"Truth, Karma and Reform" by James Redfield 2/7/11

[kelly]

TRUTH, KARMA AND REFORM
by James Redfield

So we're up to Countdown Article number #3, and I'm sitting at my computer wondering how best to get started. I made a decision at the beginning of this series of articles to "tell it like it is," as the saying goes, about where so many of us are in these weird times. And they are weird, aren't they?

People in Egypt, and elsewhere, are still taking to the streets, calling for more democracy and transparency in Government. No doubt, this is a positive sign, a sign that people feel empowered enough to risk everything in the search for a life of more freedom and opportunity — that is, it is positive until the action crosses the line into violence. Remember, one wants to say, the effectiveness of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Nothing is more powerful than non-violent protest.

Trouble is, at the same time these authentic demands for freedom are being expressed, other factions are seeking to take advantage of the situation for less noble reasons: right-wing forces are paying desperate people to attack the demonstrators. Other despots want to replace the existing repression with a religious tyranny of their own. Even some democratic governments are subtly trying to manipulate things, all the while lying blatantly about their agenda — and getting outted by WikiLeaks.

Yes, indeed. The only word for it is weird. Yet amid the conflicting signals and motivations, I believe we can see an authentic call for reform persisting — a call that I think can be seen to represent a new step in spiritual awakening. In my new book, I call it the Twelfth Insight. But, just as easily, it could be called the Twelfth "call to action." Or the Twelfth "return to civility." Or a Twelfth "rise to an authentic Spirituality." For these labels speak to the characteristics of this experience.

In its essence, this street action reflects a larger call to a higher type of interaction that honors truth, and where ideas are exchanged without a hidden agenda or a jab at one's political opponents — and where every institution, from government to the news media to our own family, returns to honor about what they are doing. One would like to also add here: "just like it used to be." But of course, we know that truth and honor in public affairs has always been a bit of wishful thinking.

In fact, perhaps it was our collective awareness of this hypocrisy that led us to give up on truth in the past. For decades, it has become more and more accepted to subtly lie in politics, to hide the fine-print in legal agreements, to turn a blind eye to corruption if you're in the media, and to personally deceive others in order to gain money, prestige, or power. Now, we seem to have reached a point where no one even attempts to hide this loss of integrity any longer. The American Congress in 2010 seems to be the poster child for this loss in ethics.

Yet clearly, the massive amount of lies, fraud, and corruption we see around us has finally begun to shock us out of our complacency. But the tipping point is not the abstract idea of a return to ethics. The tipping point occurs when we discover how our lives are personally heightened when we go into integrity and honor. It's why I call what is happening a spiritual awakening. It turns out that even a small turn toward integrity pays immediate dividends. This occurs because to become honorable over truth requires that we move into a new, very precise, psychological place in our lives — one marked by an instant feeling of being centered at the vortex of our life experience.

Why is that important? Because we have to be in that place of centeredness before we can even know what is true in our own lives, and that place then systematically enlarges as more truth of life finds its way into consciousness. It feels the same way the wisdom teachers of every religious tradition have always said it would: The truth sets us free. It always has, even if this truth has to be eternally rediscovered by every generation and every person.

Find this place, and life's journey becomes the most fun. If we're honest, we begin to experience events that lift us into an ever-higher consciousness. We begin to notice the Synchronicities. And once we perceive this divine hand operating in the universe, our search always turns in the same direction: Toward a search for more spiritual truth, and when we knock on that door, we immediately begin to connect to a greater God Consciousness that feels like a download of energy, love and belongingness.

And it gets even better. Eventually we discover that we can enlarge our spiritual consciousness even more by getting in alignment with the Divine design of the universe. What is the key to this alignment? Our old friend, the truth — especially as we tell our truth to others. Most of us know that "what goes around comes around." We've seen it occur over and over again. And now we are proving to ourselves the role staying honest and honorable plays in this Karmic mechanism.

In a sense, by becoming centered in a search for spiritual truth, the full scope of Karma is being revealed to us. Deceive others by shading the truth for our own benefit, and we draw those same kinds of deceivers into our own lives. Not as punishment, but to show us how our distortions hurt, so we can come back to truth. And these lessons slow us down until we do.

On the other hand, if we act in truth and service toward others — where we say to each person what we have a hunch they need to know, becoming a Synchronicity for them — we draw those same types into our lives: people who are there to be a Synchronicity for us. This is when our Synchronistic flow and success really take off, as we are now in alignment with Divine design, bringing a new meaning to the scripture: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In fact, a second line could now be added: "...because that's exactly how they are going to do unto you."

Doubt it? Just try the above principle for a while. The amazing thing is that this Karmic alignment is just one of the first discoveries that come from an honorable search for spiritual truth. Once we embrace integrity, we realize that there are more steps available to live at an even higher level of spirituality consciousness. And best of all, you don't necessarily have to get in the street to make a difference. When we get through all the steps of this consciousness, we arrive at a new level or positive influence that goes out into the world day and night.

Living in the truth is contagious, and it works to affect those still stuck in a corrupt system or way of thinking, but who want more. Then someone tunes into this influence, and feels they aren't alone, and writes an email exposing some corruption. Then another lends support, and then many join in, and suddenly a human institution is made better. In this way, things shift. Sometimes, it takes some time. In other cases, it happens immediately, spontaneously...in the blink of an eye.

–James Redfield, February 7, 2011

[Ziggy]

It is so weird because on my web site I am calling for a revolution born out of LOVE for everything in our lives because when we wake up from this bad dream we are going to realizes what an insane road we have been on and how much danger we have place our children in by not paying attention to what was right in front of our eyes, I grew up in the 60s and 70s and I remember being conscious at one time in my life and then it was as if somebody put something in the water and I feel asleep and am just now waking up with a really bad headache. I am not mad only ready to be a part of the change that I know now can only be brought about if I decided I need it. Gandhi never asked anyone to follow him he just made sure the way was well lit by the way he lived his life. We must all do the same.
Love ya man and I dont know if I said this yet but I CANT WAIT!
Shaman Ziggy
_________________
Touch Everything
Attach to Nothing
Shaman Ziggy
C.E.O. (Concerned Environmental Officer)
H.E.A.L. (Heal Earth and Life)

[modernmystic]

Thanks, James; this is a thought-provoking synopsis. Though I love your novels and recognize the effectiveness of the teach-by-parable method, reading this reminds me that your expository works (CP companion workbook, Celestine Vision, and God & the Evolving Universe with the fabulously knowledgeable Michael Murphy) are great stuff too.

Something that has been nagging me for a long time is the way that people who choose the most willfully corrupt path in life seem able to evade the principle of Karma. It seems that in the old stereotype of the ultra wealthy, "the same rules don't apply to them," not only in legal matters but in the deeper order of natural conseqences which you describe in The Twelfth Insight. I have given this matter much thought, and have come to a couple of tentative conclusions.

First, willfully undertaking actions which cause harm to many people, as we see in the case of many politicians and business leaders, reflects back upon people as an inevitable hardening of the heart. This robs their lives of the potential for deeper meaning and the very cathartic emotional intimacy that could allow them to grow and evolve past their fixation on external control.

This vicious cycle constitutes a kind of self-imposed purgatory, which is very difficult to break free of. When people do, though, it is sometimes with amazing results, as we see in the case of whistleblowers like Wendell Potter, who recently exposed the health care industry’s propaganda campaign against Michael Moore (after being charged with digging up incriminating information that would push Moore “off a cliff” in the lead-up to the release of the movie Sicko), or Rudolf Elmer, who has handed over documents to WikiLeaks which prove that many wealthy Americans and large corporations avoid their legal tax burden by funneling money into Swiss bank accounts.

Second, the act of hardening one’s heart creates a sort of protective shell around the ego which wards off the urgings of one’s higher self. Those who take this to an almost ultimate degree seem at times “immune” to Karma because they have given their corrupt side access to so much of their energy and intention that their souls are essentially starved of the spiritual resources that would normally facilitate synchronistic learning experiences. This makes it all the more imperative that we send our loving intentions to the higher-self nature of the most corrupt leaders in Washington and on Wall Street.

For years, I have struggled against a sense of outrage at powerful people who make seemingly evil choices, pursuing geopolitical agendas which lead to countless unnecessary deaths, or implementing policies that increase economic hardship for millions in order to benefit a cabal of the privileged and powerful. What I have gradually come to realize is that hardening my own heart to these people only continues the cycle which empowers such corruption in the first place. Whenever I am overcome by righteous fury, I am actually sending out an energy which bolsters the “shell” around these people’s egos. At times, it even seems that others' dark side actually absorbs this emotional energy and becomes more powerful as a result of my outpouring. The only times that I’ve intuitively felt that my attention to these people made a difference for the better were when I felt sad, thinking about what it must be like to work to close your own heart day in and day out. There is a place, deep down in the core of these people’s identity, where they are beautiful and caring, and deeply saddened by all the devastation and suffering that they have been a part of creating.

Each of us has the power, through the invisible bonds that link us all, to send our loving intent to that buried heart at the core of those who seem so overcome with their own inner darkness. It doesn’t make sense to attach some expectation that they will simply “come around” and repent for all their wrongdoings. In some cases, people have just become too committed to self-denial, as we see in the characters of Anish in The Twelfth Insight and Feyman in The Tenth Insight. However, that doesn’t mean that the loving intent has no effect; quite the contrary, it allows their higher self to become more present, growing stronger within their being. It may still be suppressed to the point that no immediate change is apparent, but what we are doing is imparting our own vital essence and love to that aspect of them—spiritual resources which it can utilize to manifest obstacles to the success of their “evil schemes.” Thus, we can actually play a part in regressive plans backfiring, while also enabling them to have the very kinds of learning experiences that they channel so much intention into pushing away.

I don’t mean to suggest that anyone “will bad karma” on others. It’s simply a matter of recognizing that, deep down, everyone has a loving and exalted nature that seeks to learn. As C.S. Lewis illustrates in a correspondence between two demons in The Screwtape Letters, some people have allowed themselves to be taken over by a false ego identity which considers their illumined self “the enemy,” an inherent weakness that would leave them vulnerable to others’ exploitation if they ever opened up to it. They are right on one score: the higher self is the archetypal “enemy” of corruption, and the stronger it is within them, the more the standard rules will apply to them… and that is how we give the gift of Karma.
_________________
Handbook for the Modern Mystic is a free online resource for people who are exploring beyond the five-sensory model of human existence. Read on at www.modernmystic.com

[JenniferP]

Thanks 4 elaborating on this. I think there R always going to be some who will not leave their evil and have no concept of right and wrong, but living in truth can get me into a different reality fast. It draws a whole other reality.

[eaglesoul]

Dear James : Speaking of the events in Egypt at the beginning of the yr you say;
"I believe we can see an authentic call for reform persisting — a call that I think can be seen to represent a new step in spiritual awakening. In my new book, I call it the Twelfth Insight. But, just as easily, it could be called the Twelfth "call to action." Or the Twelfth "return to civility." Or a Twelfth "rise to an authentic Spirituality." For these labels speak to the characteristics of this experience.

In its essence, this street action reflects a larger call to a higher type of interaction that honors truth, and where ideas are exchanged without a hidden agenda or a jab at one's political opponents — and where every institution, from government to the news media to our own family, returns to honor about what they are doing. One would like to also add here: "just like it used to be." But of course, we know that truth and honor in public affairs has always been a bit of wishful thinking.

In fact, perhaps it was our collective awareness of this hypocrisy that led us to give up on truth in the past. For decades, it has become more and more accepted to subtly lie in politics, to hide the fine-print in legal agreements, to turn a blind eye to corruption if you're in the media, and to personally deceive others in order to gain money, prestige, or power. Now, we seem to have reached a point where no one even attempts to hide this loss of integrity any longer. The American Congress in 2010 seems to be the poster child for this loss in ethics. "
Your observations are prophetic, since then in these few months , more demonstrators in the Middle East , your congress there and the crowds on the streets down here have made it even more so.
Your words resound in my heart while me and my fellow countrymen watch amazed the young students , their parents and their babys in strollers march every week,bravely take on the streets to denounce and stop the shameful deceive tacticts of the entire political class, where profit has been the god worshiped by them all, where the once idealist leftist politicians that let themselves be seduced by the market ruled capitalist view,have lost the little credibility they once had and profit from 20 yrs, and where the right wing efficiency worshipping engenieers that proudly took hold of the miners rescuing effort, and believed that was all what they needed to rule a country was technical expertise watch in horror the unruly street crowds telling them transparency, honesty and ethics is sorely needed in our society, profit is meaningless if it does not arrives to all ... that education is a right for all born under this sun and we wont accept nothing less...someone on a tv panel full of clever jornalists and gurus of both sides said-and no one knows the way out of this mess !
Yes you are right we need to remember the demonstrators that non violence is the most powerful tool we have ...
Yes we are living in amazing times!
Pray for us my friends, my country´s soul is at stake, 40 yrs of social unjustice and polarized feverish views on both sides are confronting each other here once again...we all remember what happened last time dont we?
Pray with me so we may find this time around a peaceful enlightened way to a more equal society...
Namaste
P

[carpediem48]

It is Thanksgiving here in Canada

I am so grateful ..to you James and
to th posters who commented here

Thankyou
_________________
Row,row,row your boat,
Gently down the stream..
Merrily,merrily,merrily,merrily,
Life is but a ........DREAM!

I am You,,,and
You are Me,,and
We are We,,,,and
WE ARE ALL TOGETHER

[eaglesoul]

http://occupylove.org/post/11061884517/put-your-hand-on-your-heart-and-ask-yourself

[kelly]

Thanks for this, eaglesoul.
I like this site's perspective :)
Glad to know about it...

[eaglesoul]

u r welcome ...I was glad too


here a letter that moves the heart in the best direction to keep focus

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-solnit/letter-to-a-dead-man-abou_b_1017770.html

Some extracts

She writes: And then there is the joyous hope that things could actually be different. That hope has been fulfilled a little in the way that an open-ended occupation has survived four weeks and more and turned into hundreds of Occupy actions around the country and marches in almost 1,000 cities around the world last Sunday, from Sydney to Tokyo to Santa Rosa. It speaks for so many; it speaks for the 99%; and it speaks clearly, so clearly that an ex-Marine showed up with a hand-lettered sign that said, "2nd time I've fought for my country, 1st time I've known my enemy."
The climate change movement showed up at Occupy Wall Street, too. What’s blocking action on climate change is what’s blocking action on all the other issues that matter: it would cut into profits. Never mind the deep future, not when what’s at stake is quarterly earnings.
A dozen years ago, after the wildly successful revolt against neoliberal economic policy in Seattle, the slogan that stuck around was: “Another World Is Possible.” I was never sure about that one because in crucial places and ways that other world is already here. In a YouTube video of the New York occupation, however, I watched an old woman in a straw hat say, “We’re fighting for a society in which everyone is important.” What a beautiful summation! Could any demand be clearer than that? And could the ways in which people have no value under our current economic regime be more obvious?

And later on sept 11 community actions....There was, for example, a huge commissary organized on Chelsea Piers that provided free food, medical supplies, and work equipment for the people at Ground Zero and also helped find housing for the displaced. It was not an official effort, but one that arose even more spontaneously than Occupy Wall Street, without leaders or institutions -- and it was forcibly disbanded when the official organizations got their act together a few days later. Those who participated experienced a sense of democracy amid all the distress and sorrow, a tremendous joy in finding meaningful work and deep social connections, and a little temporary joy, as they often do in disaster.
When I began to study the history of urban disaster years ago, I found such unexpected exhibitions of that kind of joy again and again, uniting the generative moments of protests, demonstrations, revolts, and revolutions with the aftermath of some disasters. Even when the losses were terrible, the ways that people came together to meet the occasion were almost always inspiring.

[johan9]

james quote

[johan9]

[johan9]

james quote continues