Evolution: Karma and Grace

The Wheel of Life and Death

I’ve been clarifying for myself how aspects of evolution operate, and in doing so identifying two distinct ways. The first is through duality – karma.  Its mechanics are mapped in the Buddhist teachings of the Wheel of Life and Death, amongst other places. The second is through non-duality, via pure Spirit and Grace.  Both occur as awareness returns to full Divine connection, through the heart.  Karma requires understanding and self-forgiveness in order to clear, but transformation through Grace occurs as spiritual evolution allows higher vibrations of Being to be embodied.  We naturally connect with both paths, and though closely intertwined, it would appear that one does not require the other in order for change to occur.  It seems to me that if the root of an issue is fear-based, then karma is the path taken, and if absent – and if the ability and desire to surrender from the heart is present – then Grace steps in. 

In the Wheel of Life and Death teachings around re-incarnation, we are born into our present circumstances according to how we have lived in the past, manifesting our reality to include old issues, generally of a personal, ancestral, or cultural nature.  We choose to come back to resolve these, and at the point of our death move onward with accumulated ‘credit’ for those positive qualities that we’ve accrued, such as generosity or gratitude, and also with any unresolved or new baggage, so that it can be transformed in a future life.  The different dramas we create in life will continually draw us back until they are all resolved and we are liberated from this cycle.

As walking, talking, living, breathing, embodied spirits in human form we have the opportunities to experience everything –love, hate, cruelty, deprivation, abundance, abandonment, peace, bliss, joy, and more.  I know that I have had the blessing of different life experiences over incarnations – I have been a victim, and I’ve committed incredible cruelties, as well as being a force for good – they come back to me in snatches when circumstances trigger my awareness, or a behavioral pattern is approaching transformation.    Each life remembered has had a different flavor, different challenges, and has greatly expanded my compassion for self and others.  As I have met them, the misunderstandings or distortions at the core have needed to be acknowledged and forgiven before understanding dawns and real changes can occur in present time.

My appreciation of the distinct qualities of transforming through the different paths of Karma and Grace solidified during a trip I took with Sri’ama Qala to the Yucatan Peninsula last year.  I experienced transformation firstly through Grace, and then in another wave, an entire karmic pattern was cleared.  I saw how they both address the multidimensional, multi-existent nature of being. I’d been taught about karma, it was familiar, and I recognized it having experienced before the relief of clearing its imprints.  But even though I’d also been touched by Grace many times, before going to Mexico I hadn’t recognized some of its qualities, nor was I aware that its dispensations, which are not rooted in life’s karmic cycle, are themselves a branch of the evolutionary path.

Most of my experiences of Grace have been as a result of committing myself to planetary service.  I’d seen each movement as a gift, a universal thank you for participating in acts of service to Gaia and to all humanity.  I hadn’t looked any deeper nor had I sought out any teaching on it.  In fact, I believed gifting to be the true and sole nature of Grace.  I still believe that the bestowing of extraordinary gifts as well as seemingly random acts of miraculous healing are among its main manifestations, but there are others and these include:

• Resolving issues that seem unresolvable through its infinite compassion and wise catalytic power.       
• Responding to an intention to open to new ways of living.
• Comforting those in need, when called forward with heartfelt prayer.
• Its presence points to the ripeness and willingness of embodied consciousness to evolve. When that is present it assists in the opening of the heart to allow divine love to be more deeply embodied.
• It can and does step in into the space created by karmic clearing, but not always.  
• It is a branch of the path of evolution and, like karma, has its own core components, the signature notes of which are Love and Grace. 

Though I briefly wrote in January about a journey I took at Chichen Itza, on a cool December morning last year in the building energies before the Winter Solstice (Pilgrimage of the Heart: Mexico and the Mayans) I am referring to it again because it is a quintessential example of transformation through the path of Grace.  I gathered with other bright spirits as part of a group called forward for planetary service, through Qala, Enlightened Masters and Mayan Ancestors.  In the potent energies around sunrise, they took us on a spiritual journey to open pathways for a powerful activation to occur.  That morning I had no idea that the restrictions that I felt in my heart were anything other than karmic issues that were calling to be cleared. I assumed they were indications of more layers relating to issues around cruelty, worthlessness, and self-hatred that I had been meeting all year, rather than the birthing pains of an impending shift in consciousness.  But as we traveled far out in the galactic energies that are accessible from this sacred site, I felt bands loosen from around my heart like the powerful uncoiling of tension cables ready to break free, and I saw for myself that the journey back through the heart has to affect every dimension, domain, or world of existence – in fact, wherever we hold our consciousness – as we return to our true nature as Source. 

As we energetically traveled out through the galactic suns I could feel the stretch on my energy field, indicative of the extreme potency that was being called forward from our group in order to assist in the task at hand.  With each upward shift in gears I was burning off denser frequencies so that different aspects of my field could engage.  I was meeting myself at ‘stations’ along the way from existences that did not have their origin on this planet.  My vibration was increasing and I was being re-birthed by Grace in as much pure consciousness as I could handle, a state that continued until my chest started to feel like the air was being expelled out of me, and in that moment my heart exploded with a freedom and joy that rushed through me.  I was moved to tears with the enormity of what had transpired, and filled with boundless gratitude towards Qala and the beings we were working with for presenting me with this opportunity to evolve.

Having had this incredible experience of being touched by Grace only days before, I had no expectation of another profound shift on arrival at Palenque, even though as every day ended I’d say to myself ‘That was why I came – THAT experience today’.  Everyday!  My time at Palenque was no different.  As I journeyed through time and galactic space, I joined with the being that I was in Mayan times, acknowledging, embracing, and forgiving all the cruelty he had inflicted in his life, which had turned to separation, self-hatred, and shame in mine.  In doing so my spirit soared and my field relaxed as unconditional love and understanding – compassion and wisdom – flooded us. The completion of this karmic strand involved a meeting of our hearts, in which I welcomed that ancient part of me back, reuniting with him and all the components involved in that separation of consciousness.  As the movement went through my heart I felt my energy transform into the most brilliant golden light which then cascaded down through all my cells, I am sure forever changing my DNA. Once again, I was blown away by the personal significance of the event that had just occurred and by the feelings of relief and joy that coursed through my body as I let go of the denser frequencies that the karma of that lifetime had seeded in my being, and which I had held for hundreds of years.

From my experiences to date, I am amazed at how karmic obscurations and distortions of truth seed themselves through so many different existences. It’s daunting enough to look at all the issues that we have here and now, let alone what might also sit in different galaxies, universes, and reality structures.  It makes responding to the impulse to truly commit to a path of evolution, no matter what it reveals, all the more incredible.  Perhaps that’s why I started this journey of awakening ignorant of the bigger picture – just moving forward step by step, led back to the heart by Grace to live in a different, fuller, more loving way,

For information about Sri’Ama Qala and her work, visit her website, www.qalasriama.com.

©2011 Sarah Lidsey. All rights reserved. www.sarahlidsey.com

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