Karma, Consequence, and Freedom
In this episode, Barry Long looks into the connection between karma, consequence, and spiritual freedom. He explains that karma is not just a mystical idea but the ongoing accumulation of past actions and their inevitable effects. Challenging conventional religious teachings, Barry emphasizes that true liberation comes from breaking free of emotional attachments like anger and resentment—patterns that keep us trapped in suffering. He guides listeners toward a state of "innocence," a space of detachment that protects against the world's tensions. The episode also includes a meditation, helping listeners connect with pure intelligence and the stillness of being.
LANGUAGE: English
YEAR RECORDED: 1999
PLACE RECORDED: Sydney
DURATION: 1 hours and 27 minutes
EPISODE NOTES
The talk includes a period of meditation where Barry guides the listener towards letting pure intelligence perceive pure sensation deep in their body, the place of being within.
From a 2 day seminar in Sydney in February 1999.
Excerpts:
'Karma means just repetition of the past. We all have our karma, which is consequences since we were born of all our actions. Then there's the karma of the human race, which all of us has to have to inherit...'
‘Western masters are totally different to Eastern masters, although that might not be apparent, a Western master doesn't use Eastern terms like, I don't use Eastern terms unless I have to, because there's no Western Anglo Saxon equivalent. Then I have to use a word like karma, which means, repetition of the past, of the consequences of experience, but karma sums it up in one word very nicely. So we all have our karma, which is the consequences since we were born, of all our actions that we have to face. And then there's the karma of the human race, which all of us have to inherit, the consequences of the whole human race, enormous consequences.’
'And so in the spiritual life, you have to maintain a state of innocence so the tensions of the world, the worries of the world, can't pass across this wonderful spiritual space that you have around you, then you remain innocent in any situation. And the spiritual life is about developing this perimeter, this sort of moat of spiritual power around you, psychically, spiritually, so that you can not be contaminated by the tensions and strains and stresses and worries and misery and unhappiness of the world.’
‘Now the place of being is your first reality inside, and it is a place of nothing. So if you're looking for something in the spiritual life, all you'll get is your own ignorance and feelings and hopes and wishes. But in the place of being where we're going, there's nothing to speak of, absolutely nothing, because it is the opposite of everything, and the opposite of everything is nothing.’
What You Acknowledge You Get