Karma, Past Lives & Reincarnation - Talking About it With Your Kids

"Karma, Past Lives & Reincarnation - Talking About it With Your Kids" by Scott Petullo

First, let's define karma. Karma is energy, intent, and 

action. It's put into motion in the present and you feel 

the effects now of the karma you've created during many, 

many, many past lifetimes. Karma is a spiritual law that 

affects everyone, just as gravity is a physical law that 

affects everyone. It's not something you can change 

immediately, just as you cannot alter the path of an 

approaching tsunami.

Instead, everyone has free will to react to karma. Plus, 

doing the "right thing" in all situations will prevent 

incurring additional negative karma.

Some people claim to be able to alter or delete karma 

without having to directly balance it. We would like 

to believe it's possible, but conclude after 24+ years 

of study in this area that it's impossible, and we've 

never seen anyone actually accomplish this. We're 

not talking about frivolous things, such as deciding 

to avoid a main highway during a rush hour snowstorm, 

thus skipping two hours of anguish. We're referring to 

key life circumstances and events, such as relationship 

and money issues. We've asked people who make such 

claims exactly what the karma was that they altered or 

deleted and how they knew it was their karma to begin 

with, and we have yet to hear a reasonable, 

straightforward response.

It's very important to note that just because you don't 

get what you want in a particular situation, it doesn't 

mean you have "bad" karma. Fate determines how your 

life unfolds. You then have free will to make the most 

of all situations.

How you perceive situations can make a big difference. 

For example, if one of your daughters didn't get into 

a college that she applied for, you might say it's "bad 

karma." Instead, it could be viewed as something that 

wasn't meant to be. Perhaps she was meant to follow a 

different career path.

Many kids encounter difficult circumstances like romantic 

interests treating them poorly, personal attacks from other 

students at school, or the countless other challenges that 

they have to work through. The traditional meaning of 

karma supports the idea that there are no victims, and though 

it's true from a spiritual viewpoint, that may sound a little 

harsh to a young person. Alternatively, while providing 

emotional support and guidance, suggest they consider that 

the challenges they work through now will help make them 

stronger, if you're not already doing this.

The best approach may be to allow your children to hold 

whatever beliefs about life they choose, yet also occasionally 

make helpful suggestions and offer guidance when 

appropriate.

Finally, try to encourage them to get in touch with their 

inner-selves through the practice of meditation (or artistic 

hobbies or cardiovascular exercise, to name a couple more 

ways). Becoming more aware of their inner guidance will 

help them be more aware of their optimum choices in all 

situations. Handwriting analysis is also a very useful tool 

to help identify hidden, subconscious fears and defenses. 

Self-knowledge does wonders for improving one's life.

For the skeptics, even if karma and reincarnation didn't 

exist (these concepts have yet to be proved invalid), 

encouraging kids to act as if they do helps them to 

understand the importance of taking responsibility for all 

their actions and doing the right thing in all situations.