Understanding Karma through the Lens of Psychology
by Beezone
Preface
In “Understanding Karma through the Lens of Psychology,” Beezone explores the intersection of Eastern philosophical concepts and Western psychological frameworks. This essay presents a dialogue between a devotee and a spiritual master, revealing how the ancient idea of karma relates to modern psychological principles, particularly the formation and alteration of habits.
The discourse emphasizes that through dedicated spiritual practice, individuals can address their ingrained patterns of behavior—what is referred to as habit energy—rather than merely repeating them. By engaging with deeper layers of consciousness, individuals can transcend the limitations of the body-mind and achieve a more authentic state of being.
The conversation challenges the devotee to reflect on their alignment with their true self and highlights the necessity of continuous effort in both spiritual and psychological growth. Ultimately, this dialogue offers valuable insights into achieving mental clarity and emotional well-being by bridging the wisdom of Eastern traditions with contemporary psychological understanding.
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Understanding Karma through the Lens of Psychology
by Beezone
Karma, often seen as an esoteric concept in Eastern philosophy, can be interpreted through psychological frameworks familiar to Western thinkers. This essay explores an exchange between a devotee and a spiritual master, illustrating how the ancient idea of karma can relate to psychological processes and the functioning of the mind, particularly as understood through modern neuroscience.
At the heart of this discourse is the notion of habit energy, or karma, and how it shapes our experiences and behaviors. The spiritual master explains that through dedicated spiritual practice, individuals can fulfill their karmas without perpetuating them. This concept resonates with the psychological understanding of habits and patterns in behavior. Just as habits can be formed and changed through conscious effort, engaging in spiritual discipline allows one to confront and dissolve these ingrained patterns rather than merely repeating them.
In Western psychology, the brain is often viewed as the epicenter of thought and behavior, the “mind” being a product of neural processes. Conversely, Eastern philosophy proposes a deeper layer of existence—consciousness—from which the mind arises. This consciousness is inherently free from the suffering and limitations associated with the body-mind. By focusing attention on this deeper level, individuals can recognize their true nature beyond physical and psychological constraints.
The master challenges the devotee by asking why they do not consistently live in alignment with their true self. The response emphasizes that the karmas of the body-mind are still active, necessitating ongoing spiritual discipline. This mirrors the psychological principle that to change behaviors or thought patterns, continuous effort and practice are required. Just as cognitive-behavioral therapy encourages individuals to recognize and alter unhelpful thought patterns, spiritual practices aim to illuminate the deeper self, allowing for a more authentic way of being.
As the conversation unfolds, the master probes the devotee’s willingness to engage deeply with this discipline. The question of loneliness emerges, prompting introspection about the attachments tied to the body-mind. The devotee realizes that true identification with consciousness transcends feelings of separation, suggesting that a deep understanding of one’s interconnectedness with all beings can alleviate feelings of loneliness. This resonates with psychological findings on the benefits of mindfulness and the sense of community, which can reduce isolation and enhance well-being.
The master emphasizes the importance of a profound commitment to spiritual practice. The faster one engages with this discipline, the more swiftly their karmas can be resolved. This idea parallels psychological theories about the speed of behavioral change: the more intense and focused the effort, the greater the potential for transformation. However, the master cautions against even subtle movements toward identification with the body-mind, as these can create new karmas, akin to how minor slips in judgment can lead to undesirable habits in psychological terms.
Ultimately, the master highlights a key aspect of spiritual practice: the dissolution of compulsive thinking and the need for questions. This aligns with the psychological understanding that excessive rumination can lead to anxiety and hinder clarity. When one is fully identified with consciousness, the mind is liberated from these cycles, allowing for a state of peace and presence.
In conclusion, the exchange between the devotee and the spiritual master provides a rich framework for understanding karma in psychological terms. By recognizing how habit energy operates within the mind and how spiritual discipline can facilitate transformation, Western students can appreciate the depth of Eastern philosophies. The interplay between consciousness and the body-mind not only enriches our understanding of karma but also offers practical insights into achieving mental clarity and emotional well-being.
I-Am-the-Body” Is Love
A dialogue with the Spiritual Master as recounted by a devotee
As I attended the Divine Master one evening, he turned to me, touched my arm, and asked, “So what is your relationship to this body?”
I looked at him for a moment, considering his question. I did not know exactly what to say.
Then he asked me again, “What is your relationship to this body?”
Pointing to my navel, he asked where I am and who I am. He asked me if I am above that point. He pointed to my forehead and asked if I am below that point. Then he pointed to my throat and asked if I am above that point.
As he pointed, I observed the tendency to feel confined to the body. Then, “Are you confined to this body? Or are you outside the body?” he asked. “Are you inside the body? Where is ‘I’?”
I replied that I am not identified with any point.
The Master directed me then to think of another room, and then he asked if I was in that other room or just aware of it. I said that I was in the other room only through my awareness of it.
“Consider the body in the same way,” he replied. “Consciousness is aware of the body as you are of the other room, but the conscious being tends to identify with the body.”
Then he asked, “Where is the mind? Is it up here?” He pointed to my head. “Where is the point from which you are aware of the body?”
“Master,” I answered, “I do not feel that consciousness is confined in this body, because I am aware of and can perceive things outside the body.”
“Are you not aware of the mind in the same way? Well, then, who is aware of the mind and the body?” I began to feel that “I” am simply awareness. I was aware of both the mind and the body. The mind was aware of, or perceived the forms of, the body and everything else, but “I” was also aware of the mind that was aware of these things.
Now the Master’s instructions took a different turn. He began to consider with me why I do not simply live as that which I truly am.
“You are not being what you are. You are being or identifying with the body-mind, but that is not what you truly are. Why is it that you do not live as the Self, or very Consciousness, in every moment?”
When I confessed to him that to live this principle is my practice, yet I still feel identified with the bodymind and not absolutely identified with the Self, he pointed out that when I sleep, I am free of identification with the body and the mind. When I dream, however, I am not free of identification with the mind. The mind creates the images in the dream that imply an “I” or a subject of the dream. Yet when I awake, it is very easy to recognize that the dream is not true.
He asked, “Why is it, then, that in the waking state you cannot simply acknowledge that what is arising is not true?”
I confessed that somehow I find it easier to realize non-identification with the mind than with the body.
He replied, “What is revealed to you in the dream state and the sleep state is that ‘I’ is not the body, because ‘I’ still exists as awareness, even though the physical body is not present.” He was showing me that I am present in those states even when the body and the mind are absent.
“In sleep,” I said, “it seems to me that I am not aware of the mind or the body.”
The Master replied, “That is not true, because when you awake in the morning you are able to say ‘I slept well’ or ‘I did not sleep well.’ In other words, you are always conscious or aware of the conditions of the body-mind in waking, dreaming, and sleeping.”
When the Master asked me why I do not live in this condition in every moment, I felt how absurd it is that I identify with the body-mind as if it were my true being. In that moment of initiation and since then in my moments of most profound intuition of God, I feel identified with the Radiant Transcendental Being, which is Consciousness, which is the true Self.
The Master told me that I must explore what I truly am, and then practice being That.
“Simply surrender into being who you are, who you really are, rather than who you are not.”
By way of analogy, he considered what we mean when we say someone is crazy. “We think that someone who pretends to be Napoleon is crazy because he is obviously not Napoleon. But every person is pretending to be someone. Everyone is simply Consciousness, but not realizing this, everyone is crazy, everyone presumes he or she is something or someone that he or she is not. Therefore, you must begin to practice identification with Consciousness, with the true Self, and allow that Self to be revealed. If you live in the Condition of the Self, or the true Being, then you are totally free of the body-mind, its limitations and illusions, and all of the suffering and disturbance that it represents.”
The Master asked over and over, “Well, why don’t you just do this?”
I replied, “I am spending more time doing this.”
“Time? What does it have to do with time? Consciousness living as itself, being the Divine Self, has nothing to do with time and space. Nor does it have anything to do with doing it ‘more and more.'”
I confessed to him, “Master, when you ask me why I do not live as the Divine Self, I really do not know what to say. This is what I desire to do, and I do understand clearly that it is the Truth of my life-but I can’t tell you why I don’t do it in every moment.”
The Divine Master said, “Now in your practice you have a strong intuition of your true Condition, you have a profound understanding of meditation, and you live certain personal and esoteric disciplines, but you still go about perpetuating and living as the habits of this body-mind.”
At this point he began to instruct me about pleasure. He pinched my arm a few times. When I tried to withdraw my arm in order to avoid the pain, he said, “See? You are still identified with the body-mind, because you react when I pinch you. The identification with the body-mind is still present even at a subtle level, because the body-mind is always trying to feel pleasure. In all your activities, even though you are engaged in practice of this Way, the body-mind is still trying to maintain a pleasurable feeling.”
“Master, I am not aware of this search for pleasure or good feeling.” I wasn’t quite convinced. But when he pinched me again, and again I recoiled, then I understood what he meant. The body-mind does not want to feel bad. It seeks pleasure in order to avoid the inherent suffering that arises when consciousness is identified with the body-mind.
The Master continued: “Even though you are engaged in this practice, even though you have this intuition and meditate, you still go about identified with the body-mind, pleasurizing it, not willing to renounce it completely. The reason this is so is that, because you have been born, the karmas of this life must be fulfilled.”
“Master, why is this so?”
“The spiritual discipline that you engage allows one’s karmas to be fulfilled but not perpetuated. In other words, when you engage this spiritual discipline, you are not engaging your karmas and creating more karma for the body-mind. Rather, the karmas are undermined and dissolved and made obsolete. Because of the karmic motion of this body-mind, the karmas must be fulfilled, but they can be fulfilled quickly, depending upon how profoundly you engage the spiritual discipline. By engaging the spiritual discipline and thereby making the karmas obsolete and also by not creating any more karma for the body-mind, you bring the karmas to an end.
“Now, why is it that you do not live identified with the Self in every moment? Because the karmas of this body-mind are still in effect. Therefore, you must live spiritual discipline even in the midst of the fulfillment of those karmas, so that you practice the intuition of identification with the Self and acknowledge and understand that you are simply consciousness, inherently free of the suffering and limitations of this body-mind. Through meditation and the disciplines given at any state of practice, the karmas of the body-mind are neither created nor perpetuated, but they are obviated. At some point they will simply be dissolved, and at that point you will exist as the Divine Self. Until the karmas are totally fulfilled and released, you can only acknowledge that you have the intuition and understanding of your true Condition. Paradoxically, even now you are nothing but Consciousness.”
Then the Master asked if I am willing to live this discipline, if I am willing to live as the Self, identified with Consciousness, and if I would begin to explore what the Self truly is.
I said that I do desire to live the discipline. He looked at me playfully, squinting his eyes, and he said, “Are you sure?” He asked me over and over again, “Are you sure you want to do this? This does not seem strange to you?”
I told him that it does not seem strange to me at all, that I have a full and complete intuition of my true Condition, and that I feel the suffering of identification with the body-mind and do not want to perpetuate it anymore, but simply desire to live as the Self.
The Spiritual Master took the consideration a step further. He asked if I would be “lonely” if I lived in this Condition. Even now I do not quite understand the implications of that question. But I did feel in the moment that I longed to continue to enjoy the conversation and his Company. Things flashed before me that I am attached to in this life, things that would simply fall away if I lived this discipline perfectly. Identified with the body-mind, I feel separate from those things, but in that moment I felt so wholly identified with the Self that I did not feel the least bit lonely. And I could feel that I would never be lonely, because “I” as consciousness am identified with everyone and everything and am not separate in any way.
“Now you see how profound this discipline is and how energetically you must engage it. It is completely up to you. How quickly these karmas will be undone depends upon how forcefully and profoundly you engage this discipline and this intuition. You see all the habit-energy of the body-mind that you must transcend in order to practice truly. Even the most subtle movement toward identification with anything that arises creates more karmas and more births, even in subtle realms. The practice must become so profound that even the habit-energy toward being manifest in realms other than this is transcended. Even if you were to transcend the ordinary karmas of this body-mind, psychic movements toward other realms might continue to distract you. The practice of identification with Consciousness must be so profound that even movements toward other possibilities are undermined through the spiritual discipline. Such profound practice is Bhava Samadhi. And now you see that this is not how you live. You still engage many habit-energies that not only perpetuate but even create karma.”
As I felt the conversation coming to an end, I tried to ask the Master other questions in order to prolong our meeting. The Master immediately said, “See? You are already beginning to think and identify with the body-mind. But when you are simply identified with Consciousness, there is no need for questions or compulsive thinking anymore.”
I bowed in gratitude for the Spiritual Master’s instruction and initiation. As I gazed at the Spiritual Master, I was certain that he is pure, totally free of the body-mind and of all movement toward any one, any thing, or any condition. I knew that he is the Self, the Divine Consciousness, and I felt in his Company that this Self is what I am also and what I feel through identification with the Beloved.
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Summary
The Nature of Habit Energy and the Path to Transcendence
Habit energy, a force deeply embedded within human behavior, cannot simply be destroyed. Like all forms of energy, it can only be changed, modified, converted, or dissolved. However, the true resolution of habitual tendencies lies not in mere modification but in the transcendence and outshining of those tendencies altogether.
Efforts to modify or convert habit energy may offer temporary relief, but they do not provide a lasting solution. The only permanent resolution is through transcendence, where the habitual patterns are not fought against but rendered obsolete by non-use. This is the path of outshining, where the light of higher awareness naturally dissolves the grip of habit energy.
Interestingly, the more energy invested in habitual patterns, the more potential those habits have to control one’s behavior. This potential represents a negative approach to transcendence, where the focus remains on managing or transforming habits rather than moving beyond them. True freedom is found not in modification but in the complete transcendence of the tendencies that bind, allowing one to outshine them through higher consciousness.
In this sense, habit energy becomes irrelevant, not by struggle, but by outgrowing its influence altogether.