We are all bodies of pure energy that use the garment of a physical body to learn and grow. When we are born, our true essence works with three predominant principles that aid our spiritual growth. The first is the Principle of Evolution. Your energy essence is born to certain parents, in a certain country which can provide set-backs, difficulties and challenges, which in turn provides opportunities for the development of your soul, through heredity, the time and conditions of birth and environmental factors that can influence, assist and guide your growth. These environmental factors include your race, religion, sex, family, friends and other associations, where good and bad experiences are to be encountered.

The second principle is Free Will – our freedom to make choices, take actions and make decisions. We are not bound to fulfil what we have come to fulfil, though we cannot change our circumstances or factors like our physical form, race, hereditary traits, congenital problems, etc.

And the third principle is the most important and often misunderstood aspect of Reincarnation. It’s the principle of karma, within which operates the Law of Compensation or the Law of Equilibrium. How you have used your free will in the past helps determine the life outline of conditions, situations, opportunities, and environment that will provide the most beneficial learning and growth. You can predestine aspects of your fate by your actions, whether thoughts, feelings, words or deeds.

‘Karma’ is energy in action. It’s so much more than simply a process of debts and balances. Often, we choose an incarnation that can be more trying and testing to help us learn specific lessons needed spiritually. When we make right decisions and actions, positive and rewarding opportunities open doors. These aren’t handed to us on a silver platter, but doors are opened. Similarly our wrong choices or actions create their own consequences.

Traditionally, there are considered to be three expressions of karma within life, but actually, there are many variations of these. The first is the ‘Boomerang Expression’ – where if we have hurt another, we in turn are hurt. If we have helped another, we will find help coming our way when needed. The second is the ‘Organism Expression’- where any physical abuse you may have caused another, becomes your own deformity in your next birth. Similarly, if you’ve helped another with blindness, your eyes will be blessed when in need.

The third is the ‘Symbolic Expression’ – if you’ve constantly turned a deaf ear to others in a lifetime, you will be born with hearing problems. Conversely, if you’ve been a good listener, you could be born with heightened perception.

Karma is learning. Anything you do provides an opportunity for such, whether it is something from the past or something entirely new. We all learn our lessons differently, based on our own level of growth. The consequences vary accordingly. If free will has been misused, circumstances will unfold so that the soul can learn to use it productively.

The soul does not necessarily have to suffer to make progress. Suffering is only good for the soul if it teaches us how not to suffer again. The exercise of free will in conjunction with karma does not have to be painful to have effects. Progress occurs when you move in harmony with the natural laws of the universe. Karma is constructive, with its aim as guidance, it seeks only adequate adjustments of conditions. It teaches us that we cannot separate ourselves from others. There are ties that go beyond time and space.

Karma unfolds in the time, manner and means best suited to us to facilitate growth. But one mustn’t construe this for sitting back and doing nothing! Make your choices and take action. Then allow the consequences to unfold so we can determine new choices and new courses of action.

Family and business relationships are usually our most karmic associations; they provide our greatest opportunities for growth. There are other lessons that we encounter as well, depending upon our race, religion and nationality. Because of this, we incarnate as different sexes, races, nationalities and so on, to round out our universal life experiences!