Karma and Reincarnation
In today’s cultures, we are rapidly assimilating the understanding that Integral Health (mind-body-spirit) offers an opportunity to expand our consciousness in ways that purely intellectual pursuits cannot. These transcendent aspects of our true being are so empowering yet can be so difficult to explain their reality! This includes the knowledge of the reality of past lives and reincarnation.
Getting beyond the hype and embracing that karma (an attachment to a person, place, thing, event, etc.) does carry over into successive lifetimes can illuminate the reasons for our present condition in this lifetime.
That past lives are true is beyond speculation. Both spiritual counselors like myself who “read” past lives and their effect on this one, and the work of trained individuals like Ian Stevenson, University of Virginia, who did rigorous interview-type investigative research that resulted in such great works as Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect, and Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation.
Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama, founder and first president of the California Institute for Human Science (CIHS), wrote Karma and Reincarnation, a book that should be on all our bookshelves. There are many stories of Dr. Motoyama’s (he was a realized yogi) spiritual consultations with people regarding their past life karma and how it affects this lifetime. He would reveal specific family names, dates and locations and the events in that lifetime that cause the current lifetime conditions!
I’ve been studying and doing spiritual counseling on past lives, karma and reincarnation for over 30 years and taught this subject at the Masters and Ph.D. level since 2004 at the CIHS in Encinitas, California, when Dr. Motoyama asked me to teach it in his place.
In my counseling practice, I have psychically seen “birth marks” many times on the body that are the result of past life karmas (issues). These are indications of strong attachments to an event that occurred in a past life that is unresolved. Dr. Motoyama and myself work in this way, guiding people to practices that help to dissolve karma that cause infirmities, trials and challenges in this lifetime. Past life karma affects “The Whole Human Being” four archetypes: physical, mental, spiritual and emotional.
As you can imagine, there is also “good” karma that results from right action and right behavior, though it is still karma and one is wise not to be too attached to even good works.
Dharma (right action, right behavior) is a way of generating the least karma in a lifetime. It can be difficult to be in dharma whether in thought or action!
Sages have written about reincarnation; religions like Christianity suggest you have only one lifetime. The Jewish religion states you can have 3 lifetimes. If you are Hindu, according to Lord Krishna, you can have as many as 8,400,000 lifetimes. I guess the latter would mean that you’ve got a lot of time to work things out!
It is the strength of the attachment to our thoughts and actions that is more important than the actual karma itself! Of course, this lifetime is your most important lifetime! What you think and do and what you attach to will affect this lifetime and future lives. It is always a good idea and in your best interest to be as harmless and compassionate as possible in thought and deed! This is also Dharma!
There are many forms of karma, personal, family, parental, cultural, racial, location and many more! Imagine being born into a lifetime that you fit perfectly into the circumstances that can emancipate you from karma.
When you want to know what your present-live karma is, look at your surroundings and circumstances. They are the result of karma from past lives. Interestingly, it does not have to be just the recent past life, it could be thousands of years ago.
In more esoteric terms, the “seeds” of karma are in our chakra system. Those seeds will sprout in a given chakra in a lifetime, when the circumstances are right (the right century, location, family, etc.). This is so that you can dissolve karma. Karma is causation (cause and effect). The reason for causation is twofold:
You are now strong enough to dissolve a specific karma. That is the reason for causation in this lifetime.
You never incarnate alone. You always incarnate with a soul group, including spiritual teachers who will incarnate in the same timeline as you to assist you in dissolving your karma.
Realizing that you DO have the inner strength and will to dissolve karma is to your benefit. Ask lots of questions, live in dharma, live a truly integral (mind-body-spirit) life and you will have lived a great lifetime!
Blessings,
Dr. Richard Jelusich, Ph.D.
