Actions are preceded by thought and that is actually when the karmic cycle starts and it is because thoughts are much more important than your actions. Actions are instigated by thoughts. Those who have not yet developed intuition and do not listen to that small voice within themselves which is their own conscience whispering to them are subject to the consequences of their actions. Bad or negative thoughts lure or entice some to actions that will be regretted. Positive thoughts have the opposite effect and lead one to perform actions with positive results.
There are two ways to study karma, the Eastern and the Western way. In the West your thoughts are not considered evil unless someone commits evil actions. But Eastern ethics tell us otherwise. When our thoughts and feelings are evil, that alone is considered evil. You have freedom before you act and the results of that action will be with you whether you like it or not. That is the law of cause and effect.
You can use this as an example. If what you are reading in a book awakens wrong tendencies in you and you realize that what you are reading is bad for you, you will still reap the consequences from reading that book. Remember this all your life. When you let yourself be tempted you have imprisoned your wisdom. The fastest way to avoid temptation is just to say “no” and remove yourself from that environment as fast as you can. Later on when you are calm and your wisdom is freed up you can reason it out. Now if you are weak and your willpower is not developed, you will have to learn how to evolve your willpower. You may say “man, I haven’t got that kind of willpower.” How do you get this willpower? First you have to know what willpower is.
From the moment a newborn baby cries it is the awakening of willpower. The feeling of discomfort causes the baby to cry as it is painful when the lungs open for the first time. This is “automatic-physiological willpower.” As the baby begins to talk it follows the desires of its mother which is called “thoughtless will.” As the baby begins to grow older it starts thinking for himself; and when it is denied something from its mother that it wants he starts to show stubbornness by resisting. This is the first stage of evolving willpower. This inflexibility is “blind willpower.” What does that mean? It means someone wearing blinders and can not see. Blind willpower is willpower without wisdom. The youth of today uses this unstable or hot-blooded will without any meaningful purpose or point, squandering energy on temptations, hot passions, speed, hasty resolutions and uncontrolled appetites. The folly of the young and impulsive is rightfully termed blind willpower when letting the senses go ungoverned. After experiencing the results of blind willpower the youth understands the futility and begins to learn “thoughtful will.” Unless will is directed by discrimination it becomes semi paralyzed.
There is a colossal difference between wishing and willpower. Wishing is a hopeless desire that you know will not come true. When you desire something it is just a wish that is followed by efforts to materialize itself into achievement. Determination is a stronger definite desire that is used powerfully to manifest a definite purpose. Even strong determination can be discouraged when numerous efforts end up failing.
One step above a wish is desire with intention. But when you will something by applying willpower and energy with continuous focused action, your desire will be achieved. In other words volition is the key that initiates the power of the dynamo that will continuously and with unstoppable determination revolve over a desire until the much desired result is produced. It does not matter how difficult or complex the goal is, the person with volition does not stop his efforts of determination throughout his whole life.
Remember, you must maintain calmness at all times. The pendulum swings continuously back and forth in everyday life. The person who is at peace and retains his calmness is then ready to swing into action when it is time to work. Your calmness should control your activity and not the other way around. There is nothing you can not accomplish with the power of will. But make sure your willpower is guided with wisdom and start using it in the road to success. Become a divine strategist and use your intelligence to analyze what life is. I am going to explain what strategy is and how to apply it in your daily life.
Now, if you remember the war in Africa in 1943 when General Montgomery faced up against Field Marshal Irving Romel, General Romel was a far greater strategist than General Montgomery. It was only because Montgomery had the actual code machine–the enigma– that he was able to know every motion that Romel was making. The Allies knew every single move that they were going to make like playing chess with a man who knows every motion he is going to make before he makes them. Therefore you find that in the whole idea of developing wisdom is to be able to decipher the inner motion of subtle evil; if you do not control your thoughts and feelings they will totally manipulate you to the point where you have become a puppet of destiny.
First you have to be fearless. What made General Romel so powerful? He always left his staff and inserted himself in the front lines, putting his life constantly in danger to observe
every motion of the enemy and was able to make immediate decisions to counteract their strategies. That is why ten to one the English could not make it and they were good soldiers. Every new day there is a new opportunity to show heroism. Meet everyone and every situation with the courage of a hero and the smile of a conqueror.
When looking within your inner mirror through meditation you attain intuition. Then it will not be necessary to depend upon the limited knowledge of predictive sciences like astrology. You will then have your decoding machine in which you can see the future not from astrological or palm readings or the tarot. But you are going to see directly concerning you what is coming in the future and therefore you can begin to change. The calm neutralized mind sees all events of the future that appears vividly.
Are you telling me my entire future is already written? What free will do I have? You have none unless you go into your soul. Within your soul you have every free will possible.
In fact, the moment there is a burst of soul consciousness, at that moment you have free will because the masters say the only time you are truly alive is when you commune with God; otherwise you are just a humanoid pre-programmed by your sub consciousness mind and that’s a fact believe it or not. How in the world can the average man obtain strategy and do these things or obtain this calm state of the mind? If you say to yourself, “I want to be free and to have free will.” How much do you really want to be free? Ten percent? Twenty percent? Or one hundred percent? You should classify yourself.
The masters tell us through the millenniums and centuries God sends in to the planet souls with different states of realization corresponding to the desire of the individuals. If we go back to the early centuries where that great expression of love from Jesus Christ which unfortunately totally failed to impress people; God began to send the ascetics, who renounced everything. They lived in deserts, caves and grottos and devoted their lives ceaselessly to know God. So the great anchorites dedicated their entire lives upon God and here and there people came to meet them. Later on as the people become a little more aware, God began to send his Saints like St. Catherine and St. Francis. Of course with these Saints it was do- it-or-else; it was threatening, there was no choice. Do it or you will go straight to hell.
There were some nations in the planet that advanced morally with more spiritual people like in India and then came the Ascended Masters; the Ascended Masters came from time to time throughout the centuries to India. These great masters were not just Saints, but ascending masters who were practically one with God. They came with their wisdom gradually convincing people to motivate their lives. The point was to increase spiritual efforts to become a better person and when to a certain extent God was pleased he sent the Avatars, incarnations of God who have only one purpose and that is, to liberate you. You can listen to all the intellectual talk, you can take it or leave it. But once you have taken that vow and follow an Avatar and thus allowing the masters to annihilate your ego, you have forfeit your choice. Your specific development will draw you to a specific teacher. The worst teachers of yoga whom we behold today have their purpose. Everything sub serves a divine purpose from the lowest to the highest teacher and you travel from incarnation to incarnation just trying to figure out what to do and, when you find the path, you analyze the teacher, the teaching, the path and the fruit produced by that path.
Here is an example. If you want forgiveness of your sins you go to Saints. If you want to emancipate yourself intellectually without too many sacrifices you follow an ascending master whose wisdom will gradually convince you on what to do. But if you want to emancipate your “self” then God sends you a Guru who has cosmic consciousness and is one with him, such as Jesus, Krishna, Buda, Sri Ramakrishna, Paramahansa Yogananda, and other great unknown masters who have come to earth throughout the centuries. But these masters have complete mastery of the self and no karma of their own. They come only to help the disciple to be free from his own karma. It is extremely important for you to follow one master who has no karma who can take a portion of your cross on his back.
If the person you follow has not realized God he can not take it, he is only a school teacher. There is a difference between a Guru who has realized God and a teacher. The technique in finding your true spiritual guru not a self appointed one is explained in the book “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda, a spiritual classic, which explains this in detail.
The masters say this is the penalty for those who refuse to allow their lives to be guided by divine laws. On the stage of life most people behave like puppet actors who are manipulated by prenatal instincts, environment, and karmic destinies from former lives. They do not know what role to play to be successful in life. There is a plan for your life. At the beginning of life God has made a script you can play. We are all movie actors and God, the director, asks you what kind of a role you want to play. Do you want to play your own role? Yes sir, I want to play my own. I have a right to do my own will therefore I am going to play my own role. Then life becomes your teacher and the two by four and the pounding comes. Then God says, “how about giving me twenty five percent of your life?” Or, “how about fifty percent?” How about seventy five? He is not satisfied until you give him one hundred. When you give Him one hundred percent of yourself He will give you the best script possible.
We all have our accursed free will. Free will without wisdom is zero free will. All the masses of unenlightened people are just humanoids, programmed and manipulated by all the computers of previous incarnations and past memories which automatically control their lives.
There is only one force in the universe and no one can dictate to it. Man can only submit, surrender and let him use it. Herein lies the greatest blessing, the ultimate in human experience in submission to God’s will. Here lies the secret of strength. Now, if you feel that you are too weak and you can not control your bad habits and you can’t motivate yourself to have greater devotion for God and you can not propel yourself to be a greater person, there you have your answer. In submission to God’s will lay the secret of strength, that means to apply wisdom in your daily life. Lives which are governed solely by the laws of cosmic causation or the karmic laws are the hidden players in the game of life. You lose your independence and you can not say yes or no when herded to the right path or evil ways.
The first thing Swami Vivekananda, the great disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, said when he came to America in nineteen hundred was “Western people are funny. They fight and do not want to lose their individuality.” My friend, you have got none. What victory do you have to achieve? There is only one victory you need; the victory of your soul is the most important thing in your life. Every night analyze yourself to see if you become stagnant. If you are it is because you let circumstances override you. And that happens when you dwell too much on petty things and have no time to meditate or to think of God.
