BEATLES UPANISHAD

Spiritual Interpretations of Beatles songs

In an interview Paul McCartney was once asked, 'What would you say was the lasting meaning of the Beatles?' Without hesitation he replied, 'All you need is love'. There was a long pause, like he’d caught everyone off guard… Then he said, 'Shall I elaborate?' He said something like: It goes in and out of style, but you keep coming back to it. There are many things in life that are needed in a tough world, but everyone is searching for love. 'And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make'. Which is the way it oughta be...

I always heard something more in the Beatles' songs than just the individual meaning on the surface. They were always open in their music to surprise themselves and catch the meaning later. Like that they kind of channelled something mysterious, something wonderful and enduring, because it resonated with some kind of truth. I think more than anything tangible, that was what lay behind their universal appeal. Their songs were my Upanishads (spiritual teachings) as I grew up.

Hope you find these interpretations of some of their songs interesting. Have another listen.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps - The White Album

Everyone must look around sometimes and wonder why is it like this? - does it have to be this way!? It may appear a matter of wishful thinking or idealism, but at any one moment there is so much that could be done for the benefit of others, which would be so simple, and would be such an improvement all round, oneself included. It is not a matter of equality, but of just sufficient compassion and concern that extends beyond one’s own individual cares and needs that take up most of our attention.

From the spiritual point of view, it is a scientific truth that the thought, care and actions of a person who sincerely aims to benefit and help others serve also to help release the tensions and negativity that are in us and around us. Be positive, look for the good in others, find the best in yourself.

Strawberry Fields Forever - Magical Mystery Tour

Nothing is real! So what is Strawberry Fields? In the Bhagavad Gita there is a chapter known as “The Field and the Knower of the Field”. The Field is the playing field of life if you like, and the Knower of the Field is the state of being able to view all that is happening, lightly as it were, as an observer, as if in a game, a play, not quite real - 'You know I know that it’s a dream’. The uncertainty of the verses expresses the position most of us find ourselves in of being aware of the state of affairs but not sure how to play, or how much of a game it really is.

Let It Be

It’s all in the title of course. In its fuller expression it would be: Let It Be As It Is. There is a term in yoga known as Ishwara Pranidhana. It means that - whether a believer in god or not, it’s not important – there is at least a perception of an intelligence, a consciousness, a power operating in nature, in the universe, in us too, which is beyond the capacity of the individual mind to comprehend. But the capacity to accept that the intelligence of that consciousness is there, that there is a higher purpose and so, let it be.

It’s amazing really that the human mind thinks it’s equal to understanding all the forces in the universe; to be qualified to judge unequivocally what is good or bad, what is right or wrong. Everyone must surely feel the need to surrender to something; or is this mind the highest intelligence of all? And which is the better proposition?

Rain - Past Masters

A statement of the truth that the vision of all things can be seen equally. By observing the two polarities of rain and sun, and accepting they are equal in purpose and experience, change is 'just a state of mind' because in the end 'everything’s the same' - the transcendence of duality concisely put. Of course, this is difficult to live by, but hearing words of wisdom leaves a resonant message that these things are worthy of intent.

Blackbird - The White Album

Very often it is not the aim or the direction that is lacking but the means that are missing. It’s a mistake to want the gratification of arrival without having the trouble of making the journey. In order to fly, the broken wings have to be mended; in order to have the vision you have to have the eyes to see. Patience is needed. A journey takes time; it can take a long time, but with continuity of purpose not a step is wasted, and there will inevitably come a time when this becomes clear.

Tomorrow Never Knows - Revolver

Taken indirectly, and loosely, from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, these verses are like shards of light giving paradoxical glimpses of reality. Spiritual thought often appears contradictory. This is because appropriate teaching varies according to the different levels of understanding at different times. Advanced teaching may appear counter-intuitive but is often on a level which is beyond the mind that at an earlier stage would not rightly be understood. At the same time, to an open mind, verses such as these have the effect of breaking the intellectual hold by their paradoxical nature.

Long Long Long - The White Album

The implication of this is one of coming home. After a long long long time, finally an important connection is made and there is release and an end to uncertainty. This is often the experience of recognizing a teaching or a teacher perhaps for the first time, perhaps after many years of searching either knowingly or unknowingly. And actually it is at this stage that the journey really gets under way; because no map or guide, no journey.

Here There and Everywhere - Revolver

The title and the dynamic it invokes transcend this as being only a girl/boy love song. Anyway does anyone know a boy/girl relationship that unconditionally fulfils these conditions not just for some time, but indefinitely? The title evokes the quality of bhakti which is a state of devotion to something you feel to be divine.

Bhava is the feeling of a direct relationship with that divine quality in a particular way, making it personal and therefore accessible. Traditionally these are the divine as a master, as mother or father, as a friend, as a child, even as an enemy. But the most intense and sweetest - and the most difficult – is as a lover, where the intensity of the love for the divine is as one feels for a beloved, which works the other way round also: the beloved as divine. And that’s not new in popular song - Venus in Blue Jeans - it can be highly elevated. It all depends how you look at it.

Come Together - Abbey Road

The verses, without ever once being specific or attempting to nail it down, reflect the diversity and contradictions, often senseless, of living only in a material world. It is somehow subversive and upbeat at the same time. It is literally meaningless but we seem to sense what it means - 'One thing I can tell you is you got to be free'. This is not a political statement, but something more transcendental. Then the chorus comes, which says effectively all this diversity is brought to one point and transcended. The Me, as in “over me” is the point, not separate from oneself, where duality ends and there are no contradictions left.

Eleanor Rigby - Revolver

Loneliness and fear go together. Here in the people mentioned there is loneliness because there is fear; and it is there in the chorus, which seems to imply everybody. The loneliness is a product of the contraction of the individual nature to the point where there is no longer any genuine connection - with people, the environment and life, and inevitably oneself. It is the more sad because people don’t realize how lonely they are, not knowing any alternative - 'I think I’ll jump in the Mersey, but it looks like rain.’ Everything that takes place is some form of escape from reality - she ‘lives in a dream’. Even death is mistaken as an entry into greater loneliness rather than a release from it. A beautiful but very sad song.

Nowhere Man - Rubber Soul

Nowhere Man is a song that accurately and honestly reflects the ‘lostness’ of self-delusion. A spiritual path often begins from a state of disillusionment and frustration - the realization of all this effort, seemingly going nowhere. In the Bhagavad Gita the first chapter is known as the yoga of despondency, and it is only when we’re up against it that the essential questions get to be asked. Like now?

A spiritual path is not passive, it needs real effort. But it is not the kind of effort we are usually accustomed to, more one of intent, of earnestness of purpose, of sincerity and consistency, along with the ability to let things develop as they must, in their own time – a sort of effortless effort.

And Your Bird Can Sing - Revolver

Everyone is conducting a lifelong experiment called The Search for Happiness, enduring happiness. You may try many directions, or one direction for a long time, and think, Ah now 'your bird can sing'. But without including one other essential quality all effort will continue indefinitely. How do we interpret that one thing - the Me in the song as in, You don’t get Me? 'When your prize possessions start to wear you down', only then the search begins to look in My direction. The wise have always spoken of a Something Within, something beyond just the pleasures of the body, the articulation of the mind. It has many names - Atman is one that does not exist as a definition. It’s only by including that essential quality within us as part of the equation that enduring can happiness ever be found. It's always calling, but quietly...

Because - Abbey Road

Why?

Because…

All You Need is Love - Magical Mystery Tour (of Life)

We Want to Know, but Hesitate to Know

There is a spirit of adventure in self discovery
Adventure is when you don't know what will happen next

I’ve been teaching 5 - 9 day meditation courses, held mainly in silence, for nearly 10 years now. They aim to define a time, create the right environment, and give guidance for the best opportunity to go deeper into the inner world and go further on the path of discovery and self knowledge. 

It takes something to take a slice out of your life to spend some time away from everything with the sole purpose of becoming more exposed to yourself and discover… who knows what? Anyone who attends one of these courses usually has a clear intention and is aware they are taking a definitive step in that direction. However, every time, it comes up somewhere in the course that, though I want to know, I do, I hesitate to know, and I do, at the same time.

Or to put it more directly, you discover something in yourself that is clearly inaccurate, built on false premises, and proven in some personal way to be so, but when push come to shove, still we hesitate to make the change. Why is that?

To change or not to change?

It is very difficult to change something in the mind that has been established there for a long time even though, whether it was originally accurate or not, it might well have passed its use-by date. Times, events and people change, but these well established states of mind do not change easily even when the evidence is against them and in spite of the sincerity of our desire to do so. This is a fact, often intuitively understood, but easily overlooked, and it is wiser and in the end easier and much less complicated to accept it as quickly and as fully as possible.

Prefer the familiar

It is just so much easier to slip into autopilot and let things go on in the same old way. There’s no actual harm in that, is there? Everybody does it. And no-one condemns you for being the same today as yesterday. In fact people are more comfortable with that. We like people to be sound, reliable… meaning, like me, and like you’ve always been. And if we change, those we know well will have to accept that too, or not. But everyone has the right to change don’t they, and if the time is right there’s nothing to stop you from moving on is there?

Laziness

Change is definitely the harder task, requiring more effort in every way. It’s not just that it’s easier to stay this way, than to go that way, it’s actually a whole nest of problems with knock-on effects all down the line to effect substantial change. Many of history’s worst decisions have been made as a continuation of plans already made that are just too much trouble to change even in the face of new evidence and changing circumstances - like walking into disaster.  Much of the First World War, for instance, if you’re interested

Fear of the unknown

Then, what are we going to come across when we do go inside and look deeper? We really don’t know... Or do we? There is always some intuitive insight at work somewhere that knows what we will have to face, what we know is in us. It’s the still, small voice inside, and amongst the clamour of other things, it’s got to be a particular decision whether to listen to it and act on it or not. And until we do decide, it’s that fear of the unknown, or the partially suspected that gives pause, and causes the hesitation. 

So much already invested

Built on supposition though it may be, I have invested so much in what I have come to believe in myself as real and permanent. Is it real, isn’t it real - or forget about it? Because maybe my view of myself, and then my career, my relationships, my deeply felt beliefs, hopes and dreams, in the end may turn out to be unsupported and unreliable after all. It’d be like selling out, even if the investment is no longer bringing in the expected returns. But that would be a heaviness that eventually gives way to lightness.

Proud of my ignorance

Of course this doesn’t apply to you or me, but boy is there a lot of it about. Well if I’m not gonna change, might as well make a virtue out of it - the right to be honoured not for the quality or accuracy of belief, but for the tenacity with which I hold it and hold onto it, even if it is a fantasy. Some people will do anything for a little attention, but present a different face to the world, and you end up believing it.

No fun in it

There’s no doubt that if there is a deeper insight into the inaccuracies of life then a realignment of viewpoint is sure to follow. And it may seem as if there is going to be less fun to be had out there, even as it also becomes clear that the ‘fun’ from before was unreliable as a lasting proposition for happiness. I knew someone once who said that he wished he hadn’t learnt what he had through his own spiritual aspiration, because life was easier and less complicated and more fun before. There is a lot of fun in truth, but it’s a different kind of fun than fantasy, more like an adventure

No guarantee of the outcome

Even if the path of self knowledge is pursued sincerely and diligently for some time, where’s the guarantee of a worthwhile outcome? Those who have gone before assure us that there is, but who believes such things these days? Caught in the middle of the journey when the highway has turned from three lanes at the beginning into two lanes, and then into a steep and rocky road with hidden obstacles, there is a temptation to turn back for a better road, regardless of the destination. But can’t you have arrival without the travel.

There is eternal beauty in accuracy

It is testing and trying, but there is one thing that is overlooked, the quality that keeps the eye on the road and the destination in mind: faith. Faith is naivety isn’t it? Who believes in anything you can’t test and satisfy in your mind first? Well, that’s a Catch 22 right there: if we are clear about it, we find it’s that same mind we tend to trust for everything that proves itself unequal in this particular matter. It's good in the material world, but in the inner life, accurately knowing one’s true nature, that’s outside its jurisdiction. Missing that catch will lead to a lot of problems.

There’s so much more to this than meets the eye. There are people, places, philosophies and practices that can awaken faith and keep it alive. But you have to begin to question long held beliefs and get away from the ongoing influences for some time to get access to it. But when internalised, tested though it may be from time time, it is the most valuable thing we can call our own, because in the end it proves itself to be very much our own.

Not Actually Meditation, Actually

Or Meditating with a really stubborn mind

Although I’ve been practising meditation for about forty years now, I’ve not actually been practising meditation in the way it’s usually understood. Let me explain. 

Meditation: have mantra, take mala (a string of 108 beads), sit comfortably, close the eyes, breathe normally, or rhythmically. Repeat mantra mentally, in sync with breath, or not, as you wish. With each repetition of the mantra turn the mala one bead. Practice one mala (about 12 minutes) two malas, four malas, whatever... 

I tried that once, for a while, but it didn’t work. Why? Lack of focus, impatience, wandering mind - what most people experience after the first taste of euphoria and enthusiasm has worn off. But looking back there was another reason which is why I’m writing about it now. 

More than this

Ever since I can remember, looking around I had always thought, There must be more than this, This can’t be it, and occasionally, This can’t be real. I was blessed with a rich inner life and cursed with an out of control imagination. What it amounted to was that I came to value the inner life above all else, because it seemed that’s where I wanted to be, where it was really at, but I had little control over it.

Everything around me seemed so normal, in the pejorative sense. Fortunately I was born at time when that normality was about to be turned upside down. It would be no surprise to discover that when marijuana came along I took to it enthusiastically. It offered a way to deepen the inner connection. In the course of time though I discovered that, while it might help open the door, and occasionally kick it in, the experience itself was also a kind of distraction. Once inside it’s better to look out for yourself unaltered so to speak.

Coincidentally, when leaving the marijuana habit I was initiated into meditation with a mantra. At first that was like having the door kicked in too, where you could also float around on cosmic clouds. But what I really wanted to know was what could you do for yourself when you got in there, where does it lead to, where does it all end? Because cosmic clouds are all well and good but it’s just fluff, another form of distraction really.

From there things moved on a bit. I knew I had access to the inner world, valued it and tried to look after it, in what seemed like a maddeningly insecure unhelpful world - there, all the values and priorities seemed to be out of alignment, which sort of seemed like it could be so easy to fix if only we’d… But that's another story. So I had to get away from all that. 

Inner world preeminent

"Real Life is Inside" Swami Satyananda

It’s only inside, so that’s where you have to make the effort. 

Over the course of time it became clear to me that the source of all the contradictions is in the mind itself, no matter how much we might struggle with that idea. Real life is within, but it goes deeper than just this mind. How to come to that? By stubbornly trying every possible avenue that I came across trying to bend truth to my will. And I was calling that meditation. 

So what was happening? Long story made short. Access to inner world was usually not difficult. Mantra helped, at first, but with some experience I found I could get in there pretty easily - just close your eyes and wait for something to happen, because there is always something happening. And here’s the interesting part, mantra is usually understood as a support, something to return to, to know where you’re at. But when inside, the mantra seemed to be a distraction and I just wanted to go on on my own. 

Being there

The long hard road, where all the mistakes are made, is getting to a vantage point of being able to watch the mind from some place that is itself not influenced by the mind. We call that Awareness. Is that a part of the mind? At first it seems yes - where all the mistakes are made. But by way of making and then hopefully eliminating all those mistakes, one day the way eventually becomes clear to see the mind like from the outside, and then you can just let it be and remain calm and still. 

If that can be done even if only briefly, temporarily, then the perspective on all those things that are observed changes, sometimes quite radically. Which is the long path to self knowledge - long because there is so much we don’t know about ourselves, and it takes a long time and continuous application. 

Now here’s the thing. If the mind is accepted as being inconsistent. And if the awareness can be trusted as something special, separate from the mind, then you can enquire more deeply into those inconsistencies. It can be done through choice, or recognising inconsistencies as they arise, in meditation, or in daily interactions. 

It can be done formally or casually. It can be like a dialogue between me and my self - the me not knowing and questioning, and the real me that may just reveal a personal truth or two... It can be done anywhere, anytime. It can be done as often as the inconsistencies keep on coming. 

So you could say that the practice of meditation is like a training ground to know how to make the inner connection and to allow the relationship to flourish unhindered, to be a good observer of oneself. Because then the same can be applied in daily life and interactions. 

Condition of wisdom

The more still and confident the sense of being an observer becomes the deeper the inner knowledge can go. But it’s not a gradual linear progression. Sometimes it all seems to be working according to plan, and then all hopes and expectations fly out the window. Because we have all our own untruths, half-truths, misconceptions and misdemeanours to meet with, acknowledge and address before we get a good look in to our inner wisdom. 

And wisdom most assuredly is there, but access to it is conditional upon harmony in every sphere of experience - mind, body, prana, even intuition - before that access is vouchsafed. This is so important to realise for patience and persistence, because you can’t arrive without making the journey. 

So what we call meditation is not necessarily a matter of trying to stay at one point- if you can do it, then do it - then losing it and trying repeatedly to return to it, but also to be able to know how to let the mind go free and follow its behaviour very closely, but without interference or prejudice. Then one fine day the focus will come, spontaneously, effortlessly, and then there is a chance for those things beyond the mind’s jurisdiction to begin to manifest. That’s how awareness works in meditation. 

This requires a great deal of inner discipline - to allow for freedom in the mind and remain unmoved by it. And in the same way it is not an excuse for the same to be expressed externally, where the discipline is of a different kind: of self control, friendliness and compassion.

What helps

So one interesting question: what is the constant? What puts up with all the bullshit, the intensity, the multiple sensations, of realising how wrong you can be, and goes on being calm and still when it never seems to end…? 

It’s simple: the desire above all else to know what is that truth, where to search for it, and how to go about it. If you have that seeking quality you can’t help yourself. And for some, even if it puts you in a very small minority, that goal is the only thing worth working for, no matter what else you have to do, what you have to put up with, or how long it takes. It’s like a friendship for life. You may also need someone to indicate how...

KARMA - The Third and Last Alternative

One of the great mysteries of life: Why is it like it is? Why does it have to be this way? 

Everything in life is explicable up to a point. Cause and effect is sustainable all over the place. From, if you touch fire it will burn; to, an apple falls, planets orbit the sun due to gravity; to, the atom can be split – I may not understand that but I know the evidence of it. These things satisfy the mind - from what I can see with my own eyes, what I understand from experience, what evidence persuades me to believe, even what a trusted person tells me is true, as in quantum physics and therefore the computer I’m using.

But there comes a point when this breaks down. On the earliest maps of the world there would be intricate detail of what was then known, then drifting off into uncertain space, often there would be written "There be dragons". And there we may fear to tread.

The most enigmatic question

Why is it that I can work up success for 20, 30 years and then have someone embezzle everything? Why does a successful relationship fall apart in acrimony. Why is someone less talented than me becoming famous and I'm still struggling with a daytime job? Why is it that some horrible rich kid is given all the perks and advantages in life and then squanders them. Why is an apparently healthy child suddenly struck down with a lifelong sickness with no support? Why do things happen that are patently so unfair?

These are examples of the kind of question in every life that go on defying a satisfactory answer: why do these things happen? These are difficult questions. And we do ask them, but usually only when they relate to me and mine personally, not as a speculative exercise. Then it looks too… something. It turns into an emotional issue because the mind can't or won't go there because… there be dragons.

If we try really hard to satisfy the mind finally with an explanation for the seemingly irreconcilable, there are three usual possible explanations. Maybe we try two, and then give up.

First explanation

It's all random, there is no ultimate sense or logic in the universe, no power in control. It’s all chance. But maybe things that we don’t understand just don’t have enough quantifiable data… yet. In the meantime random says there is no ultimate sense in the universe, no original cause to the effect. You and me - we are an accident not waiting to happen. We come in, exist for some time; then it’s over, end of story.

There is no integrated reason for any action which, because there are no ultimate consequences to our actions, reduces everything to a struggle for survival of the fittest in true Darwinian fashion, to get what we can out of it while we can while we’re here. So if things go well I say I’ve earned it. If things go badly then someone, something, anything else must be to blame. That's just the way it is. Sound familiar?

No one with a scientific way of thinking could accept this. Every action sets up some kind of reaction, this is the practical foundation of logical thought. There is an effect to a cause, and also a cause to any effect. Random, chance does not sit comfortably. Why else are billions spent on scientific research and discovery? Because deep in the human mind-set, with things as we’ve got to know them so far, this randomness is not acceptable. There has to be a reason for, or theory of… everything.

Second explanation

Then there is a force in the universe which controls everything, which we call God. This can be a delicate matter, but one thing is clear, whether we accept god, or not, every interpretation of any god will be confined within the limitations of human perception, and not the thing itself. It would actually be way beyond what we could think of it, logically or emotionally. But still it seems to be common among those who claim God to be the ultimate cause (and effect): They know what God thinks! 

God is represented almost like a person, endowed with superhuman qualities to be sure, but we infer that He thinks just like us, just on a really Grand Scale. He (it usually is a he) has judgement and preferences. And as a true believer I know what those preferences are and how to interpret those judgements. And then as a final explanation, beyond what we do claim to understand, the hands are thrown up: "God works in mysterious way".

As a result, there is either a turning away from religion, because that would be the 'enlightened' reaction, on the one hand; or on the other a more determined, more certain, more rigid interpretation; because at a certain point the mind gives up trying to reason and think it through, and comes to depend on a prescribed set of precepts, even though the same mind claims to know what God is, and what he wants.

This is not meant either to negate or affirm God. Lord Buddha provided the best answer for modern times. He was not an atheist: He simply said, this mind is not presently adequate to know, understand or interpret what is god, so stay with the task at hand and know and understand yourself completely first. Then the light of God will shine in you, and no explanation will be necessary.

Third explanation

Then there is a third explanation, sometimes muttered under the breath, as a resignation, an accusation, as a last resort: Karma… And this is like going off the map, so here too, there be dragons.

Suppose just for a moment with the impartial vision and insight of possibility: a person is not just a body, and not just an individual mind; that a person at the core is more than both of these and is potentially not limited to anything definable in normal terms. And we would aspire to know that. There is a term for it: Atman.

The Atman

The Atman is a constant not limited to time or space, and not limited to one body or mind. It is as the constant self within. If we take that to be so, not finally dependent on a body and mind to be my self: we were, before this life; and we will be, after this life. Birth was not the beginning and death will not be the end. Therefore what happens in this life carries some weight. And what happens in life are of two fundamental types: what happens to me, which is the effect, of some previous cause. And what we do in reaction, which becomes a cause to a subsequent effect. That in simple terms is the nature of the working of karma.

It's central to ancient cultures; and implied incidentally but quite often in modern cultures, for example: what goes around comes around; how you behave with other people is very influential on how other people will behave with you. My father, who didn't even know about karma, told me when I was learning to drive: you know it's a funny thing, but if you're polite to people on the road you find that people are polite to you. 

It can be seen to operate in one lifetime, sometimes very simply, that what I do today comes back to me tomorrow. But that is too simplistic and doesn't finally add up. But when there is the possibility of more than one lifetime, of an accumulation of experience, over many lifetimes, there begins to emerge an inner logic that gels into a unified theory without contradiction. It's the only one that can do that, so it's worth thinking about.

I come into this life as an embodied form directly as a result of past learning: my parents, my body, mind, everything. However, I am not without free choice. And within all my choices, there is a constant, ever present, which is whether I identify myself as just a body, mind, a person, family member, eye colour, race, culture, religion, or whether the true identity is something more than any or all of these - Atman

Karma is the medium of the learning of the truth of this. When we misidentify and go on misidentifying, it is the force of equilibrium, which is inherent in karma, which reminds us of mistakes we have made, not as a random or arbitrary force which chooses why, who, how, and when; but as something so finely calibrated as to be an absolute wonder to try to understand. They say that if you truly know and understand karma you would know everything.

Karma as opportunity

Every life is an opportunity to learn the fundamentals. Everything in life is a medium, because everything is an agent of karma, to learn the hidden lesson that karma is inexorably teaching us. That also includes everything we consider usual, like family, relationships, profession, ambitions and desires - especially ambitions and desires. Check out the movie Groundhog Day... again and again, and again and again…!

I have my situation, who I am, what I take myself to be. Into that mix things happen, sometimes as hoped for, sometimes as expected, sometimes surprisingly, and sometimes disastrously. These all describe not necessarily the actual events, but my reactions to them. Therein lies the seeds of future karma.

How I react will determine my learning. If I react personally and take credit for all that I want and apportion blame for all that I don't want, the wheels of karma will turn and return in time – karma is very patient – to remind me that this is not accurate thinking, which throws things out of alignment and balance - and it will insist I keep trying until I get it. Groundhog Day again.

If I assume responsibility for my karma up to this day - that is, all that I have experienced, (which may just include time before this life on the learning curve) - my reaction will be more one of understanding and acceptance, and my behaviour will be one of forward momentum by trying to find/maintain the balance through appropriate action and less of impulsive reaction.

But, we may still ask, yes, that’s all very well, but why bother? What's the point?

The three karmas

Once we have accepted that we have taken on influence from more than just this one life, we understand better why we may have come into this life within certain parameters. These parameters come out of our storehouse of karma, known as Sanchita Karma. These parameters also include the environment, inner and outer, for the lessons we have to learn. These lessons are already coming at us. There is no avoiding them. They are like arrows released from a bow; there is no recall, they will hit their target. This is known as Prarabdha Karma. 

Our free will determines how we experience these lessons that are coming toward us according to the choices we make and attitudes we adopt. And experience them we must. Then when we make contact, how we behave at that moment will determine our future karma. This is known as Kriyamana Karma. If we react according to a previous disposition (very likely in a habitual state of mind) we will set in train the karmic process which will at some stage remind us yet again that there is a lesson to learn, until we learn it – Groundhog Day… again.

On the other hand, if we can transcend instinct and react with a deeper understanding, that our events are a product of karma and that our actions at any moment will influence the outcome of experience further down the track - all judgement is off the table, court is adjourned for a retrial.

It’s as well to keep in mind that karma is absolutely neutral, and definitely not arbitrary. There is no such thing as bad or good karma, only tough learning or valuable opportunity. The key word is equilibrium. Karma indicates correction to the balance, and so seeks to find harmony. It can be very kind or quite ruthless in its way to achieve that, it all depends, but its influence is inevitable. 

Of course this doesn’t make it easy; it’s counterintuitive, or just plain crazy. Whichever way you go with karma philosophically, you have either to accept it totally or not at all. It’s a complete system, so you can’t take a bit of karma here and a bit there and then overlook it for the sake of convenience - that begins to look like a selective god. If you accept it, it stays integrated and maintains its integrity universally. And if you reject, you reject it totally which takes you back to random and then you also have to accept all the implications of that, completely. 

Introducing dharma

Managing karma could be said to be the central aspect of our life, whether we know it, or accept it, or not. And to complete the picture it really helps to bring one more idea into play: a sense of purpose in this life; a sense that there is a part to play, and to play it well, continually; a sense of doing what we believe to be right. It's called Dharma. Dharma is our path in life, and if it is accurately chosen it will not falter when the vicissitudes of karma put us to the test. It lessens the impact because in aligning ourselves with dharma the karmic lesson is already half-learned.

Dharma and karma are the two forces that taken together make life make complete sense, from top to bottom. A mind ruled by strongly held opinions will find this difficult to accept. But after analysing impartially, intelligently, one thing following another, there is an inherent logic, scientific if you like in its elegance, which cannot be bettered by any other philosophy.

Incidentally incarnation is not limited to the body as we know it. It can be anywhere in any form according to the state of evolution, because evolution only goes so far in the physical realm. There is also evolution at the karmic level which only begins to be recognised in the human form (or not as the case may be). There’s a whole universe to choose from, and infinite forms. There is no return in evolution, just slow learning. It's the fishing in the past for I-was-an-Indian-prince-or-princess idea that gets incarnation a bad name.

This is a big ask, but it adds up. Mind can bend over backwards to get any answer it wants, or refuse to see what it doesn’t want, prompted by emotions stretched beyond the power of acceptance. You can argue with it intellectually, you can argue with it emotionally, but if the possibility is accepted that you were before this life, and you will be after this life, the logic of karma is irrefutable. So the question remains: which would I rather, a philosophy I understand that works perfectly in limited circumstances, or a philosophy that fits perfectly even if I don't understand it at all? Did I mention Groundhog Day?

We may think we never think about this, but somewhere deep inside there is a core belief system that operates and influences throughout life. Examined closely it will probably show itself to be one of the three options outlined here. It's really worth thinking about and getting to know what is the inherent motivating force we carry with us. Then only can we operate according to free will, the unique gift of humanity. We have to use it responsibly.