WORK IN PROGRESS:
This post is a work in progress and is subject to changes, revisions, edits and deletions. I've presented it here to give you an idea of a general concept; however, I'm not sure I've done a very good job explaining it. Please bear with me as I continue to work through this.
Imagine that there are three systems that operate separately: The Truth, our internal qualities (our intention - selfishness and bestowal) and causality (karma). They're actually all interconnected, but for the purposes of understanding them, let's split them up:
- The Truth:
- We can only perceive The Truth through bestowal, it has to do with perception of reality.
- The Truth is that nothing bad has ever happened to us, others or all of Nature. We're surrounded by love, we just have to realize it. (This doesn't mean that we can do whatever we want, not at all. In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others and Nature instead of ourselves.)
- We perceive that all negative things (associated with selfishness and 'negative' causality) change and become something positive. Eventually the negative aspects disappear and all that's left is love.
- Our Internal Qualities (Intention - Selfishness and Bestowal):
- Our internal qualities are our intention, and our intention determines our connection with others and The Creator. While we're immersed in the intention of selfishness, we're disconnected from others and The Creator; whereas, while we're in the intention of bestowal, we're connected to others and The Creator.
- Selfishness:
- This is where we are today, but we don't know we're immersed in selfishness, because we have nothing to compare it to. Jesus said, "... they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34, NIV)
- In selfishness, we seek to benefit ourselves with no regard for others. We harm ourselves, others and all of Nature, which means we operate within 'negative' causality.
- While we're immersed in selfishness, we're disconnected from others and The Creator, which leaves us isolated, alone and unhappy.
- Selfishness has to do with the 'bad' things we do to others and Nature, and the good things we could have done, but didn't.
- We sense the pleasures of our 5 senses - food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge, power.
- When our intention, our internal qualities change from selfishness to bestowal, we stop being immersed in selfishness.
- Once we're in bestowal, we perceive The Truth, that nothing bad has ever happened to us, others or all of Nature. We're surrounded by love, we just have to realize it.
- We perceive that the negative aspects of selfishness change and become something positive and constructive.
- Eventually, all negative aspects of selfishness disappear and all that's left is love.
- This doesn't mean that we can do whatever we want, not at all. In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others and Nature instead of ourselves.
- Bestowal:
- This is where we need to be. Our intention, our internal qualities have to change from selfishness (seeking to benefit ourselves) to bestowal (seeking to benefit others and Nature).
- When we first enter bestowal, we go through a change in the perception of our reality - we 'see' selfishness for the first time, and we also 'see' bestowal for the first time. We have the ability to compare our two internal qualities, selfishness and bestowal. (Eventually, all negative aspects of selfishness change and become something positive and constructive, and all that's left is love.)
- In bestowal:
- We rise above our selfishness,
- We stop harming others and Nature,
- We adopt other people's desires as our own (we 'feel' them, sense them and connect with them), and
- We seek to benefit them instead of ourselves.
- While we're in bestowal, we're connected to others in mutual bestowal and we're connected to The Creator through equivalence of form. This connection makes us really happy.
- Bestowal has to do with the good things we do to others and Nature, not for our sake but for theirs, and specifically to bring contentment to The Creator.
- When we're born into bestowal, we need to grow and develop, just as a baby grows and develops into an adult.
- In our new perception of reality, eventually we come to perceive The Truth, that nothing bad has ever happened to us, others or all of Nature. We're surrounded by love, we just have to realize it. This doesn't mean that we can do whatever we want, not at all. In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others and Nature instead of ourselves.
- We sense a new intense pleasure, which is a direct stream from God.
- While we're in bestowal, we do good to others, which means we operate within positive causality.
- Causality (Karma):
- Causality [1] (karma [2]) is a law in nature, just like gravity. This law of reciprocity is also known as The Golden Rule.
- Causality isn't specifically about our intention, our internal qualities, because we can do 'bad' while immersed in the intention of selfishness, but we can also do 'good' while immersed in the intention of selfishness.
- What you do, happens to you:
- Causality has to do with what we do, and the consequences we face as a result of the things we do. Causality isn't just about what we do, but also, what comes back to us as a result of what we do.
- For example, if I slap someone and years later I get slapped, there are two events to contend with - the slap I give and the slap I get, and both are related.
- The question is: Why isn't causality instant? Why does it sometimes take so long for the consequences of our actions to come back to us? How can a person learn if there's a delayed response to the consequences of our actions?
- The answer is love:
- There's an arc-story being told in all creation that uses many facets of our experiences (both good and 'bad'), and that arc-story is a positive story of our relationship with God.
- If we did 'bad' things and immediately 'bad' things happened to us, we'd become paranoid and afraid to live. Whereas, if we just live our lives, we learn through experience, and there's none so wise as the experienced.
- Also, if we did good things and immediately good things happened to us, we'd do good things for selfish purposes, not for the sake of others, which wouldn't connect us to bestowal, The Truth or the purpose of creation.
- 'Negative' Causality ('Negative' Karma):
- If you do bad, you get bad. Meaning, if we do 'bad' things, 'bad' things happen to us.
- While we're immersed in selfishness, we tend to harm ourselves, others and Nature. So we operate within 'negative' causality.
- When our intention, our internal qualities change from selfishness to bestowal, we stop being in 'negative' causality.
- Once we're in bestowal, we perceive The Truth, that nothing bad has ever happened to us, others or all of Nature. We're surrounded by love, we just have to realize it.
- We perceive that the negative aspects of 'negative' causality change and become something positive and constructive.
- Eventually, all negative aspects of 'negative' causality disappear and all that's left is love.
- This doesn't mean that we can do whatever we want, not at all. In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others and Nature instead of ourselves.
- Positive Causality (Positive Karma):
- If you do good, you get good. Meaning, if we do good things, good things happen to us.
- From Selfishness:
- We can 'do good' to others while still immersed in selfishness, but we don't do it for their sake, we do it for our sake. We may want to be seen as do-gooders, gain favour in the eyes of others, receive a reward etc. Because we're still immersed in selfishness, we don't connect to the next world of bestowal. We don't experience any of the phenomenon of bestowal - The Truth, a new perception of reality, a new sensation of pleasure etc.
- However, by 'doing good' to others, we operate within positive causality.
- From Bestowal:
- When our intention, our internal qualities change from selfishness to bestowal, and we seek to benefit others and Nature instead of ourselves, we do good to others, not for our sake, but theirs.
- By doing good to others, we operate within positive causality. Plus, our intention, our internal qualities are in bestowal, which means we reveal phenomenon of bestowal - The Truth, a new perception of reality, a new sensation of pleasure etc.
The Truth, our internal qualities (intention - selfishness and bestowal) and causality (karma) are all interconnected, but they're also separate systems. Once we understand them, it will help us operate safely within them, not for our sake, but for the sake of others and Nature, in order to bring contentment to The Creator.
In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others and Nature instead of ourselves.
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