Living unconsciously

Sadhguru: Karma means action – that is the literal meaning of the word. As you sit here, physical action is happening continuously – both voluntary and involuntary – whether you are awake or asleep. Mental action is happening, emotional action is happening, energy action is happening. At any given moment, Karma is operating on all four of these levels.

But look at how much of your activity since you woke up this morning – physical, mental, emotional, and energy-wise – has actually been conscious. It will be just a small percentage. The rest is happening unconsciously. Let us say you are driving home from somewhere. In the hour it takes to get there, you may be conscious for a few seconds. The rest of the time, you are driving unconsciously.

For most people, conscious involvement only arises when they see something as very significant in their lives. Otherwise, they are in a state of “mental diarrhea,” with unconscious thoughts running endlessly.

The accidental life

For the majority of human beings, life as a process is happening unconsciously. When life happens unconsciously, it happens accidentally – and when things happen accidentally, anxiety is a natural result. If you are driving a vehicle that goes somewhere other than where you intend, would you not be anxious?

That is how most human beings are conducting their lives right now. Their anxiety is not because something is wrong with their lives but simply because life is happening accidentally.

It is like throwing a stone into the air – when it lands on your head, you think someone hit you. That is Karma.

Only when you live by intent can you live without a sense of anxiety. We refer to humans as beings because you are capable of being – that is, you are capable of conscious existence. You are capable of using every faculty you have the way you want, not in reaction to what happens around you, but by conscious response.

The consequences you did not see coming

Karma is a consequence. The actions you performed yesterday have a direct impact on you today. Even what you ate yesterday affects how you feel today. Because your actions are unconscious, the consequences you get feel like they dropped upon you from the heavens. It is like throwing a stone into the air – when it lands on your head, you think someone hit you. That is Karma.

Karma is simply an unconscious software that you are building for yourself. You are the one who programmed it, but because you wrote it unconsciously, you think someone else is dictating your life, that some other force is ruling your life.

Your anger, your stress, your misery, your resentment, your hatred, your jealousy – these are poisons that you drink, but you expect someone else to die.

The consequences are not coming from outside you. They are being manufactured within you all the time.

The poison you drink

Fear, anger, and stress are poisons that you create within yourself. When you create unpleasantness within you, it is not just a psychological experience – you are chemically poisoning yourself. There is substantial scientific and medical evidence showing that if you remain intensely angry for just five minutes, your blood literally becomes poisonous.

Your anger, your stress, your misery, your resentment, your hatred, your jealousy – these are poisons that you drink, but you expect someone else to die. Life does not work that way. It is a fair life. If you drink poison, you die. If you take charge, you can create a chemistry of blissfulness and inner wellbeing.

Your life is your making

This whole thing about reward and punishment has gotten deep into the Western mind. There is no one to reward you or to punish you. But for everything, there is a consequence.

Whether you are joyful or miserable, it is your Karma. It is not meant as a cruel statement, but your life is actually your making. Because human experience – pain and pleasure, joy and misery, agony and ecstasy – everything comes from within you.

What comes from within you – why does it not come the way you want? What comes from the world is not something you can control. You can only try to manage it to the best of your ability, but the world is never one hundred percent your way. The outside world will always be like this: a little bit my way, a little bit your way. But you should be the way you want to be.

If you see the way you are right now as your Karma or your doing – your life is your doing – you will ensure it is the way you want it. Your life is your Karma – that means your life is your making. This is the most empowering way to live. This is not a fatalistic approach to life. It is a way of taking charge of the very experience of your life.