Own your life and all your actions. For all of who you are, what you do, and the circumstances you find yourself in are your current challenges for this life. Carry no regrets, resentments or blame but instead figure out how to solve the life you are in to your advantage and advancement, for that is your ultimate purpose, to advance. Do it with love, kindness and compassion for yourself, utilizing the strong intent that is your spirit’s desire. In this manner own your life and your future too.
The law of nature is growth… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
After Jeanne Marie Ketchel left her life, in a human body, she was amazed to discover that she was still very much a part of this world, though in a much more subtle body than the physical body she had recently shed. Following a period of rejuvenation and orientation she chose a task that was to become her new life mission.
More precisely, she describes this afterlife choice process as, “It will be of your choosing, but not of your choosing. It will be granted because it is exactly where you need to go, but it will also be where you fit perfectly.” (The Book of Us, p. 165)
No outside judge decides where we need to go, we are the ultimate judge of our lives.
“Where you need to go” is how I define karma. The underlying law of nature, both physical and spiritual, is growth. Spiritual growth progresses through lighter and lighter stages of being. We shed the denseness of physical matter upon physical death and enter our lighter energy body soul-state.
However, an individual who remains attached to their worldly possessions and physical proclivities upon death will, of necessity, enter a bardo environment that fits this state of evolution. The Buddhists define bardos as alternative worlds that reflect a soul’s state of spiritual accomplishments, high or low, offering what is necessary for continued growth, for every soul is destined to grow and evolve at their own pace.
Thus, continued life would be in a bardo of one’s choosing and yet not; it would be the only fitting place in which to evolve, hence, would be a natural next step. Souls remain in bardo states until they are ready to move on, meaning until they have grown or progressed enough to shed their attachment to the coveted activities of physical life or have completed the necessary expiation resulting from them.
The significant point here is that we are in full control of where we land based upon the choices we make and how far we spiritually evolve, in whatever world we are in. Upon changing worlds, at death, we can only go where we have prepared ourselves to go.
Karma is not punitive, it is objective. Though we might covet a highly evolved spiritual existence, we will only manifest it when we have completed the prerequisites for such an existence. Death does not automatically result in spiritual advancement, unless we have consciously worked toward it during our lifetime. Alternatively, though we may in fact be spiritually advanced during our lifetime, we may be placed in a remedial bardo to complete the necessary requirements for even greater ascension.
The same principle governs the life we are currently in: we can only advance in our careers and relationships to the extent that we have learned and prepared ourselves to advance into deeper fulfillment.
We are the ultimate judge of our lives, as we place ourselves where we need to go based on the choices we have made and the consequences of those choices. Judgment is based on full transparency—the truth. We are free to ignore the truth, but in that case we land ourselves in the bardo best fitted to allow us to accept the truth that we avoid, and to grow beyond it.
Our truest judge is the voice of our conscience, which is located in the heart center. This is the heart not of sentimentality nor romance but the heart of our morality, our deepest knowing of what is right. This voice of the heart is to be distinguished from the voice of the aberrant inner critic, the product of the conjuring mind’s incessant storytelling.
If we quiet our mind and ask our heart to speak the truth, it will calmly reveal it—no drama, just the plain truth. The true judge—the voice of heart centered conscience—will always know and choose rightly where we must go next.
If we align our decisions and actions with the truth that we are shown, we will advance as spiritually enlightened beings.
When change arrives unexpectedly accept it and align with its intent, the intent of evolution. Sometimes it’s easy to accept change, at other times more difficult to do so. No matter the circumstances, when change happens there is no going back. The only recourse is to move forward in the direction change indicates. When change comes it brings with it a new imperative to take a new course and where it leads is where life goes next. Rather than resist change, learn to embrace it and go with the flow. It will make life so much easier.
How do we end up in the life we are in? If we accept the notion that human life, like all life in nature, is driven toward fulfillment and completion then we can view our current life circumstance as the next step necessary for our personal evolution.
Whatever life we are in, we are being presented with the opportunities to advance our growth. Thus, for example, if we have been dominated by a selfish attitude it might be necessary to suffer loss and a period of scarcity to truly understand the value of charity, the missing character ingredient to our evolutionary advancement.
Viewing our current life circumstance as personally tailored for our evolutionary advancement suspends the judgment that we are defined by our circumstances or being punished for some prior misdeed. Objectively speaking, our current life drama—regardless of what it is—is nature providing us with a fertile field imbued with seeds of growth possibility.
The notion of our present life as karmic punishment for prior misdeeds casts a shadow of negative judgment upon the positive growth opportunity before us. In one respect, it is true that we are where we are as a consequence of prior life choices. However, the stopping point on the road we have previously travelled is, of necessity, the only place we can begin our current journey; we are simply not experienced enough yet with the challenges we must progressively meet to traverse beyond our former endpoint.
Some next steps may require experiences seemingly contraindicated for the forward progression of our fulfillment. For instance, we might find ourselves caught in a repetitive loop of unsuccessful relationships when we are sincerely seeking a truly compatible partner.
This redundancy of failure may actually accrue toward a critical mass that ultimately leads to a breakthrough in awareness, where one discovers the blind spot within one’s self that until now has sabotaged one’s desired advancement. Without the benefit of this awareness one’s ultimate goal of a fulfilling relationship could never be achieved, as the problem was seen as originating from a partner, when, in fact, unbeknownst to the self, it lay within the self!
Within the subconscious of everyone is the desire body that serves the evolving spirit by attracting to our lives the physical circumstances that will materialize our needed challenges. This is commonly called the law of attraction. Though, with intent, one might influence this law of attraction, one will not advance toward fulfillment if the necessary circumstances for growth are not present.
Generally, intent will automatically manifest the necessary circumstances to achieve growth. Frequently, however, we may be confused by the circuitous route of events attracted to us. But again, the foundational lessons we need may require experiences we hardly expect. Even if we are able to bend intent to our will and manifest our desire, if it doesn’t accord with our needed growth it will likely result in a painful but necessary lesson.
When we approach the path of our spirit’s evolution, once it has definitively left its human body traveling companion, and journey into the afterlife, we will first experience a thorough review of the life we have just lived in physical form. From this assessment we will determine what kind of new life will be required for our continued growth.
For some souls, a reincarnation, in this or some other world, may be selected to further refine one’s spirit by once again coupling with a finite physical body, with the desire body of our spirit attracting to it the DNA and social context likely to provide it with the opportunity to advance its growth.
Other souls might discover that their further refinement is best served by venturing into the more subtle realms of spirit discovery and adventure.
Jeanne has explained to us that the transparency of spirit life beyond the physical body affords the spirit the obvious clarity to know what issues must be addressed. Hence, the spirit willingly acquiesces to what is necessary.
In some circumstances spirits refuse to relinquish their attachment to the physical life they were previously in. Hence, they must continue to live the illusion of being physically alive and able to participate in human life, until they are exhausted by such futility. Nonetheless, this experience is indeed the next necessary step to further their evolution.
The question to ask oneself, now, regarding one’s current life circumstance, is: “What is the specific challenge being presented that I must master?” Avoid the trapping of self-judgment or blame of other, regardless of how wrong that other may be.
Right and wrong are necessary discernments in clarifying a problem, but are not necessarily a solution. Many an unfair situation must be endured to experientially learn about unfairness and further refine one’s ability to detach and not take things personally—a very high spirit challenge, indeed!
Wherever you are is where you need to be, until you are truly prepared to move on. Accept your life circumstance with equanimity; study it and master it.
There is no better path than a path of heart, but just what that means is as unique as there are unique individuals, for all beings are on their individual journeys looking for enhancement along their personal routes of evolution. No two people are alike, though they may find resonance with another and though they may share life together. To truly own your individual path of heart and still be available for the greater good of others is truly a worthy path, for a path of love, kindness and compassion is naturally rooted in the greater good.
