In this blog I’m going to tackle the subject of karma, hopefully to shed some light on this often-misunderstood concept.
My references in this case are the books written by Neale Donald Walsch, especially his first widely acclaimed work in his series, “Conversations with God” Book 1 which has sold more than a million copies worldwide and which was translated into 27 languages. You will find this book included in my reading list.
Walsch is an interesting study. He was a ship without a rudder in his young and middle-aged years. He married multiple times, fathered children, changed jobs, made many stumbles, some of them serious, all of them culminating in the early 1990’s with the loss of his belongings in a house fire, the breakup of his marriage and a serious fracture in an auto accident, resulting in his living in a tent in Oregon, jobless.
Apparently, his practice in letting off steam was to scribble his complaints about an unfair world on a ruled yellow legal pad. On one occasion in his early senior years, when he did this the thought came into his head asking if he really wanted an answer. He wrote that down, too. Thus began a many years’ long conversation with God, as he termed it.
I admit to feeling a bit uncomfortable about Walsch claiming to have had conversations with God, and I see him using more than a little hyperbole in that respect. I have to say however, his “conversations” had a profound effect on his outlook, and he became very articulate in describing his and our intimate relationships with Divinity.
I looked Walsch up on Wikipedia. He makes no claims of an advanced education. I think he is a remarkably talented autodidact, a self-educated person. Insofar as his conversations with God are concerned, for those of us who believe in the possibility of our thoughts being influenced by impressions from above, perhaps we can then accept the guidance of Divinity in his writings. Those who are able to focus only on his lifestyle during those formative years, probably will view all he has written as complete fiction. I come down solidly on the side of the former group and have been inspired and comforted by what I have read.
Now, back to our subject of karma. Many of us misunderstand the meaning of the term and interpret it as inevitable fate for wrongdoing. Walsch explains there is nothing in the nature of punishment for misdeeds as we enter the spirit world when we die. Apparently, we can experience a form of life review almost as spectators of admirable events, and of those less so occurring in our lives just completed. If another person was included in one of the occurrences viewed, the recently deceased will see that event from the viewpoint of that person. If you hurt that person in some way their feelings will be in full view for your understanding, but not as punishment.
Now here is the ticklish part. I’m going to quote directly from “Conversations with God, Book 1. “If karma is the innate desire to be better, to be bigger, to evolve and grow, and to look at past events and experiences as a measure of that, then, yes, karma does exist”.
“But it does not require anything. Nothing is ever required. You are, as always you have been, a being of free choice.”
I’m sorry to report the explanation gets a bit murkier. Dr. Michael Newton in “Journey of Souls”, a book on my list, reports that many liberated souls in the spirit world, now having knowledge of their many previous lives, seem to be energized by this information, and want nothing more than to continue with their historical spiritual evolution. They view their previous failures, insofar as seriously hurting others is concerned, as significant blocks to their continued growth and they actually may make arrangements, in planning a future life, to “walk in the shoes” of a similarly hurt person in order to understand what it feels like themselves. (I know this is a lot to swallow in whole cloth and I’ll have more to say on the subject in a future blog)
(I believe I alerted the reader to this being a ticklish subject). It becomes even more so when I tell you that according to Dr. Newton’s research, Souls who previously have committed crimes such as murder in a recent life, (not hardened criminals, who are treated separately) knowing they are going to have to experience some form of accountability in a future life if they want to continue to evolve, choose to put off that accountability until some indefinite time in the distant future. I find this a very understandable human trait, and it’s all related to our right of freedom to choose. As I noted above, more on this later.
Proof Of An Afterlife 