Respect the Power of Karmic Obstructions

Hold karmic obstructions in awe. They can obscure your true nature and mine; they can shroud many countries and peoples. How could we not hold them in awe?

I. The Objective Existence of Karmic Obstructions from a Materialist Perspective

Marx and Zhuangzi approach karmic obstructions through historical materialism and the Dao. Internal and external karmic obstructions objectively exist: private ownership, petty-bourgeois karmic obstructions, elitist social Darwinism, feudal characteristics, the collective unconscious, the Big Other, inherited familial karma, and so on.

This differs from what idealism implies: that the original mind can seemingly eliminate them with ease, and that if karmic obstructions have not been eliminated, the mind has simply not striven or practiced enough.

Seeing that individual problems are all social problems, and that individual karmic obstructions are all social karmic obstructions, allows us to care more for ourselves and for actual people.

Marxism speaks of historical limitations, class limitations, and individual limitations. Human essence—the sum of the luminosity of our true nature and our karmic obstructions—is the sum of social relations.

Class analysis is itself part of the analysis of karmic obstructions. The proletariat and working people at the bottom of society have lighter internal karmic obstructions and a lesser degree of internal alienation. The simple goodness, sincerity, and beauty of billions of people are irrefutable evidence.

The petty bourgeoisie and the middle and upper strata control public discourse, so narratives shaped by karmic obstructions, such as elitism, social Darwinism, and the Whig interpretation of history, become “mainstream.”

Emperors are slaves to history. Heaven and earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs.

*Zhuangzi, “Discussion on Making All Things Equal”*: “The people of antiquity reached a certain height in their understanding. What height did they reach? Some held that things had never begun to exist. This was the utmost, the limit, beyond which nothing could be added. Next came those who held that things existed. Next came distinctions, and after that came right and wrong. The emergence of right and wrong is what diminishes the Dao.”

*Zhuangzi, “The Great Ancestral Teacher”*: Yan Hui forgot benevolence and righteousness, forgot rites and music, and sat in forgetfulness. What is sitting in forgetfulness? “Letting the limbs and body fall away, dismissing acuity and cleverness, leaving form behind and casting off knowledge, becoming one with the great all-pervading unity—this is called sitting in forgetfulness.”

II. Holding Karmic Obstructions in Awe Also Means Revering the Luminosity of Our True Nature

Holding karmic obstructions in awe also means respecting and feeling grateful for our true nature, which has been fighting this bitter battle in the mire of fate all along. It then becomes easier to feel grateful for and form a connection with our past selves, and to connect with the sense that our future selves, too, are watching us in the present with tenderness and gratitude.

It also means respecting and feeling grateful for the luminosity of the true nature of every ordinary person who is simple and kind.

Hold others’ karmic obstructions in awe, respect their fate, respect the luminosity of their true nature within the scripts of their karmic obstructions, and respect their potential to embark on a hero’s journey within the scripts of their own fate. Do not underestimate the luminosity of others’ true nature, or their karmic obstructions. Do not become entangled in others’ fate or karmic obstructions. We cannot even handle our own karmic obstructions, so how could we handle someone else’s?

Do not be too quick to think of saving children. Children have innate wholeness and often come to save adults. There are many karmic obstructions that even children’s inborn vitality cannot handle, so how could we? We can only ever be allies to children, or to anyone else, rather than their mentors.

Who is it that holds karmic obstructions and true nature in awe?

III. Holding Karmic Obstructions in Awe Means Coexisting with Them

See karmic obstructions, trust in the luminosity of our true nature, and attachment to the ego becomes lighter.

People often fear and avoid karmic obstructions, avoid the dark side, and avoid reality as it is. They lack the capacity to face karmic obstructions directly.

Holding karmic obstructions in awe makes it easier to accept our own dark side. There are things within us that we ourselves find difficult to cope with, and others avoid us because of them. But that thing is not me. My essence is the luminosity of my true nature.

Holding karmic obstructions in awe makes it easier to let go of the fixation on spiritual practice and on controlling purity. Even the luminosity of our true nature cannot handle them, so how could our thinking?

Life is like lava. It contains more than dark karmic obstructions: the blazing luminosity of our true nature also flickers within it, impossible to conceal.

Life is like a lotus. There is mud and dirty water, but there are also green leaves and white blossoms, and those blossoms are the perfect luminosity of our true nature.

Always whole and complete, whole and complete at every step.

IV. Holding Karmic Obstructions in Awe Means Choosing Our Social Connections, Rather Than Trying to Change People

Expecting others to change means underestimating the luminosity of their true nature, underestimating their karmic obstructions, overestimating ourselves, and underestimating our own karmic obstructions.

Holding karmic obstructions in awe helps us understand our aversion to many people. It is not that we do not believe in the goodness of human nature; karmic obstructions and the Big Other cause that aversion.

Holding karmic obstructions in awe means we no longer agonize over or analyze other people’s rejection, avoidance, or distancing from us. There really is something within us that causes distress to ourselves and others, something indescribable and Lovecraftian. That is not a problem of ours as individuals; it is a problem of history.

People are drawn to one another through their true nature, or become entangled through karmic obstructions, while karmic obstructions also drive them apart. Repulsion is better than entanglement. Keeping a distance does not mean a lack of love. It means the connection is not there, and each person needs to work through their own karmic obstructions. Keeping a distance is a rare kindness: no entanglement, no fixation. Mistaking entanglement for closeness and love is itself a karmic obstruction.

V. Holding Karmic Obstructions in Awe Helps Us Live More in the Present

We can barely see our present karmic obstructions clearly, let alone the past and future obscured and disrupted by them.

We agonize over the past and future because we are caught in karmic obstructions.

Holding karmic obstructions in awe makes it easier to allow ourselves not to live in the present. Allow disconnection and collapse in the present moment. Sensing that something is wrong, sensing disconnection, is itself our true nature at work.

Holding karmic obstructions in awe makes it easier to be at ease in and enjoy the present. Cherish this gust of wind, the heart trembling as it rides the wind; cherish that cloud, the mind roaming freely upon it.

Cherish the connections of the present moment. They are already all the connections our true nature has spontaneously made, all the cracks it has found in the dark clouds of karmic obstructions, and the light it has released.

VI. Holding Karmic Obstructions in Awe Helps Us Seek Truth from Facts

Failing to seek truth from facts is itself a karmic obstruction.

Seek truth from facts about ourselves, let everything be as it is, and allow all suffering.

Seek truth from facts: only choose and form connections; do not try to change others or become entangled. This is a sign of lighter karmic obstructions.

Seek truth from facts about history, and hold history in awe. History is the movement and evolution of the Great Dao. Individuals are small; all rise and fall with its currents.