Summary:
Session 22 demonstrates how every Cause (Action) has an Effect (Reaction) in your life. And how the quality (Effect) of life today, is result of series of Causes (Actions) in the past. This results in endless deaths-births. And only way out of this eternal cycle of manifest-unmanifest, is to move “I” from Cause-Effect to sat-chit-ananda (Atman, Self).
TOPICS COVERED:
- Actions have 2 results: dṛṣṭa-phalam (seen results) and adṛṣṭa-phalam (unseen results).
Once we see nature of adṛṣṭa-phalam, one may begin to pay attention to their Causes (Actions in the NOW), what kind of Effects (Reactions) it's causing in the future.
And since the future remains yet unmanifest, it means TODAY'S ACTIONS will have to be accounted sooner or later in the future.
Meaning, if you want a smooth, successful and harmonious future, then start doing actions (Causes) today which will have those corresponding delayed Effects (Results) in the future.
We can turn this into a practical formula for creating a better life…
(1) Pretend you go back in time 1 year ago from TODAY.
(2) From that perspective (of 1 year ago), look at all the actions (choices) you've done which have led you to TODAY.
(3) Ask, am I satisfied with the way things are TODAY? If answer is less then “100% satisfied”, then…
(4) If I were to make an adjustment in actions I've done, in order to create a better TODAY, what adjustments would that be?
(5) Resolve from TODAY onwards – to incorporate those adjustments into your life.
(6) Understand that above steps 1-5 (including any type of life betterment system in the world) ultimately becomes another possible distraction. Because when your vision is on mokṣa (Freedom), your only goal is to discriminate Changing-Unchanging (Satya/Mithyā). While also incorporating steps 1-5… just not getting obsessed over them. In other words, we're not saying focus on just ONE. But focus on BOTH. Having a successful life AND Self-Knowledge.
- Function of Causal Body
A bean plant gives birth to a bean seed.
Can you find a bean plant inside a bean seed? No. Can you find a mango tree inside a mango seed? No.
That's because the seed is in POTENTIAL form.
And this seed in POTENTIAL, when it's manifest, it creates an entire bean plant or tree.
What's more, the seed of the current plant holds the blueprint of not only the current generation plant, but all preceding generations of plants.
Similarly, the birth of your body-mind is result of Causal Body (including all its tendencies) of all preceding births.
Thus, the birth of your body-mind is not only influenced by parents genetic, biological, physiological laws. But also of tendencies (saṃskāras) stored in Causal Body. These saṃskāras become more obvious as child gains ability to engage with the world.
The important point is:
As long as “I” is associated to any of the 3 bodies (since Gross, Subtle, Causal are ONE), the “I” will “travel” along with the endless Causal Body. Thus resulting in endless births-rebirths.
Meaning only way OUT is to reidentify “I” from the changing to the Unchanging (satchitananda, Awareness, Consciousness, Brahman, Ātman – these are ALL SYNONYMOUS WORDS).
- How Karma works
Please explain briefly in your own words.
Hint:
- Method of knowing if Action is wise or unwise
Ask “Is what I'm about to do, something I would appreciate if I was on the receiving end?”. Do onto others, as you would have them do onto you.
Ask “What is the intention behind this Action?”.
Is intention of my action meant to profit only me (grabbing attitude – which only reinfornces saṃskāras – clouding intellect even further – causing discrimination between Satya-Mithyā even harder)?
Or is intention of my action meant to serve me AND the whole (giving attitude – which exhausts saṃskāras and purifies the Mind)?
- Only way out of endless cycles of birth-rebirth
Īśvara gives you opportunity to GET OUT of this cycle of Jīva manifest/unmanifest – in form of experiencing oneself as a small entity.
How to make use of this opportunity?
Just by knowing, this Body-Mind is vikaraḥ (modification). But “I” (sat-chit-ananda), which never under goes any change.
So shifting “I” from vikaraḥ to sat-chit-ananda (unchanging) is the ONLY way to get out of this eternal manifest/unmanifest.
If this think that's too easy, you're right. Problem is just hearing this instruction and accepting it, is what takes lifetimes to come to. So if you're reading this, consider yourself blessed! And thank Īśvara for it.
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2 Oct
Hari Om
Really glad I came across this website. It is a real treasure trove of Knowledge. Thank you for sharing. Where can I find the mind map used in this video?
Next session will have mindmap download bottom of page. This session doesn’t.
That’s not the mind map used in this session
Sorry, we don’t have mindmap for this session.
Hi Andre.
Very clear teaching.
I am having periods of clarity and then I lose it again.
I see that one of my Vasana’s is to make things too complex, too big a deal.
I need to take knowledge out of the way to achieve knowledge.
Thank you for your teachings.
?
Keep at it Robert. Periods of clarity/contradictions is expected.
“Or is intention of my action meant to serve me AND the whole”
I do wonder how to act when attacked by other. Assuming he does not carry a weapon, I might be able to use words to serve myself and him, so far I follow.
Assuming he threatens with weapon and I happen to have one too. Assuming I am successful in killing Or hurting him deeply, how does that serve the whole? I am pretty sure I would not appreciate if I was on the receiving end! And at the same time my security is important to me, and it is important to me to not be overwhelmingly focused on my security and instead focus on devotion and self knowledge.
How do you see it, Andre?
Suppose one says, “Don’t lie”.
If one takes that statement at face-value, then if stranger asks for your bank password, you’ll give away the details.
Therefore no statement is black/white. For that reason, why create counter examples. One could create hundreds more.
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Creating counter-examples which are meant to disprove a given statement, has it’s place in certain situations.
For example…
I say that God is sitting in some heaven up there.
You’re meant to question that statement because it can’t be proven while living.
—
In other situations, there are statements which can be investigated to see how they are true for you.
For example…
I say “One’s actions should ideally serve oneself AND the whole”.
You think of an example to see how that’s true.
Like: Organizing my life not only is beneficial to my sanity, but also inspires others to get their chaotic life in order. Hence my actions are serving me and the whole.
I agree that no statement is black or white and dharma/right action needs to be individually assessed by the person with a clear mind based on the goal of de-escalation.
The chatter at the end was very distracting when the woman asked a question and Andre was responding. Martin has a chatterbox vasana.
Hi Andre,
3. How Karma works? Please explain briefly in your own words:
Below is my answer.
Karma can produce a “seen” or “unseen” result. Immediate results are seen results. Delayed results are unseen results.
Karma can produce a chain of results that are beyond our control.
The present karma is important because it determines future responses.
Any karma that respects the Dharma (nonviolence, selfless action) will have a good response, and will not accumulate karma (rather exhausts karma).
Karma (action or inaction) must be made as an offering to Ishwara and accept either a favorable or unfavorable result, as prasadam or a gift from Ishwara.
I wait for your corrections. Thank you.
There’s no flaws in explanation, although extra clarity is needed…
The word “karma” has 2 definitions:
[1] karma: action. EG: Thinking-karma, means an action of thinking. Charity-karma. Driving-car-karma.
[2] karma-phala: result of the action. The result is always of two types: (a) dṛṣṭa: immediately experienced. (b) adṛṣṭa: it’s delayed as current circumstances are not conducive for it give you a corresponding experience.
Both drsta (immediately experienced) and adrsta (delayed), will bring back two types of experiences: (a) punya: pleasant and (b) pāpa: unpleasant. Of course this will depend on degree of how aligned were your actions to what the environment needed to maintain it’s harmony in the grand scheme of things.
Therefore whether your action is keeping with dharma, or not… in both cases… it will produce a result. So there’s no real “exhaustion”. For every action (whether foolish or wise), has a reaction.
Therefore when we say “Karma (action) that respects dharma, will exhaust karma (in this case referring to karma-phala)”, what we mean is: Good, caring, considerate actions will gradually cancel out pāpa (unpleasant results yet to come), thereby making your life easier and more conducive for contemplation and appreciating the presence of God everywhere.