Monday, January 25, 2010

Breaking the cycle

Not only are karmic cycles often not completed - they are meant to be broken! The whole point of karma is to experience both sides of every occurence. Consider the case of a child who has often suffered beatings at the hands of a parent and is too young and/or too weak to escape them. Here are a few possible scenarios that could be played out in the karmic sense:

  • If the parent lives long enough to become weakened by age, the child will be the stronger of the two and may begin beating the aged parent. This is not uncommon, especially if the adult child has not forgiven the beatings and still harbours anger towards the parent. In this case, one cycle could be completed in a single incarnation.
  • The child may wait until another incarnation where the roles have been reversed so that it is the one administering the beatings.

Even though karma now seems to have been satisfied - that is, both parties have received and administered the beatings - it's likely that the cycle will continue to be repeated a number of times before one of the entities finally realizes that in order to stop the pain, it must 'turn the other cheek' and break the cycle. Thus a conscious decision is made by one of the parties not to return the beatings in this life, the next life or any life. The lesson has been learned and the entity is determined to move on and leave this particular scenario behind.

6 comments:

  1. This is the scary part of reincarnation for me. I have often thought that I must have been a very bad addict of some sort in a previous life because other peoples addictions have caused me much suffering in this lifetime. If that IS the case then I believe I have learned that lesson. What do you think?

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  2. I think that if you've accepted your role in this matter and you're not only helping, but forgiving those who are causing you the suffering in this lifetime, you're well on your way to breaking this particular cycle. It's when you can't forgive that you become trapped. That isn't to say you should allow or enable others to inflict pain or hurt you in any way, you should always strive to protect yourself both physically and mentally.

    Thanks for the question, MAI, it's given me a starting point for another post. Love hearing from you!

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  3. Thank you for your answer. I feel better about this now because I have indeed forgiven. It's good to know that I have made some right decisions along the way. Looking forward to your next post and have a great day.

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  4. Well, you certainly used an example here that's easy to relate to. I don't think I could ever be the child bullying an aged parent so I hope this cycle has been broken.

    It's interesting to note how this so easily explains why some children are victims of their parent's beatings while their siblings are not physically abused.

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  5. I lived out a karmic relationship a few relationships ago. After year, I finally recognized it for what it was and broke away from his repeated behaviour of treating me like worthless crap. In my case, I feel that it was recognition of the trap that I fell into that has broken the cycle. I see it so very clearly and did step away from it in another relationship as soon as I realised the pattern.

    Anger towards him - well I don't know about that. I don't think about him, don't feel any anger when I do. But the other day I came across photo on FB and it brought up some ugly emotions - hate, anger, bitterness. They went away quickly once I moved on from the photo, but they were there.

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  6. Recognition is the first real step in moving on. Once we recognize a bad relationship for what it is and move away from it, we can begin the forgiveness process and put it behind us for good.

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