As mentioned in the last post there are four karmas, four ways of taking action in this world to increase the sanity of our own and others’ experience. The first one, which we talked about last week, “to pacify” is about opening to whatever arises with a quality of directness and gentleness. This doesn’t mean that what is happening around you is gentle–simply that you remain so, even in the face of difficulty.

The second karma, called “to enrich” is what comes next. Once you have begun to pacify a situation by opening to it as it unfolds, you are in a position to increase the wealth of that situation. It is very much about creating and producing–not normally qualities we associate with spiritual practitioners who may be seen more as beings who don’t want to get overly involved with the stuff of this world.

Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche describes the quality of enriching as being “like a tree which stands constantly still, day and night, day and night, day and night; and finally it grows and produces fruit.” So here, enriching means something like working with the situations that come to you on moment to moment basis, including moments of fertility and lushness; of dryness and lack; of wind and sun and hail and light and dark–and responding to each circumstance properly. In this way, you begin to grown with a sort of organic quality. Rather than trying to direct your life or your being to become this or that, you can notice that it is actually growing on its own, going somewhere, becoming something–and that all of your experience, good, bad, ugly, contributes, enriches this creation that is your life. This is a very exciting and amazing thing to realize.

So, your meditation practice is essential to developing the stability of mind that lets you know when and how to pacify (by directly and peacefully opening to what is arising) and then when and how to enrich (by working spontaneously with what arises, on the spot, and then letting go.)

Next time: Karma #3: To Magnetize

Here is the audio version of the video below.