Teachers, Karma and Perfection

Nick Farell wrote a post that dovetailed nicely with the piece I just wrote about magickal teachers. In it, he asks, "What if you are wrong?" This is an excellent question to ask any prospective teacher and a perfect response to any pronouncement from on high. I agree with a great deal of what Nick has to say, unless I have no idea what he is talking about. Then, given his opponents, I figure he is mostly right.

He does mention a couple of things that I have struggled with and reached different conclusions.

He writes, "Nor could I see that the need for revenge, which is all the idea of karma is based on, was necessary either." I do not cotton to this point of view. As I stated yesterday, I overworked Geburah as a young man. It made me angry and volcanic. The fact that I was angry cost me friends and associates. That is just a fact. Angry people have less friends. It is as natural as rain. Karma is my position in present life is without those people. It is my position right now. Frankly, some of them I am well better off without. Others, I would have been better off with. Karma is simply the accumulated position of the moment.

Nick continues, "A completely innocent child is raped by their step father. Since they are young, they cannot have accrued any karma which could justify that act of evil being committed to them."

This is a serious criticism of karma given his point of view. One either has to rely on some deed in a past life getting moved forward or punt. Frankly, I subjectively agree with past life reasoning. I can outline my reasons but they are intuition-based to such a degree that I'd never argue the point. Though, my reasons have no concept of punishment attached to them whatsoever. Nor do they involve specific past deeds.

To my mind, the mystical vision I had of perfection addresses this question so much better than any other explanation I have heard.

Perfection is the ongoing process of unfolding the soul. This applies to the individual, the collective 'soul' of humanity and the world soul. Though, I have scant experience with the last two, I'm going out on a limb with those.

The ongoing perfection process refines us to an incredible edge, if we let it. The trials we face grind away all that we are not. But wait, she was five, she hasn't accumulated what she is not yet. How can it help? Well...

I have revealed here that I was molested by my mother as a teen. As far as molests go it was on the lighter side of things and didn't last long. However, it was a horrible experience. It led me to drugs (lots and lots of pot mostly) and all sorts of behavior I am not proud of. The lessons learned from those experiences brought me right back to those horrific events.

I learned that people do incredibly stupid, harmful things as an expression of their own pain. I gained sympathy for my mother as I realized all the pain she was in at that point in her life. I can now look at a lot of the stupid things people do from that perspective. There is mercy, compassion and understanding attached to the pained soul that commits such acts and all the less horrible acts we more commonly face. This is not to excuse them but to understand them.

Learning understanding, compassion and mercy is generally considered a positive thing. These horrible events of my life are part of the perfection in all things, in all processes, in all ways. As painful as they were, I was able to learn and grow from them as I slowly unfold. This is true for everyone else as well. I can say that what my mother did was a perfect reflection of all of her life experiences and pain, my reaction was perfect too, as were the lessons I learned.

Everything is perfect. Even horrible acts are perfect. Think of that the next time you're beating yourself up for something you did ten years ago. Enjoy how perfect you are, just remember to keep riding the lessons of perfection, they never stop.

The pain of such things remains as long as we are stuck in a world duality. Once we see things as a process that isn't good or bad, we transcend and heal.