Karma & Compassion
Since I do believe in the energetic connection between everything...it stands to reason that the concept of "karma" can fall into the realm of "real" for me.
It's nice, for me, that Santa Fe has a seemingly greater level of general consiousness about spiritual things--and the people here....in a somewhat greater proportion than what I found on the east coast. Karma doesn't much care where you live though...
Without inviting any bad karma upon myself--I'm going to keep the personalization of the cause of this post to myself. Highly unlikely most of you know of the involved parties anyway!! :) I can't help but want to write this though...as it's made me rather sad to watch.
Suffice to say, I've seen someone hurt recently. Hurt very deeply by an event they didn't expect. Hurt by someone with a seemingly great interest in their "spiritual" pursuits. I put spiritual in quotations, because it means different things to different people. How am I to know exactly what it means to them. Anyway...
To me, one of the biggest aspects of my interest in spirituality is the concept of compassion. Even when someone upsets me, I try to remember to hold a place of compassion for them. One of the Toltec 4 agreements that I implement in my life is..."don't take things personally". While I can play my part in triggering an event, another person's response or way of being...are not choices that I make for them...they are THEIR choices. By being the best person I can be...I do my part in not trying to trigger anyone. So for instance...Amy Jo Smith, a friend of mine for years, flips out on me one afternoon because I offer to let her borrow a dress for a date. She insists that my action is because I think she isn't pretty enough or not well enough dressed, when in fact, I was just being 'nice'. Her behavior...was her choice. I'd perhaps think that she's been told something mean years ago about her appearance...and hold compassion for her for revisiting those old feelings (unfortunately aiming her anger at me).
So, back to the "real" situation. Person A, deeply hurt. Person B, "spiritual" in nature...at first, briefly, seems to be somewhat compassionate--but not really. As time passes, Person B starts becoming more and more of a jerk towards Person A...very uncompassionate towards the experience that Person A is going through. I do understand the somewhat personal nature of humans that might make holding compassion difficult---but this situation reaches levels of mean-ness that I can't comprehend. It's entirely unnecessary, uncompassionate and outside of the realm of someone I might consider "spiritually aware".
Person B then has a "spiritual" experience that we can say is "less than pleasant". To me, that truly feels like karmic energy trying to send a pretty damn strong wake-up call. Will they hear it? Will they view it as more than just a bad choice?
Spirit puts us exactly where we need to be---if it's a place that doesn't feel right or where something bad happens---it's for a reason...and there's something we really need to pay attention to....a lesson...perhaps one that keeps happening...over...and over....and over...and over again...until we really pay attention to it.
What we refuse to listen to...will keep coming back...in one form or another. It isn't always easy to listen to...but if we ever want to truly move forward...to work through our "shit"...it's a must-do.
But then again, that's just my 2-cents...
It's nice, for me, that Santa Fe has a seemingly greater level of general consiousness about spiritual things--and the people here....in a somewhat greater proportion than what I found on the east coast. Karma doesn't much care where you live though...
Without inviting any bad karma upon myself--I'm going to keep the personalization of the cause of this post to myself. Highly unlikely most of you know of the involved parties anyway!! :) I can't help but want to write this though...as it's made me rather sad to watch.
Suffice to say, I've seen someone hurt recently. Hurt very deeply by an event they didn't expect. Hurt by someone with a seemingly great interest in their "spiritual" pursuits. I put spiritual in quotations, because it means different things to different people. How am I to know exactly what it means to them. Anyway...
To me, one of the biggest aspects of my interest in spirituality is the concept of compassion. Even when someone upsets me, I try to remember to hold a place of compassion for them. One of the Toltec 4 agreements that I implement in my life is..."don't take things personally". While I can play my part in triggering an event, another person's response or way of being...are not choices that I make for them...they are THEIR choices. By being the best person I can be...I do my part in not trying to trigger anyone. So for instance...Amy Jo Smith, a friend of mine for years, flips out on me one afternoon because I offer to let her borrow a dress for a date. She insists that my action is because I think she isn't pretty enough or not well enough dressed, when in fact, I was just being 'nice'. Her behavior...was her choice. I'd perhaps think that she's been told something mean years ago about her appearance...and hold compassion for her for revisiting those old feelings (unfortunately aiming her anger at me).
So, back to the "real" situation. Person A, deeply hurt. Person B, "spiritual" in nature...at first, briefly, seems to be somewhat compassionate--but not really. As time passes, Person B starts becoming more and more of a jerk towards Person A...very uncompassionate towards the experience that Person A is going through. I do understand the somewhat personal nature of humans that might make holding compassion difficult---but this situation reaches levels of mean-ness that I can't comprehend. It's entirely unnecessary, uncompassionate and outside of the realm of someone I might consider "spiritually aware".
Person B then has a "spiritual" experience that we can say is "less than pleasant". To me, that truly feels like karmic energy trying to send a pretty damn strong wake-up call. Will they hear it? Will they view it as more than just a bad choice?
Spirit puts us exactly where we need to be---if it's a place that doesn't feel right or where something bad happens---it's for a reason...and there's something we really need to pay attention to....a lesson...perhaps one that keeps happening...over...and over....and over...and over again...until we really pay attention to it.
What we refuse to listen to...will keep coming back...in one form or another. It isn't always easy to listen to...but if we ever want to truly move forward...to work through our "shit"...it's a must-do.
But then again, that's just my 2-cents...