David Godman, in Ramana Maharshi's 'Be As You Are' defines Karma thus
"In its most popular form it states that there
is a universal accounting system in which each individual must
experience the consequences of all his actions [karmas]; good actions
bring good results and bad actions inevitably result in suffering to the
one who does them."
It is always 'someone' that has Karma, whether it be 'good karma' or 'bad karma'. There has to be an identity there, a 'me'.
Your true nature is Awareness / Consciousness / Presence -
Awareness and it is not personal. There is no separate individual there
at all. No-one there to have any kind of Karma at all.
Your true nature is Awareness / Consciousness / Presence -
Awareness and is Non Dual. Non Dual means that it is not within the
pairs of opposites. In the absence of Duality it is not possible to
have good karma or bad karma - that is in the Dualistic world. Your
true nature is NonDual - so there is no karma.
On the other hand, it is normal as a human to believe that you are a
separate individual - the 'me'. The 'me' is a sense of self that we
were not born with. It is not a part of the natural state. The 'me' is a
self image that developed in early childhood with the beginnings of
conceptual thought.
The 'me' is a conceptual image of who we think we are but it is no
longer regarded as an "image of who we are" - it is the actual 'me'.
This is 'me'. This is how 'I' am. The 'me' is the product of thought.
The mind itself operates within the pairs of opposites and is by
its very nature Dualistic. The self image, the 'me' is Dualistic in its
essential nature as it is the creation of Dualistic thought.
So that poses a not very difficult question - "Who is it that has Karma?"
The answer is that is it the 'me', the one who has a sense of being
a separate person, the one whose essential nature is Dualistic.
The 'me' has all the requirements for excellent good and bad karma,
especially the latter! The 'me' is the suffering one, so that fits
very well. It is the one who wants to escape 'bad karma' and keep 'good
karma' so that fits even more.
The solution - see that the self image, the 'me', is a fiction.
Karma depends in its entirety in the belief in the person who I think I
am - which does not happen to be true.
Our true nature is Awareness, not a dead conceptual image based on the past.
That is all.
That is the end of Karma.
Written by Mike Graham, 2 Feb 2008
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