Character

Richard JelusichBlog

In my experience a lifetime is not so much how long of a life you live, but how you choose to develop the nature of your character in that given lifetime. For me after 35 years of spiritual counseling and teaching I found that the notion of karma or how we attach to people and places and things it’s a very real thing.

Within that idea of karma is that we have many lifetimes and even though the one you’re living now is obviously the most important, past lives do definitely have an effect on this life. In fact the seeds of karma will sprout in a given lifetime because they are there to be dissolved so that we can avoid unnecessary suffering by living in an illusion that we’re separate from all things. Open

Karma is basically the law of causation or cause and effect, in that it’s not so much what you might be attracted to but rather how strongly you are attracted to it. The root of that is based on the knowledge that we are timeless spiritual beings we’re having a physical existence in a dimension that does measure time and space. I know very well that for some that seems like a very farfetched idea but this is precisely what the spirituals teachers speak of that we have this nature that is simultaneously spiritual beyond time and space and physical within time and space. I totally recognize that that is where some of us put on the brakes

Nonetheless my learned experience from thousands of spiritual consultations and assessments has shown me that this is definitely the case.

I recently had An opportunity to make my third appearance on New Thinking Allowed, 90 minute question and answer session and the topic was “Understanding the Chakras.”  One of the questions was about “Karma” (the law of cause and effect, how we attach to things and people that then affects our lives).

I noted that we all have our various attachments, whether it is to people, places or things and so it’s very natural and so many times those attachments are powered by our passions and our emotions. That does not mean that we suddenly have to detach from everyone and everything.  It just means we are wise to practice equanimity in all that we think and do. This way we are centered, focused and grounded in all of our endeavors making conscious decisions as to what and why we are attached to the things that we are.

If it were so easy to call to the present moment our timeless nature, I suppose all of our karmas would be over very very quickly but that is where the focus is. I believe that we are much more sublime and eloquent beings than we suspect and we are very fortunate to live in an era where science is verifying almost daily the essence of what the spiritual teachers have been telling us for millennia.

Still, it is up to you and I to apply that presence of mind in all we think and do and that is where mindfulness, breathing techniques and doing our best to focus on the task at hand is most helpful. One of the things I tell my students is “Inner focus, outer flexibility.”  That is, to be inwardly focused that we really do have a range of choices in our responses to any given situation and that as we maintain that inner focus we can apply that to our outer world in a form of flexibility that renders the least possible amount of karma and attachment.

So the next time you are making a choice, especially if it involves how you are attached, ask yourself what is best and highest for you?  The most equanimous?  And what will develop your character more in that instance.  Do so, and you will have further developed your spiritual character.

Blessings,

Dr. Richard Jelusich, Ph.D.
www.bamboogardenwellness.com
www.lightnews.org