In this talk and community discussion we will continue our exploration of how to skillfully use the beauty and challenges of polyamory as a means to grow spiritually, and we’ll seek to do so from both Buddhist and Daoist perspectives. This talk is the third of a seven-part discussion series in which we’ll be exploring polyamory as a vehicle for inner personal development and cultivation. This third session will build on the first session and second sessions’ explorations of mindfulness, precepts, cultivation, essential nature, basic goodness, possibility, and polyamory. That said, as with all other conversations in this series, this third session will also stand alone. In this third session we will focus on the intersections of caring, karma, and what are essentially Buddhist and Daoist notions of psychology.

While exploring concepts such as karma, both Daoism and Buddhism developed complex notions of psychology in the first few centuries of the common era. It is no surprise that many Western therapeutic practices and much of the self-help aisle read like a harvesting of Daoist and Buddhist notions of self, psychology, and therapy.

Karma is a deep topic. Karma can be defined as cause and effect in life. It is often thought to reflect the effects of actions taken in past lives on our experience in this life. Another way of looking at that could also be to understand a past life as a previous moment in this life and simply understand karma as the ways our own personal baggage constrains our life in this moment.

Related to karma is the Buddhist (and adopted into Daoism) concept of the storehouse consciousness. This is a beautiful metaphor for, arguably, what we now call the unconscious (and, in fact, this concept was created by people studying Buddhism). In the storehouse consciousness concept, our actions serve as seeds for what might sprout in any given moment. The term projection has relevance here. Lie to a partner? Suddenly this seed ripens and you’re either awkward around them or, perhaps worse yet, worried about your partner’s honesty. The seed of dishonesty has sprouted. This is one of the deeper ways that Buddhism has analyzed the impacts of karma on our lives. Helpfully, bad seeds can be damaged and good seeds can be planted.

Equally useful is the Daoist conception of the soul as multiple. In Daoism, the body, mind, and spirit are manifold. The body is populated by spirits for most every organ. Prominent spirits include the spirit of the mouth, the spirit of the heart/mind, the spirit of the thought. These spirits can run astray or they can aid us. Similarly, we have heavenly spirits that may guide us or, if we’ve been bad, tattle on us (sound like the superego?). And we have earth spirits that can anchor us or pull us right down into the mud (sound like the id?).

These concepts also closely mirror the parts of internal family systems. We also have different aspects of consciousness related to different depths of meditation. All of these different selves afford us the ability to approach each other and ourselves with mindfulness and greater compassion. If a given emotion belongs to a part of ourselves - not our essential self - then it is easier to distance from and kindly analyze that emotion. It also makes it easier to talk to our partners if they’re not mad or afraid of us, only a part of them is.

We’ll discuss karma, storehouse consciousness, multiple souls, and the importance of deep care - and, of course, how all of these things relate to polyamory!

By coming together as a curious, open, trusting, and vulnerable community, we can each benefit from the wisdom, perspectives, and practices others have considered or employed in navigating the many ways we can show up for ourselves and others with attuned presence, continually deepening care, and an increased sense of relational ease and freedom.

TOPICS FOR EXPLORATION

1.What is karma?

2.How does karma related to the self?

3.Four Types of Karma in Buddhism

a.Dark Karma (negative actions)

b.Bright Karma (virtuous actions)

c.Mixed Karma (a combination of both)

d.Karma that leads to the end of karma (path to enlightenment)

4.Four Types of Karma in Hinduism

a.Accumulated Past

b.Fated Present

c.Current Actions

d.Future results

5.What is the storehouse consciousness?

6.What might it mean to be a composite entity, having multiple souls and spirits?

7.How do precepts fit into this complex self becoming?

a.Boundaries

b.Consent

c.Attunement

d.Caring

e.Discernment

8.What does it mean to unfold in multiplicity in partnership?

9.How does this multiplicity fit into polyamory?

10.How do we navigate multiplicity in partnerships?

11.Karma, Causality, Change, Co-Dependent Arising, Multiplicity, and time in relationship.

12.Compassion as the means for untangling this net.

DISCUSSION CO-HOSTS:

Jonathan and Rafael Langer-Osuna, a Daoist priest with the lineage name 宗妙. Their profile can be found here: https://plra.io/m/rafaellangerosuna28

Join us for this exciting community exploration!

ONLINE EVENT: Cost $20

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Poly/ENM Meditation Community

A space for Poly/ENM and sex positive folks interested in meditation to connect with each other.

Follow our ‘organization’ here: https://plra.io/m/org/polyenm-meditation-community

Follow our chat thread here: https://plra.io/m/chat/polyenm-meditation-commu