Like Karma

In the early waking moments of the morning, interest can get hooked on a theme; like a branch on shoals of a rushing stream; or an idea like a siren in a Greek story, suggesting hidden pleasures and secret knowing.  So it is with me, repeatedly with words ~ their meaning, implied as well as commonly considered concrete.  How certainty and knowing played a game of tag in my yet discerning consciousness. It reminded me of how Karma was explained to me.  I am confident there are many constructions of the concept with this particular term, but allow me to use it as a reference point on the cool path my bare feet trod upon.  Karma, I had been told, translated to ‘action’.  So unlike my previous understanding of it being more a celestial justice, as in what goes around comes around; or that the evil you do will have a day of comeuppance.  That had been my street-wise interpretation gleaned by listening to others use the term of ‘Your or my Karma.’

  The beauty of Karma being ‘action’ opens the door to comprehending that we take steps, or the example I was given, laying tile where a path of one step following the other in a direction of choosing.  And, just as with laying tile, it takes effort to change a direction one is going without a deliberate conscious intent.  There was a time when I was genuinely surprise to arrive at the consequences of my slovenly uncaring choices.  “How did this happen? And most importantly, why to me?  I considered myself a good person so why did evil pluck me out of the teeming masses and descend on me? It must be due to my disfavored standing with the only power in the universe that protects me from such happenstance.  Yes, I was living a powerless life waiting for the victim card to fall in order for me to lament and regret my unthinking choices.  Having pointed this out, I’m going to take a turn into my excitement and continued interest in other words such as ‘certainty’.  As I studied statistics the term ‘with a degree of certainty’ we can predict. What that turned out to mean was that we can ‘expect’ to have the same results based on what we have learned, or what we know, of the nature of a process we have been observing.  We know, with certainty, the sun will come up tomorrow because we base our conclusions on experience of a chain of other experiences that leads us to a conclusion that is without reasonable doubt.  Sure, the sun will burn out some day, but most likely not tomorrow, so we have confidence that our certainty is trusted; without knowing as an absolute when exactly the sun will not fulfill our prediction of rising.   What all of this does is take the notion of a definition from being exactly precise, and ultimately rigid possessing the ‘always’ or ‘exactly’ position. 

There’s wiggle room.

Yet, the idea of certainty is a subjective value that I can trust, and even believe in.  Heck, without facts it can become my faith.  But just like Karma I am not a slave to a rule, a law that holds me accountable to its boundaries.  I can choose the steps I take, and Karma says “ok” just as my certainty in the universe following a prescribed path based upon my understanding of the facts I have experienced.  That’s ok too.  I am cautioned to remember the only law that prevails over all other concepts I choose to enjoy and trust is that of change.  And with that, I can go out into the playground of the here-and-now and be as pleasant or as uncooperative as I choose; because after all Karma tells me that I will go in the direction my actions take me.

And I can trust that with certainty.