Quest Magazine

Printed in the Fall 2012 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Smoley, Richard. "From the Editor's Desk" Quest  100. 4 (Fall 2012): pg. 122.

"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness," we read in the Sermon on the Mount. All of us have heard this innumerable times, and we tend to take it as a metaphor. But what if it has a more literal force than we usually believe? What if we hunger after justice because it is a vital nutrient, something we need to stay alive just as we need food and water?

 Sometimes justice is more important than food and drink, as we are reminded by the slogan of the Tunisian revolution of 2011, the harbinger of the Arab Spring: "Dignity before bread!" Tunisia was not in an economic crisis when the revolution struck: the nation's economy had grown at a respectable 2"“8 percent per year over the previous two decades, according to Foreign Policy magazine. Libya, whose authoritarian regime also toppled last year, was not hurting economically but was reaping the advantages of a boom in oil prices. Perhaps the best explanation of these events comes from Roza Otunbayeva, the president of Kyrgyzstan, who wrote in March 2011: "The Almighty provided us with such a powerful sense of dignity that we cannot tolerate the denial of our inalienable rights and freedoms, no matter what real or supposed benefits are provided by "˜stable' authoritarian regimes."

Thus it is not mere metaphor to speak of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Over and over history has shown that people will sacrifice basic needs if they feel that justice and human dignity are at stake. These qualities are not luxuries; they are as vital to our existence as oxygen and protein.

So radical is this need for justice that people will sometimes forge a kind of imaginary justice if the real thing does not seem to be available. This occurs with many personal disasters. Struck with misfortunes"”which so often seem mysterious and inexplicable, so much at odds with any apparent justice"”people will search for faults and misdeeds in themselves that supposedly explain what happened. "I didn't love my daughter enough, so she was taken from me." "I must have been a bad person, because I came down with cancer." Many people who have gone through major tragedies have tormented themselves with thoughts of this kind.

A question then arises: does our need for justice correspond to something that is objectively real? Or are we projecting our own human concepts of right and wrong onto a blind and mechanical universe?

I believe the human thirst for justice corresponds to something real and fundamental in the cosmos. We do not, after all, have needs for things that do not exist. The fact that we must have oxygen in and of itself serves as evidence for the existence of oxygen. Similarly, the acute need we feel for justice attests to a cosmic order that is built on justice. This cosmic order has gone by many names in the world's spiritual traditions: it was known as Ma'at to the ancient Egyptians, and the Hindus call it Dharma.

The mechanism by which this cosmic justice operates is known as karma. You will often see "karma" defined as the law of cause and effect. This is not sufficiently precise. The concept of karma not only holds that specific causes have specific effects, but that the effect is like the cause in some fundamental way: good begets good, and evil begets evil.

It is this intuitive recognition of the existence of karma that, I believe, forms the basis for our deep-seated hunger and thirst after righteousness. Granted, this law doesn't always work the way we think it should: the wicked often prosper while the innocent suffer. Eastern traditions have devised a number of complex and ingenious solutions to explain why this should be so, speaking, for example, of "seeds of karma" that can take many lifetimes to bear fruit.

I myself don't know whether these theories are right. But even apart from them, the law of karma clearly plays itself out in an enormous number of cases, and it's probably safe to say that most people most of the time get exactly what they deserve. Sometimes it even seems that we blind ourselves to this fact by focusing on apparent injustices"”perhaps out of an unconscious fear that we too have scores to settle that we would just as soon avoid.

But all teachings about the law of karma insist that it is inexorable; it cannot be eluded. What sort of attitude should we take toward life, then, since we all know we have done wrong? Should we simply cower in terror of the sword of vengeance that dangles over our heads?

There is, it would seem, only one way out, and it too is indicated in the Sermon on the Mount: "Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors" (to translate it literally from the Greek). Forgiveness is the way to turn the law of karma on its head, because if we forgive, it inevitably follows that we too are entitled to have our karmic debts wiped out. Although forgiveness is frequently admonished, this reason for it has often been overlooked. In the world as we know it, the law of karma has no exceptions, but it does have a loophole.

Richard Smoley

Printed in the Fall 2012 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Bakula, Joan S. "Earth Mind, Sun Mind, Sky Mind: A Meditation" Quest  100. 4 (Fall 2012): pg. 147-151.

By Joann S. Bakula 

The earth, the sun, and the sky are like three layers of reality that make up the world we live in, our shared environment uniting us experientially as one life. Can the mind be a reflection of this simple everyday picture of earth, sun, and sky? The earth is a world of countless varieties and a myriad of forms, which the sense-processing mind of earth processes. The sun is the distant and single life-giving point, like the heart, but visible to us only some of the time. And the sky is ever-present and mostly empty, the space in which all else lives; it is formless and limitless. Each is dependent upon the next in one living whole.

Visualizing these within as three levels of mind, each with a different nature and function, can be a powerful yet simple meditation. The function of earth mind is to register the myriad of sensations. Sun mind is the power that radiates, giving all life, and sky mind is formless and limitless and contains all else. Visualizing and meditating on these three levels of reality is simple to do, yet can yield a depth of understanding and experiencing that can become a lifelong study and practice.

The writing of this meditation began when I taught courses on transpersonal psychology; death, dying, and grieving; and existentialism to college students. I searched for metaphors from nature, rather than mysticism, that would suit secular students as well as those studying the meditation traditions of a particular religion. Much was inspired by the practical psychological aspects of Sogyal Rinpoche's the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

Recently I gave a seminar at Krotona Institute of Theosophy called "Stories from the Ultimate Edge" on these subjects, including what it is like to die as reported by those who have had near-death experiences, and on the first two bardos of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The course included a version of this meditation, which was quite popular and which Quest readers might also find useful. The version here has been rewritten so that the language is inclusive of some Western religions and may also be appealing to those who are primarily secular in philosophy. 

The Near-Death Experience 

Whether we care to philosophize about them or not, the states before birth and after death are experientially unknown to most people. Today, however, we are aware of the near-death experience (NDE), in which a person has been declared clinically dead, is revived, and has memory of the sequence of events that occurred. Accounts of such experiences have been famous since Plato's time. According to his account in the last pages of the Republic, the warrior Er was thought to have been killed in battle, but after some days he came back to life with a memory of what he had experienced. He told of his incredible journey through the afterlife, where he saw the whole process of life, death, and rebirth in two streams of being, one passing away and the other coming in to be reborn on earth. Er's account was more descriptive of the bardo experience or deep NDE than of the basic NDE experience, but serves to anchor speculation both about life after death and about rebirth in the Western tradition.

Plato's myth is known as the first near-death account, but today the large numbers of recorded NDEs give us the opportunity to investigate the phenomenon scientifically. Since Raymond Moody's first book, Life after Life, opened up the field in 1975, the International Association for Near-Death Studies, or IANDS, has published accounts of NDEs in its journals. A summary of research has also been published in Bruce Greyson's Handbook of Near-Death Experiences. The largest cross-cultural study ever done has also been published in Jeffrey Long's Evidence of the Afterlife. Long's Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) has a Web site in many languages. Here people who have had NDEs may fill out a forty-eight-question form, from which statistical analyses are made. The results of this research are available on the Web sites www.iands.org and www.nderf.org.

The Spacious Mind of Buddhism 

What is it really like to die? This age-old question arouses fear in most people. Many of us feel, as Woody Allen said, "I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens!" This is not the case in Buddhism, where much has been written on this subject. Indeed Buddhists begin their spiritual path with the recognition of impermanence and the acceptance of death as a natural occurrence. They have written some of the world's finest commentaries on the mind in meditation and in the life/death process. They see these two as one mind.

From the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of meditation we learn phases like "spacious mind" and "sky mind," which figure in commentaries on the Bardo Thadol (better known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead) and the Kalachakra initiations of the Dalai Lama as well. Perhaps we already may have the intuition that, as H.P. Blavatsky wrote, "space is an entity." The basic Buddhist worldview is often portrayed as a wheel of life and death called the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination. Ignorance of suffering is the first cause, followed by ten links progressing around the wheel and ending with the conditioned existence resulting in birth and death. When the two meet and life becomes death, there is a dissolving of awareness of the phenomenal world, called "natural liberation." This can be compared to entering the sky mind, clear and free of all sensory apparatus and phenomenal perception, with no boundaries or separateness. This is called naked awareness.

Tibetan Buddhism teaches techniques for the psychological dissolution of awareness, in which phenomenal, conventional reality fades into nothingness, yet something permanent remains. What is it? Lama Chagyam Trungpa, in his commentary on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, described the experience of the first bardo (after-death state), the chikhai bardo, as immortal light. It is also called the "primary light" or "mother light." The Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism calls this layer of mind rigpa, the ground of reality, naked awareness, the limitless space in which all else has temporary existence. What remains after the dissolution of ordinary, conventional reality is this ultimate reality, luminous and open.

"You will die successfully, I promise you!" says lama Sogyal Rinpoche. "You will all die successfully no matter what you do." This is often the way Rinpoche opens his seminars, evoking a chuckle from his audiences, and cutting through the fear surrounding the topic. From a detached point of view, we can entertain the possibility of meditating on the mind beyond death, psychologically preparing ourselves by exploring the layers of mind that are with us here and now. 

Esoteric Initiations 

In addition to meditation, ancient myths, and near-death research, we have a similar process described in the psychological initiations of consciousness familiar to esoteric groups. There are notable similarities between the process of natural life and death and the ending of an old value system and a rebirth into a new perspective.

Transpersonal psychologists love to look at this process of death and rebirth in consciousness. One of first of these was the Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade, who observed: "Initiatory death provides the clean state on which will be written the successive revelations whose end is the formation of a new man...This new life is conceived as the true human existence, for it is open to the values of spirit" (Eliade, xiii-xiv). The process of initiatory death wipes the slate clean so that a new chapter in the book of life may begin fresh, open, and unprejudiced by old cultural and social values and views. Initiation breaks down old patterns of behavior. It allows people to begin again and to see with new perception. The new values become the principal values of the new life.

At each initiatory death and rebirth we begin with a new view from a higher elevation. We see more, know more, and can relate to whole systems more readily. Seeing and accepting life as a process of birth/death instead of regarding life as the opposite of death is an initiation into reality. This allows for a greater vision of what life and nature are. The Dalai Lama has said, "The dissolution of all ordinary appearances in a manner that mimics dying is necessary for rebirth on new principles," and the "subsequent life is formed, not out of distorted knowledge of nature, but out of distortionless knowledge of the nature of things" (Dalai Lama, 1999, 487-88). The initiate sees nature as it is, as opposed to the distorted view of the previous perception. Consciousness works both ways: toward truer perception of both beingness and nature. It sees within and without. As the Buddha reminds us, ignorance is the main cause of samsara, the wheel of life, or rebirth in this world. Initiatory rebirth is the road to freedom from yesterday's limits and distortions.

 In an effort to extract something useful for both the casual and the serious student of meditation, and for people of any faith or none, I hope that this brief meditation might serve to reveal something of the incredible nature of the mind, imagination, and intuition. This visualization relates the natural world, the mind, and nonphenomenal reality in the metaphor of earth, sun, and sky as universal, observable, empirical realities. It seeks to see the macrocosm of the universe reflected in the microcosm of the human mind.

 A Meditation 

Begin by turning the data-perceiving mind around to examine the nature of mind and the subjective world within. Take refuge in the teaching, the teachers, and those meditators who have found wisdom and compassion for use in world service. Buddhists take refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the dharma (teaching), and the sangha (community). Christians may take refuge in the Christ. Western seekers, including those in the Theosophical tradition, may take refuge in the truth that runs like a golden thread through all the traditions, in the Masters or enlightened ones, and in the community of spiritual seekers.

We can experience something of the three minds or levels of reality now by using this visualization and meditation. Realization may take place at any time. 

Earth Mind. Starting where we are in the world of appearances, we see the myriad of forms, from our time and place of seeing, from our point of view and perspective. We are the subject registering objects.

This is my world, my life, my things, my roles. Fear and desire. The mask of persona. The consumer. Habits. The everyday world. The world of natural living. This is the flat world; the sun revolves around us. This is the data storage mind. Calculating mind. Taking care of business. This is the earth world. The outer world. The subject-object awareness dominates.

Sun Mind. We see a point of warm sunlight, its rays reaching out into us. We are that sun and those rays. We are consciousness, the warmth and radiance around which our outer life revolves. We are the deep consciousness that resulted in birth. We are the sol and soul in calm abiding. We are the face behind the mask. We are the heart within the soul.

We are integral consciousness, the next higher holon of life. This is the systemic mind. We are the sun to the planets of our body, feelings, mind, perception, persona, and consciousness. Intuition. Direct perception.

This is the center of radiant mind. Contemplative mind. The inner world of Being directed to the world.

Sky mind. Beyond earth and sun is the vast spacious Reality in which both exist. We are that spacious mind, the womb of all phenomena and qualities. All forms that exist are within our space, yet we have no form. We are void, limitless, spacious, luminous Reality. Boundless, lucid, timeless.

There is no separate existence; all other states are contained within this mind.

We are rigpa, the pristine naked awareness, the primordial true nature of mind; we are the ground of reality, lucid and clear. We are the indivisibility of space and awareness.

We are neither existence nor nonexistence. We go beyond relative mind to no mind. Mind beyond the subject-object dichotomy. Nothing exists outside. There is no inner world nor outer. One vast reality remains.

We are peaceful, silent Being. Inner, outer, other are all one.

We are the spaciousness of all there is. Nondual. Synthesis. Being. Space Mind. Life. Void. Pristine lucid awareness. Luminosity. The one Reality.

Conclude by turning the mind back to the world of sentient beings, retaining the sky or space mind in which all else takes place, and shedding the light of the luminous heart mind onto all sentient beings in the world, as the radiant sun shines on all.

Sources 

Bailey, Alice A. The Rays and the Initiations. New York: Lucis, 1960.

Bakula, Joann S. Stories of the Ultimate Edge. Audio CD. Ojai, Calif.: Krotona Institute of Theosophy, 2011.

Besant, Annie. A Study in Consciousness. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 1938.

Blavatsky, H.P. An Abridgement of The Secret Doctrine. Edited by Elizabeth Preston and Christmas Humphreys. Wheaton: Quest, 1966.

The Dalai Lama XIV. Dzogchen: Heart Essence of the Great Perfection. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion, 2000.

———. Kalachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation. Translated by Jeffrey Hopkins. Boston: Wisdom, 1999.

Eliade, Mircea. Rites and Symbols of Initiation. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.

Ellwood, Gracia Fay. The Uttermost Deep: The Challenge of Near-Death Experiences. New York: Lantern, 2001.

Evans-Wentz, W.Y., ed. and trans. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. New York: Oxford University Press, 1927.

Fremantle, Francesca, and Chagyam Trungpa. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Boston: Shambhala, 1975.

Greyson, Bruce. The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2009.

Kalu Rinpoche. Luminous Mind. Boston: Wisdom, 1997.

Leadbeater, Charles W. The Masters and the Path. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 1969.

Long, Jeffrey. Evidence of the Afterlife. New York: Harper Collins, 2011.

Maslow, A.H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. New York: Viking, 1971.

Moody, Raymond. Life after Life. New York: Bantam, 1975.

Nicholson, Shirley J. The Seven Human Powers. Wheaton: Quest, 2003.

Padmasambhava. Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava's Teachings on the Six Bardos. Commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche. Translated by B. Alan Wallace. Boston: Wisdom, 1998.

Ring, Kenneth. Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience. New York: Quill, 1982.

Sogyal Rinpoche. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1992.

———. Living and Dying Today. Audio cassettes. Roqueredonde, France: Rigpa, 1997.

Wangyal, Geshe. The Door of Liberation. New York: Maurice Girodias, 1973.

Joann S. Bakula, Ph.D., is a transpersonal psychologist who specializes in end of life awareness, meditation, and near-death studies. Semiretired now, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses for twenty-five years and is still on the faculty of Akamai University (online). She continues to give seminars and is review editor of the Esoteric Quarterly, a peer-reviewed on-line periodical. She has written many articles for esoteric periodicals, including "How Death Changes Life" (Quest, Fall 2009), and is the author of Esoteric Psychology: A Model for the Development of Human Consciousness.

Printed in the Fall 2012 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Kezwer, Glen "The Bhagavad Gita: Action and Meditation" Quest  100. 4 (Fall 2012): pg. 143-146.

By Glen Kezwer

Just as a mountain of ice melts and becomes water, so the mind will melt into the subtlest aspect of thinking through meditation. It will become so superfine that it will permeate the whole universe. At that time it will not be called mind; rather it will be known as the Self.

—Swami Shyam

Although the exact age of the Hindu sacred text known as the Bhagavad Gita is uncertain, it dates back at least 2000 years. While the world has changed dramatically since the Gita was written, one constant remains in human affairs: the mind of a human being. Whatever a present-day person has to deal with, he or she does so with the thinking processes of his or her mind. The same was true of people living at the time of the creation of the Gita, and indeed of all people throughout the history of humankind. The enduring factor is the mind. How we live our lives and maneuver through the various parts of our day, and whether we are able to achieve happiness, success, and joy all depend on how and what we think. Here all the ups and downs of our existence are decided. Even our mental attitude towards physical pain and disease determines, to a certain extent at least, how much we suffer from these ailments. The fear of death too is ultimately rooted in our thought processes.

Can we ever be free from the vicissitudes of our thoughts? Consider this: we actually are totally free from our thoughts for approximately one-third of our life, namely when we are asleep. Very little importance is generally given to sleep as a state of absolute freedom. Although in this state our entire physical and mental apparatus is still intact, we experience no pain or suffering, and for that matter no joy or happiness. Thus we as human beings do have the innate ability to enter a state of complete rest and peace. Of course I am not advocating that we simply sleep our lives away. Rather I am indicating that there is another state of mind which, like sleep, is free of all troubles, worries, fears, and tensions, but at the same time is more than sleep in that it is a state of freedom plus total awareness. This state is meditation.

The Gita's teachings essentially deal with how to handle our minds to achieve the maximum success, happiness, and spiritual fulfillment in our lives. This can be done through various means, which include the paths of knowledge, action, devotion, and meditation. Which path a particular person follows depends on his or her personal inclinations, nature, and proclivities. In fact, many people pursue a combination of paths rather than restricting themselves to one specific technique. In the present article, I am going to focus on meditation, both because I have personally practiced it for more than three decades and because its use is widespread.

 The Backdrop for the Teachings 

To reflect the fact that all persons must act throughout every day, the story of the Gita unfolds upon a stage of the most extreme action: a battlefield during a time of impending war between two opposing clans, the Pandavs and the Kauravs. The two characters involved are Krishna and Arjun. Arjun, the commander-in-chief of the Pandav army, decides to take one last look at the enemy ranks before leading his troops into combat. According to the Gita, 3,936,600 soldiers—1,593,900 in the Pandav army and 2,405,700 on the Kaurav side—fight at the great battle of Kurukshetra, the backdrop for its teachings. Along with this staggering number of soldiers (approximately equivalent to the entire population of Oregon marching onto the battlefield) are 393,600 elephants, an equal number of chariots, and 1,180,980 horses. And if this isn't enough, the air at the battlefield is rent with the horrific sounds of countless conches and bugles, accompanied by the war cries emerging from millions of angry throats.

To his utter dismay, Arjun discovers that he is going to engage an army filled with many of his nearest and dearest friends, companions, relatives, and mentors. Many of his kith and kin and highly respected teachers have taken up arms against him, and Arjun realizes that in order to win the war he will have to slay or be responsible for the deaths of countless men who are central to his life. The idea of killing them is abhorrent to him. Yet at the same time he is certain that the cause for which he is fighting is just in every moral and ethical sense, and he knows that it is his sworn duty as a soldier and leader of men to pursue the fight until victory is achieved.

Caught on the horns of this dilemma, Arjun is distraught. He has no ability within himself to find a way out of his predicament, and instead of wielding his mighty bow and leading the charge, he collapses weakly in the back of his chariot. Uttering the words, "I will not fight," he turns to his charioteer, Krishna, and begs for guidance. Now Krishna is more than just a part-time charioteer. He is also a fully enlightened being whose wisdom and consciousness are supreme and all-encompassing. Clearly Arjun has turned to the right person for help. Up to this point, the Gita has taken fifty-six verses to set the stage and pose Arjun's question to Krishna. The remaining 644 verses comprise Krishna's answer. 

The Immortal Self 

Surrounded by the tumult of war, Arjun has sought Krishna's counsel. With life and death hanging in the balance, Krishna describes—among other things—the technique of meditation. He talks to Arjun about sitting quietly in a clean spot on a seat which is neither too high nor too low and is covered with grass as an insulating material. Holding his body and head erect, Krishna tells Arjun, he should close his eyes and focus on the center of the space that appears in his field of perception.

Would such instruction not have been more appropriate for a living room, a temple, or—perhaps anachronistically—a yoga retreat? Is a battle to the death a time to talk about a process of sitting still, closing one's eyes, and perceiving the inner stillness? Yet here is Krishna, under these dire circumstances, telling Arjun about the benefits of meditation. He certainly is not directing Arjun to go and find a grass mat, sit on it, and close his eyes at that particular moment in time. But he is emphasizing the importance of meditation in preparing one's mind to handle all of life's predicaments. Most of us seldom, if ever, are required to act in such severe circumstances as those encountered in a war. The fact that the Gita is set on a battlefield indicates that the teachings it gives are of the utmost importance. In the midst of a war the consequences of Arjun's actions are crucial. They can mean survival or extinction for his side.

To me this is an emphatic statement of the importance the Bhagavad Gita places on meditation, not just for the purposes of relaxation or attaining peace of mind, but for dealing with all of life's contingencies. Krishna wants Arjun to understand that his own inner being or Self and the Self of one and all are beyond birth and death and can neither kill nor be killed. This knowledge will free him from doubt and inaction, and allow him to act effectively in the world in all situations.

Chapter six of the Gita, alternately entitled in Sanskrit "Dhyan Yoga" ("The Yoga of Meditation") or "Atma Sanyam Yoga" ("The Yoga of Complete Concentration on the Self"), presents both the theory and the practical aspects of meditation.

The message of the Gita is that all human beings have within themselves the power to live life and perform actions in the light of the highest knowledge. Simply put, this knowledge is that the source or underlying reality of every being is one and the same Brahm (absolute existence), Self, or Atma, which is beyond birth and death and cannot be destroyed. A person who lives in a manner that is consistent with this wisdom is able to live happily and effectively and have a peaceful mind, free from worry and tension. The Gita's teachings are not restricted to one period of time, a particular culture or group of people, or a certain geographical location. They are for everyone, everywhere, at all times.

At first glance it may sound easy to live a life of happiness, but in actual fact it is not. As human beings, we are subject to the whims and fancies of our minds, which can—and usually do—take us on a roller-coaster ride from morning to night. We live each day in an environment of constant action, endlessly doing things which involve us throughout our waking hours. Of course, this is simply called life. But to pursue life to its fullest, with a sense of joy, satisfaction, and balance as well as compassion for those around us takes effort and a special type of understanding. The Gita provides just that.

First and foremost, Arjun must act: "Every human being is helplessly driven by the force of nature to perform some kind of action, for without acting man cannot live even for a moment." (Bhagavad Gita, 3:5).

In order to act decisively and successfully, Arjun needs to understand the fundamental nature of existence. Here Krishna starts with the most profound wisdom: The Self—the essence of each and every human being—is not subject to birth and death.  "Arjun, the Self, which pervades all beings in the universe, is an indestructible substance. No one has the power to destroy it"  (Bhagavad Gita, 2:17).

The Self is infinite, unchanging, eternal, unfathomable, and self-illuminating. It cannot be destroyed by even the mightiest of weapons, nor can it be burned by fire, made wet by water, or dried by the wind. It is not touched by the multitude of events that transpire in the world, but is rather like the space of the sky, which is vast and encompasses all, yet remains free. The Self is the inner essence of, and one and the same in all human beings, including the soldiers on both sides of the battle. Ultimately this Self is ineffable. Words can only point our thinking in the direction of a true understanding of the Self, but can never take us fully there. To proceed further we need meditation.

The mind is the vehicle that blocks our access to higher knowledge, yet at the same time it can be transformed to bring us to that knowledge. If we grant the mind and its thoughts too much importance, then we are subject to the ups and downs, happiness and suffering, worry and easiness that they produce. But if we can change our perspective and observe the mind, or somehow step back from it, then we can better understand its functioning. This allows us to ultimately become the master of the mind rather than remaining a victim to its whims.

Arjun realizes that he needs a still, tranquil, even mind in order to think clearly and see the way out of his current dilemma, but he also knows that the mind is "turbulent, powerful and obstinate" and "as difficult to control as the wind." What chance does a person with such a mind have of attaining success in meditation? In answer to this, Krishna reassures Arjun, telling him that, despite the mind's tenacity, it can be made as steady as a candle flame in a windless place that does not flicker even slightly.

Krishna advises Arjun, and thereby all of humanity, to achieve stillness of mind by practicing the proper technique of meditation: Sit in a clean, comfortable place, close your eyes, focus your attention and begin to perceive what happens. You will notice, he tells Arjun, that thoughts will come and go in the mind. There is nothing wrong with this. Meditation does not mean stopping the thoughts or forcibly trying to control the mind. It means observing the thoughts without becoming involved in them, just as you would listen to children playing in a nearby schoolyard, hearing them but not being disturbed by their chatter. You should put your attention on the Knower or Seer of the thoughts, which is at all times free and uninvolved. Stillness or tranquility means identifying with this Knower who is observing these thoughts. Then, whether they appear or not, you are not bound by them. The Knower is the indestructible Self, your inner being. By fixing your attention on the source, your consciousness becomes infinitely vast, encompassing all that there is. Then you will know the Self by the power of the Self, content in the existence of the Self alone.

As you meditate, you will perceive an inner space behind your closed eyelids. This space is the source from which the waves of the mind emanate. It is neither form nor formlessness; it is indivisible, absolute Brahm. Watch the Knower-space and remain alert throughout your meditation. Sometimes the mind will wander and your concentration will wane. Because of this, it is helpful to use a mantra to focus the mind. If you find that at some point you have lost focus of the mantra, this is not a problem. Simply return your attention to it and continue watching the inner space, knowing at all times that that space is you, your own true nature.

What happens to the yogi in meditation is poetically and beautifully described in verse 6:25 (my rendition):

The meditator should meditate with full faith in his practice and observe with alertness as peace and tranquility gradually settle in his being. He should know that his consciousness has become established in the Self through the power of that very same Self alone. All division will dissolve as he realizes that his thought power and perception are faculties of the field of Pure Consciousness. Nothing else exists but That [Self].

With a peaceful mind, you can solve problems more effectively. Your vision is not clouded. You can watch your thoughts more dispassionately. The practice of meditation leads to the highest bliss, the state of endless happiness. Your mind attains a state of serenity, stillness, and oneness which rests in the Self, knowing that the Self is perceiving itself by its own power. Even the deepest of sorrows do not touch you. Enjoying this state of inner stillness, you able to act skillfully and effectively in the world, knowing all the time that the Self is present in all beings and all beings exist in the Self.

Unless otherwise noted, quotations from the Bhagavad Gita are taken from Swami Shyam, Bhagavad Gita, International Meditation Center, 1985.

Glen Kezwer is the teacher of "The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita." a course on the educational Web site www.transformationmeditation.com, as well as the auhor of the book Meditation, Oneness, and Physics. He has practiced, written on, and taught meditation since the early 1980s. He can be contacted at  gkezwer@gmail.com.

Printed in the Fall 2012 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Kuntzelman, Emanuel "Healing the Karmic Field " Quest  100. 4 (Fall 2012): pg. 139-142.

By Emanuel Kuntzelman 

"Well, it must have been my karma." How many times have you heard someone say that lately—usually with a tone of resignation? Such statements are becoming more common, even among those who are skeptical about Eastern philosophy. The reason is that the law of cause and effect makes sense and is deeply entrenched in our cultural upbringing, no matter where we live. Things happen that cause effects. It is simple, linear logic.

Karma is a Sanskrit word that means "action." In the deepest and most complete sense, this includes thoughts, words, and intentions, all of which produce effects that create karma. We know this is true in our everyday acts. If we smile at someone, we are likely to get a smile in return, whereas if we shout angrily it is not surprising if we get a similar sort of response. All of this action, whether mental or physical, accumulates as a field that influences the probabilities of future action that we might receive. This web of life—the karmic field—provides the moral fabric behind what otherwise might seem to be the unfair and irrational circumstances of our existence.

The concept of karma, by whatever name, is prevalent in most of the world's religions and philosophies. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is sound advice and provides excellent moral guidance. It makes us feel responsible for our actions, providing a sense of long-term justice and meaning to our lives. As such, it is a sacred principle.

Be that as it may, I would like to suggest that a large portion of supposedly negative karma is either a figment of our imagination or something that could be eliminated by implementing some emotional intelligence. There are two basic kinds of karma: collective and individual. With the collective aspect, many of the karmic consequences that happen to us could be avoided by disassociating ourselves from the groups we feel overly attached to. On the individual level, we could serve ourselves well by dropping the grievances we feel towards others and sending out compassion to those we have offended. By paring down our attachment to group karma and cleaning up our individual karma, we can bring the emotional baggage of our lives into better balance, creating effects that will be the new causes to help heal the overall state of the karmic field and accelerate personal and social transformation.

Before analyzing how we can make this rather large leap in our thinking, however, a brief discussion of reincarnation seems appropriate, as it is a necessary adjunct for long-term karma to work. To begin with, it is helpful to understand that reincarnation is not strictly a theory of the Eastern mystical traditions. Plato and Socrates both made strong arguments to support the transmigration of souls, and the idea has continued to resurface in Western thought up to this day.

Beyond the history of belief systems, there is the actual evidence that has been compiled to support reincarnation as a fact. The late Dr. Ian Stevenson, a leading scientist in reincarnation research and Carlson Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia Medical School, compiled over 2000 convincing cases of possible reincarnation throughout the world, and his colleague Jim Tucker continues with those investigations today. Although it is beyond the scope of this article, their research presents evidence to convince even the most ardent skeptics about the case for reincarnation.

Working through multiple lives, karma provides a basis for the continuing evolution of the soul and a moral basis for society. But as we evolve toward a higher state of consciousness as a species, it behooves us to use this theory wisely and not let it become an excuse for failing to overcome some of the habits and cultural conflicts that hold us back in our personal and social evolution. Let's take a closer look at how we might work on healing the karmic field, beginning with the collective component.

We are born with a gender, a race, and an ethnic background, and we belong to a long list of groups that heavily influence how we perceive ourselves. These collectivities establish the cultural context for how people react to us and how we in turn respond to them, and they form a significant part of the energy field out of which our soul evolves. The challenge is to break out of this collective karma whenever it consists of self-imposed, stereotypical grievances.

The history of civilization has been, to a large degree, the history of war, crime, and humans' cruelty toward each other. Thus we have all probably been subjected to some amount of violence, whether physical or psychological, in this life or a previous one, and therefore we have some reason to hold a grudge because of some misdeed in the past. As such, we might assume that there is a huge negative balance of karma weighing on the world, and in these times of crisis it often feels that way. It is important to understand, however, that karma by nature has to balance itself out. Karma works in a similar way to the law of physics, which says for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Great reservoirs of unbalanced karma are not stored for long periods of time. We only do that in our minds, often thinking the world owes us something. But nature always brings us back to equilibrium. If that is the case, then we must have mentally created a great store of negative karma that does not necessarily exist beyond our imaginations.

It could well be that in a previous life we belonged to one of the groups that we now see as the enemies of our well-being in this incarnation, which is a good reason why we should not identify so strongly with the groups we find ourselves a part of now. As long as we carry a sense of entitlement for the wrongs that have been done to the groups we are part of, there will never be peace and understanding on earth, because we are creating a karmic debt that does not necessarily apply to us as individuals. Therefore we could clear the air of nonexistent negative karma by dropping the strong identifications we might have with our gender, race, country, culture, or religion. This is not to say that we should become apathetic or forget our work for just social causes, but rather that we should choose our causes with great care, avoiding involvement with any fanatical activity simply because we are socially and culturally immersed in a given group. Our chosen collective karma needs to expand, taking on causes that represent the whole of humanity and embracing its diversity. There are still plenty of issues to be passionate about on the global scale, like caring for the earth and promoting world peace.

If we can move beyond the unnecessary affiliation with some of the negative group karma that socialization processes normally instill in us, is it also possible to reevaluate our personal history and release ourselves from some aspects of our individual karma? Common sense, as well as the Buddhist concept of dependent origination, would argue against such an idea. If there is to be moral justice involved with karma, then it follows that we cannot exonerate ourselves from it by merely thinking, or wishing, that it no longer applies to us. If at some point in the past we have done someone a serious disservice, we deserve to pay for it in the future. We must remember, however, that retribution, whether as punishment or reward, is relative to how it was created and evolves within the  karmic field. Not all debts have to be paid back with an "eye for an eye" compensation. Perhaps an analysis of our power to create reality and how our feelings and intentions impact the quality of the field will help us understand that individual karma is not as fixed and retributive as we think it is.

Quantum physics shows that on a fundamental level we have the power to create our own reality. The subatomic components of the universe can be either waves or particles. It all depends on what a physicist in a laboratory wants to find. If the intent is to measure a wave moving with velocity, that is what we get. On the other hand, if we seek to locate a particle at a set point in space, that will be the result. Such is the power of this finding that it has been argued that our consciousness determines the nature of reality by setting intentions and "causing" them to happen.

The way we look at things and the intention we put into our actions certainly do influence the effects we produce. With positive actions, we assume that if we make an act of charity, kindness, or love it will someday be returned to us. The question is, will it always be reciprocated with an equal amount of positive effect? Studies on remote healing, for example, have shown that its effects can vary widely. In her book The Intention Experiment, Lynne McTaggart presents research demonstrating that healers are significantly more effective if they are not attached to the outcome of their efforts. In a similar vein, it stands to reason that any act of giving is more meaningful when it is done unconditionally, rather than with an expectation of receiving something in return. If we tell our significant others that we "love" them simply because we want them to acquiesce to a favor we are going to ask, then our statement of love is highly conditioned and diluted. On the other hand, if our words of love are genuine, the emotional energy that the other receives will be more powerful and more likely to produce a positive countereffect in the future.

Thus the karmic field established by our positive actions partially depends on the state of mind in which those actions are produced. As a field phenomenon, karma is not linear, but rather systemic and holistic, taking in all the attributes of an action. The probability that a karmic consequence will arise is directly related to the intention and feeling involved with the original action.

This is also applicable to negative actions. Even our criminal justice system differentiates according to the intention of an action. To take a hypothetical example, if an automobile strikes and injures a pedestrian, the punishment will obviously vary depending on whether it was an accident, a deliberate act, or, perhaps, something in between. Again the critical part of the field effect for retribution is closely linked with the intention involved with the act.

Given this discussion of our power to create reality and the relativity of intentions, to what extent can we improve or heal our individual karma? Let's first look at what can be done to ameliorate our feelings about the retribution that we assume is owed to us.

Peace activist and author Masami Saionji contributed a chapter entitled "How You Can Invite Happiness" to Ervin Laszlo's book You Can Change the World in which she describes how we can gain insight on influencing our feelings and relationships. She discusses cause and effect, and essentially speaks about karma, although she never specifically mentions the word. Saionji goes back to the old adage: what came first, the chicken or the egg? Which one is the cause and which the effect, and does it really matter? We normally assume that our emotional states have been "caused" by some previous event, and so we are not responsible for them. For example: today I'm feeling a little down. What was the cause of that? Well, I was thinking maybe it's because I don't like my job. The cause of that? I took a job that wasn't the best because I didn't have a great educational background. And that is because I didn't study very hard in high school because I was too busy taking care of my younger siblings because my parents were too busy—because, because, because.

When we start looking for the causes of how we are feeling, we may never get to the root of the problem, because the causes are endless and are interwoven into the complexity of the karmic field. Rather than desperately seeking the causes of the current effects we are feeling, let's turn it around and think of the idea that our effects create causes. Saionji suggests that instead of worrying about what caused the burdens in our current state of mind, we should create a new effect to carry us happily forward, such as: "I'm emanating peace and love."

This effect will create a cause: sending out peace and love will make people around us feel better, which will in turn cause a ripple effect to others throughout society, helping them feel more positive. With this simple flip-flop of the karmic process, we have liberated ourselves from looking backwards and trying to analyze a past we cannot change. We are freed to say, "I can create my own reality with a new effect." Rather than dwelling on what might have happened in the remote past to cause our current emotional state, we concentrate on creating a positive emotion in the present that will set off a new chain of positive effects into the future.

It seems clear that this exercise in reprogramming our emotional intelligence can liberate us from carrying karmic baggage about retribution that we might have thought was owed to us. We no longer feel like victims in this scenario, but what about those people who were the victims of our past negative actions? If it were that easy to clean up our karma, then common criminals could commit all the egregious acts they want, have no guilty conscience about doing so, and move on into a self-constructed happiness. Obviously the process is more complicated. To truly change our individual karma, we should undertake these four steps: recognition, forgiveness of self, projecting compassion to the recipient, and expressing gratitude to the universe.

Let's take an example. Suppose we called a friend a bad name in a heated argument. Presumably this will come back to us someday in the form of someone unjustly referring to us with a nasty name. However, if we sincerely recognize that we did this thing and that our friend did not deserve it, then we have begun to clear the air. Next we should forgive ourselves for having done this. Our culture with its moral code has conditioned us to believe that we should feel guilty about our bad actions. This is all right up to a point, but there comes a time when we should realize that it really doesn't do any good to walk around feeling terrible about the things we have done in the past. It doesn't help the recipient of our action and it doesn't help us, as we just feel remorseful and miserable. So we have to forgive ourselves, admitting that we goofed up, and move on. Step three—and this is what truly separates us from the common criminal with no conscience—is to project compassion towards the recipient of our act. This should be done in all sincerity, preferably in a state of focused meditation, emanating compassion with all our heart. If it is possible to locate the person we have offended in the past, then we should obviously do so and make our retributions directly, with an apology and a good hug. Clearing the air with friends and family members of the victims of our inappropriate past actions is also recommended. Finally, we should express gratitude to the universe for the fact that our consciousness has the power to forgive us and reconstruct reality.

When this process is complete, will we have succeeded in alleviating part of the harm we have done to the recipients of our past actions—especially if the victim is someone we cannot readily find or identify? If we view the karmic field from a holistic perspective rather than as a direct linear and reciprocal relationship, we begin to comprehend how it could be so. The positive energy we put back into the field does create an effect, which causes an improvement in the overall energy level of the field. Besides, if we have already made a concerted effort to forgive others for any karmic debt they might have with us, the natural law of balance will improve our karma. Although the individuals that we have offended in the distant past or a previous life will obviously not receive a direct apology, the subconscious well-being of their souls should benefit from our acts of compassion. And the stronger our belief in the effect we are creating with positive intentions, the more likely we are to improve our karma and restore balance in the karmic field.

In conclusion, our psychospiritual and emotional states play an important role in establishing karma. Carrying self-imposed burdens of group karma and individual remorse for past actions only perpetuates the chain effect of negative karma. By extricating ourselves from excessive collective identity, freeing our minds of guilt, and consciously contributing compassion to the universe, we liberate ourselves from karmic burdens and clean up the field in the process. We can produce a new effect of joy, compassion, and gratitude, the cause of which is simply our conscious effort to emotionally heal ourselves and the state of the field. In the process we have caused something quite beautiful to happen. The karmic field, the web of life that holds the history of all thoughts, acts, and intentions, is now a bit more balanced, vital, and healthy. What used to be our karma has become the creative potential for personal and social transformation.

Emanuel Kuntzelman is the founder and president of the Center for Cultural Interchange in Chicago and the Foundation for the Future in Madrid, Spain. Both organizations support the worldwide Greenheart movement and are dedicated to promoting cultural exchange, fair trade, environmental awareness, and world peace. He gives lectures and workshops and organizes retreats in conjunction with Greenheart Transforms and can be reached at www.emanuelkuntzelman.com.