How To Dissolve Material Karma? - Big Picture Questions

Previously, we have talked about karma, which may be defined as attraction, attachment or addiction to things like limiting (low frequency) thoughts, behaviors, physical sensations, materialism or status. In this post, I’d like to describe my attempt to dissolve some material karma as a result of a major life change that my husband and I chose to undertake at this point in our lives. How to dissolve material karma?

Karma is all about how we exist and are attracted to the physical environment and whether we can break away from it. We are at an interesting juncture in incarnate mankind’s history. We now have the ability to negate our karmic content in a single lifetime. This is something that was not previously possible simply because we didn’t fully understand what Karma is and how we accrue it.” – Guy Needler

What is material karma?

Guy Needler (“Avoiding Karma”) defined material karma as the need to have more money or more expensive things, like a car, house, boat, clothes, vacations, attachments to people, pets, etc. Similarly, status based karma is showing off wealth, fame, power, possessions, career, trophy wife, high achiever children, social clubs, yachts, etc. Not all billionaires are poster boys for material karma. For example:

Jeff Bezos just got a $500 million super yacht, but hates paying taxes or minimum wages for his workers. But both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have donated over $46 billion to charity since 2000. Buffett lives in a modest house he bought in 1958, while Bill Gates lives in a $63 million luxury home.
In May 2020 Elon Musk tweeted: “I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house.” He said he wanted “freedom,” but admitted he was financially illiquid. He sold seven houses to generate cash, then moved to Texas with no state income tax or capital gains taxes.

Okay, so that’s the story with billionaires. What about so-called spiritual people or regular folks?

What is Wayne Dyer’s story?

Wayne Dyer was one of my earliest teachers, who was like the wise sage or grandfather I never had. He worked as a professor of counseling psychology before he became a writer of dozens of best sellers and a motivational speaker known worldwide. He was a self-made man, who had been married three times and had eight children. As a new thought leader, he had a lot of life experience to share with others.

His influencers were Abraham Maslow, Nisargadatta Maharaj (his master) and the teachings of Swami Muktananda, St. Francis and Lao Tzu. The focus of his work evolved over the years from self-help to self-actualization to more spiritual work at the end. Why? He explained how human evolution can be divided into four stages described by Carl Jung as the following archetypes:

The Athlete: The first stage is primarily identified with the physical body. (e.g. how we look, dress, body shape and size).
The Warrior: This stage is dominated by the ego. The person is driven to act based on biological instincts and roles in society. This stage is about goal setting, strategizing, studying hard and practicing diligently to be successful in life. Some people live an entire lifetime at this stage and don’t go beyond it.
The Statesman/Stateswoman: This is where the person’s ego shifts. They come to realize that their purpose is to serve the world. Material ambition or greed is replaced by spiritual ambition to make a difference in the world and to be connected to others.
The Spirit: This is where you start to realize that you are not a human being having a spiritual experience, but a spiritual being having a temporary human experience. Your desire is to embody your essential divine nature as an individualized unit of God in human form.

Human evolution is about making the shift from ego-driven ambition to a soul-driven life of meaning and purpose. Thus, dissolving material karma is part of our evolutionary path at least in some lifetimes. Once you reach the statesman stage of life, you no longer put emphasis on materialism. That was Wayne Dyer’s experience. One day he told his manager to sell everything he owned. He moved from Florida to Maui, where he lived the rest of his days, while actively lecturing, writing books and doing PBS specials (donating $150 million to charities in his lifetime).

What is our story?

My husband and I represent the regular folks. We are both immigrants, who have lived in several countries (Finland, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada, USA between us). We have been married for almost four decades and have accumulated a lot of things, half of which we took with us when moving from one country or state to another. All that changed in 2020, when we decided to move once more to Europe and become digital nomads.

Since I’m an EU citizen, we could reside anywhere within the 27 member states. But we decided to move to Spain, which is similar to Southern California. Since Juan is Venezuelan, Spanish is his mother tongue, but he speaks five other languages that will help us in Europe. There was only one complication – Covid! We had to get vaccinated, but couldn’t go to Spain until they reopen to tourism. We decided to take a road trip around Mexico for me to be immersed in a Spanish speaking country and for our 13-year-old Chihuahua to get used to traveling with us.

But first we had to sell everything we owned, including our big house and all the contents in it. We donated most of our household goods to a local Goodwill store and sold some furniture at an estate sale (below, living room) and donated the rest to charity. We even sold our iMac computers and will sell our 11-year-old car when we return to the USA before we fly to Spain (hopefully in June 2021).

We discovered that we’re not attached to our house or belongings at all. The only thing Juan was hesitant to give up was his microscope, which represents the tool for his life’s work. He donated it to a local high school teacher, who was elated at having a scope with a camera with which to teach her students. For me, the most difficult thing to give up was my old 1969 Baldwin organ, which went to my daughter, so all is well.

What did we learn from this experience?

Most of us think of “security” as having a place to live or material things to use and enjoy. But true security comes from within, not from any external things you possess. Home is where you and your loved ones are present. As Wayne Dyer (“Living an Inspired Life”) put it:

“For a moment, let’s imagine what it would be like to be fully alive without a physical shell or any of the stuff we need and desire for maintaining life on Earth.

We’d have a mental energy that allowed us to move forward or backward, up or down, instantly creating whatever we desired. We’d be free to wallow in an exquisite existence without time or space as we know it. We’d be in a state of pure bliss, in love with everything and everyone. We’d have no duties or bills to tend to, no fear of losing anything, no one judging us, no possessions to insure, no demands on our time, and no goals to achieve.

What we’re envisioning is actually the world of Spirit, which we experienced before we came here and will return to when we shed our body (or as William Butler Yeats poetically called it, our “tattered coat upon a stick”).”

Here are a few tips on how to simplify your life, based on Wayne Dyer’s and our experience:

Unclutter your life by donating, recycling or trashing the things you haven’t used in the last year.
Prioritize your health with daily exercise and a proper diet (e.g. intermittent fasting, unprocessed food, low carb diet).
Enjoy the simplicity of nature (e.g. hiking, sunlight, pets, gardening).
Clear your life of unnecessary activities, obligations, critics or naysayers.
Make time for daily meditation, prayer and self-care.