Episode 10: The 12 Laws of Karma

[00:00:00] Garrett: Welcome to grounded in love, episode 10 where we explore conscious living and loving. We are your hosts, Garrett and Erin.
We had some technical difficulties with this episode, so we're going to start in the middle of our karma talk, where we discuss the 12 laws of karma. We start with the first law and we work our ways through the 12 laws with accompanying discussions.
So enjoy, apologies for the absence of the beginning of the episode. But hopefully there's enough content here that you'll enjoy it regardless.
[00:01:09] Garrett: If you just look at 12 laws of karma, you'll find them. The first one is the great law, which is the law of cause and effect. So,
[00:01:13] Erin: So that's like what whatever you put out there, we'll come back.
[00:01:17] Garrett: Right. The next one is the law of creation.
[00:01:20] Erin: I think that's cool because to me sometimes with the idea of manifestation and everything is we want to think all the thoughts and do our positive affirmations and say you're thinking you want all these things to happen, but really the law of creation is life doesn't happen by itself.
We need to make it happen. You're going to take action to, to make it. I don't know. How do you read that?
[00:01:50] Garrett: I think a lot of the ancient texts were adverse to people being sloths. Hmm. They really did not want people to sit around and do nothing. So there is this across the board, from Hindus to Buddhists to many of those Eastern related texts and philosophies, they did not want people to shirk from their responsibilities in life.
And so part of that was the belief that your karma creates your responsibility in life. So, when you are a busboy in Western culture, and that's all you've done your whole life, or you're a server, or you're a CEO, or whatever it could be, that was your calling. You were supposed to be in that work role.
It's important to remember in those ancient times, there was a caste system, meaning you were either noble or you were saints or you were a peasant. There wasn't much middle class either back in the day. There's more middle class now.
So there really was a big disparity between a laborer peasant and a noble family. And so part of the text was encouraging people to do their work and love what work they were doing. Meaning if you were born into a peasant class and you were born a farmer, love the farming that you're doing. Because in those times there wasn't much mobility available.
You couldn't just be a farmer and become noble. That's not how it worked back then. And in some societies, that's still how it is. So I think that's important to take that context into perspective when you read some of these ancient texts. You can see why there was a belief of accepting where you are in your life.
Now, it also is a truth, in my opinion, that accepting where you're at in life leads to more happiness and contentment and peace because you aren't consistently struggling to find out the next thing that you have to do. So, although it can be interpreted as, well, that was written to satisfy this time period of wealth disparity.
I think that that's partially true. But there's also significant truth to accepting where you're at. And what your life was born to. Some people were born into rough situations and you can fight it or you can accept that that's what happened to you and you can continue to advance Forward.
[00:05:06] Erin: Mm hmm. Yeah and I think with the law of creation it's basically saying we're part of this grand universe, and we're here to act, I mean, we're here to create.
[00:05:21] Garrett: We're here to create. Yeah.
[00:05:22] Garrett: Yeah, exactly. We're here to be a part of the universe. We didn't be born into this place to not participate.
[00:05:31] Erin: Right.
[00:05:31] Garrett: So the next law is the law of humility
[00:05:35] Erin: So this is: one must accept something in order to change it
[00:05:41] Garrett: Interesting.
[00:05:43] Erin: Yeah,
[00:05:43] Garrett: So is that similar to what we just talked about and then the creation bit too?
[00:05:48] Erin: It seems like it
[00:05:50] Garrett: To be able to cease your attachments to things, you have to be able to accept them first. You have to accept the struggle or the pains that you have in your life, you have to accept the history that you have. If you aren't where you want to be, you have to accept that you are where you're at right now and where you want to be is just an illusion.
[00:06:15] Erin: Yeah, anything else is resistance and we all know how that goes. Resisting is suffering.
So except where you're at and then you move forward.
[00:06:27] Garrett: Yeah, and I think this also goes with judgments in a way.
[00:06:32] Erin: Okay.
[00:06:33] Garrett: When you see somebody that you believe is below your consciousness or whatever ranking system you've come up with.
Are you humble or do you have enough humility to see that person as they are as and what's underneath them? Which is their true self, which is their true self. Beautiful, perfect self. Can you see that instead of just seeing the negative traits in someone?
[00:07:01] Erin: Okay.
[00:07:02] Garrett: Next law is the law of growth.
That's an interesting one.
[00:07:07] Erin: Yeah. wherever you go, there you are.
It is we who must change and not the people, places or things around us if we want to grow spiritually. So essentially it sounds like it is taking responsibility of yourself to grow and not looking outside of yourself for that growth.
[00:07:29] Garrett: It's interesting that the next law is the law of responsibility.

[00:07:32] Erin: It sure is.
[00:07:33] Garrett: So, the law of growth and the law of responsibility are tied together. I think that in the modern era, taking radical responsibility is so important.
[00:07:46] Erin: I absolutely love that term.
[00:07:48] Garrett: You have to be radical about taking responsibility. In my life, when I feel you upset me about something, I have to take radical responsibility to say, it's not Erin, I am upset.
Something that she did triggered me being upset, perhaps, but it is my thing.
[00:08:16] Erin: It's the cutting board again.
[00:08:17] Garrett: What does it mean about my life? What is the lack of validation or the lack of control or the lack of whatever it could be upsetting me?
[00:08:30] Erin: Yeah, the law of responsibility is exactly that.
If there's something wrong in one's life, there's something wrong in them. It's, it's not the other person. It's never the other person.
[00:08:43] Garrett: And the next step after taking radical responsibility for every part of your life is growth. You cannot grow if you're constantly pointing the finger about why you're miserable.
And why your life is not working out the way that you think it should be. You cannot grow without taking that responsibility.
[00:09:06] Erin: Right. We only have ourselves, we only have our own minds, our own self that we have control over. And so that's the only thing we can change in order to grow.
[00:09:21] Garrett: Right. Is ourselves.
So karma goes hand in hand with the next law, which is the law of connection. And that's everything in our universe is connected. In our universe it's connected through energy. And the way that it's bound together is through consciousness. Consciousness can be a term used for God, or it could be used for the only thing that truly is out there that we will never quite understand. And we will only be able to feel at times. The law of connection is, because our energy is all connected together, this is why karma takes place. The energy that you put out interacts with the other energy of the universe that it's connected to, and it comes back.
[00:10:10] Erin: Yeah, each step leads to the next step and so forth and so on, with every action will lead to the next action, which will lead to the next, which leads to the next, and it's all connected.
[00:10:23] Garrett: This next one might drive some multitaskers a little crazy, because it says the law of focus. Which is saying that you cannot focus on two things at the same time. And this is very important in yoga practice. Is the ability to point your mind in one direction at one time. In other words, do one thing at one time.
[00:10:51] Erin: So, don't read the news while you eat your cereal. Which, unfortunately, I think, is such a pleasing thing for so many of us out there.
[00:11:03] Garrett: It is. It's not that those things are a bad way of living. But you can see what is happening to your mind when you're doing two things at once.
You're focusing more on the news or what you're reading on your phone or responding to, and you're not focusing on the food that's nourishing and loving your body.
And so you're not getting that connection to the food that you're eating. The food is nourishment. Many of these plants that you're eating have care and love for you. And although you can't always feel it when you're ingesting it, that love is being ingested into your body.
Processed foods, of course, work differently because they are not real foods oftentimes. But real foods are nourishing your body.
So focus comes down to trying to avoid doing two things at one time, and instead of focusing on the one thing that you are doing in that moment.
[00:12:11] Erin: Right, that's so hard for us.
[00:12:14] Garrett: I think it gets harder and harder over time because we have more and more ways to distract us. The Law of Giving and Hospitality.
[00:12:24] Erin: What is this one about?
[00:12:27] Garrett: I'm not sure. I haven't read it yet.
[00:12:28] Erin: So the kind of byline on that is our behavior should match our thoughts and actions. So essentially, I feel like we should do good unto others.
[00:12:40] Garrett: Yeah, this one has a completely different meaning in the article I'm reading, so you can, you can interpret these laws, of course, in different ways. This one says, if one believes something to be true, then sometime in their life, they will be called upon to demonstrate that truth.
I have no idea how that relates to the law of giving and humility, since I see the law of giving and hospitality as being a selfless servant to society and people that are in your stead.
[00:13:14] Erin: So yeah. It's also saying that this is where you put into practice the things that you claim that you are.
[00:13:23] Garrett: Yeah, the law of here and now we won't spend too much time on because we talk about that all the time. Living in the present. The law of change, history repeats itself until we learn to change. This is very important for spiritual growth and personal growth and reincarnation purposes.
If you live your life unconsciously, and you always live your life unconsciously, then your unconscious energy is going to carry on through your death. Your energy is going to go somewhere that unconscious energy is going to continue. Where is it going to end up? Well, if you reincarnate, you're going to be stuck in the same place that you were before, which is very unconscious.
You have to start becoming aware at some point in your life. And that will start changing the energy of that awareness will change the way that you are continued after your death.
[00:14:29] Erin: So also, this concept can be put into the idea of if you need to learn a lesson, you're, doing something that is like, okay, you keep doing the same selfish act or whatever it might be.
The lesson is going to keep coming back to you over and over and over again through situations until you learn that thing. Whether you're unconscious or conscious, right? Because if you're unconscious and you keep coming across this thing, finally, you're like, okay, I, I keep acting in this way, and I don't like it, it's not good, you determine that you need to change, and you change.
And so then you're not going to be hit with that same lesson over and over in different ways.
[00:15:16] Garrett: This is where unconscious people generally blame everything else for what's going on. It's a habit and it's the way it is and it's okay. More people that have more awareness within them, see a situation and say, what is the universe trying to tell me? How do I see why this is happening and what does it mean when it happens? And why am I attaching in whatever way to this thing?
So radical responsibility ties into awareness and that you stop pointing the finger at the world and start looking inward.
Next law is the law of patience and reward.
[00:16:05] Erin: You're supposed to be patient.
[00:16:07] Garrett: The Bhagavad Gita talks about doing one's work without expectation of reward and success. So patience means giving up the idea that something needs to transpire. That the action that you're taking, whether it's a good karma or bad karma action, will take care of itself in due time, and it's not something for you to obsess about or force.
[00:16:40] Erin: Okay, it does require persistence, you have to persist in order to get the reward if there is a reward per se.
[00:16:50] Garrett: I can see somebody doing something good for someone, listening to this and then going out and trying to do good things for somebody, nice, kind things. And then be treated really poorly that same day later on.
And be like, you know, the hell, I did good things and I got treated poorly.
[00:17:09] Erin: Okay. So you need to keep doing good things?
[00:17:12] Garrett: Well, it takes away the transactional element of karma.
[00:17:16] Erin: Right.
[00:17:17] Garrett: And which is why we talked about it doesn't mean it all happens right now in this lifetime. It can carry on.
It can carry through. And so the patience is, hey, you will be rewarded through karma because that's the way karma works. But it might not be right now.
[00:17:37] Erin: Yeah. Okay. Think there's one more, right?
[00:17:40] Garrett: One more. The law of significance and inspiration.
[00:17:45] Erin: Rewards are a result of the energy and effort.
We put into it. Basically, whatever you put into something, you're going to get back from it, however much effort or however much love or is that what we're looking at here?
[00:17:59] Garrett: I like to look at it as a way of knowing that whatever you're doing in the world has significance. Because every little thought matters.
No matter how small you think it is, your thought and your action matters. It creates energy and that energy is part of all of the connectedness to the world. So it's very important to feel like you have significance even though you might not see that and it might be hard to tell.
[00:18:32] Erin: I wonder why do we feel so insignificant yet?
Everything means so much. Why is there such a disconnect in that?
[00:18:44] Garrett: I think it's because we tell ourselves that we don't have that much power. Because we see the world through the lens of we haven't accomplished these things yet, and maybe we never will, we don't have enough talent to do X, Y, Z that maybe we thought we wanted to pursue at one point in time. The world just pummels us. And it looks like, in a certain perspective, that we're not powerful, that we have very little meaning sometimes to the world and the environment.
[00:19:24] Erin: Yeah, I guess that's just part of the being here in this form. It's kind of part and parcel of the ego and the whole experience is we feel little.
[00:19:35] Garrett: Yeah, and the culture matters a lot. Right western culture matters a lot, right? It's built in an egoic way and it's meant to show you that if you succeed, in quotes, which means have money, buy more stuff, acquire more things, be more powerful. If you succeed, then you are important. But if you don't live up to the American dream, then you are not contributing to society.
Easter culture is very different. You can sit on the side of the road and meditate. And people will put food in your hands to feed you. And they'll take care of you because they realize whatever you're doing is very important it has a meaning to that culture. So you don't have to be these different things.
But once you start to become more westernized. You do feel like you have to be these certain things and then when you don't you feel very powerless.
[00:20:46] Erin: It's pretty wild how far we've come in the western world in this capacity. It's like a train that went off the rails and just kept going at full speed.
[00:21:00] Garrett: Capitalism, although I believe you can be conscious through capitalism, You Capitalism is based on the idea that there are winners and losers.
Mm hmm. And the more that you dominate your competition, the more you win. So we've just grown up in this environment of, you have to win.
My son can't enjoy his soccer games because the outcome of loss is so upsetting to him, that he can't even enjoy playing the game. I've tried to help him see this. But he can't see it. And it's because culturally it's so ingrained. Like you go to school, you need to have good grades. You must do things and be successful.
[00:21:59] Erin: How do we break this cycle?
[00:22:03] Garrett: I think all we can do is be more aware ourselves. And as we become more aware ourselves, the collective awareness becomes greater.
[00:22:14] Erin: It's the, I don't know, fifth law of karma?
[00:22:19] Garrett: The connectivity.
[00:22:21] Erin: The change one, that you can only change yourself. You're not going to change all society. The only thing you can do is change yourself. And then doing that that will have an impact on everything.

[00:22:37] Garrett: Right. Most important thing you can do is be more aware. Take on more of that responsibility to see things in your life when they upset you, or when you feel uncomfortable or painful, bad.
See those things. That is best thing that you can do for society.
And if you're interested in this podcast, you're doing that. You're exploring these things about yourself already. And you are starting to awaken, and that's only helping the whole of civilization.
[00:23:12] Garrett: We talked about the 12 laws of karma and interpreted them in our own way through our communication. And I think we've done a fairly decent job of communicating those.
[00:23:27] Erin: I've really enjoyed talking about karma today if you haven't been to our website, we do have all of our podcasts that we've done so far up there.
And we thank you so much for listening.
[00:23:41] Garrett: Yeah. We thank you a lot for your continued attention to the podcast. And on the website, if you have questions about personal growth, spiritual growth, whatever type of growth, you have questions about that for yourself, submit them to us, we want to hear your questions and we want to be able to explore them and either respond to you directly, or perhaps even talk about them as a topic on the podcast.
So, please do interact with us. We would love to hear from you.
[00:24:12] Erin: Thank you.