Resilience is Balance

I hope you all had a great week. Last week I had an experience that connected me back to the principles of karma so I apologize for the long newsletter today but I wanted to share some of them with you.

I was walking my two nine year old rescue labradors in my neighborhood and I walked by a house with a crushed mailbox. The couple who own the house (and the crushed mailbox) were outside assessing the damage. I stopped and introduced myself and chatted with them for quite a while and my dogs sat on their front yard (without leashes).

A couple of days later my husband and I were walking the same route with our dogs (again without leashes– they stay with us on our walks) and again we saw the wife standing in her driveway and again we stopped to chat. Both times she mentioned how cute our dogs were and well behaved but as we walked away the second time my husband said “She is going to call the HOA and complain about the dogs.” I said “No, I don’t think so.”

Sure enough, Monday morning I get alerted that someone had in fact called to complain about my dogs being walked off leash. Karma Principle #1- Actions have consequences. I know that I am technically not allowed to walk them off leash so my action had a consequence. When I got the call I was angry. I started fantasizing about calling and complaining to the HOA about their mangled mailbox. I wanted to walk over and tell her I knew she complained. However, I paused and thought about Karma Principle #2- Our past thoughts and actions have helped create our lives in the present, and our thoughts and actions in the present have enormous power over our lives in the future.

If I try to “get back at her” I am potentially creating more negative karma for myself in the future. I chose to break the rule and while I did not appreciate her going behind my back instead of talking to me, I needed to “accept my karma” in order to move forward. Often we feel it is our duty to teach others a lesson and it is but, according to the 3rd principle of Karma, not in the way we think. 3rd Principle of Karma: You always have a choice about how you think or behave. Even if things aren’t working out the way you’d like in the moment, the positive effort now will inevitably come to fruition.

See, our first responsibility is to protect our own karma. If we hurt our own karma in the midst of “teaching someone else” then we will have to face the consequences of that negative karma at some later time. What is amazing about karma is that the universe takes care of teaching people their karmic lessons. It is not our job. See, that woman, she has to be pretty miserable to be super friendly to my face and complain behind my back. I don’t know if it’s the quality of her relationships or horrible stories she is telling herself but I do believe she is suffering and struggling with her own karma so I am not going to further damage mine by trying to “teach her a lesson.” With all that said, I learned something about her and it is my job to use that information wisely to protect my own future karma.

The karma in the body works the same way. Whatever action (or lack of action) we do or don’t take with our bodies has some consequence and what we have done in the past is a big part of where we are today in our relationship with our body. What is amazing is that we have the power to affect that future relationship through our actions today. The 3rd principle of karma is also explained in this quote by the Sage Vasistha: “There is no power on earth greater than the right action in the present moment.”

The principles of karma are super complex. I just scratched the surface here. This is just a brief explanation of the first 3 principles of karma. There are 12 (by request I have included them below for those interested). I often lead workshops on this subject because I believe that these principles are truly transformative. With our bodies and our thoughts and actions; what we do today creates our future. We all have the Power of the Present.

I am truly grateful to all of you for allowing me to share my thoughts with you each week. I believe it is a small part of cultivating my personal positive karma. I wish you all a wonderful week cultivating yours as