When first I ever heard of karma, I couldn't quite grasp the concept. Then I thought of the ocean. The tide ebbs, taking out the trash on the shore. Then it flows back, bringing back trash...some the same that it took out which has collected barnacles and beer bottles, some apparently new collected from the other shore.
The ocean not being the problem, we check out the trash, and there it is: The Problem. It is the trash that we deposit on the shore that births our karma. Our job is to clean up our shores...and keep them clean.
To flow with karma, then, we must needs clean up our shores, a.k.a., our inner self. To keep it clean is to stay our minds in God.
I believe that our inner thoughts are where our karma is born...our reactive inner thoughts in particular. For instance, there is no God in rage...if there is no God in rage, then it isn't likely there'd be God in peeved, irritated or put-upon. We learn ever so slowly to not respond in kind (react) to negative stimulus (which is simply fear), but to respond in kind to positive stimulus (love, simply).
In learning to not respond in kind to the negatives of life, I try to keep in mind the story of the old black man and his response to hate: He was walking down the street one day, leaning on his cane, bothering nobody. A less-than-loving person walks by and calls him the n-word. He responds not at all, just keeps moving forward. A person with him was aghast and asked if he wasn't furious to be called that.
And the old man said, "It's not what I'm called, it's what I answer to that matters."
According to me, that's God's shortcut for keeping our inner shores clean, then we can welcome our karma.
Thank you.
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