Image by Andy Markley from http://Pixabay.com

Family troubles run in closed circles -- a very deep pool of woe.

This a gentle reminder to step-back and watch the movie, being the best daughter to your mom and best niece to your aunt that you can be.

Yes, that is a mask. But that role-play will serve you well, a bit further down the road because it is a mask of sacrifice. The one we are each called to wear as we clean up ancestral karma, living out roles and woes that aren't our own personal possessions.

Until we come to know that it isn't "us" that incarnates -- not Miss Jones or Mrs. Smith or your mom -- rather the unresolved karma in the microcosm, we usually live through a filter of taking everything personally. So we run, we jump, we pine, we cry and we long for freedom. Then it dawns on us that all of that emoting just tightens the knots and we suffocate slowly, crying tears at being held a prisoner to forces that we sometimes don't understand.

So we have to remember what or who is behind every incarnation. And that is God, Christ, Buddha or Dao. Name it as you will. The One Life stands behind every single, living breathing form -- including mad mom's and insane aunties. But have we have to look, peer so deeply beyond the vortex of wounds and scars to see That. And once we see it, we can then begin a true relationship -- the only one that heals and aids those around us who suffer so horribly.

You and I were dealt similar hands, experientially. I didn't have a mother either. She was a drunk, drug-addict. Missing-in-action most of life, hidden away in the house, sleeping off the booze and narcotics. So I ran and ran, always trying to find an escape route from her stinging criticisms and screamed obscenities. Only to find that they took up residence inside of me too (as my biological inheritance) and they continued to scream and torment for years and years as voices or presence's that would arise at the very moment when I most desperately needed a helping hand.

All of that prompted me to search for Truth, to understand. And when I found it, it confirmed what was felt inside -- that my biological family was a cesspool of infection. Each member inhabited by dark inner faces that were unfeeling, cruel and very controlling. And then I looked around and discovered that everyone else was similar -- infected with the very same self-focussed disease, so to say.

Eventually, a time came when I returned home to care-take parents when both were too ill to care for themselves or each other. It was a lonely time, but allowed an opportunity to fulfill that filial obligation -- leaving no stone unturned to just be helpful, in spite of childhood drama.

Those who are sensitive and unafraid of truth have it within to clearly see the karma you've been tasked to clean-up. It isn't your karma or your mothers or your aunts or your fathers. It has been there since beginningless time. Only now, twisted and knotted and a bit stronger as each and every inhabitant in their microcosms have embellished the primal karmic knot with their own mis-creations.

Here is where we must 'walk the talk' -- taking everything we've learned and putting it into daily practice and action. It has to do with our focus and where we identify as selves. Since we are not the karmic inheritance, none of this is about us personally. Simply said,
we are maids in the Temple of Life, the brooms that sweep the floor. So we sweep whatever is put before us, all the while, keeping our focus vertically aligned to the Dao. We don't rest upon a lesser deity or name, even tho' they might arise up in our consciousness. We peer deeply, past and through them to what stands behind their presence, too. Like an arrow, shot straight to the heavens, we go directly to the One Life that is nameless. And through such repeated activity, our sweeping work becomes a holy service -- consecrated or given up to God.

We sweep up the litter others' scatter about and burn it. We polish what can be polished. We wash what can be washed. And we wait for the One Life to tell us when that particular period of labor is over and we are free to move on to something else, that is also service to every single microcosm in the omni-verse. As long as there is a true need in a sewer pool, such as the familial one you are in, God/Christ will place a servant there to clean-up what others can't. He will always place a lamp in the places of deepest darkness.

So it is very important to re-member [unto] God as best you can -- through meditation, regaining your center, being mindful. I say this as your friend because sadly, without the 'reality checks' of frank communion with spiritual kin, we can easily become saturated from the pool we've been cast into and forget and forget until one day, 24 hours has gone by and we haven't given God's Will and Plan a single thought.

Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi tells the beautiful story of karmic clean-up. And when we apply that wisdom to situations, such as you find yourself in now, we can begin to follow the instructions of the Tao Te Ching: "Let the Dao do the work". When we peer deeply enough to see the Dao behind everything and everyone, we can then get out of the way, trusting IT to go where It needs to go and we to follow as simple servants.

You've probably figured out that the One Life allows itself to be imprisoned inside infected microcosms. It sacrifices its natural freedom for one purpose -- to liberate the residents in the microcosmic 'inns', dissolve the karmic knots so that all can enjoy the genuine freedom of Spirit. And yes, the contrast of our memories of other worlds and other realms where such concentrated darkness is not prevalent is painful if we keep returning to memory as our support and sustenance. So part of the sacrifice is to give up those contrasts and memories to God or Dao or Buddha as those are just glimpses into the Infinite One Life that is omni-present, evenly distributed. Because everytime we go there -- to the memories of more rarefied spheres, we usually are grasping and floundering in the cesspool here for anything to ameliorate the sense of worldly suffering when what we really need is Divine Apathy that can only come from genuine Trust in God. When we surrender familial karma to what can genuinely dissolve it, then -- and only then -- can we serve as God's maid.

Trust God with all outcomes. Only He can resolve the family karma. All you can do is seek His Will and heed intuitive prompting. Let provocative words fall where they may, if that is what is genuinely prompted in the moment. The habit of lying -- false flattery -- has to die in order for self-honesty to take root in worldly humanity. And only the strong are given brooms with sharp points that can provoke a soul enough to stir from its slumber. I have a wise friend who says if we are not making at least one enemy each day, we aren't doing our job. So tell the critical goblins to take a hike and stand tall and firm as the lamp that will, at first, frighten those who have grown so accustomed to blindness. Every soul already has whatever is needed to complete the mandatory maid duty because no one is ever parachuted into pools of karmic woe without a broom.

http://www.ascendinghall.com/mtn_skylight/dear_iching/inherited_karma_letter.htm