Karma

     Our conditioning or karma (cause and effect) comes from our family of origin, life experiences, environment, cultural background, teachers, and even ancestral trauma. We’re conditioned to have preferences, to want certain situations to arise over others, to pursue fame or wealth, spirituality or love. Most of us derive our entire sense of self from this conditioning. We’re told and taught who we are, what is good/bad, worthy/unworthy, lovable/unlovable. This ALL creates a false sense of self. Whether we see the world as a beautiful place or a threatening place is entirely due to our conditioning. ​

     Psychedelic experiences can be the catalyst that helps people see through their conditioning and defense mechanisms and experience the true nature of their being, which is just pure energy. Pure love. Once you’ve seen the truth of this, you can’t unsee it. But how do we integrate that knowledge with our everyday experience of life? We are still in relationship with situations - interacting with friends, lovers, coworkers, and children. This is where the spiritual rubber meets the road. What is required is the willingness to let life impact you. Any separation, judgment, blame, shame, ideas of “should or shouldn’t” - these thoughts and emotions are little red flags to remind us we’re not perceiving the true nature of things. Anytime a thought causes divisiveness, it is not pointing to the truth. 
Anthony de Mello defines enlightenment as “absolute cooperation with the inevitable”.

Inquiry: When you notice a state of conflict (feeling separate, contracted, constriction in the body) write down what thoughts are there - which thought caused the moment of separation? How does that thought view the world? What is the feeling? Where does it reside in the body? If that feeling had a voice, what would it say? Deep inquiry into the nature of what hooks us is how we can see the patterns that we are perpetuating and begin to let them go.
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