From another BFC member's blog...
I'm doing this for selfish reasons lol. I like what she said here and I don't want to have to hunt for it again, or risk her deleting her blog and losing this wisdom. So, I posted it here to peruse at my own pace. I do think she's onto something though.
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For about the past week and a half I have felt nudged toward blogging again. I have been really busy and haven't had much time, Goddess knows I've had enough topics to vent upon, but--- I haven't written.
So, this evening, I take keyboard in hand…
This is something to which I never really gave much thought, until now.
Those of you who know me are aware that I am studying Vedanta. Read, think, think, think, puzzle, read, think, research, puzzle, think, go to sleep thinking about it, wake up thinking about it, sit outside at lunchtime in downtown Pittsburgh, smoking a ciggie and thinking about it, reading some more, read on the bus, listen to podcasts on the bus… and I'm barely scratching the surface.
So every once in while I start surfing the 'Net on Vedantic topics.
What I read stopped me dead in my tracks.
Some of us participate in healing circles, prayer circles, whatever you wish to call them. We get a number of varying requests at any given time.
It's not the number of healings, or the little stuff that concerns me.
It's the big stuff. The miracles.
We are not just "sending healing energy" or "sending positive energy" when we work on these requests. We have become wheelers and dealers, traders in a market, where the prices are fixed and immutable. The currency-is karma.
I can go into the fancy names for the karma some other time, but, in the simplest of terms, there are three types of karma:
1. Cumulative - all the karma you still "owe," incurred over many past lifetimes. Too overwhelming to be dealt with in only one incarnation.
2. Current Life - the karma you must live through in this lifetime, and you are born with this karma. This includes genetic traits, preferences, weaknesses, strengths, your gender, your physicality, etc. The only way to balance this karma is to be born, endure/deal, and die.
3. Ongoing - the karma you incur through your deeds in this lifetime. Some of this may be balanced or discharged in this lifetime; some will carry over into later incarnations.
Here are some basic rules in the game of life, the laws of nature:
1. All the pain humans suffer in life is because they have run afoul of a law of nature and/or false identification with the physical body as the real Self.
2. Karmic debts must be discharged. They are not "excused" or forgiven. Non-payment is not an option. Ignorance of the law is not a defense.
3. Karma does not discriminate. Regardless of your income, status, employment, pedigree, religion, or title, karma applies equally to all.
4. What appears to be inequity (i.e., baby born in third world country who starves to death vs. baby born in Beverly Hills raised in the lap of luxury) is actually karmic accounting.
Discharge of karma can happen in a number of ways. There may be more ways than just those listed here, but these are the best known:
1. The individual pays the karmic price.
2. Someone else agrees to assume the karmic debt and they pay it.
3. "Burning off" of karmic debt through prescribed spiritual practices.
4. Attainment of spiritual realization before physical death.
Number Two, above, is the subject of this blog.
When someone is healed of an illness or injury against all odds, when the doctors have told the family to begin making arrangements for the person's death and burial, we call that a miracle.
People thank God, by whatever name and in whatever form, for miracles.
Not so fast, folks.
Miracles aren't free.
History records several examples of persons who performed healing wonders. One of the most famous healers in history is Jesus of Nazareth, revered by millions of Christians as Jesus Christ. His physical incarnation on earth cannot be proven (i.e., there are no artifacts of his life, since the Shroud of Turin was debunked and found to be made in the Middle Ages). But if we proceed with this argument using the stories of his life, we know that he performed any number of miraculous healings during the course of his public ministry.
Legend has it that Jesus traveled extensively during the "lost years" between the ages of 12 (the last scriptural recording of an event of his childhood) and 30 (the beginning of his public ministry). It is said that he traveled to Egypt, India, and Tibet, among other places.
The style and wording of his teachings imply that he was heavily influenced by Eastern thought, and that he had more than just a working knowledge of Vedanta and yoga (the spiritual discipline, not the exercise).
The other acts attributed to him (such as walking on water, feeding the multitudes) have also been attributed to yogic adepts of the East. Connecting the dots, one could surmise that Jesus was well trained in yogic practice and was able to perform such amazing feats.
Keeping in mind the Christian tradition that he is God incarnate come to earth, he operated within the limits of a human body to demonstrate that the attainment of union with God is possible for mere humans. Hindus of India acknowledge his divine incarnation and consider him one of the avatars (I think there's ten; the last one hasn't come yet).
So Jesus was well-acquainted with the Eastern scriptures, and he knew the law of karma.
Jesus knew that karma is unavoidable; it must be discharged.
As a yogic adept, he knew (this is key) how to transfer karma from the body of another into his own body. He knew ahead of time, before performing a healing, that he would have to pay the karmic price for the miraculous healing.
Most readers, Christian or not, are well-acquainted with the manner of his death.
A saint of India, Ramakrishna by name (whose existence can be proven, by the way; he lived in the age of photography) also performed miracles of healing. It is said that he assumed the karma of his disciples into his body. He died after a long, lingering, and excruciatingly painful battle with cancer.
There's so much more I could say on this matter, but I'll confine comments to just a few before getting to the bottom line. Number one, imagine the love that a person must have for his/her fellow man to knowingly take unto himself or herself the karma of others, in full awareness of the dreadful price he or she will pay. Number two, I wonder if the salvation (removal of karma) Jesus offered was limited to those with whom he had personal contact; it wasn't carte blanche for generations to come. Maybe his assumption of the karma of others was confined to physical healing. He was severely beaten during the period of torture before his crucifixion. There is a Bible verse that says, "…by his stripes we are healed." Perhaps his teachings were meant to show people how to achieve spiritual realization, "burn off" their own karma through spiritual practice, and essentially, "save" themselves. Of course, the sick people who acknowledged him as God basically achieved union with him (and thereby the Supreme Godhead), and he may have taken all of their karma, not just the karma responsible for causing the disease or condition. That would mean that they cleared all of their karma, and no longer needed to climb on the wheel of birth, life, death and rebirth.
I'm talking myself into a circle, here, so I'll move on.
Parenthetically, I'm not advocating Christian practice, dogma, or beliefs. I'm addressing the subject of Jesus as a fully-realized yogi, and also as an avatara of God. My emphasis is on his FULL AWARENESS of the price he would pay when he healed people.
Now, finally, I get to my point: There have been some miracles of healing attributable to workings done by members of the Black Forest Family, jointly and severally. My question is, who is paying the price?
I have never heard discussed among BFC healers the "cost of doing business." We rejoiced for miracles, to be sure. No doubt, outside of our tradition, there is some sniggering going on. Of course, it's in their training materials or BOSs, and they knew it all the time… and I don't believe a word of it. If it WAS discussed, where the heck was I?
So many people jump on the "I wanna be a healer" bandwagon. People with NO training whatsoever. Good hearts and good intentions do not protect one from the karmic consequences.
If you know someone with cancer, they are dealing with karmic debt. When all the cancer goes away and the doctors are scratching their heads, wondering if it was a misdiagnosis, somebody other than the original cancer patient has assumed the karmic debt and that somebody will pay the price at some point in time.
Healers are trained not to draw illness or injury through their own bodies as they work for a sick or injured person; they are to pull it out and send it into the earth. That's about as much of a warning as I've ever heard. But that still doesn't address the karmic debt.
Our bodies are the vehicles for the balancing of karma. The body is the only battlefield (and the only altar of sacrifice).
That being said, the big guns healing should only be handled by a well-trained, spiritually advanced, fully informed person who has complete foreknowledge that they will pay the price for a miraculous healing. Such a person should be sacrificially-minded (but not a martyr in the bad sense of the word). Healing should be their dharma, their karma yoga, and their bhakti yoga.
Beginners should stay far, far away. Those whose dharma does not include the healing arts should also stay far, far away.
Miracles aren't free.
-------------------
For about the past week and a half I have felt nudged toward blogging again. I have been really busy and haven't had much time, Goddess knows I've had enough topics to vent upon, but--- I haven't written.
So, this evening, I take keyboard in hand…
This is something to which I never really gave much thought, until now.
Those of you who know me are aware that I am studying Vedanta. Read, think, think, think, puzzle, read, think, research, puzzle, think, go to sleep thinking about it, wake up thinking about it, sit outside at lunchtime in downtown Pittsburgh, smoking a ciggie and thinking about it, reading some more, read on the bus, listen to podcasts on the bus… and I'm barely scratching the surface.
So every once in while I start surfing the 'Net on Vedantic topics.
What I read stopped me dead in my tracks.
Some of us participate in healing circles, prayer circles, whatever you wish to call them. We get a number of varying requests at any given time.
It's not the number of healings, or the little stuff that concerns me.
It's the big stuff. The miracles.
We are not just "sending healing energy" or "sending positive energy" when we work on these requests. We have become wheelers and dealers, traders in a market, where the prices are fixed and immutable. The currency-is karma.
I can go into the fancy names for the karma some other time, but, in the simplest of terms, there are three types of karma:
1. Cumulative - all the karma you still "owe," incurred over many past lifetimes. Too overwhelming to be dealt with in only one incarnation.
2. Current Life - the karma you must live through in this lifetime, and you are born with this karma. This includes genetic traits, preferences, weaknesses, strengths, your gender, your physicality, etc. The only way to balance this karma is to be born, endure/deal, and die.
3. Ongoing - the karma you incur through your deeds in this lifetime. Some of this may be balanced or discharged in this lifetime; some will carry over into later incarnations.
Here are some basic rules in the game of life, the laws of nature:
1. All the pain humans suffer in life is because they have run afoul of a law of nature and/or false identification with the physical body as the real Self.
2. Karmic debts must be discharged. They are not "excused" or forgiven. Non-payment is not an option. Ignorance of the law is not a defense.
3. Karma does not discriminate. Regardless of your income, status, employment, pedigree, religion, or title, karma applies equally to all.
4. What appears to be inequity (i.e., baby born in third world country who starves to death vs. baby born in Beverly Hills raised in the lap of luxury) is actually karmic accounting.
Discharge of karma can happen in a number of ways. There may be more ways than just those listed here, but these are the best known:
1. The individual pays the karmic price.
2. Someone else agrees to assume the karmic debt and they pay it.
3. "Burning off" of karmic debt through prescribed spiritual practices.
4. Attainment of spiritual realization before physical death.
Number Two, above, is the subject of this blog.
When someone is healed of an illness or injury against all odds, when the doctors have told the family to begin making arrangements for the person's death and burial, we call that a miracle.
People thank God, by whatever name and in whatever form, for miracles.
Not so fast, folks.
Miracles aren't free.
History records several examples of persons who performed healing wonders. One of the most famous healers in history is Jesus of Nazareth, revered by millions of Christians as Jesus Christ. His physical incarnation on earth cannot be proven (i.e., there are no artifacts of his life, since the Shroud of Turin was debunked and found to be made in the Middle Ages). But if we proceed with this argument using the stories of his life, we know that he performed any number of miraculous healings during the course of his public ministry.
Legend has it that Jesus traveled extensively during the "lost years" between the ages of 12 (the last scriptural recording of an event of his childhood) and 30 (the beginning of his public ministry). It is said that he traveled to Egypt, India, and Tibet, among other places.
The style and wording of his teachings imply that he was heavily influenced by Eastern thought, and that he had more than just a working knowledge of Vedanta and yoga (the spiritual discipline, not the exercise).
The other acts attributed to him (such as walking on water, feeding the multitudes) have also been attributed to yogic adepts of the East. Connecting the dots, one could surmise that Jesus was well trained in yogic practice and was able to perform such amazing feats.
Keeping in mind the Christian tradition that he is God incarnate come to earth, he operated within the limits of a human body to demonstrate that the attainment of union with God is possible for mere humans. Hindus of India acknowledge his divine incarnation and consider him one of the avatars (I think there's ten; the last one hasn't come yet).
So Jesus was well-acquainted with the Eastern scriptures, and he knew the law of karma.
Jesus knew that karma is unavoidable; it must be discharged.
As a yogic adept, he knew (this is key) how to transfer karma from the body of another into his own body. He knew ahead of time, before performing a healing, that he would have to pay the karmic price for the miraculous healing.
Most readers, Christian or not, are well-acquainted with the manner of his death.
A saint of India, Ramakrishna by name (whose existence can be proven, by the way; he lived in the age of photography) also performed miracles of healing. It is said that he assumed the karma of his disciples into his body. He died after a long, lingering, and excruciatingly painful battle with cancer.
There's so much more I could say on this matter, but I'll confine comments to just a few before getting to the bottom line. Number one, imagine the love that a person must have for his/her fellow man to knowingly take unto himself or herself the karma of others, in full awareness of the dreadful price he or she will pay. Number two, I wonder if the salvation (removal of karma) Jesus offered was limited to those with whom he had personal contact; it wasn't carte blanche for generations to come. Maybe his assumption of the karma of others was confined to physical healing. He was severely beaten during the period of torture before his crucifixion. There is a Bible verse that says, "…by his stripes we are healed." Perhaps his teachings were meant to show people how to achieve spiritual realization, "burn off" their own karma through spiritual practice, and essentially, "save" themselves. Of course, the sick people who acknowledged him as God basically achieved union with him (and thereby the Supreme Godhead), and he may have taken all of their karma, not just the karma responsible for causing the disease or condition. That would mean that they cleared all of their karma, and no longer needed to climb on the wheel of birth, life, death and rebirth.
I'm talking myself into a circle, here, so I'll move on.
Parenthetically, I'm not advocating Christian practice, dogma, or beliefs. I'm addressing the subject of Jesus as a fully-realized yogi, and also as an avatara of God. My emphasis is on his FULL AWARENESS of the price he would pay when he healed people.
Now, finally, I get to my point: There have been some miracles of healing attributable to workings done by members of the Black Forest Family, jointly and severally. My question is, who is paying the price?
I have never heard discussed among BFC healers the "cost of doing business." We rejoiced for miracles, to be sure. No doubt, outside of our tradition, there is some sniggering going on. Of course, it's in their training materials or BOSs, and they knew it all the time… and I don't believe a word of it. If it WAS discussed, where the heck was I?
So many people jump on the "I wanna be a healer" bandwagon. People with NO training whatsoever. Good hearts and good intentions do not protect one from the karmic consequences.
If you know someone with cancer, they are dealing with karmic debt. When all the cancer goes away and the doctors are scratching their heads, wondering if it was a misdiagnosis, somebody other than the original cancer patient has assumed the karmic debt and that somebody will pay the price at some point in time.
Healers are trained not to draw illness or injury through their own bodies as they work for a sick or injured person; they are to pull it out and send it into the earth. That's about as much of a warning as I've ever heard. But that still doesn't address the karmic debt.
Our bodies are the vehicles for the balancing of karma. The body is the only battlefield (and the only altar of sacrifice).
That being said, the big guns healing should only be handled by a well-trained, spiritually advanced, fully informed person who has complete foreknowledge that they will pay the price for a miraculous healing. Such a person should be sacrificially-minded (but not a martyr in the bad sense of the word). Healing should be their dharma, their karma yoga, and their bhakti yoga.
Beginners should stay far, far away. Those whose dharma does not include the healing arts should also stay far, far away.
Miracles aren't free.