The dreaded karma conversation

(continued from “Troy Davis left something for you“)

When we look at Earth’s stage from here, the first thing we notice is that every performer is wearing a costume that functions exclusively in this atmosphere. Most of the actors appear to be following a script., although there are some who are trying to do improv with varying degrees of success. (Ha’ mercy, entering the stage without a plan can be a recipe for disaster!)

You’ll also notice that not one of those actors thinks Earth’s theater is real Life. Not one of them entered intending to stay. Each came with its own purpose, time line, to-do list and exit strategy. If you could see their scripts, you’d have some insight into these souls’ history, and some context for this phase of their eternal lives. More important, you might even discover context for your own.

I believe that is the gift that Troy Davis and others present us when they perform in front of global audiences. If we’re paying attention, we might grasp the lessons they’re teaching. We might ask, “What do they want me to know about myself, as an immortal soul?”

Know thyself

No one is here by accident. If we are to discover and accomplish our purpose for the visit, we must be conscientious and receptive to new information. It could come from anywhere, even from souls playing the roles of former Death Row inmates Troy Davis and Samuel David Crowe.

We can’t intrude and read their scripts. But when we look at their contrasting outcomes, we have some clues about the scripts’ content and their souls’ histories. Through them, we might discover more about ourselves.

Troy Davis and Samuel David Crowe

Credit: Ga. Dept. of Corrections/Reuters

Both Davis and Crowe were in the Death Row section of Earth’s stage, convicted of murder. Davis (left) was executed, despite pleas from Pope Benedict XVI, former FBI Director William S. Sessions, Bishop Desmond Tutu, former president Jimmy Carter and the prayers and online petitions of tens of thousands of people around the world. Crowe (right) was spared, due mostly to the efforts of a lesser known group, Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Why were their outcomes so different?

If we look beyond the color of the costumes these souls were wearing, one answer is obvious: The outcomes served each soul’s purpose and honored each one’s schedule. No one, not even the Pope, can override the will of a soul on a mission. If a soul wants to leave its body—even if the ego in that body adamantly disagrees—the soul will do it. According to the evidence, the soul inside Troy Davis’s body wanted total freedom on September 21, 2011, or it would still be confined to it. Just as clearly, the soul inside Crowe’s body had not scheduled its departure on May 22, 2008, or it would have left behind human remains.

But there’s also a less obvious answer: As souls, Davis and Crowe have been alive forever, and have different karmic histories, which naturally results in different scripts with different outcomes. As far as we know, the soul that became Davis might have gotten away with murder or falsely accused someone else of murder while performing another role, in another play, at another time in its immortal life. Just speculating.

But what if that really is what happened? The soul is very much aware that a human lifetime on Earth is only a bat-of-an-eyelash experience in the Universal time/space continuum. Why wouldn’t it take a second to restore balance to another situation?

In this case, punishment for a crime Davis didn’t commit would balance. It would be considered a victory, a mission accomplished. What if it came with a karmic bonus? What if, in the process, the soul inspired a multitude of people to take the next step in man’s evolution, to move beyond revenge, barbarism and flawed man-made law to become more humane, if not divine. A twofer! Again, I’m not stating fact, just offering some possibilities, based on the real Life principles we use in Drama Queen Workshops:

  • Life is always fair.
  • God is never far.
  • Death is not THE END.
  • Absolutely nothing is unforgivable.

And that brings us to Crowe. Based on the testimonials of those who were advocating on his behalf, Crowe was very repentant, remorseful, and took full responsibility for his crime. With this context, it’s possible that the soul that became Crowe chose a different technique for restoring balance: He forgave himself. That’s a little-known option that substitutes for the “having it done to you” part. I discovered it in one of my readings years ago. After seeing how spectacularly it neutralized negative karma for me, I now highly recommended. (I related that life-altering situation in EARTH Is the MOTHER of All Drama Queens, pp.116-118)

That brings us to the final question in our dreaded karma conversation:

How can we use and share the gifts these souls have given us?

Davis and Crowe remind us to be more conscious as we perform our roles and interact with others on Earth’s stage. I’m reminding you to maintain top-of-mind awareness that we are immortal souls temporarily wearing the costume of human beings. No matter what skin we’re in, the Laws of Balance and Reciprocity will apply to us; so it is in our best interest to doing nothing to someone else that we would not want done to us at some point in our eternal lives: That means everything from being dishonest or taking something that doesn’t belong to us to harming or depriving someone of their body.

It’s also in our best interest to discover why we’re here on this planet at this time. It’s so easy to become distracted by the sights and sounds of Earth. We’re susceptible to messages that we are in control, that we can have anything we want. That applies to the real you, as soul, not your body costume. Use those prayers and affirmations to find clues to your soul’s purpose. Pay attention to what it embraces and what it rejects.

Jobs, relationships,and entrepreneurial income may keep eluding you for any number of reasons. Take the time to cultivate a relationship with your real self to find out why. Ask for guidance and follow it. Part of the reason it’s said that it’s so difficult for a rich man to get into “heaven,” that state of peaceful consciousness, is that he’s too distracted by the outer world to find the real treasure within.

Periods of lack could be the most evolutionary of your soul’s existence. Replace stress with real success.

We keep looking at life from a human perspective when that literally scratches the surface. From the viewpoint of soul, I can confidently say, “This is not Pat’s life, it’s mine. She’s necessary so that I can be visible in Earth’s atmosphere. Through her, I am fulfilling my purpose for coming. The Divine within me is not here to do her will. She is here to do ours.”

Balance is natural; balancing karma is a victory, no matter what it looks and feels like on Earth’s stage. Davis’s victory demonstrates that real Life is greater than our physical eyes can see, and as souls, we are more powerful and present than we realize. Our immortal souls’ desires are more potent than prayers, thoughts, visualizations and other manipulations.

We could save ourselves a lot of frustration and disappointment by trusting our immortal selves to know what is for the Highest Good in any situation. Trusting the Divine within, instead of becoming attached to the one created in our mortal brains, enables us to embrace any outcome, and know that all is well.

Having said that, I was hopeful that barbarism would not rule the day on September 21, and my heart broke when I read the news of the execution. But I trusted that everything was in Divine Order, happening as it should, no matter what it looked like here on the stage. I trusted that by sacrificing his body (not his life), Troy Davis made a huge difference in the world.

And he did.

Prayers that deliver your desires–every time

We frequently receive prayer requests. Sometimes they’re personal appeals, but they also come via the Internet. Lately, I have seen a resurgence of the “Pray for Our President” emails. Yesterday a Facebook friend even requested prayer to help our soldiers prevail in Iraq’s sweltering 122° heat. These requests made me realize that we’re taught to make several presumptions when we pray:

Baby begs in prayer

  1. God is a Being that lives outside of us—in fact, in outer space;
  2. Like a genie, God grants wishes;
  3. Collective prayer can influence God to do what we want, and
  4. If we don’t pray in earnest, God will not lift a gigantic finger to help His distressed children.

Rarely do we consider the possibility that whatever is happening—no matter how it appears on Earth’s surface—has an underlying divine purpose. It certainly doesn’t occur to us that an immortal soul inside a person designed the experience because it had some evolutionary, purgative or karmic value.

We’ve accepted the idea that we are merely bodies—a reality created by the same folks who told us that we have dominion over an Earth that is the center of the Universe; the sun, moon and stars revolve around it. The only time we acknowledge that we have a soul is when we discuss its fate. It’s as if its life doesn’t begin until ours ends. Read More

Eywa: Someone you should know

Part Two of a three-part series

Sitting here in the balcony, playing with the “Real 3D” glasses I received when I entered the movie theater to see “Avatar,” I am reminded again that each of us looks at Life through different lenses. Some lenses help us see things more brilliantly; others completely block the light.

My first reminder came earlier this week, when I discussed the movie with two friends. What did they think about it? I wondered.

One purred that “Avatar” was a beautiful love story: a man was willing to live the rest of his life on a distant moon, light years away from Earth, wearing a tail and no clothes, so that he could be with the woman he loved. The other friend ranted that the movie glorified the Messiah complex: a brave white man heroically swooped in and saved the black people underneath those blue striped costumes. OMG, was he agitated!

Of course, everyone’s entitled to his or her opinion. The Loud Mouth is no exception: From where I sat, “Avatar” was all about me. OK, ok! It was about you, too—a story about how we treat each other, our planet, and every living thing on it. To me, “Avatar” was about our relationship with the Allness that is God, or as the Na’vi, the blue striped black folk on the distant moon Pandora called it: Eywa.

The Na’vi people were taught that they could tap directly into Eywa and into all life forms because there was only One Source of all life, and everything and everyone was connected—from the most beautiful flower to the most ferocious beast. Of course, the Na’vi had a distinct advantage over us: Eywa was unmistakably present. They could literally see the Divine Source of all Life.

But what if Eywa, their Divine Source, was not visible to the naked eye? What if It vibrated at such a high frequency that It appeared to be invisible, like the individual blades on a fan rotating at high speed? Would they be as reverent and as certain that Eywa existed and that It was a benevolent power that served all, equally?

If the Na’vi couldn’t see Eywa’s full glory, feel Its peace and love, smell Its fragrance, hear Its song, or taste Its nectar, they might easily be convinced that Eywa was, well, anything someone told them It was.

Spinning tall tales has always been a favorite pastime of intelligent beings. Millennia before the advent of the entertainment industry, folks amused themselves by creating and spreading tales. Among the most popular: fantastic stories about gods that no one could see. Typically, these gods lived on top of mountains or beyond the clouds.

These tales fanned wild speculation about what each god looked like and what each of them did. Some reputedly worked for good, others for evil. Feeding on the imaginations of the illiterate naïve masses, these stories took on a life of their own. To this day, many believe them to be true.

Think about it: What if, for generations, the Omaticaya clan of Na’vis had been told that Eywa was a gigantic man who lived on a distant planet called Earth, and knew their every thought and deed? According the legend, Eywa spent all of His time recording the good and bad deeds of each Na’vi humanoid, rewarding good behavior with stuff such as sports victories and wealth, and punishing bad behavior with stuff such natural disasters, poor health and poverty.

What if the Na’vi believed that a wrath-filled Eywa would come to Pandora one day, guns blazing, accompanied by an army of fire-spitting angels? In an instant, He’d annihilate everyone who wasn’t perfect, totally obedient, or hadn’t professed aloud that Eywa was a barbaric bad-ass that should be feared.

You can imagine what would have happened when the gigantic metallic aircraft, bulging with guerilla warriors, noisily descended on the Omaticaya clan of Na’vis that fateful day. Most would have believed that it was Eywa, arriving in fulfillment of the legend. Petrified by His promise of destruction, mesmerized by the sheer size of the space ship, the robot-like “AMP” suits, and armed mercenaries, the Omaticayas would have fled their sacred land and the demonic missionaries from the American military-industrial complex would have carted off all Pandora’s rare and priceless unobtanium minerals.

What saved Pandora from that preemptive attack? Was it really the white guy, Jake Sully, as my friend insists? I don’t think so. Maybe it was Eywa, you say?

Actually, an insightful scene disputes that possibility. More important, it exposed humans’ naïveté about what the Divine is—and what it does. To me, that scene delivered one of the most life altering messages I’ve ever heard. It totally reframed the Divine—and definitively explained why prayers don’t seem to be answered 100% of the time for 100% of the people.

Remember the scene? Jake physically plugged directly into Eywa—into the Divine Itself—and asked for two things: 1) Save the life of Dr. Grace Augustine, who treasured the Omaticaya clan and had been seriously injured by gunfire, and 2) help in defeating the money-grubbing emissaries from the American military-industrial complex were intent upon forcing the Omaticaya clan off of Pandora’s sacred land.

Surely this intercessory prayer would be answered. Jake was asking Eywa to help the good people. The Na’vi had lived harmoniously with each other and with nature for centuries, and Grace Augustine had fought tenaciously to keep the Americans from disturbing that harmony, destroying the balance of nature on Pandora. Besides, Eywa had a vested interest in the preservation of this most sacred land, right? This should have been a slam dunk prayer.

Only humans who believe in God could relate to this scene—humans who, like Jake, believe that the Divine is a being (complete with gender) who can be convinced to do what we want. We act as if God is a wish-granting genie: If we ask “Him” a certain way, perform certain rituals, pay a certain amount of money, and believe with all our hearts that our prayers will be answered affirmatively, we will be blessed. God will grant our wishes.

It doesn’t work that way—on Earth or on Pandora. In this case, Grace the good, died. On Earth, despite our prayers, our loved ones die. We die. Millions of good people die. With every disappointment, we discover that God is not a genie and prayer is not a magic bullet; but we continue to do the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. And we encourage others to do the same.

Is there something we should know about God and about prayer that will help us understand them better? Perhaps, in that same scene, Jake’s beloved Neytiri revealed it, as she tried to manage his expectations of the outcome of his request: “Eywa does not take sides,” she explained. “Eywa only balances.”

On this side of the Universe, balance is called reaping and sowing. One rabbi phrased it, “Judge not, lest ye be judged, condemn not, lest ye be condemned…” In Loud Mouth vernacular: “Whatever you do will be done to you”—no more, no less. Balance.

Part one of Jake’s prayer request was not granted. What about the other half? The Na’vi did win the battle. Does that mean that Eywa blessed him or them? No, but it might look that way to those who think that God is a wish granting genie.

I think the Na’vi’s salvation was their awareness and belief that they were connected to every living thing. I think it was their respect for the role that every living thing plays in their eco-system and their ability to literally “hook up” with all the other life forms.

Understanding that they were one, everything—plants, trees, animals, Na’vi humanoids, flying beasts, you name it—worked collectively to ward off the enemy and restore peace, harmony and balance to their corner of the Universe. After their victory, did you notice that the Na’vi didn’t establish prison camps? They didn’t torture the invaders or turn them into prisoners of war.

The Na’vi understood harmony. They understood balance. They understood that the only way to avoid punishment and condemnation is not to punish and condemn. Most important, they understood Eywa—what It is and what It does.

That’s something we all should understand if we are to maintain peace and balance in our own lives. When we ask, in prayer, for everything to be resolved and balanced for the Highest Good of All concerned, we will get precisely what we asked for–EVERY time.

Answered Prayer: When Heart and Soul Agree

There’s nothing more rewarding than being part of someone else’s blessing.

I recently received an emotional call from a friend (we’ll call her Laura) who was witnessing a revelation. Like many of my friends these days, Laura’s between jobs and her money has lost its elasticity. She can’t seem to stretch it far enough to cover her expenses. In deference to that, several months ago her sister hosted a “wishing well” birthday party to provide some financial support. Friends were asked to contribute.

I was unable to attend, so I bought a birthday card and planned to insert a check. I was in the middle of a move and living in a temporary location. I couldn’t find my checkbook, so I set the card aside and obviously put something on top of it. After a while, out of sight was out of mind.

A couple of weeks ago, after I was settled into my new place, I ran across the bright orange and yellow card, but I had a different problem: Laura’s address wasn’t in my directory. I set the card on my not so uncluttered desk and lost sight of it again. A few days later, I spotted it. Determined to get it out of the apartment, I stopped what I was doing, wrote a check and tracked down her address; then I walked directly to the mailbox before any other goofiness ensued.

The next day, Laura left lengthy messages on my office and mobile phones. The excitement in her voice was a mixture of joy and tears. Here’s why:

She had a mortgage payment due in two days. That day, she was unexpectedly paid early for two small freelance projects and a friend had loaned her a little money; but when she returned home that evening, she was still $40 short of her mortgage. When she opened her mail, she discovered my $50 check. She was ecstatic!

Everything had come together in the most perfect way, at the most perfect time. If I had sent the check earlier, who knows, she might have already spent it on something else. My serial delays had served as an absent-minded savings account, belatedly delivering the money to Laura exactly when she needed it. Divine Order: I was almost as excited to witness it as she was.

Last week I heard from Laura again. This time, she was sending one of those lovely email chain letters. At least this one didn’t threaten that Jesus would deny me to his Father if I didn’t forward it. But it did urge me to make a wish and forward the email to a specified number of people (in this case, a dozen plus the sender). On a specified day (in this case, the fourth), the message claimed, something would happen.

Because I don’t believe that God or fairies bestow blessings based on the number of emails we shoot into Cyberspace, I did what I always do when I receive these messages: I asked Laura, “Did you ask the previous recipients what happened on their fourth day?” Then I heartlessly deleted it.

A couple of days ago, Laura sent me an update: “On the fifth day, I received an unexpected check for $800!” she exclaimed.

I’m not one to snub my nose at anyone’s cash windfall, but I wasn’t impressed. I was, however, a bit curious about the details of Laura’s $800 surprise. So I pried my fingers from the computer keyboard, picked up the phone and had a human-to-human conversation.

I discovered that the check was actually a refund of the same mortgage payment that Laura had made the week before—a payment that left her only a few dollars to survive.

“I had just decided to let go of this house instead of letting it stress me out,” Laura laughed. “As soon as I released it, this happened.”

What happened was that Laura received word that her mortgage company had gone out of business. As a result, they couldn’t accept any loan payments, and all monies were being returned until the new lender could service the accounts.

Did Laura receive the $800 because she had mentally “let go” of her home? As we know, sometimes when we “let go and let God,” situations don’t always improve, in human terms. Sometimes the possession, loved one or relationship literally goes away—temporarily or permanently.

On the physical level, we typically perceive this as “loss.” Sometimes we respond by sinking into despair or struggling to hold onto what we believe we lost. As we grow to trust God completely, however, we are better able to understand that everything in the physical world is constantly undergoing change. The life span of all physical things is finite. As we evolve into an “egoless” state of mind, as philosopher Eckhart Tolle calls it, we are able to accept all departures as Divine Will. Instead of anxiety, fear, anger or desperation, we feel peaceful because we know that if he, she or it went away, it was divinely ordered and the Divine only works for our Highest Good.

That certainly appears to be Laura’s attitude. She isn’t interpreting her $800 refund as a signal that she will keep her home. All she knows is that she can keep it right now. She also knows that the unexpected check did not result from her forwarding the nebulous email. It also didn’t arrive because she prayed a certain prayer, called a certain name or clicked her heels three times.

That money was destined to return to her that day because it was her soul’s desire. Maybe it wanted her body to have grocery money; I don’t know. I do know, however, that if the soul had not desired it, it would not be there.

The $800 didn’t solve Laura’s problems, long term. The mortgage bill will become due again soon. What’s important is that she continues to “let go” and faithfully awaits God’s direction, rather than tries to manipulate God to follow her directions.

“Letting go” is not a physical ploy disguised a spiritual tactic to get what we want. It is a divine way of allowing our hearts to agree with our souls. It takes great faith to stop praying for God to genuflect to our human will and start humbling ourselves to honor Divine Will. It takes great strength to still our thoughts and shut our mouths long enough to hear and observe the direction that the Divine is revealing to us.

Many of us believe that we can change the conditions in our physical lives solely by changing the thoughts that run through our physical brains, by saying a prescribed word or phrase, or by changing our actions. Our life experiences have taught us that it really doesn’t work that way. If our bodies, brains and emotions were in charge, we’d all be independently wealthy, staring adoringly into our soulmates’ eyes and in tip-top physical shape—effortlessly, of course.

We spend a lot of time doing instead of being. We think that we have to “make things happen.” We think we are alone, that no one is looking out for our best interest. But we’re not alone. We’re in a serious, committed relationship. Our souls are married to our bodies—until physical death do we part.

Like all marriages, the peacefulness of the home requires harmonious communication between the partners. What happens when one partner makes important decisions without consulting the other? Chaos, tension and unhappiness–the same results you get whenever your heart and soul do not agree.

At prayer time, do you beg or bond with your partner? Do the desires of your heart conflict or collaborate with the desires of your soul? How do you know? When do you plan to find out? Whenever you do, you will start to experience real change, accelerated growth and consistently answered prayers.

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Love it LIVE—An Upcoming Event in Chicago!

If you missed the three-day Women’s Conference in June, I have good news: By popular demand, authors Shirley Lawson, Stephanie Wilson-Coleman and I will conduct sessions at “The Women’s Conference Follow-Up” on Saturday, September 19. This time, it’s in Chicago, at Power Circle Center, 9350-64 S. South Chicago Avenue.

This special event is presented by the Training, Development and Networking Team of the Alpha Omega Sisterhood, a ministry of the Power Circle Congregation, the Rev. Joseph E. Hill, founder and senior minister.

For more information and to register for only $40, visit Drama Queen Workshops.