Karma the opportunity

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10:11 - 15

Last time we reflected on the Real I and its mirrored reflection, the small I, the hireling, which doesn’t always do a good job. One of the areas in our life where the small I leads us astray is when we have to deal with our karma.

We know that every night when we go to sleep our small I leaves our body lying in the bed and it goes into the heavens and has many experiences. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could be conscious of where it goes and what it does? … Or would it?

Do you know what it does? it has a heart to heart chat with the Real I who reminds it of the purpose of incarnation and the karma that must be faced. And what is the purpose of incarnation? To grow in consciousness, to become more aware of reality … so then we can know what the small I is doing at night when it roams the universe. I remember Rev Mario Schoenmaker telling us in his Sunday afternoon discourses on St Mark in the 1980s - we would all squash into an upstairs room at Palm Court Manor - about how our I and our astral left us at night and then one day he said, but often they don’t even leave your room! It all depends on the state of our consciousness.

There are ways to ensure that we leave our bedroom at night when our body sleeps. One of them is to occupy ourselves with ideals during the day instead of thinking and speaking about trivia. This connects us up with the Archangels. Another way is to have a sincere interest in others through a true and genuine love. Not just an interest in those we like, and ignoring those we don’t like. This connects us up with the Archai at night.

So at night if we have the right connection with the Hierarchy we get in touch with our destiny, our karma. We awake in the morning strengthened to face the obstacles, the wolves, which always try to scatter and snatch our budding consciousness.

So the love or the hatred (the two extremes in our soul) we express during the day is the creative force of karma that weaves our destiny. It is wrong to say ‘I am ill or I have experienced misfortune – it is my karma!’ Karma is not a fixed thing; it is always coming into being. Our dis-ease may not be due to the past; it may simply be an opportunity for our consciousness to grow. Karma is not a punishment. It weaves into our life to assist us to move forward. To experience the truth of this we also need a deep sense of the justice that rules and balances this world.

Ask yourself: Do I want my consciousness to grow? At the same time ask yourself: Do I want life to be sweet and lovely all the time? If we were only ever to experience what we wish for ourselves we would be weaklings.

An uneventful life produces weakness of soul, the weaker our soul the less the Shepherd can tend our budding consciousness, and the more the hireling has to do the job. So we must strive to give our thoughts and words the wings of idealism rather than the weight of trivia. We must strive to place ourselves in the other person’s shoes more often. Then, when misfortune comes our way we realise that it is a gift, we stand our ground, and can’t be scattered and the forces that stir within us will sustain us. These are the forces that come from the Shepherd. Stare that old wolf in the eyes and say: I know your tricks, you want me to seek comfort, and you don’t want me to have a consciousness of my Real Self.

In these moments we can try to visualise the Shepherd standing there, willing to lay down his life that we may have the new consciousness, the third consciousness, the mind of Christ.

It is wonderful to think that the effort we make in our daily life strengthens our consciousness. Just think of the benefits when we sleep, and after death when we are born into spirit. To the degree we are conscious here is the degree that we will be conscious there. Conscious of the Angels, Archangels and Archai, and how, in turn, we assist them to do their work. Then, in turn, reveal to us of the opportunities we have to expand our consciousness while in our bodies in this world. It fills us with gratitude that we can know something of these truths, the truth that sets us free.