As spiritual understanding moves in an ever-expanding spiral and since this article is the fourth in a series of eight already published, for your convenience, dear Reader, I would like to think that you are reading it in the order in which it has been written.

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Come on now, who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you are,Ha ha ha bless your soul
You really think you're in control

Well, I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
Just like me - Crazy [lyrics] - Gnarls Barkley

Brisbane, 20.12.20. 07 [revised may 2009]

The present moves like a brook, a stream or the sea. We cannot hold on to any part of it, not for more than a few seconds. But, then again, the present is also eternal because it is ALWAYS there.

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If we could dredge deep down into the ego, we would bring out all the forgotten clutter from time immemorial. Everything past still exists there. Everything past creates and recreates ceaselessly our response to each present moment, which is the root of our struggle.

Again and again, just as waves form and break, again and again our reactions to situations, our actions to reactions remain unchanged and so does the magnetic duality of all we do.

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We can only breathe in real time. Just as we cannot breathe under water, we cannot breathe in the past any more than we can breathe in the future. Truly, the present-moment is all we have and it is unlimited for the time we are on this earth.

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Interestingly, when we run into a spot of *good luck*, it might be a break we have earned but again maybe not. It might simply be a positive windfall from

general good karma that has latched on to us in a nicely synchronistic way. “Never look a gift horse in the mouth,” they say.

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These days of climate change are making it graphically easy to see first-hand how inter-connected all of us we really are.

Not only do we have to trust that, at a time of drought and water restrictions in a city like Brisbane where I live, everyone – including the neighbors I never see - are doing the right thing. However, beyond trusting Australia’s politicians to put in place the best eco-strategies possible, we need to trust that the citizens of all countries will also do the right thing.

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On the topic of group or societal karma, it is interesting to ponder why, globally, the western world is such an avid consumer of books – fiction and non-fiction, films and TV series that rely on violence.

Most of the seemingly innocuous family-viewing TV shows feed us violence, mental disorder and death, even as we try to enjoy our dinner.

Mainstream horror films like Psycho, the Saw series, forensics and even clever police/detective films like The Bone Collector, *thoughtful* films like A History Of Violence, action films like A Man Apart and *thrillers* like Panic Room must surely add up to 90% of all that is consumed for entertainment and escapism.

They all hinge on the violent, often vile or, at the very least, unstable aspects of the human mind.

Serious question: why don’t we all, or at least 70% of us, demand different great books and different memorable films, ones that do not deal with violence, by boycotting 80% of what has been flooding the entertainment market?

Another serious question: on a continuum, where might the karmic responsibility of those involved in all aspects of these industries be placed?

Absorbing too much violence works out the same as eating too much of the same food - eventually the body rebels.

Whether the food in question is too much violence, too much salt or too much chocolate - the body brings it back up.

Again, Karma is inseparable from the whole.

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Karma is thought of as being mostly bad and static, not usually good.
Since karma is energy, it is OK to compare it to the sea and its ebb & flow in the sense that it is never either good or bad – it just is.

Is the sea *bad* because a foolish swimmer strayed away from the patrolled area and almost drowned [or drowned].

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Karma could also be compared to the sun that is neither responsible for the fools’ melanomas nor for the scorched earth of drought-stricken lands nor for the fire that, in October 2007, spread along the Californian coastline, destroying much of the grand real estate, partly because 50 percent of the new housing development had been built in a severe fire-zone.

Fire just is.

The sea just is.

The sun just is.

Karma just is.

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Yes, we can separate the peas on our plate from the broccoli and the pumpkin, but how can we separate the sunlight from dusk and the wind from the sky or from the trees? How would crops grow without sun or rain? Which is more important?

How would they get to our stores if the farmers and the truck drivers did not work together to put them there?

How would we get rid of our smelly rubbish if it were not for the garbage men and all those who work in the refuse industry?

How would we keep our cars on the road without mechanics?

How would we experience a fine holiday without the staff or the locals at the other end? After all, they do make our beds, feed us and entertain us. And if we happen to be there at a time of karmic payback, they do mend us the best way they can.

Because we often receive without thinking, we need to practice an awareness of the symbolic acts of giving and taking.

Though this thinking is best done without expecting anything in return – otherwise it only amounts to manipulation - in return we sometime get a smile, a little more care, an extra L for love added to our alphabet soup.

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The *bad* bits - the present-moments we notice, motifs woven into our life, the small corner of the huge tapestry that spans our soul’s life - are simply challenges we must overcome without getting bitter and twisted, on our way to growing and evolving spiritually. How else can we do it, if not by dealing appropriately with the events of our lives?

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Good intentions do matter, but because they are *forced* intentions, I really do not think that they can do much for any of us, when it comes to karma editing, not any more than mantras, holy water, joss sticks, crystals, offerings, flagellation, praying and absolution, because they are often mechanical and exterior to our selves. It would all be too simple.

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Karmically, all the decisions we make under the influence of our *instinct* or while asleep at the wheel, even the so-called unimportant ones, weave us inside the tapestry that becomes our lives.

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