As we embark on the spiritual journey and turn our attention to the ingrained patterns and core narratives that tightly grip us, a unique set of issues and circumstances unfold. These challenges are personal, ranging from health and relationship struggles to financial and career difficulties. Some grapple with feelings of unworthiness, while others battle anger, aggression, entitlement, and a relentless drive to dominate. You’re not your karmic bundle. Beyond mindfulness, these patterns aren't self-made; rather, they are somehow passed down through a blend of childhood conditioning and genetic inheritance, further shaped by our adult experiences.
This amalgamation of tendencies, beliefs, limitations, and challenges, which I refer to as our karmic bundle, is essentially the set of circumstances inherent to this particular human life. We didn't choose it, and we certainly aren't to blame for it, though there might be a mistaken belief that it's our fault. If we're on the path of awakening, however, we bear the ultimate responsibility of acknowledging and releasing its hold over us. Frequently, this bundle is handed down through generations, unquestioned patterns, issues, and tendencies transmitted among family members until someone, perhaps a spiritual teacher, possesses the courage and tenacity to confront it without judgment or identification.
In its deepest sense, our karmic bundle becomes our most demanding teacher, designed to elicit reactivity, causing suffering and stress that, in turn, propels us to seek a deeper identity beyond meditation and the separate self. It's impersonal, although it often feels intensely personal, and it doesn't define us. It's not a being, but a mechanism running on autopilot. The more we perceive this bundle not as our defining essence but as an object within the awareness that we are, the easier it becomes to release its hold once and for all.
Expanding the perspective, our karmic bundle also encompasses talents, skills, emotional sensitivities, and psychological strengths that enrich our human experience, making us wiser, more successful, and more compassionate beings. Yet, these, too, are not our personal creations; they are the gifts we receive, akin to the burdens we carry, which do not truly define who we are. If, beyond meditation, Stephan Bodian's teachings on dzogchen and advaita resonate with you, consider that you are not your karmic bundle, whether positive or negative. Instead, you are the ground of awareness—spirit or consciousness—beyond limitation or definition, welcoming whatever arises as an expression of its very own essence.
This story was originally published on the Stephan Bodian website and has been republished here with permission and a few changes.
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