Karma that binds you, karma that frees you.
Some of your karma binds you to the attractions of this world, while some karma frees you from the sufferings, misery and stress of this world. The choice is yours, to choose from the vast data bank of karma, that you can perform until the day you die.
It is fine, we need to survive and therefore, earn our living to get along the way, but when we overdo our limits and silence our soul and in the process, we invite trouble in our lives. When we spend the major portion of our lives in amassing wealth and in competing with each other in terms of wealth and worldly superiority, we do not look back at ourselves in a different light. We give spirituality a back seat and literally kill our competitors mercilessly, in order to remain at the top of whatever we are doing to gain name, fame, and money. This process in our lives goes on and on, even after we retire from our active life. We remain attached to all that we amassed and we feel strongly about anyone squandering that wealth, even though we may not be able to do much now due to our ageing mind and body. Our mind is programmed to attach ourselves to all that we earned in whichever way we could. After we die and perish, the basics of our mind remain in the form of our soul. This soul cannot free itself from the world that consists of all that wealth and luxury it left behind before death. This is the cause for an inherent rebirth for the soul. It cannot free itself, so it is born again in any form, but it is born into this world. Maybe, it does not remember all that detail about the wealth and luxury and its whereabouts, but it certainly craves to come back to this world again. When it comes back into this world, it enters the cycle of misery, suffering, and rebirth. Worldly wealth and pleasures not only put us into worldly attachments but also put our soul in this process of worldly attachments, whereby after death the soul comes back to this world again. This is why, when there is a freak of nature, some people can recount their past lives. They sometimes provide details of their past addresses and how they died. This has been confirmed by some psychologist too. Therefore, I am not wrong in putting this theory before you. The great Lord Gautama Buddha too stressed on this point.
The idea of rebirth and re-entering this world of misery and suffering is worrisome for any man. We can free ourselves from such a cycle of suffering and misery by not attaching ourselves to the worldly pleasures over and above what is necessary to live and survive with some dignity and comfort until we die.
Once we learn to focus our mind on spiritual strength and learning, we lose much of our enthusiasm to gain worldly wealth. We should all, at some part of our lives take lessons in acquiring spiritual knowledge and strength. This will help us in various ways, not only until the end of our lives but also after we are dead and gone. Our souls will benefit from such lessons and refrain from craving for rebirth in this world.
Spiritual learning and strength help us tide over severe crisis in our lives at all times. It also helps us ward off animosity and make friends with our enemies. We can lead a simple life style, while our minds actively wander in the quest of finding the truth, peace, happiness that will free us from the misery of this world. A wealthy man who lost his young son would part away with all his wealth to get back his son, or a man suffering from severe terminal disease and severe discomfort would part with all his wealth to get back his health or he may even seek mercy killing for himself to get relief from such pain and agony. Therefore, wealth always plays a secondary role in the life of a man. Happiness plays primary role in the life of mankind. A Buddhist monk was asked to bless a newborn child with eternal happiness. The monk blessed the child, thus; “First his father should die, then he should die and then his son should die” At first this seem so inauspicious and mournful but there are two elements to this. First, the truth is we all shall die one day. We should all die in order of our age and hierarchy. If the son dies first, the grandfather and the father will be at an eternal loss. If the father dies first, the grandfather will be at an eternal loss. So the blessing holds good and the death of each one in order of age is acceptable to all.
Once man learns, the basic principle on which this world is based upon, he distances himself away from the glamour of illusion that he sees and feels. Man need to exercise his mind all the time and shed the ignorance in order to free himself from the chain of suffering and misery.