Conditions

The circumstances of our life—which are the results of previous actions—have emerged because the conditions allow it.

As we have stated, for the result of any action to manifest, the conditions must be conducive. The results blossom when the conditions are ripe.

If we want to consciously manage the fruit of our life, we need to influence the conditions of our life.

If you want to grow a garden, you need the right conditions. It would be very difficult or impossible to grow fruit in an inhospitable climate. Similarly, if you want to have a successful business, you need to position it in the right conditions. Spiritual success also depends on conditions that support it.

Though we are burdened with karma and we must face the results of all of our previous actions, this is not something that unfolds purely mechanically. There still remains in all of us some small margin of free will: the ability to choose.

The first step to negotiating our karma is by choosing to behave in a better way. The best way to do that is to provide ourselves with conditions that support our decisions.

If you want to stop drinking alcohol, the first step is to stop going to bars, parties, and places where drinking is encouraged. If you remain in the conditions that support the action of drinking, then drinking is not only likely, but inevitable.

Spending time with drug-using friends places you amongst the conditions that encourage the desire to use drugs. If you do not want to take drugs, then you should not put yourself in those conditions.

If you place certain things together, then there will be specific results. To get the results you want, work with the proper conditions.

If you spend time with peaceful, serene people, those conditions will have an effect on you. If you spend time in bars, those conditions will have an effect on you. This is unavoidable.

If you want to become chaste, you must create conditions that support chastity.

Effects can only manifest under supportive conditions. Examine the conditions in your life, and be more conscious of where you take yourself, and what kind of influences you are choosing.