A Discourse on Karma and the Universal Significance of Socks

I spent most of this morning not feeling particularly strong. I felt like a loser. This whole transforming one's karma has got me befuddled. I've just read an inspiring entry on Buddhist Simon's blog. (I read the blogs of two Simons - it gets confusing. Especially since they BOTH love the colour purple.) He spoke about fear and how it's important to live in the moment.

I had an email exchange with him as well this morning and it became clear to me that I am actually afraid to transform my karma because I do not want things to get worse before they get better.

This fear is stupid. It's based on a fear that I might end up losing my mind again and having to go through Hell. But of course, with this fear in place, I am already in Hell. By allowing this fear to stop me from transforming my karma, I become paralysed.

So... how do I take the things that I feel are negative that happen to me and turn them around and use them to forge my own strength? An important thing for me to remember is that I was able to recognise the familiar turns of phrase and emotions that would ordinarily send me sliding straight down the shoot into a steaming pile of victimhood. This one thing, in itself, bears witness that I am well and truly in the process of changing my karma.

The biggest gift? A change in perception. The ability to remove the negative tinted shades and replace them with clear, compassionate glasses. It really is all about perception. Even Don Miguel Ruiz refers to this and brings awareness to how we use our words and thoughts against ourselves.

In a letter called 'On Attaining Buddhahood', Nichiren Daishonin writes: "If the minds of living beings are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds."

So really - it's just the way you see things.

Which brings us to the universal significance of socks: socks are the universe's way of reminding us not to take ourselves too seriously. No. Really. Have you seen how ridiculous a sock looks? Next time you take yourself too seriously - where some funky outlandish socks as a reminder that not everything is a disaster waiting to happen to you.