Your Karmic Footprint
Navigating Life's Energy Emissions with Awareness and Intention - By Mike Verano
Reading time: 3 minutes
“This is the profound, simple truth:
You are the master of your life and death.
What you do is what you are.” -- Hua Hu Ching
If asked what their carbon footprint is most people would be able to respond with something "green" that suggests a basic knowledge of how their daily living impacts the environment. Additionally, one can turn to the internet which is replete with carbon footprint calculators that will reveal the level of greenhouse gases generated by one’s actions.
These make for enlightening discussions as individuals, states, countries, and continents haggle over who is doing the most damage to the planet. What many people are not aware of is that there is another form of energy emission, no less important, that also needs their attention.
Our karmic footprint refers to how we use the vital life energy that is at the core of all existence. In practical terms, this refers to how we participate in the unfolding of our lives and manage the consequences of our actions.
Karma, as it was put forth thousands of years ago, is not a system of divine retribution. Far from being the universe’s version of "paybacks are a b*!%h," karma means ‘action.’ Simply stated, karma is not something that happens to us, but something that we do. It is a deeply psychological phenomena tied directly to one’s intention.
As Divya Gupta points out in Practical psychology of Karma, “the possibilities of psychological applications of the karmic principles especially in the fields of counselling and psychotherapy seem to be immeasurable. The law of karma if properly understood can become a law of success, in both the internal world and the external world.”
Karma is the unfolding life, roses and thorns included. This unfolding is not a singular ego event, confined to the small space of the self, but is part of the greater movement that Buddhists refer to as "interdependent origination”— the interconnectedness of all things.
In this web, one’s actions impact, and are impacted by, all other actions. As the yogi, Sadhguru explains karma “makes each one of us squarely responsible for our own destinies and, above all, the nature of our experience of life.”
Rather than something to fear, karma, as the Indian guru Nisargadatta Maharaj explained, “is an expression of a beneficial law: the universal trend towards balance, harmony and unity.” It is our refusal to accept, or ignore, the consequences of our actions that causes emotional, spiritual, and psychological suffering.
When we motor through life on autopilot, we are likely to stumble into situations that feel like someone else has scripted them or are the result of the cruel hand of fate. This can leave one feeling like the cartoon character, Calvin, who once told his tiger friend, Hobbes, "The world is either mean or it’s arbitrary and either way I got the heebie-jeebies."
Here is a quick Karmic Footprint calculator:
- Do you frequently find yourself asking “why me?”
- Does placing blame seem more practical than taking responsibility?
- Do you often experience life as being unfair?
- Do you ever feel that fate has you in its crosshairs?
- Have you ever thought that you are currently paying the price for misdeeds in a previous life?
If you’ve answered “yes” to 3 or more of the above questions, you are like most people whose karma is leaving heavy footprints on their psyches. Fortunately, it is within the very law of karma to self-correct and it begins with awareness.
Becoming aware of one’s karmic footprint frees up the energy drained by complaining about the unfairness of life, allowing one to appreciate that life is not arbitrary or mean, it simply is and we provide the rest. In the end, to know our karmic footprint is to be mindful of how our lives unfold and become an active participant in its joy rather than a passive recipient of its trials and tribulations. Here are some helpful tips to keep your karmic energy from polluting your world:
- Conserve: Look for the areas in your life where your energy output leaves you feeling drained. For example, if you give it all to work, chances are you are not going to have much left for Family Fun Night.
- Recycle: Return to experiences in your life that charge your emotional battery. Take walks in nature, visit art museums, listen to your favourite music, eat more chocolate or whatever it is that makes your heart sing.
- Unplug: The Tao Te Ching teaches "Stillness and tranquillity set things in order in the universe." Give yourself permission to do nothing more often. Quietly practicing mindfulness creates energy reserves that can be drawn upon when the karmic wheel seems to be turning against us.
- Go hybrid: Don’t be afraid to mix your fuel sources. Sages from the East and West have left behind profound teachings that will get your metaphysical motor running with new-found enthusiasm.
- Be organic: Realize that you did not come into this world, you came out of it. You are not a fluke of existence but its purpose. As teacher Sadhguru states, “There is only one crime against life: to make believe that you are something other than life.”
I hope these tips help you find the greener pastures of awareness and tranquillity. They have helped my search and I know that passing them on is good karma.
