Conscious choice and karma

In Newtonian physics, the third law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This plays out in a multitude of ways in everyday life in the way we interact with our physical world. There is however another meaning to this law that is an analogy. It is that every choice we make has a cause and an effect. We all make choices throughout our day. Some of our choices are reflexive and borne from our conditioning. Others are conscious and a result of deep thought and analysis of the data that our senses and cognitive abilities process. In order to live a fulfilled and balanced life, we have to make sure that the choices that we make preserve our harmonious place in the universe. Once we have made a particular choice, that energy is out in the universe and we have to live with its consequences.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, even the way we feel about things is a choice. We are infinite vessels of choice. If someone disparages you in public, you have a choice of whether you want to feel insulted and offended or not. Likewise, if someone praises you, it is your choice to feel flattered or not. Oftentimes, because of years of conditioned reflex reactions, we go to the first self-preserving or self-aggrandizing reaction to each of those stimuli and immediately choose to feel outraged or elevated. We pay very little attention to the actual cause and effect of our feelings in the immediate context of the event that led to them. Who is affected by the way we feel and react to the stimulus that caused them? When we feel outraged and respond negatively, are we putting our negativity out into the universe? When we feel elevated, at whose cost are we being elevated? Should and do we care about how the people we affect with our reactions are feeling? Do our thoughts and actions feel good?

To live in balance with the energy of the universe, we have to ensure that the choices that we are making will bring positive karma to our lives. Karma is the idea that the choices that we make every day will have repercussions back on ourselves. We also build up a karmic debt that we have to pay throughout our lives based on the choices that we have made in our past. The first step in starting to live with this idea of karma is to become conscious of your choices. The universe speaks to every conscious being and manifests through various means. We just have to listen. Some call it intuition, others call it instinct. It is also subtly manifested physically if you know where to look. Sometimes it is your heart, or your chest, or the voice in the back of your mind. If you listen to that feeling, it will tell you whether that choice will bring positivity into the universe and make others happy, or it is self-serving. 

Once you have started listening to the universe as you make choices, you will have to practice. It is natural to fall into the self-serving habits that you’ve practiced throughout your entire life. Conscious thought and action to bring positive karmic energy into the universe requires practice to break old reflexive thoughts and actions. This is a practice that is not easy and will require you to work on this for your entire lifetime. We are all human and therefore imperfect. Every so often, it is easy to fall into the old patterns of thought and behavior. We start getting into arguments with our fellow humans. We start thinking negative thoughts about ourselves and others. In times like that, it is ok to let those thoughts pass and come back to positivity. Daily meditation and reflection will help you reorient yourself and listen to yourself again.

Choices that we make also have consequences. This means that we have to be accepting of everything that happens as a result of our choices. There’s an old Latin phrase, “Amor Fati”, which means love your fate. We often think of our fate as something that happens to us. However, in our modern society, we misinterpret fate as luck or chance. We never see it as a direct result of our choices. When we make choices, whether they are putting out negativity or positivity into the universe, it will be returned to us in our fate. The chain of events that lead to a particular event that we call our fate could indeed be very long and perhaps even a lifetime. Therefore, if we make choices with the intent to put positive energy into the universe, then in the long run, our fate will be positive. It is never too late to get started on this practice. 

When I started my Jiu Jitsu journey, a little over two years ago, I was in my mid-forties and older than most beginners. I was already established in my life and career, and actually had been practicing other martial arts for decades. I fell in love with the art and often thought regretfully about not starting years earlier, when a close friend of mine invited me to join him in a Jiu Jitsu class. He is now a purple belt, while I am still a white belt. I started going into my reflexive patterns of deficit thinking and regret. This added to my emotional negativity of being humbled repeatedly by those who had been training longer, and who were younger, stronger and more athletic than myself. All of these negative thought patterns manifested in low self esteem, interacting negatively with my friends and family, and training with selfish objectives in mind. I needed to prove that I had what it took to be good at Jiu Jitsu. I put out a lot of negative energy into the universe in my early days of my practice.

The negative energy in my Jiu Jitsu resulted in me being depressed, sometimes injured, and constantly in pain from fighting. My family life suffered as my negative energy spilled out into my interactions with my loved ones. It took a long time for me to realize that this is not sustainable for a lifelong practice of the art that I have fallen in love with. I started listening to myself and realized that regardless of the outcome on the mats, I needed to bring positivity into the universe. My Jiu Jitsu tribe has been incredibly supportive and encouraging and I have begun growing in my technique and art. It has manifested physically in my style becoming more fluid and hearkening back to my Wing Chun technique. (Caveat here is that I am still a white belt, and I have a lot more growth ahead of me). I have made a choice to approach each Jiu Jitsu lesson with humility and gratitude. I have made the choice to contribute to the Jiu Jitsu community in whatever means I can, hence this blog. I have made the choice to become a better training partner to my teammates by asking them what they need from me and giving them the energy to ensure their growth.

With the knowledge that you are the master of your fate, I’d encourage you to start practicing conscious choice making today. If you’ve been thinking about starting a new venture or activity, do it today. If you’ve been waiting to start your Jiu Jitsu practice until you’re in ‘better shape’, start today. Think about whether the choice adds to your positive karmic energy or not, on every instance. Then after you have made the choice, embrace the fate that comes with the results of the choice, positive or negative. Only through this practice can we truly grow to become harmonious with the universe and our true selves.