God and Karma

Question: "Ishvara, what about God, and karma?"

Ishvara: I see the religious concept of "God" as the ego creation. Karma is the belief that there is a right way to do things, and a wrong way to do things---which is cause-and-effect. What I see is that we are here to learn how energy works, how Life works. You may label certain things you've experienced as a "mistake" because you didn't like the result. But it is not something we need to feel guilty about. We simply learn from these things. When we start to realize that everything in creation is a part of us, we develop a different respect for it. You see that taking someone's life does not benefit The Consciousness, that the energy experience of that is not any fun. It's like cutting off your own hand. When you start to know that kind of connection with everyone, you have an entirely different attitude towards Life and towards other individuals. Karma is the whip: If you don't do it right you are going to be punished. The same is true of the belief in hell. These things are concepts and superstitions that the conditional mind, fearful of everything, has created as a control mechanism in order to force things to be a certain way.

I question everything. I question myself all the time. Even my feeling-knowing is always held up to the light of awareness. In this questioning, I demand that Life works. I demand that what I hold can be experienced. If it can't be experienced, it's useless. It has nothing to do with Life, nothing to do with how energy works, if it can't be experienced. There is far more to us than we can understand through our intellect. This has nothing to do with the dogmatic, separative thinking of "Do this. Don't do that." It can only be experienced. And so I say, "Experience. Experience Life. See what it is. And see everything through connection. See how much you can realize that everything really is a part of the same thing."

I don't see a separate "God." In most traditions, God is subject and we are objects. My knowing is that these things cannot be separated. My awareness of creation is that when you create something, you become it. When an artist is painting, she is painting herself. When the artist lets go of all systems and techniques and fully expresses, it is The Consciousness that is being expressed. So we are not separate from our creation. And so the idea that there is a separate "God" that is pulling the strings and controlling things, or who set things up and then went somewhere else, is simply not what I am experiencing as The Consciousness. The Consciousness is not judgmental. It is allowing. In that state of allowing, each individual is experiencing Life. If we are really paying attention in that experience, then we see how everything is The Consciousness, and we develop an absolute respect for all of life. We see the connection; we see the realness. And then we are moved and inspired to take care of things.

This doesn't mean that reality is soulless, or without something that is greater. The Consciousness is greater than its parts. This is synergy: that process where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Yet each part is being The Consciousness. In each individual you see The Consciousness, but not the entire thing. You see a perspective of The Consciousness in each individual. Yet paradoxically the wholeness (I call it the "hollow space within") exists in everything in creation.

In many spiritual traditions and systems, when you become enlightened, that's it. You stop. I see, however, that we can continue to attain greater levels of awareness. There is no stopping place. You keep becoming more aware of the all-that-is. As you expand, you begin to see more and more connection. You reach a point where the conditional mind cannot even deal with it any more. It is so far beyond concepts and beliefs and systems that the conditional mind has no clue about what to do. It is everything, the whole thing, with no singling out of anything. And so it becomes difficult to talk about. It's no wonder that in the past people have called this experience "God," because in putting this label on the experience you could come to a stop. But experience has never given me a place to stop. I could not be satisfied with a concept or a label. There has always been this questioning, this looking, this finding more connection, more realization. There is an excitement in this, an enthusiasm. It is a self-motivating experience. I'm not living in fear of punishment. I'm not living in hope of achieving something better some place else. I've realized that THIS is the time, THIS is the place to come to greater understanding and awareness, to become aware of more. And there is always more. It's totally exciting.

Do you have a question? Ask Ishvara.