Living in the now and karma
 

How does the philosophy of living in the now which seems so popular in spiritual circles nowadays deal with the concepts of karma and emotional baggage?

just because you are living in the now, that doesn't mean something didn't happen 'before' the now that you are currently living in, and it doesn't mean nothing will happen 'after' the now that you are currently living in. It more means you are like a train on a tracks, where 'now' is changes from moment to moment...

This NOW in which you are now living is the karma which you seek. The NOW is always present - there has never been another time - . Everything you and everybody else has ever done combined with all that everything that has ever happened has resulted in YOU being in the NOW. The person you are, where you were born, where you live, your height, hair, toes, parents, aunties, the trees around your house are all the results of all that has ever been thought, said and done.
Karma doesn't exist in some sort of cloud - it's the result we all get by action(s).

Not so much "popular" as it is the "only reality that exists." The past is gone, the future doesn't exist yet (or ever), and every human being wakes up in the morning on this exact same planet, in this exact same present moment of existence. That is our collective reality. Living in the present is real; worrying about the past or future is illusion.

The answer to your question, the first step, is in understanding all that. If I am in the present moment, the baggage from my past doesn't actually exist. The only way that baggage exists is if I allow myself to fall back into past-consciousness mode, and then drag that baggage with me into the present. All the wrongs I did, and the wrongs that people did to me in the past, cannot affect this present moment unless I choose to allow it.

It's a concept that puzzles me still. Sure, one could take a cue from psychedilic trippers - asking them the time so often got the response "Well, it's now obviously, how can it be any other time?"

So we all live in the now but how this becomes a spiritual issue of itself eludes me. The future so far as our perception goes has yet to come but we can count on it being there, reaching out and we have to account for it. If I don't do my shopping for tomorrow and on, I'll go hungry! If I don't write out a skeletal play list for a reception for which I've been hired I'll arrive (at that point in the future) unprepared.

If it means living instant by instant that's fine for a "task based" approach to life...as the instants pass you just keep busy with something or nothing but if you're "goal based" you acknowledge the existence of the future because you've set something to achieve and steer your effort towards it. I think either way can be reconciled with karma (if my reckoning with karma is right).

Peculiar... It smells of word-play to me.

♥

Goal-based is healthy future envisioning while living in the reality of the now. The reality of the present is that some things in life do in fact require looking and planning ahead.

As with all things in this forum, this is really about learning to transform one's dysfunctional relationship with these concepts (fear and worry about the future) into holistic relationship (happy future goals). And there's another key: these concepts are not "either or." It's learning to work with them with this integrated understanding.

Also... even normal, everyday, common-sense future planning can be approached in a dysfunctional way, or in a healthy way. Dysfunctional would be to get upset (loss of equanimity) when one's future plans don't work out as anticipated. Whereas nurturing a now or present relationship to the outcome means accepting what happens (soul-balance) regardless of that outcome.

Living in the eternal now is said to be a state where you're no longer under the influence of karma and egoic beliefs system. It's a very rare state i think, so few people are able to live in the now because it means the death of the ego and living in complete alignement with the Soul.

This makes rational sense to me, where living in the now is the result of purifying all karma and ego.

Me too, I'm happy to find other souls questioning this one :smile: