Someone once said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans!” Do you believe this – that there is a destiny that shapes our ends – or can you exert your will in shaping the direction of your life? This one area of immense controversy, and there are points of view on both sides. What do the laws of karma tell us about this?
What Dustin Hoffman and Bob Dylan Say about It
Dustin Hoffman, discussing how he got the movie role in “The Graduate” said, “So much of this is not in your hands. My plan to be an obscure artist wasn’t working out.” The singer Bob Dylan said once in an interview that he knew he was destined to become a music legend. He said, “I was heading for the fantastic lights. Destiny was looking right at me .” His success has lasted a long time, and about that, he says: “It goes back to that Destiny thing. I made a bargain with it, you know, a long time ago – with the Chief Commander, in this earth and in the world we can’t see.”
The Law of Karma
The Law of Karma is the law of cause and effect, as in “as you sow, so shall you reap.” Karma is the result of your actions in the past, which come to bear upon your experiences of the present. Some philosophers believe that we are run partly by free will and partly by destiny. The circumstances of your birth – parents, nationality, geographical place, temperament – all are determined (and possibly determined by the kind of “bargain” that Bob Dylan said he made with the “Chief Commander.”) Yet many philosophers say that we have the power to control our actions, that our conscious efforts make a difference, and that we can create shifts in our destiny accordingly.
Shaping Your Future with a Vision Board
If you’re one who believes that we have power to decide what takes place in our lives, you can work with a “vision board.” In the movie “The Secret,” John Assoraf spoke about one that he made in which he cut out pictures of what he’d like to manifest in his life, and he looked at it every day, getting in a state of mind of already acquiring it. After five years and several moves to new living places, his vision board packed away for a while, he looked again at the board, and tears came to his eyes. He was moved and shocked that the home he had envisioned, he was now living in. He feels deep in his heart that imagination is the key, that it is the preview of life’s “coming attractions.”
The Ultimate Truth
Ultimately, “it is what it is.” This points to the ineffable unknowable, the truth that your truth is the truth for you. You hold your own truth to be self evident, and because it is your ground of being, it is unarguably what is so. You can then make your vision board and “create your own reality” while at the same time, your friend can bow to the inevitable laws of karma and destiny. Perhaps the great truth here is that both realities are true, and you hold the key to understanding by knowing the power of your own reality.
Want to learn more about life transformation, spiritual growth, and healing? You can download our 100 page free ebook, Extraordinary Healing at http://www.lifetransformationsecrets.com You can also subscribe to our wonderful free monthly newsletter, “The Transformation News.” Marilyn Gordon is a board certified hypnotherapist, teacher, speaker, healer, school director, and author with over thirty years of experience. Her latest book is The Wise Mind: The Brilliant Key to Life Transformation and Healing.