The Karmic Quest for Self-Expression

Happiness is listening to some piano music while I read or write. I have John Field's Nocturne No 1 in E-flat Major playing in the background as I type these lines. Classical piano music always bring me back to my childhood.

There's a certain sense of familiarity whenever I listen to classical music. When I first listened to Beethoven and Chopin as a child, it felt like welcoming back old friends--I had a feeling that I had heard them before and I had always loved them. Was I evoking memories of my past life? Perhaps. But I wouldn't go so far. 

All cultures create their own music. Is music a basic necessity? No. We won't die but life would be intolerably boring without it. Music is an expression of karma. (There I go again, with my annoying New Agey lingo!). What I mean is that there are certain tendencies in human behaviour, in the way the human brain works, that manifest themselves in art and other forms of human expressions. 

Why do we enjoy chatting with friends? Most conversations do not serve any practical purpose. There's no real practical value in 'catching up' with old friends. But we socialize because it is in our nature to do so. Our genes demand it. We are compelled to do so. We are driven by our instinctive behaviour to do things that we do not really comprehend its purpose. Because to live is to do things, even without purpose.

Why climb a mountain? Because it's there. 

Why listen to music? Because it evokes certain feelings and memories. Why do we value these sentimental evocations? Again, it is an expression of being human. We feel, we think and we do. Must there be a purpose to everything?

We chase after pleasures. Life is the pursuit of pleasure--not in a negative sense. Having a partner for life and bringing up children whom you can love and be proud of is a pleasure. There is no shame in striving for that. It is what makes us human. It is what life is all about. To love and be loved. Again, it is karma expressing itself--energy being conserved, transferred and distributed evenly across the universe. 

You can assist or impede this flow of energy. But the laws of nature are dispassionate. You can push things off, but the universe has infinite patience. It cuts channels into mountains of stones and sweeps the soil from the land into the oceans. It is forever looking for stability. 

To live is to allow your personal channel of energy--your karma--to find its optimal path of expression. That in a nutshell is the purpose of life. Why does life even need a purpose? The need for purpose is another karmic kink within of which its quest is an act of expression. The sense of dissatisfaction you feel inside--those are the unstable regions of your psyche that need re-balancing.

May we all have better insights into the workings of our karma and may we ease them into resolution through our well-chosen actions.