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48
HERMANN KUHN
SUTRAS
There is no reason to regard our body and its experiences as something base, bad or less evolved, as many religions do. And it is of no use to regard as valid only those activities that are directed towards spiritual goals.
A desire to turn towards new, more advanced levels of existence arises automatically when we completed the themes of the stage of development we presently reside in.13 But as long as this has not happened yet, we should experience our bodily life without reserve. Any judgement that we might accumulate guilt and sin by this is entirely baseless.
Real growth is caused - irrespective of any concepts we might believe in - always and exclusively by the removal of karmic blocks - i.e. by the completion of the themes of life we felt attracted to - never by reaching a particular 'final' material status.
Yet real growth - the steady and stable expansion of our range of experience - can only take place, if we do not restrict our consciousness by binding new karma. Freedom from karmic attachment is ensured if we orient our actions along the patterns described in the chapter 'FIVE FREEDOMS'.
Life without action is no valid alternative for us, because we then could not release our existing karmic matter (our attachment to certain themes of life) through action. Life without action would cement our present karmic state and also our current stage of development (gunasthana) into eternal permanence. - The binding of karmic matter to our consciousness (bandha)
Karma is not an inaccessible, mystic force whose inexplicable mercy we are subjected to. Karma is a kind of (subtle) matter that is present everywhere in the cosmos and differs fundamentally from the inherent nature of our consciousness (jiva). Though it
13 Persistent feelings of boredom and general discontent are usually indi
cations that our consciousness is already searching for new levels of experience.
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