In case you missed it, this is a seven part series of summaries of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, by Deepak Chopra. Take a look at the previous entries if you need to get caught up.
#3: The Law of “Karma” or Cause and Effect
Karma is the whole “what you sow is what you reap” idea. Most often, karma is used in negative references to something like retribution for the bad things you do, but that isn’t always the case.
Choice is what dictates your karma and that is what this chapter is all about. Your choices should originate from your heart (or gut) and not your analytical mind. Making choices from your soul instead of your logic is a taboo thing in the western culture, of course. In societies where feelings are “supposed to be” suppressed, especially by men, operating from the soul is counterintuitive to society, but is completely natural in the depths of us.
Aligned choices great good karma and making choices that aren’t aligned with our true selves are the cause of suffering and contribute to our “bad” karma. For example, if you go to college just because it aligns with the expectations of your family and not with your expectations, then you are creating your own personal Hell. After a long series of making decisions like this, you have years of built up karma that must be dealt with. Or maybe, something horrific has happened to you and you choose to relive this experience over and over to your own detriment. <- FYI, I’m not saying this loosely or out of touch. Trauma is 100% real.
To deal with your stored up Hell, you have three choices, as Deepak mentions in the book:
- Continue to live a life of suffering unconsciously
I mean, you can continue down the same old roads you always have and get the same results. And…you will continue to be miserable. - Transmute your karma
This is where you take your bad experiences and convert them to wisdom by learning really good lessons. This can also lead into doing something good for others. You could, for example, teach others how to deal with domestic violence if you have been through it before. Having lived through something like this makes you the exact person to help others in a similar situation. Maybe your experience could help another avoid death… - Transcendence
This would be considered to the be the realm of enlightenment, which is, I’m sure, a blissful way to live. At the core, we are all enlightened beings, but we have so much karma in our way to fully embody this. In order to transcend, you have to put in lots of work with the First Law. Personally, this is what I am striving for and this may be a lifelong journey.
As far as practicing this law, here are Deepak’s suggestions:
- Today I will witness the choices I make in each moment
That sounds like a tall order. So, no autopilot… This sounds like a long term goal. As a 46 year old starting my spiritual journey fairly recently, I can say that I have gotten exponentially better at staying conscious, but I am nowhere near “witnessing each moment.” - For each choice I make, I ask the questions: “What are the consequences?” and “Will this bring me happiness and fulfillment?”
It sounds like these questions contain the secrets to living an extraordinary life. Putting this into practice is another story. Sometimes we feel like we have no out for the choices we have made so far. For example, maybe you don’t love your job, but you have to keep on for the sake of feeding your family. Although, this doesn’t mean that you stay in this situation for extended periods. - I will then use my heart as guidance for the answers to these questions.
So good…. If only we did this more often. Our intuition about things are usually really spot on accurate. What better way to honor yourself as to listen to your internal voice that always lead you to the best choice (whether you can see the vision or not)!?
If I sit for a few minutes and think about where I have gone wrong in my path, I could easily bring up several things that I would change. The same also goes for the really great things that have happened. I plan to use the positive karma, the vision of my ideal future self, and the transmutation of my bad karma to push towards transcendence.
Link to the book -> The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success