free reverie

i received a comment on my last post which inspired this post.

the commenter responded:

Karma is not about truth, and often can be adverse to it. It is mechanical, as you said, a prison. Nor is it contingent upon who we are, as we are all intrinsically good people. And yet people may spend lifetimes trapped in bad karmic loops. When one doesn’t feel good about themselves, or when they allow others to make them feel bad about themselves, they may allow bad karma to affect them. Eternal vigilance is the price of virtue. Leave karma to itself, or guard your own. How about a post on the nature of truth?

and i say:

karma has everything to do with truth. it is the ultimate truth. it is not contingent upon who we are in that it is completely out of our control. You cannot guard your own karma; it is impossible, and besides, it is not yours to guard.

people often mistake social behavior with karma, because social interaction has karma-like tendencies. bad things do happen to good people, but bad things tend to happen more frequently to bad people (or people who do bad things, for as you said we are all intrinsically good people.) People who do bad things alienate themselves from others due to the bad energy they bring into the world, which spirals into a vicious cycle of feeling bad, channelling that emotion by doing more bad things, and inciting bad reactions which perpetuate the negative emotion. Many potentially good people frustrate themselves when they are tangled in this spiral because they continue to commit actions that result in the opposite of their inherently good intentions. Only those with strong will and emotional fortitude have the ability to lift themselves above it. They know not to let the negativity they encounter (for there are many caught in bad energy loops) affect them, and channel it in positive ways.

truth is relative to scale. on a karmic level, it is objective. on a human level, it is more subjective and fluid. for more thoughts on the latter, you should check out my thesis blog, freereverie.org/neticulum. i’ve been posting a lot lately on the nature of collective knowledge, which is inexorably linked with human conceptions of truth. as for the former, it is one of the only truths we will ever know (and at the same time can never know). karma is fate, it is kismet, it is fortune, and we are bound to it regardless of our mortal activity. though to our limited human perception it may at times seem unfair or arbitrary, it is in the long run just and directed. in order to honor the ultimate truth of karma, we must be truthful in what we can control – our human interactions. human energy exchanges reward honesty, even when it comes at a price. sometimes the truth hurts. we would rather believe – and have others believe – false truths that suit us, rather than actual truths that expose our weaknesses and shortcomings. and sometimes we get away with promoting false truths to others, especially the gullible, the vulnerable, and the weak of mind. but we cannot fool the intelligent, the perceptive, and those who know secret things; they can see through the propaganda. these are the people who will help you grow and flourish, because they are not satiated by excuses or false justifications; they won’t put up with your bullshit. they are the kind of people we should be and surround ourselves with. it’s not always easy; especially those with regrets and demons have a tendency to want to believe in convenient realities so badly that they fool themselves into actually believing them. they need only realize that to stop deluding others and depriving themselves of honest, productive, and positive social interaction, they must stop deluding themselves. its painful to have your fantasy world crash down upon you in shambles, but it is the only way to break the loop and actually make something of yourself. ignorance is not bliss; it is hell. a hell that is tempting but lures people into spiritual apathy. truth is the ultimate weapon of human (both collective and individual) progress. we must not only cleanse the doors of perception, but turn them inward, for one who is opaque to themself can never be pure.