Nothing is a coincidence. It all happens because something happened before it and is happening with it. So many things are operating at the same time when we think something is just a coincidence.

But I wouldn’t say it happens on purpose. I would rather say, “It is inevitable that anything happens and everything is dependent on everything else.”

Some people would like to impute meaning to why things happen to them. They personalize the Universe. They were bad in a past life and that is why they slammed their hand in the car door today. The human mind feels better when it can make a story out of what happens. But in doing so, it is limiting its view of what is really going on.

What is really going on is far more than our limited minds can grasp. Forces that we cannot see that are operating all around us. Physical forces such as gravity, laws of motion, and magnetism as well as spiritual forces combined with our own choice. Who put you there when you slammed your hand in the car door? If you don’t move your hand fast enough many laws of physics come into play. And it hurts.
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When we look at life with the eyes of the Soul, there are no coincidences and there is no specific purpose for every little thing that happens to us. But there is an overarching purpose for why we are here. It is a soul-chosen purpose to grow and expand in our ever deepening love of the Universe and all its complexity.

Both soul mates and twin flames are very rare. They do not occur in every lifetime. Here are the essential differences:
Soul mates have been with each other from lifetime to lifetime and cycle through many different roles with each other. They are brought together to complete something left undone in a past life. Often there is a spiritual lesson involved.

Some soul mates are difficult for us because we need to clean up our karma with them. Not every soul mate brings peace and love. Nevertheless, you will always recognize your soul mate. Sometimes you can be in different locations on the planet and may not encounter them. When you meet them you will know!

Twin flames are actually the same person’s soul split off into two bodies. This configuration is much rarer than the already rare soul mate. They share many of the traits of soulmates, such as finishing each other’s sentences, thinking the same thing at the same time, and sharing many uncanny characteristics.
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Sometimes twin flames can even be born at different times but still be twin flames. That even throws more complexity into the mix. For example, I know a twin soul that recently incarnated as a baby in California. Her counterpart will be born in Texas in a few months. Many things account for this and they are beyond our human comprehension.

Actually, the quote is from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”

This may sound good on the surface. A dying flower may look sad to some and to others have a certain kind of beauty. Some people might think it is bad that flowers have to die at all. Others think that their very ephemeral nature makes them even more precious in their beauty.

But when it comes to human behavior, we must have standards of what is good and bad. Cruelty, brutality, bullying, child molestation, and all manner of torturous behaviors are not good and cannot be justified by simply saying that “good” and “bad” is merely in the mind of the individual.

Intentional cruelty that damages another living being and inflicts physical and psychological pain can never be called good, no matter how many mind games we play. We can play clever semantic games and twist the language around so that nothing means anything anymore. But we are fooling ourselves if we believe that there is nothing right or wrong, good or bad.
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The karmic consequences of intentional human debasement are severe as well. Let’s not play intellectual games with moral relativity. There are things that go beyond the human mind and its limited thinking capacity.

Spirit guides do not lead us to anything horrible. They are there to offer unconditional love and comfort. They have been with us for eternity before this birth and will be with us after we leave our physical existence.

If we have karma to resolve, they can help us choose the right path. But they will never lead us into anything frightful or disturbing. Their whole raison d’etre is to be of peaceful assistance to us as we navigate through our lives. They await our call upon them and stand ever ready to be of service.

We do not plan what we are going to do before we incarnate. It is determined by many variables that are way beyond our individual control. We are part of a huge dance of the Universe in which are souls are never destroyed but continue to grow and evolve in accordance with the laws of the Cosmos. Spirit guides are part of this, though most people ignore them until their backs are up against the wall.
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Then they call on their guides and angels. But the guides have always been there. We just need to open our consciousness to them. They are there to be consulted any time of the day or night. I use them all the time and greatly appreciate their loving assistance.

Sometimes people who pursue an explicitly spiritual path box themselves into a mold of the ideal peacemaker. They want to be non-violent and live a karmically clean life. They walk away from any form of conflict and would rather live in tranquility. This makes sense if we want to live a tranquil life.

The unfortunate part of this is that they are human and are equipped with emotions for a reason. And if all our emotions aren’t given their proper outlets, our spiritual path may be stunted.

Some of these emotions are unpleasant, such as fear and anger, but they are also part of our well-put-together systems. When I was growing up I was taught that Jesus was the Lamb of God: Meek and mild, blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers. But I also had several example of Jesus’s anger.

He tossed over the tables of the money changers and threw them out of the temple. He rebuked the barren fig tree. He rebuked his disciples for deserting him and turning on him. He was not meek and mild at all. But notice that he wasn’t standing up for his personal self. He was standing up for his mission.
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If he had stood up for his personal self, he would have fought the Roman soldiers who crucified him. He would have protested. But no. It wasn’t about his personal survival. He was on a mission that was bigger than that. All truly spiritual people are not interested in their own physical survival but they can be very fierce when it comes to the world of the spirit.

I have talked to people who have clinically died and later revived. They share certain experiences up to a point. Depending on if they have been raised with Buddha, Christ, or other enlightened beings, they tend to see that being at the very end of the process. This is because the mind is still with us and it needs to place a label on the transcendent feelings that are flooding the consciousness.

If you ask a buddhist monk, such as Geshi Tashi Tsering, he would explain what happens in the afterlife in terms of karma and the emotions we go through when we are actually in the stages of death:

“If one is going to take a lower rebirth, very strong, fearful appearances will appear to your mind during the dissolution of the four physical elements. Conversely, in a fortunate migration, more gentle appearances occur and there is a happiness in the mind. During the radiant white sky, red sky, etc, visions there are no particular fears because the coarse conceptions do not arise.

“The way of dying affects your emotional state at the time of death and this determines which karmas are activated. For example, if someone was killing you, you might become angry, and this would activate a negative potency, a condition for a bad rebirth. It would require a very strong practice of tolerance not to get angry. In general, we should make efforts to help the sick, elderly and dying to generate a very healthy, positive state of mind before and during death. This, in turn, will benefit us, helping us to continue our work towards helping others.”

But as far as people’s personal beliefs about heaven and hell—they are just that. Nothing more than beliefs (have not been proven) and personal (based on their fears of the dissolution of the person they believe they are). No one whom I’ve talked to, who has ever had a death or near-death experience, has ever mentioned hell. Particularly the version of hell with the devil poking them with a flaming pitchfork.
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Conversely, no one mentions the bland version of heaven, with angels playing harps all day in the clouds, that certain cultures indoctrinate into their people. So, despite people’s beliefs that they have “earned” this sort of heaven, anyone who has returned from the grave has not vouched for this depiction of the after life. It is a much more dynamic process that goes beyond the petty conjectures of the human mind.

The concept of Karma is tied into reincarnation. We may be reaping the consequences of our behavior and actions in other lifetimes, not only this one. This lifetime is an opportunity to clean it all up. Most Europeans have not included reincarnation as a central concept to the meaning of life and the immortal soul. It is a concept that has come out of Eastern religious thought.

Jewish and Christian holy literature, upon which European ethics are based, places more emphasis on getting it right this time around. It is presumed to be our only lifetime and we are punished or rewarded according to how we follow the holy word. We can also be rewarded by grace or by our demonstration of faith.

Yet in spite of this denial of reincarnation, in Matthew 17: 10–14, it appears that Jesus is telling people that John the Baptist is the reincarnation of the prophet Elijah. He says:

• 10 “For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
• 11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. . . .
• 14 And if ye will receive it, this is Elijah, which was for to come.

Other than that, both the Old and New Testament are full of a version of Karma, which is, “What goes around, comes around,” or “You reap what you sow.”

Here are just a few examples:

Isaiah:

“Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.”

Galatians:
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“. . . for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

Proverbs:

“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.”

“Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.”

“Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.”

“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.”

“A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.”

Matthew:

“. . .whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

“Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

Romans:

“. . .never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Hosea:

“For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”

Colossians:

“For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.”

Ecclesiastes:

“Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.”

Psalms:

“His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.”

Job:
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As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

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Both our actions and our inactions are based on a decision. We alone make the decision to act and we alone make the decision not to act. We are the only thinkers in our heads and therefore, we are responsible for everything we do or don’t do based on our choices.

If someone comes up to you and spits in your face, you make the decision whether to physically confront him or her, verbally protest, or just stand there and do nothing. Sometimes doing nothing is the most logical thing to do in the long run.

Running away from the spitter is also an action you may choose. You are the one who gets to decide in this and in every other situation.
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In life, if you decide to lie around all day and do nothing, that is up to you as well, and therefore your responsibility. If you decide to live an active life, full of adventure and contributions to the planet, that is your prerogative too. This takes the blame off everyone around you and places the responsibility on you alone.

The Kali Yuga is the last of four stages of time in a huge cycle referred to in ancient Hindu scriptures. According to one astronomical estimate, there are four Yugas with the following behaviors and durations:

• Satya Yuga (virtue and goodness rule) = 1,728,000 human years
• Treta Yuga (3/4 goodness and 1/4 evil) = 1,296,000 human years
• Dvapara Yuga (1/2 goodness and 1/2 evil) = 864,000 human years
• Kali Yuga (1/4 goodness and 3/4 evil)= 432,000 human years

The Kali Yuga is where we are now in this cycle. According to scripture, the Kali Yuga is a period of darkness and disintegration. Its purpose is to prepare the world for a rebirth at the start of the next cycle. It is a phase of violence, greed, dishonesty, addiction, religious conflict, and social chaos. Social, family, and economic structures break down and turmoil takes over.

Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, a Tibetan Buddhist, wrote an essay on karma in the Kali Yuga entitled Vajrayana and the Kali Yuga. She says:

“This time of Kali Yuga is extremely contracted. Karma is thick. It isn’t spread out and dispersed over a great, long field. Rather, it is drawn in. It is a time of contraction, and karma ripens much more quickly than it used to ripen.”

When she says our karma ripens faster, she means that the fruits of any action, thought, or emotion are more likely to surface in a very intense way. Time, like the growth of technology, seems to be speeding up and therefore karmic consequences are going to be more apparent to you in this lifetime. What you will need to do to clean up your karma will be difficult but excellent for your spiritual practice.
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Because time speeds up in general in the Kali Yuga, your spiritual practice is also intensified. It gives you the opportunity to face your darker side and well as your inner light as they are magnified to you. As you face your karmic consequences, clean them up, and release the energy, you now have an even deeper connection with Cosmic Consciousness and peace.

In Theravada Buddhism and also Jainism, killing any life form carries with it dire karmic consequences. In Jainism, this even extends to killing certain plants, with those growing below ground carrying more heavy karmic load that those growing above ground.

However, my view of Karma is not punitive. It is not a set of strict rules or commandments, which we are bound to fail at if we try to follow them. The idea behind the karmic precepts is to do as little harm as possible in your intention. The intention behind your action counts more in this vibrational universe than the fact that you killed something for the sake of your own physical survival.

For example: When you kill an mosquito that is sucking the blood from your baby, you are doing a karmically good thing for yourself and the baby yet you are consciously doing harm to the insect. Maybe you didn’t intend to kill the mosquito but it happened anyway. Sometimes killing insects happens inadvertently, such as when you brush the insect away but its delicate structure succumbs to the force of your hand.

Your body's immune system kills all lifeforms that it doesn't recognize. You step on and crush countless microorganisms and tiny insects every day. Yet karmic precepts direct us to minimize the amount of harm we do in the world.

The reason for this unattainable ideal is to cause us to focus on how killing less evolved creatures impacts our own peace of mind. If you kill a Lyme tick, knowing that the act is harmless, and even helpful, your mind remains calm and even the act of squashing the tick supports meditation practice.
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If you kill the tick with aversion and resistance, feeling horror and guilt, fear and loathing, the karmic consequences are not pleasant—for these emotions are not pleasant. But if you honor the life of the tick as you dispatch it to eternity, you are in a much lighter, happier place karmically.