For my own karma, I would like to resolve those things that I’ve felt that I could have done better. Situations I could have handled better and I just wondered what your thoughts were on that, like, if you’ve hurt people in your past that you want to redress the situation but, I just wondered what your thoughts are, because sometimes people don’t want to be, a situation, you might be in a different frame of mind but they might not be, I’m just speaking very generally, but I just mean with respect to your own karmic situation.

“Well, you know, there’s the inner and the outer. In the outer world, not everybody we’ve hurt wants to forgive us. That’s their problem. Our work is to release all that energy that’s blocked up in those intense emotions and I don’t think we need to try to forgive other people right off the bat. I think we need to first kind of calm ourselves down” – Krishna Das

Q: Thank you. I’m really enjoying being here. My first time experiencing something like this.

KD: Me, too.

Q: I wanted to ask you about karma because you were saying about, when you get a negative thought, you have different options, the way, you know, you can let it go, or get more angry, or just fall into it, so I know for myself and my past, I’ve made some, you know, I’ve been the rollercoaster where I haven’t been really thinking about my emotions and I’ve been reacting rather than going forward and there’s probably a whole lot of people that have been affected along the way.

KD: Everybody.

Q: Yeah. So, for my own karma, I would like to resolve those things that I’ve felt that I could have done better. Situations I could have handled better and I just wondered what your thoughts were on that, like, if you’ve hurt people in your past that you want to redress the situation but, I just wondered what your thoughts are, because sometimes people don’t want to be, a situation, you might be in a different frame of mind but they might not be, I’m just speaking very generally, but I just mean with respect to your own karmic situation.

KD: Yeah. Well, you know, there’s the inner and the outer. In the outer world, not everybody we’ve hurt wants to forgive us. That’s their problem. Our work is to release all that energy that’s blocked up in those intense emotions and I don’t think we need to try to forgive other people right off the bat. I think we need to first kind of calm ourselves down and learn how to kind of get back into our bodies a little bit, because with trauma we’re really blasted into outer space and it’s physical, too, I mean the adrenal glands go on alert and they’re pumping adrenaline into the body and they don’t stop. There’s not an easy way to change that physical response and then around the adrenalized self, a whole, other storylines are built up, but they’re all built up based on that wall of adrenaline so you’re already outside of yourself and building more outside of your Self, our Selves. You know? Just sit down, relax. You’re never going to figure anything out, so it’s ok. Relax. Take it easy. Let yourself Be Here. Because you’re nowhere else, might as well be here. Watch your breath come in and out. That’s going to be there no matter what you’re experiencing. And just be with that. Let it come, let it go. And then you notice it. Ok. You see, it’s not easy. But it’s the beginning of pulling that energy out of the trauma responses, out of those programs and letting it be. Sit inside yourself. And then, you reach a certain point, you may need, you want some help, you need some counseling, somebody to talk to, because talking really helps open up some of those places where we’ve been wounded and hiding from that wound ourselves. So that can be very useful. Or not. It’s completely an individualized, you know, experience. But on the other hand, people can talk all day and never let go. Yeah.

My father was a therapist. That’s how he made his money.