Karma and Prayer

An Excerpt from Answers by Mother Meera:

Question: What is the relationship of karma and prayer? What is the use of prayer if all that happens is according to our karma?

Mother Meera: If we only accept our karma and act according to that, there will be no end to it – our karma will continue for many, many lives. However, if we pray and offer the fruits of our actions to the Divine, then our karma can be stopped, lessened, or transformed…some karmas can be removed, but others are very big, and cannot be removed.

…so, continuing on with thoughts about karma, here’s the thing – I can go on. and on, because it’s a natural, timely interest and concern for me. But what I realized, even before sitting down to write Mother of Light: The Book of Fire, vol. 1, The Bardo (ten years ago) was that there was only going to be a handful of people with the same depth of seeking. I wrote it in 2001 – and look at the seachanges in the culture, in every dimension imaginable since then. If there were 30 or 40 like-minded parties then, there are 2 or 3 left now (an exaggeration, of course, but you get my point.)

You, reading now, probably have zero curiosity in the laws of karmic debt, things that are going to affect some aspect of yourself in a so- called “future life”… or anything much beyond keeping the roof over your head, and your kids fed.

I so get this..I’m hardly oblivious. For those of you who read The Bardo, you will see that the great majority of my life has been spent in grinding, unremitting poverty, with pretty much no way out. I understand about money, and dire, preoccupying circumstances.

But/and, to remain in denial about the laws of consequence, and responsibility, is to live on credit, and spin it out as long as you can before you get caught in the cross hairs. This is a credit-card world now – and the pattern of transaction in the physical world of dollars is only a symptom of a deeply-entrenched psychological – and more critical – spiritual state of dis-ease. Our inner weaknesses are proliferating, our maturity on all levels is actually devolving – and we are intent on defying the universal facts of existence: you can’t spend anything, be it energy or money, that you haven’t first created by your own effort – and if you find a way to fake true resources for a while, you will find that the balloon payment can be oblivion…not just for you, but for those close to you, and ultimately, society at large. We have been given enough rope to hang ourselves with, and – guess what, folks – we’re all hanging, now.

The dissolving, catastrophic state of affairs in the world goes precisely to the subject of karma: it is a real-time example of the arrogance, infantilism – on a global scale- implied in believing there is no law other than what we want at any given moment. – and the result, from the wider universe of cause. And now, Catch-22 in place, we are so bent down with the crushing tolls just beginning to come in, we feel we can’t possibly have the strength, or endurance, to raise our eyes to study anything so seemingly abstract, so formless, so…non-physical, therefore not remotely relevant, as the karmic laws that are bringing us our due.

But here, as they say, is the rub: the physical plane, down to dollars and cents, is a manifestation of formless, purely spiritual energy…The tolls of neglecting this greater Reality, the killing burdens, will never diminish…they will only accrue interest, unless/until we turn to confront…tired, exhausted, or not…

more next time, including some thoughts on what happens when The Secret meets prarabdha karma…..yikes

Junipur, over and out

The Nature of Karma

“The Divine Mother appeared in a vision and said, ‘When you save someone’s life, you take their karma.’”

This is how The Bardo, the first volume of Mother of Light: The Book of Fire opens.

It was an etheric darshan with Mother Meera, an Incarnation of the Divine Mother, that took place in 1996-7 or so; it provided critical insight into the pivotal dynamic, the axis around which the matters of my present incarnation had been revolving – without my knowledge – and would continue to turn, for a yet-undisclosed period of time. It’s a good way for me to open a conversation about the all-important topic of karma

Nothing has greater truth than that “necessity is the mother of invention”, a saying that expresses more about the secret purposes of human life than we know – and the grave need with which I was compelled to study the laws of karma has yielded perhaps a wider body of knowledge than others are forced to acquire. Of course, choice was important; I came into this life with ingrained desire to learn about the inner energies of the universe, so I remained engaged and highly focussed, instead of being driven out of the body as the flames rose higher, and scorched deeper. But these unusual circumstances notwithstanding, still we are speaking of comprehension basically limited to the human arena – when it comes to the mystic truths of the highest realities, only the Avatars, incarnations of the Divine, have whole knowledge. This must always be remembered, a caveat that covers anything I may be discussing anywhere in print, book or blog. It is our responsibility to learn all we can in our sojourns, while keeping in mind that what insight or wisdom we gain, in this or any other aspect of existence, is relative, and subject to truth on octaves yet “higher”. As Mother Meera reminds us, “There is no end to realization. You must always remember that you are traveling forward, and be attached to nothing. There is no end to the journey…”

Though it has taken humanity an excessive span of time (this time around) to open to the vaster universe – and our relationship to it – we are finally at the place where the concept of “wholism” – the inseparable links between every species, to each other, and then to the ecosystem for example – has re-emerged to penetrate the collective appreciation of the nature of reality. Some of us have even evolved from the awareness of patterns evident in the physical world – one species acting upon another, as I was saying – to intuit the larger context of the band of invisible force flowing in and around these elements (be they in the animal kingdom, or geographical, such as bodies of water) and beyond.

This energetic inner unity of all things is, of course, no secret to the spiritual adepts; it is known to be a living truth, and the highest essence of existence. To know this cosmic energy directly, and be united with it, is the focus of their lives. The laws of physics in the natural kingdom are but a material manifestation of the one force that is the omnipresent cause of the universe, in eternal relationship to other expressions of its own being.

“There is only one love and one energy.” Mother Meera

The earth plane can be viewed as an experiment in the experience of duality – the ONE consciousness falls asleep and proceeds to dream, in a sense, that all is separate and divided, each one endowed with sovereign being, and individual qualities unique to itself, intent, will, desire….This being can act, and in turn, be acted upon by other separate beings; every action taken will have its effect in this mutual hallucination. In the physical, visible world, the study of the intricate interrelationships between cause and effect, now divided from each other in the illusion, might be biology, or perhaps physics. But there is a plane of deeper energy, invisible to the human eye, where the immutable law of cause-bound-to-effect also rules – it is in this reality that the investigation can proceed into the realm of human experience and interaction; one aspect of this study is called, in the Eastern philosophy, karma. What you reap, you must sow…but it is due to the occult fact that this is so because you are what you sow, you are who you love, who you hate…though the hidden identity may be seen to be separated by the veils of time and space.

Here are a couple of mind-twisters to chew on before next time, Oct. 1:

  • Do you believe you only live once, or do you believe in reincarnation?
  • If you knew you could have something in the present that had negative consequences in a distant future, would you try to attain it?

That’s all for now. Junipur over and out?

Welcome to The Book Of Fire Letters

Hello, World! Welcome to the Book of Fire Letters. This is the first of many communications I will be sending to you. I’ve been a recluse for over 20 years – not just physically, but in cyberspace also. I know virtually nothing of the social network; though it is not a completely natural fit for Mother of Light, I’m going to jump in and see if I can learn to surf.

Continue reading “Welcome to The Book Of Fire Letters”

About the Author

In August of 1976, upon sitting for meditation the first time, I had a radical kundalini awakening, which is discussed at length in The Book of Fire Vol 1. During the nine months of the waxing period of this phenomenon were many seminal visions, experiences. In one such dream, I was expressing (to no visible person) that I yearned to “go to India” – a destination whose significance was clear, to a student of comparative religion (such as I was at the time, at Lewis and Clark College, in Portland, Ore.); over the ages, India is a land of spiritual enlightenment, in the psyche of the collective. A voice spoke out of the ethers, saying simply: “You have to go through Africa, first.”

Those were the few, but telling words given, pregnant with the intimations of things to come, to be prepared for – before light, and freedom, the jungles of the unconscious, like wide, wild rivers full of rapids, and unknown creatures of the deep, would have to be crossed. The journey ensued; the ferment I was predestined to encounter traversed and, to what extent I have been capable, transform. Thus the material for Mother of Light: The Book of Fire came into being, and the story written down.

Formal studies abounded in and around the turbulent travels of the inner realms: I graduated from a nationally-renowned academy of natural healing, which was oriented in body-centered psychotherapy and its adjuncts. Traditional scholastic pursuits include the field of Comparative Religion, studied at the University of Virginia, and Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, as well as Transpersonal Psychology, at Temenos Institute, in Connecticut.

I went on to do extended work in chakra/karmic clearing, and a further, in-depth apprenticeship in shamanism. A small healing center was created around a crystal shop I opened, in 1987.

My search for wisdom has carried me to places as diverse as India and Germany. I took the Reiki initiations, through the 3rd degree. I have been an avid student of astrology and metaphysics since the age of 18, and spent a year in Virginia Beach to devote concentrated time at The Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), founded by the great mystic, Edgar Cayce.

There are many different ways to look at this book:

  • It is a pitched battle for liberation, recounting many missteps and mishaps encountered along the way which, once synthesized, yield pointers in navigating the karmic labyrinth
  • Mother of Light covers spiritual initiations 1, 2, and 3 (not to be confused with Reiki initiations), special attention being paid to the disciple’s encounter with the dark force, whose presence threatens at these thresholds
  • Great consideration is also given to the problem of the “imperfect master”

But The Book Of Fire is ultimately about the cosmic principle of the Divine Mother- also known as The Devi – specifically in Her present incarnations as Amritanandamayi, and Mata Meera.

This time has been christened “the hour of the Mother” by some in the realm of spiritual endeavor; the passage from one age –“yuga”- to the next, is said to be fraught with immense difficulty; but in this case, the human race is likewise presented with unparalleled opportunities for quantum leaps in spiritual evolution and karmic clearing, individually and collectively. For this reason, the Divine Mother, whose force shepherds the material plane through its growth crises, is making Her presence felt in the world in a forthright manner, and making Her incarnations known, and available, at a remarkable level. To be of aid in this work, in some small measure, is the purpose for the manual, Mother of Light: The Book of Fire Vol 1 and ll.

Tao of the Mother is now available on on site and Amazon

Mother of Light: The Book of Fire Volume II

Tao of the Mother:

Cantos on Fire-Eating, and the Art of Love in the 21st Century