How Can We Transform Difficult Relationships With People From Past Lives?
on April 16, 2013This is a wonderful question to ask ourselves, as it shows that we are beginning to assume responsibility for co-creating the situation as it is now. Whether the person who we are in conflict with is a close friend, spouse, co-worker, or stranger on the street, we need to know that it was our actions and thoughts from past lives, and perhaps in this life, with that person which have given rise to the current problem. It is taught in Buddhist philosophy, that everything, (and this includes all our actions, thoughts and emotions) is imprinted in the Universal Mind. And the teachings of Christ point to the same wisdom: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”.
So, even without knowing the past life events that transpired in the past to create this difficulty for us, we can assume that our actions or thoughts in the past were not of the highest response. And, we can know that in this life we have the opportunity to choose another response, one that will benefit us as a positive karmic imprint, and also plant the seed for the other person’s benefit, as well.
For example, if a co-worker is spreading incorrect and harmful information about us, what should our response be? It would be fine to “set the record straight”, so to speak, and let your boss know the truth. But, perhaps your boss and other co-workers don’t believe you and you loose your job. Our basic human response might be to have angry thoughts and emotions, resentment and possibly thoughts of some kind of revenge, directly or indirectly. But if we can step back for a moment, and look at the larger cosmic vision, we could see that somehow we created all of it, from past lives or possibly from this life. We would have to concede that our “karmic imprints” from the past are ripening as this very painful situation, and as such, we could begin to change our response from negative to positive. Many times this is very challenging! But it can be done with sincere effort, determination, and deep heartfelt prayer.
When I am beginning to turn my thinking from negative to positive towards someone, and I can’t yet feel love or forgiveness in my heart, I say or think, “May (this person) be happy and free from suffering, may she have abundance, love and wisdom in her life”. I keep saying this over and over, as I know that eventually I will feel it sincerely from my heart. I like to say, “Fake it till you make it”, which means, even if we don’t feel the positive change within ourselves, we make the aspiration to get there, and we deeply believe we will. Remember, everything is imprinted in the Cosmic Universal Mind, or God-Consciousness, and will come back to us in some way.
So this is where we can start. And if we need to be vigilant in our positive thinking toward a difficult person for the rest of our lives, as a way to override any negative thought that might appear in our minds, well, then what a beautiful way to live our lives: Aspiring toward love and forgiveness. In a sense, what else are we here for on our journey through life, other than to learn and incorporate these two powerful teachings?
In particular, I remember one of my past life reading sessions with a woman who was in an angry relationship with her ex-husband. She wanted to know the past life causes for their difficult relationship. In brief, I saw them married, and he came to hate her and wanted her to die. So he slowly added poison to her food everyday, and she did eventually die. In that past life, she never knew before she died that he was poisoning her. After she died, her spirit was able to know that he did it, and so she held anger towards him.
After relating this information to her, she told me something that somewhat shocked me. She said that she had bought some poison the day before and had planned the next day to poison a large number of trees he had just planted on his property. I tried to caution her on the future implications of her actions, but from what I could tell, she couldn’t hear me. But with the barest amount of wisdom in our minds, we should ask ourselves in a case like this, “Do we really think that performing a harmful action or thought toward someone we are angry with, won’t in some way come back to us?”
Even the causes in that past life that made her husband poison her had to be the fruit of her actions from another previous life. Obviously, these two people were doing a negative karmic dance with each other throughout lifetimes. In the end, to stop this ongoing harm, one of them will have to make the choice to lay down his or her weapon of anger, or else the negative energy will continue to ripen again and be the cause of future pain and suffering.
As the Dalai Lama has said, “We don’t need our friends, we need our enemies”. The reason for this wisdom-teaching is that it is our enemies that give us the powerful opportunity to grow in love. He further states, “When you meet an enemy on the path, treat them like a sacred treasure”.
And the teachings of Jesus point to the same wisdom: “Love thy neighbor as thyself”.
So the question begs of itself, “Why not start this very moment with the intention of sending forth love and forgiveness toward our enemies?” If we want both a life and a world of peace, generosity and love, we have to know that it begins with ourselves. However small any action or thought that we choose to have, be it positive or negative, has an effect on our own well-being, as well as effecting the collective universal energy.
How can we transform difficult relationships with people from past lives?
This is a wonderful question to ask ourselves, as it shows that we are beginning to assume responsibility for co-creating the situation as it is now. Whether the person who we are in conflict with is a close friend, spouse, co-worker, or stranger on the street, we need to know that it was our actions and thoughts from past lives, and perhaps in this life, with that person which have given rise to the current problem. It is taught in Buddhist philosophy, that everything, (and this includes all our actions, thoughts and emotions) is imprinted in the Universal Mind. And the teachings of Christ point to the same wisdom: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”.
So, even without knowing the past life events that transpired in the past to create this difficulty for us, we can assume that our actions or thoughts in the past were not of the highest response. And, we can know that in this life we have the opportunity to choose another response, one that will benefit us as a positive karmic imprint, and also plant the seed for the other person’s benefit, as well.
For example, if a co-worker is spreading incorrect and harmful information about us, what should our response be? It would be fine to “set the record straight”, so to speak, and let your boss know the truth. But, perhaps your boss and other co-workers don’t believe you and you loose your job. Our basic human response might be to have angry thoughts and emotions, resentment and possibly thoughts of some kind of revenge, directly or indirectly. But if we can step back for a moment, and look at the larger cosmic vision, we could see that somehow we created all of it, from past lives or possibly from this life. We would have to concede that our “karmic imprints” from the past are ripening as this very painful situation, and as such, we could begin to change our response from negative to positive. Many times this is very challenging! But it can be done with sincere effort, determination, and deep heartfelt prayer.
When I am beginning to turn my thinking from negative to positive towards someone, and I can’t yet feel love or forgiveness in my heart, I say or think, “May (this person) be happy and free from suffering, may she have abundance, love and wisdom in her life”. I keep saying this over and over, as I know that eventually I will feel it sincerely from my heart. I like to say, “Fake it till you make it”, which means, even if we don’t feel the positive change within ourselves, we make the aspiration to get there, and we deeply believe we will. Remember, everything is imprinted in the Cosmic Universal Mind, or God-Consciousness, and will come back to us in some way.
So this is where we can start. And if we need to be vigilant in our positive thinking toward a difficult person for the rest of our lives, as a way to override any negative thought that might appear in our minds, well, then what a beautiful way to live our lives: Aspiring toward love and forgiveness. In a sense, what else are we here for on our journey through life, other than to learn and incorporate these two powerful teachings?
In particular, I remember one of my past life reading sessions with a woman who was in an angry relationship with her ex-husband. She wanted to know the past life causes for their difficult relationship. In brief, I saw them married, and he came to hate her and wanted her to die. So he slowly added poison to her food everyday, and she did eventually die. In that past life, she never knew before she died that he was poisoning her. After she died, her spirit was able to know that he did it, and so she held anger towards him.
After relating this information to her, she told me something that somewhat shocked me. She said that she had bought some poison the day before and had planned the next day to poison a large number of trees he had just planted on his property. I tried to caution her on the future implications of her actions, but from what I could tell, she couldn’t hear me. But with the barest amount of wisdom in our minds, we should ask ourselves in a case like this, “Do we really think that performing a harmful action or thought toward someone we are angry with, won’t in some way come back to us?”
Even the causes in that past life that made her husband poison her had to be the fruit of her actions from another previous life. Obviously, these two people were doing a negative karmic dance with each other throughout lifetimes. In the end, to stop this ongoing harm, one of them will have to make the choice to lay down his or her weapon of anger, or else the negative energy will continue to ripen again and be the cause of future pain and suffering.
As the Dalai Lama has said, “We don’t need our friends, we need our enemies”. The reason for this wisdom-teaching is that it is our enemies that give us the powerful opportunity to grow in love. He further states, “When you meet an enemy on the path, treat them like a sacred treasure”.
And the teachings of Jesus point to the same wisdom: “Love thy neighbor as thyself”.
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So the question begs of itself, “Why not start this very moment with the intention of sending forth love and forgiveness toward our enemies?” If we want both a life and a world of peace, generosity and love, we have to know that it begins with ourselves. However small any action or thought that we choose to have, be it positive or negative, has an effect on our own well-being, as well as effecting the collective universal energy.
