Free from Karma

Most of you who grew up in this culture would have been exposed to a fair amount of talk about karma. Are there activities that are more conducive than others on the path to liberation? Actually, no activity at all would be best - no movement in the body, no movement in the head. But how many people are capable of that?

Someone who does absolutely nothing is free from karmic memory and karmic cycles. As long as you are identified with your karmic memory, the past repeats itself. Karma means action and memory at the same time. There is no memory without action, and there is no action without memory. As long as you are ruled by your memory, it will drive you to do something. Only if you completely distance yourself from your past memory, will you be able to sit still.

Most people's physical and mental condition is such that it demands activity. To bring the body and mind to a state of freedom from all activity takes a lot of work. For now, it is advisable to keep the body and mind on a certain level of alertness and agility, so that when the time comes, you are prepared. Until then, you need to throw yourself into incessant activity. The important thing is not to give yourself a break. And the activity should not be about you. When you do something that is needed for someone else, the activity you perform is not your own. You have nothing to get, nothing to show.

Doing activity as an offering is a simple way of turning off the karmic recorder within you. As long as you have the need to do something and you identify with your activity, the karmic recorder records this activity for you, and its consequences will multiply. By contrast, if you yourself do not have the need to do anything, but you do something because it is needed by someone else or something else, then the activity will not result in karmic bondage.

If you perform every activity as an offering, your karmic bondage will start to unravel. Until you are capable of doing nothing, do whatever you want, but do it as an offering within yourself. In a state of offering, you become available to Grace.