Since we were recently speaking about “The Secret” and how some people might see illness as something the sufferer brought on or “created,” I went back to a blog post integral philosopher Ken Wilber wrote about his own health, in which he discussed how one might view major illnesses through the prism of karma. After a hospital stay and a coma last December, Wilber wrote:
Many people hear of situations like this, or perhaps suffer similar ones themselves, and imagine it must somehow be retribution for some horrendous crime in one’s past. But keep in mind that karma doesn’t mean that what happened earlier in this life is finally catching up with you; the orthodox doctrine of karma actually [has more to do with] something that happened to you in a previous life.
According to the doctrine of karma, in this life, you are reading a book that you wrote in a previous life. Many people draw the erroneous conclusion that because, e.g., they used to yell at their spouses, they now have throat cancer–but that’s just not the way it works. As a matter of fact, from at least one angle, the “bad things” that are happening to you now actually indicate a good fruition–it means your system is finally strong enough to digest the past karmic causes that led to your present rebirth.
So if you were reborn, that is, if you are alive in a body right now, then you have already horrifically sinned, and unless you work it off in this lifetime, guess what? You’re coming back. Illness itself does not cause more karma; your attitude towards illness, however, does.
Therefore, if you are undergoing some extremely difficult circumstances right now, and you can meet those difficulties with equanimity, wisdom, and virtue, then you are doubly lucky–the causes that led to your being reborn now are starting to surface and burn off…
I only mention this because all too often, people undergoing difficult circumstances of one variety or another, add a type of New Age guilt or blame to an already difficult enough circumstance, and truly, that’s not only inappropriate, it’s inaccurate…if you’re undergoing some sort of truly difficult or even horrific circumstances, please don’t kick yourself when you’re down. That, indeed, would create bad karma. The good news is that you are finally ready and able to burn off the karma that led to this rebirth, and this is good news indeed–if you meet it with love and openness and a smile.
posted March 22, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Ken has some excellent points, as usual, and I particularly enjoy the note that if you’re being challenged with something now, it’s because you’re finally strong enough to handle it. Very cool. However, I disagree with him on in-life karma. I understand that it’s not “orthodox,” as he puts it, but I’ve been working in holistic health far too long to not believe in the reality of karmic influence within a given life. I’ve seen firsthand people with terrible chronic and even fatal disease be cured in incredibly short periods of time after coming to terms with experiences in this life. A daughter mistreated by her mother finds forgiveness and a fatal cancer disappears. A man who accidentally killed his friend finds emotional relief and his RSD of 20 years vanishes. And there are hundreds of other cases that I’m familiar with. I have little doubt that past life karma holds plenty of sway, and who knows, maybe the current-life karmic situation is an echo of some past-life problem, but there’s absolutely no question in my mind that in-life karma has a very real affect on our health.
posted March 29, 2007 at 4:16 am
My friend Gabriel is a Pranic Healer and is amazingly enlightened. He wrote to me when I was having a dark night of the soul, as Carolyn Myss calls it. gmorner@gmail.com writes: Miracles never cease! You have been warming up to this for a long time, no? The pain and suffering of our body is commensurate with the amount of tikun or karma we have in this life time. When we accept the spirtual path, we are essentially saying to the higher soul, bring it on! That means we are willingly accepting more karma to work on. If we are diligent and sweep the slate clean from this life, there are more things to clean from previous lives. Don’t fret, it’s all good. All the good work in this life is a karmic investment. Next life time you get to enjoy the fruits. We don’t live for this incarnation only. In the large scheme of things this lifetime is but a blink of the eye.