“Sooner or later in life, we will all take our own turn being in the position we once had someone else in.”
– Ashly Lorenzana
“Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles.”
– Dalai Lama
“People pay for what they do, and, still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead.”
— James Baldwin
“Instant Karma’s gonna get you!”
– John Ono Lennon
You are probably unfamiliar with those first three beautiful quotes, as was I. But most of us immediately recognize the fourth. And so let us start there:
What is “Instant Karma,” and why was John Lennon so interested in it? To begin with, the year “Instant Karma” was released, 1970. was an exceedingly wild and demanding year for Mr Lennon. The Beatles had just broken up, he and his wife, Yoko Ono, were struggling with a heroin addiction, and the couple were involved in an intensive and profoundly exhibitionistic campaign for world peace.
Interestingly, the song was written, arranged, recorded and released within 10 days. Very “instant,” relative to the usual flow in the recording world. Lennon began thinking about karma when he and the other Beatles were studying Transcendental Meditation in India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968. Several years after the idealistic “Summer of Love,” Lennon brings up the subject of his big song from that summer again in “Instant Karma:” Two and a half years after counseling the world that “All You Need is Love,” he was now indignantly asking, “What in the world you thinking of, laughing in the face of love??”
The message of Instant Karma is that what we intend, and/or what we do, can have an effect on us sooner than we think, that karma isn’t necessarily this esoteric thing between lifetimes, but can be as quick as someone responding to a door being closed in their face. It must have appealed to Lennon’s frustrations with the ills of the world and his overall impatience, some being part of his character and circumstances, some stemming from his heroin addiction.
Karma, instant or otherwise, is primarily about intention. It is based not on what happens, but on what we intend to happen. So, if you send a nasty letter to your ex, you don’t get off the karmic hook just because it got lost in the mail. For that reason, paying really close attention to our intentions is a critical part of the journey. In a larger sense, karma is our teacher, our parent: it conditions us. We either immediately or ultimately thrive as a result of willing good things and we suffer when we go in the other direction. There is nothing mean or unkind about it; it is the manifestation of what could be seen as the “Interbeing aspect” of action ; all that we think and do matters.
The way karma works is actually quite reminiscent of Thich Nhat Hanh”s notion of Interbeing, according to which everything is interconnected. Therefore everything affects everything else. Karma has a similar absolute quality to it: Everything we do is subject to karma.Everything. Each cause is an effect and vice versa, on and on and on. It all comes together neatly: Everything we manifest matters because everything affects everything else, both in the present world and over time.
Much to consider! Please consider hitting the consultation button if you have thoughts about karma. I would love to discuss them with you!
