Reincarnation, Karma, Past Lives...

Hi Brandino,

That's an interesting question, you ask.
From my understanding, karma relates to the law of balance and divine justice, as well as to the amount of egos person has. Karma is administered by Divine Beings responsible for that, so it should be really fair, not what we think is fair.

In the case of ex-murderers, their karma should probably depend on exact circumstances of that crime they were misfortunate to commit, whether it was intentional or happened by accident, what other options were available, if a person sincerely repented, tries diligently to change their lives to the best, develops spiritually or not, etc.
Egos cause us to commit mistakes again and again, and earn more karma. So, even if a person had earned some dharma...without continuous inner work, egos can unnoticably nullify all the efforts.
I think that in most of the cases, those who take a precious gift of living away from others, would be unlikely to get a great time after that.

Regarding the amount of karma to have, I think, with further progress, we would see clearer which events of our lives we actually control, which events come accidentally, or appear as previous results of karma/dharma, and which events are related to authentic spiritual progress.

All the best!

Vadim

Like Vadim has said, it is all dealt with on a level that we can't really comprehend. But just by definition alone, it has to be absolutely Just. But fortunately there is also Mercy, so with repentance things can change, we can be given the opportunity to find out about the spiritual Path, to take it up, and to pay off karma that way, by getting rid of the psychological elements that made us commit the error in the first place, and by helping others.

It's said that at some point on the Path all one's karma has to have been paid off or negotiated, and from that point onward that person pays as they go.

You can pray for teachings about your karma in your dreams. It's always good to pray for learning :)

Thank you gentlemen. I've been slacking lately. Some part of me hopes that whoever is being patient with me will continue to be patient. Sometimes I fear that who ever is in charge of my life will just end it because they are getting tired of me wasting it.

Another question for everybody:

Is there an endless list of egos or is there a list at all? How would we know what ego we have eliminated?

Example: Anger, impatience, sadness, lust, etc.

"Even if we had a thousand tongues for speaking and a steel palate, we would not manage to enumerate our egos."
Samael

There is an army before you and you have to destroy this army.Do you need to know their names?You just kill the first that attacks and continue until you are left alone and in peace.

Percentages of consciousness that we free contain gnosis of the ego that had them captured.

There are seven main ones that are listed in the Bible, all of the egos are more or less details of the main seven (the seven deadly sins): Gluttony, Lust, Sloth, Envy, Greed, Wrath, Pride. But even then, ultimately every single ego is a manifestation of Lust; we can easily see greed is lust for money, envy is lust for others' position, possessions, etc., gluttony is lust for food, etc. etc..

As Chris says, it's not so important to label them with the mind, just to be in awareness/self-observation, that way the Consciousness sees the ego in action then understands it without looking for labels. Otherwise we just kind of "hang out" in the mind all day thinking we're doing something. So it's really important to get the awareness and self-observation right. We shouldn't really be afraid of labels either though, because it does help to be able to say "okay pride is giving me problems lately so I'll pay special attention to that today." As long as we don't get caught up in needing labels.

Am I just complicating things too much? Either way, no reason to get down on yourself :) We just need to pick up where we are. You've just recently come to the courses, I wouldn't worry about anyone ending your life for wasting it. I don't think that would happen anyway, since by wasting our life means we're going along with the animal nature, then we're just treated as animals that way, so things happen by accident, we reproduce, we grow old, we die, we are victims of circumstance. If we don't want to change, if we don't yearn for something real, real love, real peace, real understanding, then we're just another animal. But if we do yearn for these things, then the Divine knows that, and they are extremely patient with us when we truly care and are putting in the effort. Reminds me of this quote from "The Flight of the Feathered Serpent":

And even though you often believe that you have lost The Path which takes you to the awakening, you will never be alone. And your losing the way is nothing but a testing ground with which your alert intelligence attempts shy steps along all tracks, shaking off the lethargy of everything that is mortal.

Thanks Jim, Vadim and Chris for the kind words and encouragement. I guess 2 years into this I am still very much a beginner. Especially when I haven't devoted the time necessary for progress. Maybe I haven't really taken that first step of faith.

Hi Brandino,

We can also see our progress with eliminating the egos by looking into our dreams. For example, if someone acts mean toward us in our dreams and we don't respond in a negative way in return, this can indicate that we've made some progress with anger.

Gabrielle

Hi Brandino,

One thing I like to remember always, is that every moment is a new moment. I can turn my life around at any moment ... But which moment will I choose? This moment right now is as good a moment as any. And when later today, or tomorrow, I look within and find I don't measure up to my expectations, I can start anew once more - from that moment. And again. And again. And again. As Jim pointed out above - the Divine is patient with us when we are trying.

I have 3 kids, and so I like to think of an analogy that is related to parents and children. As a mother, I want what it best for my kids - I want them to become strong, independent, spiritually focused people, and I try to guide them down this path. In order to do this in the best way possible for them, I often have to alter how I help them, depending on how they are helping themselves at the time. For instance, if they are just saying the words they think I want to hear, without the actions to back up those words, then maybe they aren't serious about their stated intentions, and so I will have to help them to learn in a different way than if their actions matched their words. (I hope that makes sense).

But in the end, our Divine Parents want us to awaken just as much (probably more!) than we do, and so they will never stop helping us to achieve that, until all our lives are done.

Our job is to make the decision (and match it with actions) to follow the spiritual path, and keep making it moment by moment, no matter what - and no matter how many times we have to come back and start again. The important thing is to keep going and never give up!

All the strength,
Vicki