No better pleasure than...

In Holland we have this old saying that goes like:

There is no better pleasure that the pleasure out of someones else's suffering.

It means that one of the best forms of pleasure is been giving by someone tripping and falling down of someone walking in to a lantern.

I have to admit that most of the times I also have to laugh when something of this happens, even before knowing if the person is doing fine or not. It's like a first response. And when you found out that the person who walked in to the lantern is doing fine, you can laugh even harder without feeling guilty. I think every one has for at least once found himself in a situation like this. 

Why am I talking about this dutch saying? Well, when I was writing the theoretic part of the second level of my English course I was explaining about Karma.

Before getting to the point, let me just explain a little bit about Karma. We can distinguish three kinds of Karma:

1. Karma of action: this is connected to everything we do.

2. Karma of words: this is connected to everything we say and express. 

3. Karma of consciousness : this is connected to everything we think

Now you have to understand that those types of Karma do influence each other. If I like someone I can want to buy that person some flowers (Karma of consciousness) what will result in my really buying them and give them to that person (Karma of action). Normally the sequence of the Karma goes bottom-up.  You first think, that you speak and then you act. 

In my example I used a nice and friendly situation, but what about a negative example. I don't like my neighbor (Karma of consciousness), I'm telling this to my friends (Karma of words) what increases the feeling I have. The next day my neighbor parks his car to close to mine and I use it to get into a fight with him, verbally of maybe physically (Karma of action). 

Ok, getting back to the dutch saying. Getting pleasure out of someone else's suffering causes a destructive Karma. Who wants to have a destructive Karma? What is the use of laughing about someone else's suffering?

So, if we like the pleasure out of someone else's suffering (Karma of consciousness) we can provoke that pleasure by words (Karma of words) or by our actions (Karma of action). You never tried to trip someone? Gave someone a little push so he or she would bump in to a lantern?

I think this type of pleasure is something ridiculous and something we were impregnated with since we were a kid, because everyone around us did so. But if, for a moment, you stop and become conscious about what you really laughing about, you see that it in fact is a strange habit. Yes, a habit, because normally you laugh without being able to stop and you don't even know why you actually laugh. 

If we want to change and stop this destructive Karma, you can try to 'fight' the Karma of action, but more difficult but way more effective is to change your Karma of consciousness as this is the root of the problem.

How to change your Karma of consciousness? There are several ways to do so. First you can use Reiki to treat this imbalance. You can also make use of meditation. If today you found yourself in this type of situation and you want to change it you can get in a meditation and get back to the moment in witch you found yourself in the situation and you felt that your thoughts started the chain. In your meditation you can change the thoughts you had at that moment and relive the situation in this new context, the outcome will be totally different. By doing this type of meditation you will be changing this little details in your unconsciousness so for the next time your thoughts will be different. This way you can change your Karma of consciousness and everything that comes next.

Prisoner of your own pain

I just read a small story in a book from Ramiro Calle (Calle, 2006) about two young people who, after their country lost the war, were held prison in a concentration camp for two years. After they got out they both went their own ways and only saw each other after ten years. They had the following conversation:

- How are you doing, my friend?

- Fine, even though I cannot forget what we have been through. And you?

- You'll never forget such a thing, however I've got over it.

- I didn't. I'm still full of hatred towards our guards. There's not a day passing by on which I don't hate them with the full force of my being.

- Oh, my dear friend! The worst isn't the two years you've been prison in the concentration camp,  it's the ten years you've still been prison afterwards.

This small story is so true. I think we all have experienced it. Something happened to you and in stead of going on with your live, you keep rewinding the situation in your head, feeling all the pain over and over. You live it again and again and again, until you get attached to the pain, sometimes you even start to feel comfortable with the pain, the pain becomes you or, for at least, that's what you think. You're starting to identify with that pain.

This is what Eckhart Tolle calls 'the painbody'. The identification with your pain becomes so strong, that when you think about letting go of the pain it feels like letting go of your identity. But you always have to remember that you are not your pain, you are not your emotions, nor your thoughts. You are simply you. 

To forgive, but not to forget. To forget is not needed, but letting go of your pain and your hatred towards other people who hurt you is an enormous relieve, the burden will fall right of your shoulders and everything becomes light again. It might even feel that you have a blank space in your heart where earlier the hatred seated, but if you just let it be, this blank space will fill itself up with love and peace.