51: People say that whatever happens in your life; no matter how bad it is, happens for your own good and well-being. Is it true?

Yes, this is true, but seeing that truth can be as much of a challenge as dealing with the ‘challenging’ situation that was drawn to you! An amazing thing that I understood during my moment of enlightenment/nirvana was how everyone’s universe was centered around them yet intersected each other’s universe in a perfect way. That is karma. If I pick up a rose, close my eyes, and toss it into a crowed, and it hits someone, there will be a reason that person got hit with it (for them), and there will be a reason that I threw it. Even though there is no apparent connection between that person and myself. I use that example to try to explain the complexity of karma. Personally, I’m not operating in a state of nirvana, and my current awareness is too limiting to allow me to understand every detail of why behind karma. I don’t know how much of believing in karma is faith and how much is awareness, it seems to be a dynamic relationship. Through meditation, quieting your own mind, ask God/the universe to reveal to you the reason behind a given situation. You may be surprised how effective that practice is.

You must also look at the way that you are using the words ‘bad’ and ‘good’ in your question. I believe that it is very important to avoid placing a value on a situation. Change the word ‘bad’ for the word ‘challenging’ - just this simple change can greatly improve your outlook in life. You see most people’s reaction to the word ‘bad’ is to feel bad, but our reaction to the word ‘challenge,’ is to do something to overcome a situation. Now, if I take your question and replace the word ‘bad,’ and eliminate the word good it becomes, “People say that whatever happens in your life, no matter how challenging it is, happens for your well being, is it true?” To answer that I would say that, life is like going to the gym, if you’re not challenged, your not improving.

Above, I talked about the complexity of karma and how our lives are intertwined, we need to remember that when it comes to our egos too. When something challenging happens to us, most likely it affects other people as well. We need to be careful of thinking that the universe is against us. God/the universe gave us the law of karma out of love. Things that are challenging don’t happen for a negative reason, they happen to promote growth. If you do everything ‘right’, you will still be challenged - karma is about growth, not punishment! ;-)

Comments

  1. Pedro S. Silva IIFebruary 14, 2010 at 5:40 PM

    I'm working on a sermon with my wife. We're using the Adam and Eve story. Our goal is to demonstrate that God "banishing them from the Garden" was not a punishment, but an opportunity for them to learn the very lessons they chose by taking the fruit--the knowledge of good and evil. Of course we see this all as figurative. However, there is that tendency for us as humans to see any challenge or resistance as punishment. The Adam and Eve (Yin/Yang) dynamic is constantly being played out and seen as a war of opposites until it is put in perspective like you put it. Like you said, it's like working out. The resistance is needed for strengthening and growth.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bruce__LeroyFebruary 19, 2010 at 3:09 AM

    Very, very well put! Thank you for sharing :-)

    ReplyDelete

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