When we are feeling troubled we often lament the fact that no one or nothing seems to be able to help us. We look first to our friends and relatives, but unfortunately they are unable to do much for us. Of course, they can offer us advice and sympathy, but when it comes to actually helping us out of our funk there is only so much they can do. Why is this? Because they simply cannot reach inside of us and understand exactly what we are going through. Everyone has troubles, but no one is able to relate specifically to another’s troubles because we are each uniquely made. And so more often than not we have no choice but to ride out whatever we are feeling on our own.
And there is a reason for this. We are all here to work out and give expression to our karma. And the only way to make progress in this pursuit is to go through what we go through on our own, even if that involves some pretty intense suffering at times. In other words, suffering is the fire that burns away our karmic resistance. But lest we despair of these dynamics, let us take a look at a few aspects of our earthly environment that were put in place precisely for the purpose of encouraging us on our karmic journey. One of these environmental aspects is plant life, and the other is bird life.
This may strike us as strange. For we may wonder: If our fellow humans cannot understand and relate to what we are going through, how can non-human life forms such as plants and birds do so? Wouldn’t their ability to relate be even more limited? But the fact is that these beneficial aspects of our environment can help us, only not so such with understanding (and certainly not with advice) but rather through imparting wisdom, knowledge, and perspective. They can help us by the example of how they live.
When we are troubled one of the first things that happens is that we lose our perspective. We hurt so badly that we feel like the world is about to end. But one thing that both plants and birds teach us is constancy. If they could talk they might say: “Life goes on, my friend. The key is to simply accept whatever life brings our way without struggling or fighting.” Plants and birds are also totally grounded in the present moment. They don’t harp on the past or worry about the future, which we often do when troubled. Their message is: “It’s always today!” So while, these non-human life forms may not be able to relate to our human struggles, they still have much wisdom to teach us.
Plants are stoic and silent. They are not attached to whether they live or die. They live while they live, and they die when it’s time to die. They neither question nor lament this aspect of their being. In fact, some plants live only for a short season. They are born (from seed) in the spring or summer and die with the first frost of autumn. They live their plant life to the full (whether that fullness is flowering or bearing fruit) and then depart in a trail of glory.
Birds, on the other hand, are merry, playful, and exceedingly joyful. Is this because they happen to be in the midst of benign circumstances or feeling especially good? Of course not. Birds are merry and joyful all the time. It is their perpetual way of being. They sing pretty much non-stop, and they sing about nothing. We too sing but we rarely sing for no reason. We may sing because we are feeling good or are trying to express ourselves, or perhaps because we have been encouraged to do so by others who think we are gifted and talented. But clearly singing is not our perpetual way of being. And so, birds can teach us a great deal about true joy. They can also teach us about freedom.
For us human beings, freedom is a concept that we hold dear, but being free is not something that we necessarily are. In fact, much of the time when we are troubled it is because our personal sense of freedom has been violated and impinged upon. For example, we might be feeling that in a certain social situation we do not have the freedom to be fully ourselves. We might feel boxed in by the actions and attitudes of others. And sometimes our freedoms are violated by an outward form of enslavement or oppression, such as being held in a prison or being persecuted on account of our nationality or race. Tragically, these kinds of violations are still extant and even rife in our world. But birds know of no such constraints. They flit and fly from place to place, and neither humans nor any other creature can stop them from acting out this natural impulse. Should some other creature try to harm them or incarcerate them, their instinct of flight kicks in immediately and enables them to escape all danger. And so when we are feeling as though our freedoms are being violated in any way, birds can be a great encouragement to us. They can teach us that not only is freedom possible for us; like a bird, it is our created birthright.
This being said, there is another form of freedom-violation for us human beings that most people are not even aware of. And that form is spiritual in nature.
The fact is that the vast majority of us living on this plane are not free in the spiritual sense. But because the spiritual realm is an unseen realm, most of us have no idea that our spiritual condition is actually a source of bondage for us. This is why we sometimes feel troubled but do not know the reason why. We just have a vague sense that something is not right in our life and we may even have the sense that on some level we are not free, but we do not know enough about spiritual realities to know how this could be. We think that if we are free from all outward forms of enslavement and tyranny we are free indeed, and therefore the impinging of our freedoms cannot the problem. This happens to be the case for most of us who were born into a modern western democratic country like America. Since we are a basically free society, we think that our sense of freedom is automatically guaranteed. Unfortunately, spiritual realities transcend all such outward manifestations. They apply to us regardless of which country we were born into or how much outward liberty we seem to have been given.
What then is the source of our spiritual bondage? Spiritual truth teaches that all of us who were born onto this plane of existence in this age were born because we have unresolved karma to work out. In fact, it is highly likely that we have all been born here multiple times during this age. This is not a choice we make. Rather it is dictated by our karma. Therefore in a very real sense we are all in bondage to our karma. And as long as we continue to work out our karma without resolution we will continue to be assigned to this plane lifetime after lifetime. Only when we have finally resolved our karmic assignment can we be released from its control over us. And only when we are released in this way do we become spiritually free—that is, truly free. In the East this is called being liberated from the karmic wheel. And according to the ancient traditions of their spiritual teachings this liberation is not only possible for us; it represents the ultimate fulfillment of our purpose for being born onto this plane. It brings full and complete deliverance, much like a bird enjoys when it flies off unfettered into the blue sky.
Does this mean that until we attain karmic liberation we must resign ourselves to a lifetime (or lifetimes) of bondage? Since our bondage is emanating from an unseen spiritual source (our karma), does that mean that we are powerless when it comes to freeing ourselves? No, of course not. Our karma is only binding upon us to the degree that we are unwilling to do the spiritual work (sadhana) that satisfies and resolves it. In other words, we can free ourselves from our bondage to the karmic wheel. We just need to know how to do it. We must learn the Way and then be willing to follow it. And this Way is not hidden or exclusive. Like all other spiritual realities, it is, in fact, universal and based on law.
The problem is that we have been led astray by many false teachings about spiritual life, especially those that have their source in the prominent world religions. These misleading religious teachings have to a large extent seeped into our cultures and therefore become secular and mainstream. They have infiltrated our cultural conditioning and have even become a part of the educational curriculum of the schools our children must attend according to civil (human) law.
So one of the first steps to freeing ourselves spiritually is embracing the possibility that we have been falsely taught about such matters. We must admit to ourselves that we have not only been lied to; we have been brought into captivity to those lies. For example, our cultural conditioning teaches us that if we are free from all outward forms of bondage, freedom need not be an issue for us. Therefore most of us here in the West grow up believing that we are already free—that there is no such thing as spiritual bondage. But what does the old adage say? The first step to getting out of prison is to admit that we are in one. In other words, though our karma constitutes a very real source of spiritual bondage for us, if we do not give credence to such spiritual realities we will not be able to entertain the possibility that we are not free—that we are actually in a prison called the karmic wheel. And if we cannot see that we are in such a prison, we will not be inclined to take the steps to free ourselves.
In the East, however, they not only know about karma; in many cases they prioritize their spiritual practice to learning how to free themselves from this unseen slave master. So the next step for us is the embracing of a spiritual practice that upholds this truth as a priority. And not only must we embrace such a teaching; we also must take on the prescribed disciplines that move us gradually toward liberation.
Does this imply that we here in the West are without a viable path to liberation—that we have no choice but to abandon our own traditions and cross over to an eastern practice if we hope to gain our freedom? Actually, it does not. We can take this road, of course, as many have done. But the fact is that our own western spiritual teachings, when rightly interpreted, also point to these truths. Our religions and secular cultures mislead us, but the actual source of western spiritual teaching, especially that which is found in the Bible, will not mislead us. Rather the truth presented therein has the power to set us free, just like the truth found in some of the ancient eastern teachings.
It is for this reason that many have come to the conclusion that Jesus not only had contact with some of the eastern masters in his younger years; he also learned from them and took to heart the crucial teaching about karma and the inner bondage that it imposes upon us. Thus when he later became a master teacher in his own right, he clearly upheld this important matter of needing to liberate oneself inwardly. That is what he meant when he said: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31,32). Interestingly, the western religionists that heard him speak these words were greatly offended by them. Why? Because they truly believed that freedom was not an issue for them. They believed that they were already free. Thus they had no idea what Jesus was talking about.
But it is also clear that Jesus’ language differed from that of the eastern masters. He never spoke of karma or the karmic wheel. Rather he spoke the language of his own western Judaic tradition. For example, when speaking of the inner bondage that he knew his listeners were subject to, he alluded to the inner condition that his tradition called sin. He said: “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34). And: “If you do not believe that I am he [that is, if you do not believe that I am here to teach you the truth], you will indeed die in your sins.” (John 8:24). But Jesus knew very well that sin, the way he spoke of it, and karma were the same thing. Sin was karma in a western guise. And it not only was a source of inner spiritual bondage for us; it also pointed to the need for another round of reincarnation on the karmic wheel, if in this lifetime we died in our sins—that is, failed to resolve our karmic debt.
So what all of this speaks of is that there is such a thing as inner spiritual bondage for all of us still moving in Adamic consciousness, whether we call it sin or karma. And as long as we are subject to this kind of bondage we are not free. And yet, through the teachings of the spiritual masters our situation is far from hopeless. All we have to do is to undertake a truth-infused spiritual practice and hold to it, until we experience the evolution of consciousness, out from the Adam-man and into the Christ-man. Only then will we be free indeed. Only then will we be able to soar in the heavens like a bird. Is this possible for us? Of course, it is. Have there been those practitioners that have actually become as free as a bird? Yes, there have, in fact, been many. Just listen to the words of the biblical Psalmist: “We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken; and we have escaped.” (Psalm 124:7). And what is the snare? It is our own inner condition of unresolved karma or sin.
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