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KARMA - THE MECHANISM
APPLICATION
Only two gunasthanas (no. 1 and 4) permit an indefinite duration of stay. All other stages last for only a limited time. This structure gives the gunasthanas an intrinsic dynamism that coaxes us to gain freedom from all obstructions that restrict the full unfoldment of our consciousness.
1 - We experience the first stage of development (mithyaktva) as a
state in which we are deeply absorbed by our convictions, emotions, our activities and by the events the world confronts us with.
Though we might think we fully control our life, any closer and deeper look reveals a drastically different picture: - How often do we feel victimized by events we are hardly able
to bear, let alone control? - How often do we experience that any stability we worked so hard to achieve either breaks down in the end, - or solidifies our life so thoroughly that nothing is capable of moving us any more? - How often are we really satisfied by the situation we are in or by the things we do and feel - and for how long does our satisfaction usually last? - How often do our emotions tumble us from highest happiness to deepest misery (and vice versa) in one single second without us having much influence on this process? - How often is our attention either arbitrarily drifting from ob
ject to object like a butterfly in the wind? - How often are we so deeply absorbed by one particular concept, emotion or event that we hardly notice the world outside this dense envelope. We might feel perfectly normal and clear in this environment, but this is only due to the fact that we know no alternate state that may introduce us to a different and more satisfying pattern
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