite amounts of love. Only our beliefs separate us from that truth and that doesn’t mean it isn’t true, it simply means we won’t allow ourselves to believe that it true. Change your thoughts, change your beliefs. Change your beliefs, change your life. Change your life, change the world. Be the change that you want to see in the world.



DENYING MYSELF PLEASURE

As a young man I went through the youthful years of rampant sexual desire and moved into a more tempered state. As an adult, my sexual desires are less urgent and consequently my orgasms are less frequent. Somewhere along the line I bought into the belief that one ejaculation a day is all that I can handle “because I’m too old”. Since I do erotic work for a living, I receive a lot of sexual stimulation during a day and have developed techniques to limit that as much as possible in order to prevent an ejaculation while still being fully engaged with my body. Having that “I’m done” feeling during my first session of the day has made it challenging for me to be able to engage others erotically for the rest of the day. As a way to avoid too much sexual stimulation directed at me I have often said to my clients “During your session it’s not about my pleasure, it’s about yours.” That phrase has actually become an anthem for me…unfortunately.

When I began working on the pelvic plate in the De-armoring ceremony, it became painfully clear how much I was denying my own pleasure. In an effort to control and prevent an ejaculation, I have avoided and dodged contact with clients and my partner, devised many techniques and excuses and done lots of schedule juggling. If an ejaculation occurred early in the day, I’ve cancelled appointments, judged myself harshly or felt very stand-offish with clients and promised to work harder to prevent that from happening again. I’ve even experienced extended and repeated episodes of erectile dysfunction because on a subconscious level that was a defense mechanism that my body thought I needed to avoid too much stimulation and pleasure. All of this was done based upon the false belief that I’m too old to have more than one ejaculation a day. I’m totally not and I knew that because I’ve had days where I’ve had 2 or 3 ejaculatory orgasms in a single day and felt fine. Actually those were amazing days when I look back on them…thus the number of orgasms. I felt like a kid again!

Yet it just never clicked until that plate started cracking and I had to look at my stuff. Most people don’t do erotic work for their job so you may be thinking this couldn’t possibly apply to you. I invite you however to look at the ways you deny yourself pleasure in your life. Do you limit the free flowing expression of your sexuality because of dogma placed upon you by religion? Do you hide behind the wounds of past sexual experiences? Do you judge yourself for being a sexual person…especially if you are gay? Do you believe that you can’t be spiritual and sexual at the same time? Are you so disconnected from your body that you don’t even feel sexual desire any longer? Do you choose not to feel sexual because it might lead to engaging another person and that could lead to heartache?



A HOUSE OF CARDS

Perhaps, like me, you’ve created an elaborate scheme of excuses and processes as a way to justify your behavior and it’s all based upon a false assumption which may have seemed true for you at some point in your life but is no longer the case. This happens when we live in the past (“I was wounded sexually in the past so now I’m damaged goods.”) or in the future (“I want to be a better person so I have to give up my sexual expression” or “I’m too old to be loved”.) and not in the present moment. When we really do the work to look deeply at our beliefs as expressed through our words, thoughts and actions, we can see how we limit ourselves in so many ways. As I’ve said time and time again, our beliefs shape our reality. Change your beliefs, change your life.

Changing your beliefs start with opening your mind to the present moment and being willing to look at things as they are now without the coloring from our wounded past. When we change even just a single thought about how we see the world, we open ourselves to newness. Opening ourselves to newness is the gateway to a world of infinite possibility and potential. With the problems we face in our personal worlds, nationally and globally, we have to be willing to let go of our old, limiting ways of being. In letting go, we can own our power and co-create a future unlike anything that we ever seen before on this planet.



JUST GETTING STARTED

So that was how the Shamanic De-armoring ceremony started for me. All this was just from the first three days and then it really got good. I can now say that I highly recommend this experience to everyone. You don’t need to be on a Shamanic path or an erotic worker but you do need to have a desire to release your old wounds. Your past is what created your armor unconsciously. When you begin to live a more conscious life, you will find that you don’t need to lug around all that old baggage and constantly replay those old pain tapes. Once you make the choice to step out of victim mode and choose to co-create with the Universe to make a life that works for you now, the armor just gets in the way. Armor keeps stuff out but it also keeps you locked inside.



How do you limit your power? How do you deny your pleasure?

Me, myself and I AM

It has been said that we have three different views of “self”. We have the self that we project out into the world, the self that we think we are and the self that we really are.

FIRST VIEW – “ME”

The first view is the one that we project out into the world. This self is constructed and comprised of the things we share and don’t share with others. The things we share, and thus the view others are given, changes depending upon who we are talking to and what image we are trying to project. For instance to some people I am a body-worker, to some I am an erotic educator, to others I am a whore, a friend, acquaintance, confidant, student, lover, trouble maker, son, strange relative or just another face on the street. While I am each of those things, I am also all of those things but I am also so much more.

This view of me is dependent upon my relationship with the viewer and can change in an instant when more is shared. In essence there are as many views of me as there are people who view me because every person holds a different perspective of me based upon how much they know about me and what personal filters they are viewing me through. If you hold the belief about me that I am “just another whore” then you will most likely not be able to see me as anything beyond that because of your own judgments being projected upon me.


SECOND VIEW – “MYSELF”

The second view is the self the way we think we are. Today I may see myself as a silly, fun-loving guy with a really cool job. Tomorrow I might see myself as a loud-mouthed buffoon who is constantly putting his foot in his mouth. The next day I might see myself as a compassionate friend who does his best to help everyone that he can. Then in following days I could be a victim of my circumstances, the bravest man alive, a rebel, a leader or a wounded child. This view changes constantly and is usually based upon the situation I am in or who I am with. My own filters, which I’ve created from my past experiences, color the way I see myself in relation to others.

This view is problematic as well because it is based upon my own false judgments of myself. For example if I think that sex is bad (which I don’t) and I engage in sex then I’m likely to not be able to see all the good things that are possible through sexual expression. If I grew up being told that I’m stupid, lazy, not good enough or a “sinner” and I have adopted these beliefs simply because someone else called me these things then I will most likely judge my every action and only see my faults. This will of course validate these false beliefs that I hold and reinforce them. This negative view of self will of course be reflected in the image that I project out to others because of my own insecurities.


THIRD VIEW – “I”

The final view is the self that I really am. This self is the one that manifested the body that I currently reside in. It is the part of me that animates and enlivens this body. When I complete the lessons and tasks that I manifested to work on, it is the part of me that will leave the body and continue exist outside of the physical realm. It is eternal and ever evolving. I am either in the physical realm or I am not. Unlike the other temporary views of self, it is my deepest, truest self and not dependent upon or affected by any judgments. It is the one small slice of the infinite field of the eternal Divine which is “me”. In sacred texts it is called the “I AM” consciousness. I am one with the Divine and in that oneness I AM the Divine.

Most people believe that they are the body and that all of the judgments they hold upon themselves are what keep them from “Heaven”. As such they hold themselves in a perpetual powerless state because as long as they believe that another has power over them and sits in judgment of them, they will always be a victim. They will live their lives according to the rules and judgments given to them by an external source rather than following the guidance of the inner Divine. For them they will never be able to even conceive of themselves as anything but unworthy let alone the Divine being that they truly are.


EGO OR ESSENCE

The first two views are temporary in nature and represent only a tiny slice of the powerful beings that we all really are. These two views of self belong to the ego. The ego is connected to the temporary physical body. All of those things connected to the physical body fade away at death because of the temporal nature of the body and the personality associated with it. The third view is that of our Essential Self. It is eternal and our direct reflection of the Divine, our True Self, Higher Self, or Soul. It is part of all that is, was and ever shall be. It is the part of us which reincarnates in the physical realm to learn the lessons we manifested to learn or in some cases to help illuminate a path to the inner Divine for others to follow.

We expend so much of our time and valuable energy working on the self that we project out into the world because for most people that is as far as their awareness will penetrate into the true nature of their existence. Each time we create one of these false personalities that we present to others we have to use our energy to maintain it. When we are around those who we don’t allow to see us as we truly are out of fear of rejection, we have to remember what they do and do not know and how much more we are willing to let them know. We believe that others can’t love and accept us if they know our truth so we create a view of ourselves that we believe they can accept. This speaks directly to our inability to love and accept ourselves without judgment. It also says a great deal about our judgment of others and our belief that they can’t handle our truth.

Our internal view of self is not much different. When we judge ourselves and limit the expression of our Divine nature, we compartmentalize ourselves often as a way to cope or delude ourselves into believing that we are the body and the false personality we have created for it. These inner views of self have a direct bearing on the projected views. If we believe we are weak, evil, a victim, a sinner or even a Saint, we will create external personalities in alignment with those beliefs. Remember our beliefs create our realities. When others reflect back their view of us to us, we tend to allow ourselves to believe that we are these fractured personalities rather than a direct manifestation of the Divine.

The third and definitive self is the only true view of self. The more we hold our focus there the more that view informs our view of our self and then that view is projected out to others. This is a paradigm shift for most people because they internalize the world view of themselves rather than expressing their inner true nature. This true nature which exists within every single individual, animal and plant is the Divine expressing itself in so many forms in physical reality. This is true no matter what our perception of others is, even those we think of as “wrong” or “evil” because those judgments belong to the egoic self and are seen through our own judgmental filters.


AWAKEN TO YOUR OWN TRUTH

This inner expression of the Divine is the truth that I want to help you to awaken to and that is happening as you read these words. It is the way, the truth and the Light. It is not manifest in any single individual any more than any other but it is expressed more fully depending upon the evolution of the individual soul. The more deeply we connect with and express this Essential Self, the easier life becomes because we are able to allow our energy to radiate our truth rather than expend energy maintaining false personalities. It requires no adherence to religious dogma, new age belief system or advanced study. It is simply a matter of looking within to the deepest layers of our existence and expressing the truth found therein.

Will you put your awareness on the temporary or on the eternal I AM?

Karma

From the very earliest stages of our lives we are taught that we are being judged. The older we get, the longer our list of judges seems to become. Our first judges come in the form of our parents. As we gain motor skills our parents have to begin keeping a closer eye on us. To keep us safe during this phase of exploration parents alert us to danger through verbal cues like “NO!” or a smack on the hand. We subconsciously learn during this stage that our actions are being watched. When we move into the verbal communication phase, a shift occurs. As we develop language skills our parents tell us they are watching us and begin teaching us what they believe to be “right” and “wrong”.

There is a very subtle shift between these two phases. The former is about safety and protection while the latter is about judgment and control. Our parents begin to imprint their belief systems on to us at this stage just as their parents did to them. We are taught what our parents, our gender, our family, our society, our country, our culture, our race and religious organizations believe to be acceptable behavior. Each of these comes with their own set of judgments upon our actions and plenty of people willing to judge us, consciously and unconsciously, for those actions.



UNSEEN JUDGES

In early childhood most of us are introduced to our next judge, Santa. We are taught that beyond the visible watchful eyes of our parents there is a magical being who watches us from the North Pole. He knows what we’re doing and knows when we’ve been “good” or “bad”. When Christmas arrives we are given “rewards” if we were good or “switches” if we were bad. The difference depends upon Santa’s judgments of our actions throughout the year. It doesn’t matter that he’s not real, what matters is that we are taught to believe that he is real and that he is watching us every moment.

As we grow into childhood we learn about our next supreme judge, God. We are taught that yet another mythical, magical being is able to remotely observe our actions and behaviors and pass judgment upon us. Interestingly enough, if we behave according to the rules of all the layered entities I mentioned above we are on God’s good side. When we step out of line however we are taught that punishment is on its way in the form of bad things that begin happening in our lives. By this same school of thought, if enough of us are seriously misbehaving then we will receive larger punishments such as accidents, disease and any form of natural disaster. Above all this we are led to believe that this incredibly judgmental super human who is keeping tabs on our every single thought and behavior and will administer the ultimate coup de grâce after we die in the form of an eternity in “Heaven” or “Hell”.



JUDGE NOT LEST YE BE JUDGED

With all the judgments being placed upon us at every level from our parents on up the line to God, it should come as no surprise then that we become deeply judgmental of ourselves and project that judgmental attitude out onto others. These judgments then become the filters with which we view the world. We no longer see just the action but rather we judge and label everything as “right” or “wrong”. As long as we hold these self-judgments upon ourselves we can never truly feel the full measure of unconditional love that the Divine has for us. It is not possible to sit in judgment and feel love at the same time.

Ultimately we end up with a world full of people unable to fully love and accept themselves because of their own judgments. If you can’t feel unconditional love yourself, how will you give unconditional love to the world? You cannot give what you do not have. Projecting our judgments out into the world and on to others does not mean “I am right and you are wrong” but rather it says “I have a need to judge”. It is not possible to sit in judgment and feel love at the same time.



KARMA IS ENERGY IN MOTION

The above is actually an example of karma in action. Most people hear the word karma and believe it is the product of a judgment. If I do something good I get “good karma” and if I do something bad I get “bad karma”. Karma is frequently misunderstood and equated to the Hindu version of the Christian view of God’s system of reward and punishment for each of us based upon the summation and judgment of our Earthly sojourn.

In truth the term karma originates in Hindu philosophy but it has nothing to do with judgment. Karma is the term for the process of balancing of energy. It is more closely related to Newtons third law of motion which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Karma is simply the balancing of energy which has been set in motion. In conjunction with the laws of physics, energy naturally seeks to balance itself unconditionally.

When we come to understand the non-judgmental workings of karma we begin to see that whatever is happening TO US now is the consequence of our past actions. In the example above we see that when we teach others to judge themselves and others, ultimately these judgments will come back on us and we will feel judged and rebel against it and proclaim it wrong to judge.



CLAIM YOUR POWER

To move into a space of healing when we feel judged we have to own the original cause within ourselves and not blame the other person for judging us. “I feel judged…therefore I must be judging others” is the enlightened approach to balancing our karma. By owning our actions and reactions, which we have full control over, we can learn to stop judging others and ourselves and thereby free ourselves from our own judgment. Our own judgments are really the ONLY ones which have a direct impact on us. Any judgments that I might hold against you, are my judgments and only affect me.

Each of our actions sets energy in motion. Once we acknowledge this for ourselves and are willing to own the consequences of our actions, we learn that by controlling our actions we can begin to create positive outcomes for ourselves. As long as we deny our power to create our own destiny we will remain nothing more than powerless victims in our own self-constructed karmic prisons. This shifts us away from the notion that we must please an angry judgmental God in an effort to win favor with him and it puts the onus directly on each of us. It’s not about being judged at all but rather acknowledging the basic physics of energy. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You get back what you send out.

When we are able to remove the judgmental aspect from the essence of karma, we begin to see how we are moving into alignment with the deepest teachings of every major world religion. Judgment belongs to the realm of the egoic human consciousness and is not a quality associated with true Divinity. Therefore judgments pull us out of alignment with the Divine. Karma is not judgmental or selective but it is exacting because it simply is our own energy balancing itself. It is the process by which your consciousness, or what the Yogis call your Atman, is stabilizing itself in the physical realm.



LAYERS OF KARMA

Karma occurs on many levels. Individually we create our own karmic consequences. When we belong to larger groups (and we all do) we also begin to generate collective karma. The actions that we take as clubs, teams and organizations have a noticeable impact on our lives. The actions that we take as a society, culture, race, religion or nation have a much larger impact on our world. Most importantly the actions that we take as a species have a direct result on our planet and ultimately our existence as a species.

Individually I may believe that my actions have very little impact on what we do as a nation but that doesn’t mean that I get out of the karmic consequences of our nations actions. I may disagree completely with our nation going to war with another country but energetically I will have to accept the impact this action has on our planet and on me. In owning this I will be more motivated to seek more peaceful solutions to each of the challenges I am presented with. When love and peace are what I want to receive, I know that loving and peaceful actions are part of the steps I must take to achieve it. I know that I will never receive love by propagating hate even if I am doing it in the name of God.



NO HIDING FROM YOURSELF

It is important to note that while karma is always just and exacting, it is not always evident. For example let’s say that I become angry at something you say to me and I chose to punch you. Odds are that you will then become angry with me and punch me back. That’s instant karma where I can see the immediate consequences of my actions. The smaller the disturbance in energy, the faster the response and the smaller the resulting return impact is.

If I generally tend to be an angry person, people will tend to not want to associate with me because of my attitude. Eventually I will realize that I have no close friends and certainly can’t hold down a loving relationship and so I am all alone. In the depths of my anger I will of course blame it on the fact that “everyone else” is cold and mean because they won’t be my friend. Everyone’s coldness will of course make me angry. With deeper, personal introspection I might finally see that I am the source of my own misery. Accepting that allows me to chose to be friendly rather than angry and in return receive a friendlier welcome from others. Remember, emotions too are just energy in motion. (http://peacefulmichael.blogspot.com/2009/06/energy-of-emotions.html)



WE’RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER

When we move up to the karma that we create as a nation for example, the consequences of our actions are often greater but more difficult to associate with the initial action. If we do not have knowledge of our history then it is very easy to place the blame for the unfolding of major karmic events on others. For example, we could look at the events of September 11th, 2000 as “we were unjustly attacked by those opposed to our freedom and our liberties.” This would seem to indicate a belief on our part that we had nothing to do with these “unprovoked attacks”. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If we take the time to examine our history, including the secretive and manipulative actions of our government, we see that the events of 9/11 were just another punch in an ongoing conflict with those that we have deemed to be “unlike us”. Our nation and in particular our government are not the keepers of “truth, liberty and justice” for the entire planet the way we like to believe that they are. Our fear-based actions of the past motivated us to destabilize foreign governments, overthrow elected heads of state and generate atrocities of massive proportion all in the pursuit of “freedom”. When viewed from a still larger perspective it was just one more event in an unending battle that has been raging since before recorded history when one person (group or entity) tried to assert power over another. At this scale we can see that we are in essence paying the karmic consequences for the actions and reactions of our ancient ancestors.



TEMPORARY BODY/ETERNAL SOUL

At the most subtle level however there is individual lifetime karma. This is part of our individual soul’s karmic destiny. For every action that I generate personally, energetically the results of that action will come back to the source of that action. Imagine that you toss a pebble into a small pool of water. The ripples from the impact of the pebble with the water will radiate out, hit the edge of the pool and reverberate back to the center of the pool. No other pool of water is disturbed by this action.

Now imagine that the above pool was the size of the Pacific Ocean and the pebble grew in direct proportion to the increase in size of the pool. When this pebble is dropped into that ocean, it will take much more time for the waves to reach the shore and make their way back to the site of the impact. They would eventually make it back but it might take so long to happen that I would probably lose the association between the waves at that site and the original impact of the pebble.

This is the case with lifetime karma. Lifetime karma is the result of cumulative actions which I generate which are so constant that I may not experience the consequences of those actions in a single lifetime. To understand the inner-workings of karma at this level, we have to explore the concept of reincarnation. That topic however is far too broad to discuss as part of this posting so I’ll save that for a future posting on that specific topic.



OWN IT

Once you understand that you alone are in complete control of your karmic destiny, you empower yourself to generate desirable results for yourself. In that empowerment you step out of victim mentality and into self actualization. No one can create our actions for us and no one can save us from the consequences of those actions. It has nothing to do with judgment, fairness, reward or punishment but rather it is simple, basic physics in action in the world of energy in which we exist. We are beings of energy at every single level of our existence.

When you begin to understand the workings of karma and move in accordance with it, your life will transform. Despite religious myth to the contrary, no one can be born for me, live for me, suffer for me or die for me. These are all actions which I alone must experience. When I awaken to the fact that my own actions create my own destiny, I can moderate my actions to receive more desirable outcomes. I do not need to judge and blame others, nor depend upon them to save me. Reclaiming that power is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine the positive outcomes that you can achieve for yourself by simply moving from victim mentality to a fully empowered co-creator with the Universe, the Divine, God, Great Spirit.

So what pebbles will you toss into the ocean of existence?