Karma, Charm, Art, and Suffering

Karma, Charm, Art, and Suffering

[00:45] Q – How do karmic relationships with others work?

Thom, I’d like to hear you speak on the nature of karmic experiences that we have in relation to other people. How can we tell when something is karmic and how do we know when that karma has been untied? Is it possible for us to untie our karma separately from those that the karma involves, or is it a process of Nature that is unavoidable and these situations will be magnetized to us when the timing is right for that karma to be undone, or are both of these situations possible?

[01:20] A – Karma: Action That Binds You

What a beautifully elaborated question, my dear listener. Let’s understand karma first.

Karma always is based on who is the knower of it. Karma, the word itself comes from the root sound kṛ (with a dot under the r), kṛ. Kṛ, is the Sanskrit root for the word karma along with other words which we’ll examine in a moment.

Karma. Kar-ma. Ma is the negating sound, or it implies bondage to a thing. Action that binds you, and that means some action was committed by a knower, and that action may have been incomplete, and consequently, there is some unfinished business with regard to that action.

But what is it that made the action incomplete? It was carried out by a knower, lower case k, knower, who, either knowingly or unknowingly, cut across the interests of another, with respect to that other’s right to evolution. We may have behaved in a way that either slowed down or even cut off someone’s inborn natural right to evolve at speed. And so, who is this knower who did this thing? Then, to that extent, there’s karma.

Karma, bondage. And then what is that bondage? One has, in some way, to experience and engage in a way that undoes the knot that one tied.

[03:24] The Knot of Karma

You think of a beautiful rope, and there’s the rope, just lying in front of you. Now you take the rope, and you tie it into an elaborate figure-8 knot. Is the knot something different to the rope? Rhetorical question. The answer is no.

The knot is the rope in a configuration which, if it needs to run through a pulley, is going to make the rope incapable of moving through the pulley. It becomes an obstruction. But the knot is not non-rope. The knot is just rope. That’s all it is.

And so, then as we progress through our rising consciousness in life and living, we have varying degrees of success in undoing the knot that we tied that was not necessary. Unnecessary knots that we tied. They become untied.

The karma is a kind of illusion. Just as a knot appears to be an entity that’s attached to a rope like a parasite that’s stuck on the rope. But we have to say the knot is nothing but rope. It’s nothing but rope . It has no individual reality. It’s just badly configured rope. Like that.

We have a certain dharma, D-H-A-R-M-A, a personal role in the evolution of things, and when we tie a knot in our dharma, if it’s an unnecessary knot, it obstructs the smooth flow of life, and that knot has to come undone.

[05:22] Kṛiya – Spontaneous Right Action

There’s another word that starts with that same root sound kṛ, k-ṛ with a dot under it, and that word is kṛiya, kṛiya, K-Ṛ-I-Y-A. Kṛiya means spontaneous right action issuing forth from the unbounded consciousness field. Kṛiya. Kṛiya is action whose author is not individuality. Kṛiya is action whose author is Totality Consciousness. Totality Consciousness.

Now, if all I am is an individual, if that’s all I’m ever going to be is just this individual who thinks that he’s a body and thinks that he is a mind that’s trapped in a brain that is trapped in a body and that you live and die over a period of a few decades, and that’s all there is to it…

Then, to the extent that you are only individual, you have lots of karma because you have made yourself bound and attached to the actions that still have some unfinished business in them.

Now, what happens when we learn to practice Vedic Meditation? Day by day, meditation session by meditation session, twice each day, we meditate. Twice each day, our individual sense of what we are and who we are, and that means what our capability is, our sense of what our capability is, because of the what we are becoming, a much greater thing than it was the day before.

With each passing day, one is less and less consigned and constrained to the limitations of merely being an individual who tied some unnecessary knots in the rope of dharma.

[07:29] Untying the Knots of Karma

One is more and more becoming the Unified Field itself, which has all capability, and when an individual attempts to untie a little knot that it tied, there could be a lot of time and energy put into that or even into the consideration of, “What do I need to do, do I need to do anything?”

As we more and more identify with Unified Field consciousness, more and more our behaviors are not dictated by our individuality choosing to untie the karmic knots. We are more and more the Universality, spontaneously with the capability of that Totality Consciousness. In ever-growing percentages, we’re becoming That. And our capability for untying the knots of karma that we’ve created is becoming very vast and unbounded and unlimited. 

If you throw a knotted rope to a little kid and say, “Untie that,” the little kid may have a lot of trouble untying it. But if you hand it over to an expert sailor who’s lived the maritime life and has spent their life untying knots, it’s child’s play, as we would say, to untie a knot. Very simple. In fact, you even have, as a sailor, certain tools in your kit that are designed to help you untie knots.

And so, greater and greater capability of Being is not the possession of our individuality. Greater and greater capability of Being belongs to what we’re becoming. We’re ceasing to be merely an individual, and we are becoming Unified Field itself.

[09:25] Moving in the Direction of Kṛiya

Now, Unified Field also brings its individuality into action, but that action, which is sourced in Unified Field consciousness, can never turn into karma. It is only ever kṛiya. Kṛiya, life-supporting action or activity, spontaneous right action, that emerges directly out of the Unified Field consciousness itself.

So, let’s suppose you have 80 percent a sense of your identity being individuality and only 20 percent a sense of you being Universality, then you have 80 percent karma problems and 20 percent capacity for addressing the unfinished business.

If you have 50:50, you’re 50 percent an individual, and 50 percent realized as Totality Consciousness, then you have 50 percent capability for easily untying the knots, that is to say, addressing the unfinished business.

If you have 90 percent realization of Being, 90 percent Totality Consciousness and now 10 percent is your individual status and structure, your identity, Unified Field, using the tool of your individuality has no problem whatsoever addressing the unfinished business and untying the unnecessary knots, karma.

When we are 100 percent Totality Consciousness operating through a body, this is the enlightened state, then 100 percent of our actions are the activity of evolution.

Kṛiya, a slight change from the word action. Kṛiya means cosmic activity. Karma means individual action with a binding capability. Karma. Kṛiya. We are moving more and more in the direction of kṛiya.

Every day that we practice meditation, we’re beginning to be a means whereby Nature brings about evolution by using our individual status and structure, our mind, our intellect, our emotions and our body to bring about evolution. We are no longer constrained to merely being an individual trying to figure out how to untie all the knots.

[12:15] Vedic Meditation – Losing the Tendency to Create Problems

And in addition, with each progressing day of practice of Vedic Meditation, we more and more lose that tendency to make problems for ourselves and for others. More and more we are the solution to the problems that already exist, and the fact of us being the solution also unties some of the karmic knots and finishes some of the unfinished business which had been a legacy of the past when we were merely an individual with very little cosmic input.

And so, are we constrained to experiencing karma at its own level? No. Are we constrained only ever to being an individual who has to face constantly all of the unfinished business, and from the Vedic perspective not to make this even more alarming but, to tell you the truth from the Vedic perspective, not just one lifetime, lifetime after lifetime after lifetime after lifetime, multiplied by many thousands of karma.

What hope does individuality have of setting about finishing all that unfinished business and untying all those knots? The hope lies in us ceasing to be merely an individual. We have to step into our birthright of expanding into Totality Consciousness that has infinite capability to address every issue, big and small, spontaneously and then not to create any more issues. Kṛiya.

Jai Guru Deva.

[14:12] Q – How can I understand the nuances of charm?

How can I create matching organizing and execution power when I have a charming desire activated? I am intimate with the feeling of charm, but often fail to have the substantial organizing or execution power to follow through. Also, I feel that energy fizzles out with spreading too thin over various projects and not having enough people to help execute.

And on a related note, I’d love to know how does one discern if a pause in the path of activity is led by charm or is led by subconscious apathy and fear or resistance to the change? Jai Guru Deva.

[14:52] A – A Big Bundle of Capability

Alright, my listener, a very elaborate question will require an elaborate answer. So, prepare yourself.

First of all, for those listeners who are not familiar with the concept, one of the fundamental tenets of the Vedic worldview is that if you are daily transcending your individual limitations by practicing Vedic Meditation, which brings you the experience of advancing your inner identity, no longer to be simply an individual, but into being the Unified Field itself. Transcending thought, going beyond thought in Vedic Meditation, the mind regularly is liberated from the constraints of being only an individual, solely an individual, into having a sense of an underlying consciousness field that is the source of one’s individuality, acquired and attained to by practicing this meditation technique that we teach, then a new thing begins to occur.

It is at that point that we can advise you, and this is the advice of a master to a student: if you’re wondering in what direction does evolution lie, it lies in the direction of that which you find charming in prospect.

And so, there’s a proposition to action that is proposed from inside you in the form of a desire. And that desire is not a desire based on you being a big bundle of neediness. Not that anymore, because you’re a meditator now, meditating twice every day, becoming more and more a big bundle of capability and finding that the world of need lies outside you.

[16:55] Charm and Aversion

When this is the case, then instead of desire being a product of a sense of, “I’m a needy individual,” more and more desire is the impulse of Unified Field Consciousness channeling itself through your individuality and using your individuality as a means to get a particular thing done.

What we find is, when we examine all the possible actions in life, there’ll be actions that are imbued with this quality of charm, proposed actions imbued with the quality of charm, and there’ll be other actions that are possible to do, which are not imbued with the quality of charm, and indeed may be imbued with the opposite of charm, which we would call, in our language, aversion.

And the advice is: provided that you keep up your twice-daily exposure to Unified Field Consciousness, through the regular practice of Vedic Meditation, provided that, that’s the proviso, leaning into the charm is going to be the direction of fulfillment and evolution. It will show you the evolutionary path. The evolutionary path is illuminated by charm.

And so then, there is the education about this in a course that I developed, entitled The Art of Following Charm, and you can take that course just by requesting it via my website, thomknoles.com. But enough of advertising my own courses, let me explain to you something about what you’ll experience if you do take that course.

[18:52] Thinning Out of Charm

You asked the question about, which I deal with in the course, hesitation perhaps. “I’ve identified where charm lies, but I find that I’m a little hesitant, or I don’t lean into it right away, perhaps because my intellect is still questioning my deserving power to actually lean into that charm.

“Or perhaps my intellect is presenting to me, my untrained intellect is presenting to me, some static about other options which are not so charming that might intellectually be satisfying but are not imbued with the charm.”

Or, as you raised, “I can’t get enough others buy-in into the charm in order for the project to get done, and so, it looks like something that’s going to require more than just little old me, and nobody else seems to be able to buy into the charm. And so, I’m kind of watching it go by.” And then, the thinning out, as you called it, the charm begins to thin out.

[20:02] Moving from Capability to the Field of Need

Now, it has to be said that not every charming impulse is something which you’re capable personally of carrying out to its totality. It may be that you experience a thing as charming, and what you’re experiencing is the deep inner intentionality of your Universal consciousness, that’s you at your baseline, to get that thing done.

And it may be that even though you would dive into action if there was capability, you would dive into action if there were no restraints, there do appear to be some restraints or constraints, and it may not be that it’s you that has to carry it out. It may be that you simply have to lend it your intentional support, by intending that it should be so.

Perhaps others are going to carry it out, and you’re feeling what it feels like to be Unified Field, which is “which of my many appendages”—those are people, by the way—”which of my many appendages is capable of delivering this experience from the field of Totality to the field of need?”

Moving from capability to the field of need, this is what Unified Field does. If my individuality is exempt, it may be that I’m simply being asked to witness. But if there’s a call to action, where there’s unambiguous capability in my possession, then it is incumbent upon me, immediately and without hesitation, to lean right into that and to favor that which is charming, to move in that direction.

Where my capability is evidently limited by circumstances, by the capability of my body and so on, or I can’t see how enough others are going to be involved in order to bring about the change, then I await the ability to become an effective engager and to interact effectively with the need of the time, the thing that I find charming.

[22:27] Witnessing vs. Engaging

But there will come a certain point where you naturally will surrender to Cosmic Intelligence and allow yourself to be the witness of It getting everything done anyway, even without your input.

And so, let’s not turn this into a problem, let’s turn it into an opportunity either to be a witness of, and then having the capability of engagement in, whatever it is that’s charming, or, on other occasions, merely being the witness of it, and witnessing while others are engaging in meeting the need of the time.

And turning it into a kind of angsty thing, like “I have anxiety over it,” is really yet another thing you can eliminate from the repertoire. It’s just not necessary to go down that track.

Is there an extent that I am apathetic, and whatever those other negating words that you used were? Apathetic will do. I don’t think so. Apathetic people don’t describe things with the degree of clarity with which you raised and described your question to me. These are not the words of an apathetic person. These are the words of a person who is willing to engage at the highest possible level.

[23:53] Witnessing the Self in Action Through Others

Now we need to take one more logical step in the direction of understanding all of this. And that step is: if it’s true, and now let’s remove the word if, since it is true, because it is true, that you are nothing other than Unified Field having a human experience, you are The Universe having a human experience, then, whether it is you, individually, and your body and mind and intellect and whatnot, and your story line and all the rest that you can extract from your story line and apply to the need, since it is true that you are not just an individual storyline…

Since it is becoming more and more true day by day that you are indeed Totality, is it not also true that your Totality Consciousness is capable of informing many, many, many of its appendages, let’s call those people, of the need of the time, making it charming, and you witnessing a thing being done, the engagement of cosmically conscious capability with the needs of the time? Whomever it is that’s bringing it about, is also You. It’s also You. It’s also the Self.

The Self is not limited to acting only through your individual mind, your individual eyes and ears and senses and physiology. Self is quite capable of bringing to bear all of those who have some deserved input into the project. It may well be that you’re simply being nudged to watch all of this happening.

[26:03] Engage or Witness: Do What You Can

But to the extent that you are capable, then you must, and it is incumbent upon you, to do whatever you can to engage. But, if time goes by and you’re not capable of engaging, then you are capable of witnessing, and you’re also capable of not being a kind of little individual human who’s feeling a bit hurty poos about being marginalized and all that. Let’s just step out of that petulant look at our role.

It might be that we’re one of the ones who’s simply being informed of the larger picture that’s going on. So, to the extent that we can be a player, we play. If we can’t be a player, it’s enough that we are the Unified Field itself witnessing itself moving through all the individuals who are the players.

Maybe you’re to be a spectator and not necessarily down there on the football field, racing around kicking the balls, but a witness of all of that action, and perhaps an enthusiastic cheerleader of it.

But all the rest of it, which comes from the past habit, a little morose or a little bit sullen or a little bit hurty poos about, “I don’t seem to be capable of doing everything Unified Field wants me to do,” you can relax and allow Unified Field to bring it about.

If you can engage, to the extent that you can engage, do. And if you can’t engage, smilingly witness and enjoy the game that’s unfolding before you. Jai Guru Deva.

[27:45] Q – Can There Be Art Without Suffering?

Can there be art without suffering?

[27:47] A – The Most Artistically Productive Era?

A long time ago, I attended an art class, as an outside observer, that was being held at the Sydney Art School, in Sydney, Australia, and one of the discussions was the discussion of a thing called the angst, A-N-G-S-T. “The angst” means the suffering, the anxiety, the struggle consciousness, and what role does it play in the production of art.

And so then there was a theory that was being absolutely trashed by this particular lecturer, and I agreed with his take on things. The theory being that you can’t produce art without the angst.

In other words, suffering is that which produces great art, and his point, the art teacher’s point, that he made was, in my opinion, very relevant. If it were true that suffering produced great art, then we must be living in the most artistically productive era ever known to humanity because the level of suffering in the world is absolutely appalling.

And we can go to places of absolute suffering, war zones, or places where plagues and disease have taken over. Why don’t we go to these places and just see the most beautiful art coming out of them? And the answer is, the proposition is, the suffering that creates the art is actually a flawed argument.

[29:25] What Creates Great Art?

Suffering doesn’t create art. What creates art?

An example that’s frequently given by people who are subscribers to this idea of the angst being the source of great artistic flair is Vincent Van Gogh. Vincent was famous for suffering, but that’s not all he was famous for.

He was gifted with divine perception. He was gifted with the celestial eye. He was gifted with a high percentage, by his own description, of the beauty of the inner state of Being.

Yes, Vincent also suffered, but it would be like saying, “Oh, Michelangelo had a wart on his palm and because he had a wart on his palm, he was able to sculpt David. He was able to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and some of the most beautiful artwork that’s ever been done, all because of that wart.”

Well, it’s incidental if somebody has a wart on their palm,

[30:33] Artistic Talents Despite Suffering

Vincent Van Gogh obviously suffered from deep depression at various times, but his depressive era was not the era which was his most productive era. Any study of the man will tell you that it was the era during which he took great long walks in the French, outdoors in the beautiful countryside, where he had epiphanies and periods of expansion of consciousness.

It was from that that his greatest art was produced not from when he was in his deepest, darkest depression and trimmed off a section of his ear out of his desperate desire to inflict self-harm. That was not the time when the greatest art was produced. The greatest art was produced during his periods of open visionary quality.

And saying the angst and the suffering causes the art, what we can say is that not all artists suffered from the angst.

I previously mentioned in another episode of this podcast, J. S. Bach, who was not known to be a great sufferer and yet was prolific in his outpouring of music that has stood the test of time. The idea that somebody suffers and as a result of their suffering they become artistic is really not a very well thought out argument due to the fact that we see huge amounts of suffering everywhere we look and we don’t see people being super artistic as a result of it. Artistic people are able to be artistic despite their suffering.

[32:17] The Artistic Gift

People who have the artistic gift, which is the gift of insight into that inner state of Being, whether they have it spontaneously or they got it as a result of meditating, they’re the ones who are, from that level of that Cosmic insight, producing the greatest art, in spite of their suffering, despite their suffering. Even though they suffered they were also gifted with great insights.

So if there’s a principle that there’s a cause of art, that principle has to be applicable everywhere. That means we can’t just apply it to artists who had some suffering and then produced art.

If suffering is, in fact, the source of artistic expression, we should be able to find amazing art coming out of every plague. We should be able to find amazing art coming out of every war zone with decimated bodies and people in strife and crying, but we don’t. And so we have to do in this rather facile argument about the angst being the source of creativity. It is not.