Karma is a highly complex issue and one in which the devotee of spiritual development ought to be well versed. Karma is most commonly defined as the law of cause and effect. This basically means that everything you send out eventually returns to you. Karma constitutes action, action to teach us lessons in life. This definition is quite true, but until we associate this action with the universal law of cause and effect, it will prove difficult to truly understand what this action implies and what type of lessons we are supposed to learn. Just as there are physical laws which govern our Earthly life, there are spiritual, or universal laws as well. Universal laws are those of morality that govern our behavior. We will take a deeper look into the law of cause and effect shortly, but first let us examine this action to provide us with a better perspective. We want to see exactly what comprises this action.

Karma in and of itself is energy in motion, or energy in action. It is the energy associated with our physical existence and that which we direct into our life experience. Delving into this complex matter more deeply, it is necessary for us to reflect back upon our classroom on God and reexamine what comprises this energy that makes up our being. Our being is composed of a highly complex collection of atoms, cells, molecules, and all those other microscopic particles we learned about in science class. It should be understood that these are the material elements which comprise our being. Science has certainly verified the existence of these particles under the microscope and for the most part has concluded that the particles exist and create power in and of themselves. There is, however, an energy, a great governing power behind the millions of particles which comprise our being. It is a force of energy that is invisible to the naked eye, yet very real. It is the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God governs not only us, but the entire universe of both seen and unseen worlds. The Holy Spirit is the essence, the guiding principal of all life. Science has not as yet verified the existence of this power and it is doubtful that science will. For one thing, it is impossible to verify the existence of spiritual forces with man-made, or material instruments. For another, it is a great unseen science that must be verified through faith and inner knowing. To look upon it another way, everything in the world is a reflection of spirit and we are a manifestation of spirit.

Delving into this complex matter even further, we are instilled with a piece of this great invisible force of spirit. This piece is our own individual inner sun and we will commonly refer to this piece as our soul. Our soul is an extension of God. You might say that the Holy Spirit is the body of God and our inner spirit is a part, a mere molecule within that infinite body. We carry around with us our very own spiritual energy field. This energy field is more commonly known as our aura. Just as our individual soul is an extension of God, our auric energy field is an extension, or projection of our soul and our body is the physical manifestation of that auric make-up. Our spiritual energy field is actually a miniature piece, our piece of the Holy Spirit governed by our soul. It is our individual solar system and our soul is the heart of our system. Our soul and individualized spirit make us who we are. Our soul and spiritual energy field is given to us by God. This is His greatest gift to us. It is the gift of life. We might also add that when God created us, He created us with a clean slate, meaning our energy field was pure and consisted of nothing but the pure, Holy Spirit of love. Our energy field contains all of the elements which comprise the characteristics of our personality, such as our thoughts, awareness, feelings, etc. Our aura is our own individual blueprint that has recorded our experiences since our soul’s inception. You could say it is like a movie camera containing an infinite supply of film. The camera with its infinite supply of film continues to roll indefinately. Our inner camera records our experiences in various realms of life, though for the sake of clarity we will focus our attention upon the physical existence for now. Wherever we go and whatever we do, the experience is recorded within our aura in the form of energy. This energy encompasses our being and extends outward on average of a few feet from our bodies. The aura is invisible, yet very real. You may not realize it, but you experience the auras of all with whom you come in close proximity. You may sense certain feelings and other characteristics about a person as you come into their energy field and they may sense the same about you. Oftentimes you can sense certain things about a person from even further distances. The energy composing the auric field is invisible and governed by spiritual law in which distance does not interfere with the perception of the aura.

Through our physical existence we direct our energy into countless ideas and activities in order for us to exist and meet whatever goals and objectives we set for ourselves. Our entire life experience is determined by how we focus our energy to satisfy our desires. We are meant to direct our energies for the purposes of doing good, both for ourselves and for our fellow brothers and sisters. The problem begins to arise when we act or speak in an inappropriate manner and do harm to ourselves and others. We should understand that karma in and of itself is neither bad nor good. Karma is merely energy set into motion.

It is the misappropriation of this energy that
causes it to accumulate negatively and darkly.

This misappropriated energy can also be referred to as misused, misdirected or misqualified energy. You see, we are meant to express love toward ourselves and our fellow human beings. And it certainly doesn’t end there. We are meant to express love to animals, to the Earth, and to all of life. When we express love, we express goodness. When we express goodness, we express God. When we express God, the energy is friendly, harmonious and positive. Our being is a vehicle for expressing the Holy Spirit. When the energy of the Holy Spirit flows through us, it is in its natural form of love. It is clean, pure and untainted. It is up to us whether we choose to allow that golden spirit to continue flowing and be expressed as love or if we will muddy up that energy with negativity. Our aura continually records this process. If we choose to allow spirit to simply flow through us in harmonious fashion and we in turn express love, our aura records love and no damage is done. If we express something other than love, the energy becomes clouded and distorted and is recorded accordingly. We could say it is recorded negatively and for purposes of clarity we will say that anything other than love is negativity of a sort. As we mentioned, God created us with a clean and pure slate and when we express our energy inappropriately, our auras become tainted, dirty and impure. Sooner or later payback time will come and we will re experience whatever negative word or action we gave out, for it is recorded and becomes a permanent part of our auric record. It is also important for us to understand that this process is nothing personal. This is God’s law which keeps order throughout the universe. This law constitutes the universal principle of cause and effect or giving and receiving. The law makes perfect sense when you really stop to think about it. If you send out love, love will be reflected back to you. If you send out hate, anger, fear and negativity, that is what will be reflected back to you. Always remember the following words.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

They are some of the wisest words ever spoken! We can also expand the phrase to: speak onto others as you would have them speak to you. Accept the fact that this is a universal principle that keeps not only us, but all of life in line with love! It is also wise to accept the fact that there is no way of getting around or usurping this law.

We can see that our auric field constitutes our own individual life record; therefore, karma is not external to us, but internal. This also means that we are our own judge. Let us take a look at just how we judge ourselves according to how we direct our energies through our words and actions.

The Spoken Word

There is much power in the words we speak. The words we speak should promote love toward others. We are vehicles designed to inspire and send light to each other and not darkness and negativity. Unfortunately, however, we have all experienced both the positive and negative effects of the words we speak. At one time or another, we have all been involved in an argument where voices were raised and unpleasant conversation took place. We have been each a sender and a receiver of angry words. The turmoil we experienced created an atmosphere laced with tension and animosity. For example, if you argue with your brother, John, and you are the primary sender of the hosility, John will experience the negative vibes which will cause him to cringe and retreat into darkness. Whether you consciously realize it or not, these negative vibes are also recorded and experienced within you, the sender. Considering that the average person is simply not going to sit there and take it, John further stimulates the negative energy of the argument by releasing all his pent up frustration back at you. As he angrily shouts at you, you feel your inner self cringe and experience an array of negative emotions. What you are really feeling is a result of John’s negative energy being hurled in your direction. You feel injured because your own energy is being attacked. This produces a painful experience that leaves you in a state of mental distress. The cells which compose your physical make up become filled with anger and fear, generating an impulse to escape from the body. They say yikes, we're outta here! The energy of our cells is highly sensitive.

What has happened? You have just misused energy and incurred negative karma. This event has not only been recorded by your aura, but the Holy Spirit of God knows and has recorded this event in the universal archive of records (Akashic) which includes your life. In that great storage bank of records is a book with your name on it and this event comprises one chapter in your book of life. A Book of Life consists of all of the experiences of an individual since their initial incarnation into the material world. At some point or another in either your current or future life, you will undergo a similar experience involving the same or comparable negative energies. In other words, you will experience in equal measure what you gave out. Lest we not forget that the experience has also been recorded in John’s aura and all of the details which we have shared about your aura apply to his aura. Multiply this exchange of energy for about six billion people on planet Earth and you will have a pretty good idea of the magnitude of negative energy to which we are all exposed.

Not only do the words we speak create negativity, but our intentions behind the words serve to intensify and distort the event. If you had intended to go off on John before you even arrived, in other words if you planned it, the karma you incurred would be somewhat worse than if an argument just happened to ensue. Angry words, in many cases, often just spring forth, however, the intentions within an individual can largely affect the outcome. Loving and compassionate intentions flow from the heart. Unkind intentions arise from animosity, hostility, deception and and a stream of uncontrolled thoughts and emotions centered in fear rather than love. These stem from the ego and are always self-centered in fear. If the intention of the individual is to deceive, mislead, cheat or hurt another and that intention is followed by corresponding words of malintent, that person will eventually experience, or suffer what they have given out. If a person uses words in an abusive, vindictive and otherwise controlling manner, that energy will eventually come back to him or her. A person who is a habitual liar will have difficulty finding the truth. To put it another way, a seeker of truth who has a history of lying is venturing down a rough road because they will have to sort through all the lies they have dished out before finding the truth. This principle holds true on all levels making the process more difficult than it might otherwise be for the individual. The process all boils down to one thing; as you sow, so shall you reap.

Negative Actions

Just as the negative use of the spoken word can be initially damaging to the receiver and sometime later for the sender when that energy returns, negative action intensifies a karmic situation. Oftentimes a verbal argument leads to physical action, such as striking another with fists, body or any number of objects. This situation results not only in the misuse of energy in the form of words, but from physical action as well and the consequences are equally severe. If you are struck and don't strike back you will not incur any karma. This may be difficult to refrain from, as it is a natural reaction to both return words of anger as well as strike back. This is a test of how well disciplined our minds are. Mahatma Gandhi was beaten several times and did not strike back at his adversaries either physically or verbally. His ability to refrain from violent retaliation required an enormous amount of inner strength and self-discipline.

I often wonder how much energy is being misused in contact sports, such as football and hockey. Professional boxing has to take the cake, the entire environment being fueled by wild fans. Reminds me of the joke, “I went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out.” This tendency toward violence in fans demonstrates the nature of the society we live in.