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April 30, 2004
Karma or God's Will
There's a difference between fighting the flow and choosing your path through it. Many people, when faced with the epiphany that much of the struggle and unhappiness in their lives comes from fighting the flow, the Tao, the natural order, God's will, whatever they call it, respond by flipping 180 degrees and denying free will, believing this flow, this order is in control, and their job is simply to submit to it. This results inevitably in lots of magical thinking.
God's-willers -- whether in Christian Fundamentalism, AA, Taoism, or whatever -- take the frequent remarkable coincidences in their daily lives as proof that "things happen for a reason" and that God is determining these little events in our lives based on some pre-planned roadmap. But a much simpler explanation is synchronicity -- seemingly unpredetermined events are actually the result of lots of little factors we do affect. Call it karma, if you want.
You know the undeniable phenomenon that when you break up with a partner or when a loved one dies, all of a sudden the world is full of messages about lost love or mortality? Do you think God is altering the programming of radio stations to send you those messages personally? Of course not. It's a matter of what you focus on.
When The Way opens and an opportunity or solution presents itself right when you need it, both of these forces are at work. Without realizing it, you are putting out signals and actions that create synchronistic moments; and because you're expecting a solution to come, you are focusing on finding one, which makes it much more likely you'll see and act on a synchronistic moment when it arises.
This makes these moments no less special or important. They are miracles.
They are expressions of the divine. But it locates the power not in an omniscient
deity or perfect order, but rather in the beautiful and messy interconnectedness
of people and things; in community and love. The challenge is not to submit
to a new authority, but to tap the power of that interconnected reality and
be open to the creative options that arise through it.
Posted by experiential at April 30, 2004 06:41 PM