Jerry Astrology

In last week’s post, I wrote about my guru’s teaching to interpret things within the right context. This week, I wanted to take a zoomed out view around “context” by touching on the topic of karma.

Karma in sanskrit means “action” or “doing”, and karma-phala refers to the “fruits of our actions”. However, in today’s context, the use of the word karma usually refers more to karma-phala instead – what we are getting based on our past actions. Karma is also often described as the “law of cause and effect”. 

Within Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, living beings on Earth incarnate due to our karma accumulated from past lives, and we will continue to reincarnate here until we have paid off our karmic debts. This takes many lives, as in each life, we are creating new karma as we pay off old ones. 

Over our many life times, we all gradually learn how to minimise the creation of karma. I like to think that spiritual development, at its core, is all about this – minimising the creation of karma. 

In every situation that life throws at us, both pleasant and unpleasant, how can we embrace it with steadiness of the heart and clarity of the mind, then respond appropriately. Just enough to avoid regret – be it having done too little or too much.

My guru uses the analogy of a bank account when he taught us about karma. We all have an account of karma that contains all the karma we have accumulated over all of our past lives. When we incarnate on this Earth, we “withdraw” a portion of karma from this account to pay off in this particular life, and this portion of karma is shown in our astrological birth chart. 

Most of the time, we choose a “balanced” portion of karma to pay off, so that we can have a mix of blessings (good karma) and sufferings (bad karma) in each life. Sometimes, in certain incarnations, we may have chosen a very skewed portion of karma, giving rise to a life time of suffering and traumatic experiences, or a life time of peaceful and enjoyable experiences. 

Yet, in every birth chart, the same planets exist. Benefic planets that bring blessings such as Jupiter and Venus exist in every birth chart. Malefic planets that causes suffering such as Mars and Saturn also exist in every birth chart. That is also to say, even the person with the most fortunate and blessed life experiences some suffering; and the person with the most difficult life experiences some blessing.

As astrologers, our role is to help our clients understand, come to terms with, and navigate their karma. In a way, our intention is not too different from us wanting to help a family member or a friend to overcome difficulties, make better decisions and have better life. 

I have a good friend who asked me about going into a business partnership. His chart indicated troubles with business partners, and so I advised him not to. Almost a year later, he came back asking if he should terminate the partnership as things were not going well. 

I had a strange mix of feelings at that point. But what I took away was, despite our best intentions and efforts, be it as an astrologer, a friend or a family member, everyone has their own karma and their own journey to make. Sometimes, we just need to let things happen. 

Easier said than done of course, especially if the person is close to us, like a partner, a parent or a child. The experience of “letting things happen” can range from nerve wrecking to frustrating, from fearfulness to resentment. 

But “letting things happen” doesn’t mean we should keep silent when we know things will go awry. Because when we are in relationship with someone, we become a part of their karma. What we say or do, our behaviours and our very own karma, all serve to form a part of the other person’s karma. 

Being who we are, we should say what we need to say, and convince as much as we need to, then let go because the rest is no longer up to us. 

If the person’s karma allows him to heed yourself advice, he would have avoided some suffering. 

And if the person makes the very decision we suggested them not to, well, feeling frustrated and resentful are not uncommon, and they are powerful emotions. Yet if we care enough, we can continue to be a pillar of support for them to tide through this decision that they make. Or if this has happened one time too many, then us deciding to keep our distance from then on is also our (and the other person’s) karma. 

As I end here, I like to offer a Chinese proverb:

谋事在人，成事在天 – The planning is up to us mortals, but the outcome is up to the heavens.

May we all have the steadiness of the heart, clarity of the mind, and guidance from the divine to let things happen.

namo buddhaya 🙏

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