The old texts tell us we have mountains of unresolved experiences (karma) in our catalogue. When we learn how to heal and accept experiences that arise, it can seem like an endless task. And that’s just the “suitcase” we came into this life with. What the heck is the point of doing all this work when we have such an endless backlog?

It’s important to understand that the purpose of practices of acceptance and healing are not to fix ourselves. We couldn’t possibly process every unresolved experience from innumerable lives.

The point of such practices is to shift how we respond to life and the challenges it presents. This allows us to wind down the suitcase and stop producing new problems for ourselves.

The key for handling the backlog is Self Realization. We approach this through a platform of transcendence or samadhi. We need something to bring true Yoga. This does several things.

– it brings us to source

– it helps us to discover who we really are

– it cleans house

– it prepares the ground to sustain awakening

With Self Realization, the light of consciousness severs our attachment to our past. This roasts the mountains of backlog and anything unsprouted in our suitcase.

But why just the unsprouted seeds? They die when the attachment to the ego ends because they remain a seed, in a potential state. But sprouted seeds have become kinetic energy expressed into the world. They have to be resolved in the field (nested space) they’re expressed in. I discuss related points further in The Humanity of a Teacher.

However, there is also some variation in thoroughness. The depth of the awakening and the resulting ending of attachment determines how much is roasted in the moment of awakening. Some have a distinctive break whereas others wind down over time. It’s common for there to be some “shrapnel” to be resolved post-awakening.

It also takes time to wind down old habits and let go of stories and the other residues left after a cleaning. The end of ignorance can take time.

All we then have to deal with is the seeds unfolding in this life.

With new habits of being, we stop creating new seeds and stop rejecting the consequences arising in our life. We learn to resolve and complete.

We don’t have to tackle all of it, one at a time. Just enough to learn how to be. And a few hard nuts. This still takes time but each major step is an upgrade in quality of life and our future.

Davidya