Altering Your Karmic Cycle

"People often expect different results from doing the same actions" – Alcoholics Anonymous

We are slaves of habit. Besides well-ingrained physical habits, we also have deep-rooted mental ones – our attitudes, perceptions and beliefs that involuntarily guide our unique behavior. Our conditioned mental patterns are like our subconscious blueprint and manifest in our life repeatedly. As a result, we are prone to, and despite efforts usually find it hard to shake off, anger, fear, aggression, anxiety, envy or low self-esteem.

The notion of our deep-seated mental beliefs can be better understood by becoming familiar with the concept of karma. It is invaluable to grasp this concept to understand the inner mechanics of our thoughts and actions. Only by choosing to deal with our individualkarma, can we work on creating a new reality for ourselves.

Karma is the notion of a cyclical process where our every action or intention leads to lasting impressions on our psyche, and these impressions in turn impact our future behavior -- comprising fresh intentions and actions -- leading to new lasting impressions being formed. Our actions are called karma and the latent impressions they create are termed samskaras.

According to the law of karma, all our experiences in the present are dictated by our cumulative stored samskaras of past actions and reactions. This cyclical process ofkarma explains why we repeatedly attract similar situations that create conditions for the stored samskaras to manifest, leading to similar karma being created.

Anger leads to creation of unhappiness, frustration and anger in our emotional psyche. These stored unresolved emotions, our samskaras, eventually lead to generation of anger at the slightest provocation in the future. And, the cycle continues.

Unless we consciously choose to deal with our individual karma, it recurs in our life with great alacrity, and unless resolved, restricts us from experiencing real freedom and happiness.

The question is what good is our material progress if we remain ill equipped to reforming our inner being; what’s the merit in our climbing the social, career or financial ladder if we cannot overcome our mental fragility? In the midst of our reckless pursuit of modern life, what’s our real purpose?

The purpose of human life is to work through our personal karma and experience innate happiness, peace and joy in our state of being. The gifted ability to make that conscious choice is what makes the human life so precious compared to other life forms. The only way to create a new reality, of loving relationships, mental peace, inner happiness, deeper fulfillment, and abundance, in your life is to alter this karmic cycle. That’s the path to experience a new reality.

This journey entails learning to be a witness to our own mental and emotional patterns –our dominant beliefs and our recurring and conditioned responses. What makes you angry or fearful or anxious and how often? What beliefs do you have that make you feel that way?

Further, it requires taking personal responsibility of your situation – rather than blame your circumstances, partner or colleague, this is about focusing your attention towards your own conditioned thoughts, beliefs and actions.

Learning to live in the present, where we can consciously bring our subconscious patterns into our active awareness and make fresh choices in how we deal with a given situation helps us move forward. As we make new positive choices, we start to neutralise the hold the old samskaras have on our psyche. The more we stay in the present, the more we can redirect the future and the more empowered we become to experience inner peace and joy.