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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Curing Homosexuality from the Karma Vantage

At college, I had a bench mate who had a 'queer' sexual orientation. There wasn't much awareness of homosexual behavior and characteristics and most of the class found his advances irritating. They often made him the butt of cruel jokes.


The 21st century hasn't changed situations sufficiently for homosexuals. People who consider themselves a minority feel isolated and fearful. When there is the added stigma of social disapproval, they are desperate to convert others to their belief systems. So this is an area where some homosexual people desperately try to spread this "cause" by all means.


Even though sexuality is an individual choice, the tremendous stigma in this area traumatizes many homosexuals.

Karma offers a view point that can clear the discomfort in this area, for both straight and gay people.

Nobody is eternally male or female

According to the theory of Karma, we continue to take birth until we reach enlightenment or complete freedom. We can have different genders in different births. A person who is a man now, might not necessarily have been of the same gender, in his previous births. The same fact applies to women.

As we pass through each birth, we pick up impressions based on life experiences and our reactions to them. We also identify with our personality and character in each birth. These impressions, reactions, personalities, and character lie dormant in the psyche. They are not permanent (eternal). When we die and later acquire a new birth, we get a new gender, personality and character according to our aggregate karma at that stage.

Sometimes, our latent personalities and characters surface, under suitable circumstances. Thus, sexual preferences from past births may surface now. A man can have the remembrance of a past birth when 'he' was a 'she' and feel attraction towards his same sex now. Today, this would be immediately labelled "homosexuality."


Gender is not an achievement to be proud of. Sexual orientation, neither!

None of us demanded and got their particular gender. 

The intolerance which surrounds homosexuals is the result of the mistaken idea of 'masculine' superiority.

Many people are troubled by homosexual thoughts that they have, and they wonder/worry: am I a homosexual? And they go on a frenzied search on how to cure homosexuality.

Studies have revealed that most people experience homosexual thoughts at some point in their lives. Dr.James W Pennebaker in his "Opening up: The healing power of expressing emotions" reveals the case of a young woman who occasionally felt homosexual impulses. She was alarmed and struggled to suppress them. Dr. Pennebaker explained to her that these are just passing thoughts. It does not necessarily mean that she is a homosexual.

It is not a catastrophe to be one either. There have been many such gifted people.

Many men are troubled by similar thoughts and struggle against them. This is a tremendous expense of energy. The more you struggle against a thought, the more it acquires power. As "The Secret" says: Energy goes where attention goes.

C.G.Jung: "What we resist, persists."

The best way to take the power out of these thoughts is to witness the thought, just as you would watch traffic from the top of a building. We would just watch the vehicles moving by. Some of them are beautiful and some are otherwise. We wouldn't try to jump on to them, or force them away. One could approach obsessive compulsive thoughts in much the same way,

Do not try to fight or struggle against an unwanted thought. Acknowledge it, and breathe. That will relax you.

While witnessing thoughts, it would be ideal to have something to center ourselves on. Watching the breath, or just being aware of the bodily sensations, gives that center.
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Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Dealing with Violent Thoughts

Have you ever struggled with violent anger so much that you imagined yourself hurting people? Or yourself? This happens when you are not able to articulate your feelings and emotions healthily, without fear. Learning to express our feelings and emotions without fear is a part of Assertive behavior. However obsession with violent thoughts is an internal thing, and can spiral. The more a person tries to control these thoughts, the more they multiply.

I became aware of how many people suffer from this situation when a friend told me he was feeling impulses to strangulate his children. He was scared. I recalled a period in my life when I used to lay down to sleep every night, wanting not to wake up the next morning, to sleep forever--the easy way out.

The emotional energies in us seek expression. However, if you have been forbidden the freedom of expressing emotions such as anger and fear in childhood, later it can give a hard time understanding and resolving these emotions.

Ideally, emotions need to pass through our system freely. It is best not to obstruct them or to go along with them. To witness them like an outsider without judgment or criticism is very healing. Watching the breath or counting breaths helps to be an impartial witness.

If you regularly dip into the calming experience of meditation, it will be easy for you to divert yourself when these obsessive violent thoughts come. Knowing the psychologist's view is also helpful. This article contains useful information and techniques on dealing with violent obsessive thoughts:
http://www.ocfoundation.org/eo_violent.aspx
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