May 26, 2025 • 39 mins
Dr. Douglas James Cottrell delivers profound insights into the metaphysical mechanics of karma and sin, revealing how these spiritual processes shape our growth and development. While many misunderstand karma as simply "good" or "bad," Douglas explains it's actually a neutral process—similar to baking a cake—where our actions return to us with mathematical precision, teaching us through direct experience.
The origins of sin, from ancient archery meaning "to miss the mark," highlights its true purpose as a corrective mechanism rather than eternal punishment. When we veer off our spiritual path, consequences arise not to condemn us but to guide us back toward alignment with our higher purpose. Both karma and sin serve as sophisticated teaching tools designed to increase our awareness, compassion, and spiritual development.
Perhaps most practical is Douglas's revelation about breaking free from repetitive negative experiences. "The last thing you want to do is usually the thing you have to do," he advises. When we find ourselves trapped in cycles—whether with people who take advantage of us or situations that leave us feeling victimized—the solution often lies in what we're avoiding. By facing difficult truths, establishing boundaries, or confronting those who harm us, we can break karmic cycles completely.
Douglas also illuminates the crucial difference between intervening and interfering in others' spiritual journeys. True compassion means helping people move forward without removing their essential learning opportunities. When we interfere by shielding others from consequences, we actually delay their growth and may inadvertently take on their karmic burden—echoing the biblical warning against judgment.
Ready to transform your understanding of spiritual accountability and break free from repetitive patterns? Subscribe to Wake Up with Dr. Douglas James Cottrell and join us on this journey of deeper awareness, where ancient wisdom meets practical application for modern life.
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Announcer (00:00):
Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell,
your source for helpfulinformation, advice and tips to
live your life in a mindful wayin this increasingly chaotic
world.
For over four decades, DrDouglas has been teaching people
how to develop their intuitionand live their lives in a
conscious way.
His news and views of the worldtomorrow, today, are always
(00:21):
informative and revealing.
And now here's your host, DrDouglas James Cottrell.
Douglas James Cottrell (00:30):
Welcome to the Wake Up, a broadcast
where curiosity leads to deeperunderstanding.
I'm your host, Douglas JamesCottrell, and my good friend and
co-host Les Hubert is here withme, along with editor Jack
Bialik, as we delve into thefascinating realms of life,
metaphysics, spirituality andthe pressing questions that
shape our world.
Good morning, Les.
Les Hubert (00:51):
Now we got another interesting question for you,
Doug.
This one concerns karma versussin.
With reincarnation and pastlives, we hear of karma, both
good and bad.
How does karma differ from sin?
Douglas James Cottrell (01:06):
Well, karma isn't a thing, it's a
process.
The first thing to understand.
Sin tends to be associated withactions, activity and basically
the both of them haveconsequences to behavior, and
(01:27):
all the great religions of theworld talk about having
consequences to your misbehaving.
And to understand misbehavingis, to some degree, not
desirable, right?
We don't want to go to hell.
So as we go through thisunderstanding of this
consciousness that we're talkingabout under this awareness,
(01:51):
this spiritual awareness, thenthese two items become a process
, a mechanism to correct you.
I like to look at sin in a waythat I've described in my
lectures around the world, thatthe word sin comes from an
ancient archery term.
And that is, when an archerstands at the line, draws the
(02:15):
bow back with an arrow in it andlets it fly, it goes in the
direction of the target.
When it doesn't hit the centerof the target and it goes off
the mark, that's called sinning.
The arrow has sinned, so it'soff the mark.
When somebody in life doessomething that is constructive
(02:39):
or destructive, let's say theygive the term, which is not
accurate, that karma is good orbad.
Karma doesn't have a value,it's a process.
It's like baking a cake.
The baking of the cake is aprocess.
So if we look at it that way,then karma is the balancing
between your actions and theconsequences of your actions.
(03:02):
Therefore, the better youractions, the more you are
helping and being of service,the greater the consciousness is
, or the rewards or the benefitof that.
They come back to you.
So karma has the concept of,like a boomerang what you throw
(03:23):
out, all your actions,activities come back to you.
That's the consequences.
And the reason thoseconsequences come back to you is
to teach you what it's like tobe on the other side of the coin
or the other side of theexperience.
Announcer (03:37):
Oh, okay.
Douglas James Cottrell (03:37):
In basic understanding, the idea of
sinning doesn't mean that you goto hell, that you can't repent
and you can't regret, you justsuffer.
It's got nothing to do with it.
The idea of making a mistakeand then going through the shame
(03:58):
and the apologies and all that,it's a lesson, so that you
become a better person.
And that's important.
So when you sin, it's kind oflike teaching you if you will,
that's not what to do, it's notthe right thing, it has a
consequence.
You feel bad and you correct.
You are back on target, you'reback on the path.
And again, to repeat, with thekarmic experiences, it's like,
(04:23):
exactly not one iota, more orless, what you give out always
comes back to you.
So if you don't give anythingout, you're pretty much safe,
you're okay.
Maybe that's why all these holypeople live up in caves and
mountains just vegetating, youknow.
They don't want to get any morekarma.
Taking that a step farther.
(04:44):
First of all, to sin, which isa corrective mechanism.
When you're off the mark, youlearn to be on the mark, you
learn to correct your behavior.
And as you do so, you become abetter soul, a more aware soul,
a more loving soul, and you reapthe rewards of coming closer to
God and being in yourenvironment, which is, of course
(05:07):
, favorable.
On the karmic side, you learnthe steps through the
consequences on what ispreferred and what is not
preferred.
So you learn how to find thestepping stones across the creek
to get to where you want to go,and that invokes wisdom.
And so we have good karma.
It's kind of like both of themin the concept of spiritual
(05:30):
development is, the more goodyou give out, the more service
you are.
These are the rewards you'regiving to yourself and, as
Muhammad Ali once said, that tobe of service in the world is
the currency you have when youdie to pay the rent on your
(05:51):
spiritual house.
A very, very profound way ofthinking from his religious
perspective.
So, in answering the two, you'renot going to go to hell, in
either case.
You're going to experience in aspiritual world, which is the
same.
Doesn't matter what you believeor don't believe.
It's the spiritual developmentyou are going to receive,
(06:12):
exactly what you give forth.
So it's better to be of serviceand to apply the golden rule.
You know, don't do anythingthat you wouldn't want to have
happen to yourself.
In all the world's greatreligions--t here's a poster, I
think, in the Vatican that hasall these sayings from the
world's great religions-- thatall can be interpreted down to
the golden rule, no matter whatlanguage it's in or what
(06:33):
religion it is, it all comesdown to the golden rule.
Les Hubert (06:34):
Wow, that's interesting.
Douglas James Cottrell (06:36):
It's there and it makes sense.
I mean, on the other side oflife, what's the religion over
there?
Well, there is none, becausereligion is in the world.
But the heavens and thedimensions are there and
learning how to become aware andprogress through them on your
spiritual journey, that is thesame over there, no matter what
(06:58):
your spiritual beliefs are here.
And, of course, all spiritualbeliefs are incomplete because
we're not divine beings like anavatar or a messiah or a saint
or a prophet.
We are always learning.
Twoaspects of sinning, meaning off
the mark, attempting to getbetter, aim aim, to be on the
(07:18):
path.
The Bible's full of being onthe path.
It refers to the path.
, The the correct path that, Ican say, is when you're shooting
the arrow down to the target,you're on the mark.
And the other is again the sameprocess of learning, sort of an
in an experiential way, hands-onif you will will, what to do
and what not to do.
But the concepts they blendtogether when you get to that
(07:41):
point of correctness, awareness,these mechanisms on how to
teach you what's the right way.
Les Hubert (07:49):
I remember years ago I used to study Transcendental
Meditation and the MaharishiMaharishi Yogi, he said
meditation is a way ofovercoming much karma.
How is that even possible?
Douglas James Cottrell (08:01):
Well, if you're full of anger, hate,
frustration and difficulty andyou learn how to be loving and
kind and peaceful, what have youlearned?
What have you overcome?
All the things that separateyou from the path, which are the
hate, the anger, thefrustration, the brutality, all
the animalistic sides of us.
(08:23):
After all, we are animals.
We were cavemen once and so wehave the tendency, all of us are
able and capable of doing badthings to each other.
But the spiritually enlightenedone chooses not to do that.
They resist doing thoseanimalistic activities so that
(08:43):
they become more spiritual, andthat's spiritual--l ike the
Messiah, the Christ, theMuhammad, the Prophet, the Moses
, etc.
--t They never retaliated.
They had great power, spiritualpower.
They could make duplications ofwater into wine and fishes and
loaves to feed a multitude.
Think what they could do ifthey could think of somebody who
(09:06):
is their enemy.
They could reach in their heartand squeeze their heart to a
pulp.
They don't show the violence.
Instead, they put forward thisnonviolent-- like Mahatma Gandhi
.
For a handful of salt hebrought down the British Empire
and he freed the millions ofpeople in India with a handful
(09:26):
of salt and his non-violentphilosophy, teaching them not to
be violent.
And that is the greatestexample of understanding the
spiritual technique, awareness,ability, that these two aspects
of being off the mark with sinand suffering consequences to
your actions take hold.
(09:47):
Think about it.
A man picked up a handful ofsalt and he changed the whole
country.
The empire, the British empire,fell after that separation of
control in India.
Think about that.
So that's the power of one man,one person and nonviolence.
Les Hubert (10:07):
hey heard of storing up good karma.
Can you also store up bad karma?
Douglas James Cottrell (10:11):
It's the same.
See, you've got to think it'snot a bank, it's a process.
And when somebody says, oh,you've got a lot of good karma,
I used to say, you've got a lotof brownie points, okay.
Spiritual brownie points.
What does that mean?
Let's go back to Muhammad Ali.
You have a lot of service, andso that's the currency you have
(10:35):
for your residence in heaven.
But what about here?
You know, if you keep doing goodthings and being of service,
that when you get in difficultyhere in the world, somebody
shows up to help you.
Right.
Out of the blue.
Somebody will, if you're out ofgas, pick you up and take you
to the gas station and bring youback.
Somebody will knock on yourdoor and say, hey, your house is
(10:58):
on fire.
Or some other not so grandiosesituation.
When you're feeling really bad,somebody will come by, you
haven't seen for a while, andgive you a big hug.
Or somebody will come and sayto you, I know exactly what you
need to do.
That happened to me when I wasyounger.
And so this good karma, thisbeneficial aspects to your life,
(11:21):
is not really karma, it's theservice you've given.
Now I'm going to maybe sound alittle contradictory to that,
because when you have a dreamand in the dream you're going
out and you're mowing the lawn,in your dream.
I've learned that that's thesymbol for collecting the
brownie points that you've savedup and earned from previous
(11:44):
lifetimes or this one.
It's a bank of good things.
So when you're mowing the lawn,you're cutting the grass,
you're collecting your benefitsof service that you've given
before.
So you can call it good karma,but to the purist, karma is not
good or bad, it just simply is.
It's a mechanism.
But yeah, if you start doingbad things to people, bad things
(12:09):
are going to happen to you,because all action has a
consequence.
Les Hubert (12:13):
It sounds like it's kind of a balancing act.
I remember reading Edgar Caycewas once asked where he got his
ability to do the work, such asyourself and Ross Peterson and
Solomon, etc.
And he described a past life,where he was I think it was back
in the pioneer days and hesacrificed his life.
He was a trader or something, Iforget exactly, but he
(12:36):
sacrificed his life in order forsome people to get away from
marauding Indians who werebasically, you know, violent at
the time because their land wasbeing invaded.
And because of his sacrifice tobalance out, he was given this
ability to help people goinginto a deep trance meditation.
I thought that was fascinating.
So is it also kind of likebalancing the factors of
(12:59):
positive and negative energies?
Douglas James Cottrell (13:02):
Well, Edgar Cayce gave up his life in
a previous lifetime to saveother people so they could get
away.
So what was he doing?
Giving up his life for thebenefit of others.
Edgar Cayce, being a intuitivecounselor, gave up his life for
(13:25):
the benefit of others.
How did he give up his life?
One hour at a time, to go intomeditation.
He wasn't living his life, hewas giving his life to people,
so they would get the benefit.
So he gave up his life.
So I think he said somethinglike 40,000 consultations.
(13:48):
So 40,000 hours of his life iswhat he gave up.
Wow.
You can see the parallelbetween giving up your life,
holding off the marauders whileyour family escapes parallels
with giving up your life to doconsultations for people.
I can relate to that because Iremember looking out the window
and the sun would be out, theperson would come for a session.
(14:11):
I used to do four of them a daywhen I was younger.
And it was depressing that Icould see the light out the
window.
I'm looking out my window now,so I'm looking to the side, and
when I woke up it was dark.
S o that had an effect on me,but I still did it because
that's what I was required to do.
(14:32):
So it wasn't that he did thatbefore and then he was
bequeathed his ability.
It said he had the ability, butjust the parallel was he was
giving up his life a differentway, one hour at a time, as
opposed to canceling his lifeout.
If he was 40 or 50 years old,he was dead and lost 30 or 40
(14:54):
years of his life.
So how did he come across thisability?
How did he become this greatseer, being able to tap into the
higher dimensions?
Well, because he had done sobefore.
All of us have done, and hecould have lived in a temple and
he could have spent times in amonastery.
I think there were such timesas that.
(15:16):
He could have been a highpriest in Egypt.
I think he was the Ra-ta priestat the, back in Egypt.
So he wasn't like a neophyte,he was highly trained in
previous experiences.
And so that is, let's say, theassumption that that high
training from another time cameforward.
(15:36):
Then he became a spiritualmaster in this life.
The same as a child prodigy whowas a great pianist in France
and comes back and goes intoTaiwan and can play, or Vietnam
and can play the piano at two orthree years of age, with a
masterful skill.
Les Hubert (15:55):
Oh yeah, you see that a lot.
Douglas James Cottrell (15:58):
They've learned the skill in a previous
lifetime and they come by andthey just remember.
They remember all that trainingthey had before and everybody
goes, oh my God, gift from God,this is amazing.
I said, well, yeah, but theyspent a whole lifetime just a
few years ago.
They're only two or three nowand somehow they've been
(16:22):
connected, they've remembered orthey brought forward that
knowledge and they can play apiano or instrument masterfully.
The same as other children whoare masterful at mathematics and
art, etc.
It's because they remembertheir previous teachings,
lessons, accomplishments.
At least that's my theory.
(16:43):
I could be right, could bewrong.
Les Hubert (16:45):
When we are on the other side, once we leave this
dimension, is there karma in thespirit realms or in the higher
realms?
Douglas James Cottrell (16:51):
No, because in the higher realms,
you are selecting where you wantto go next.
Okay, speaking of coming backinto the world, you have a life
plan, you have a map, a book oflife.
You sit down at a table with abunch of other souls and you say
, okay, let's all go back in theworld in 2025.
(17:14):
And you live in Ukraine and youlive in America, you live in
Canada and you live in Panama,and we'll go through this
turbulent time and we'll allmeet up in Switzerland and we'll
be a committee that will helpbring peace and order to
different parts of the world.
I'll be an ambassador, you canbe a president, you can be a
(17:37):
policeman.
And so they select the mission,if you will, the blueprint, and
then they come down to theworld and act it out, each in
its own way, gaining theknowledge and experiences that
they do that.
But there's no cause and effectin the higher realm.
There just is.
It's the process of selectingwhat to do, that the karma, if
(17:57):
you will, the consequences forprevious activities helps the
soul select where it wants to go.
Les Hubert (18:05):
So karma in many respects is just cause and
effect.
Douglas James Cottrell (18:10):
It's a process.
The process is cause, effect,consequence and then retribution
or re-experiencing to learn.
Les Hubert (18:23):
So if we don't get it the first time, it's going to
come back and get us and remindus again, so to speak.
Douglas James Cottrell (18:29):
Over, and, over, and, over and over,
until we get it right.
That's exactly right, andthat's when our Eastern friends
talk about the wheel of karma.
The wheel.
Because we just keep goingaround in circles until we get
it right.
And here's a little tip forpeople who want to know in their
own life when they're having anexperience that's happening the
(18:52):
same over and over again.
Let's say, people are stealingfrom you or your friends.
And it happens as a child,happens as a teenager, happens
in your twenties, happens to youa couple of times in your
twenties or thirties, and you go, what am I doing wrong?
Les Hubert (19:11):
Right, yeah sure.
Douglas James Cottrell (19:12):
Okay.
Well, when you get to thatpoint, you say, I've been trying
to be nice, I've been trying toforgive everybody.
You know, I'm getting treatedlike a doormat.
I'm trying to be my brother'skeeper.
What is going on?
Well, the answer to that is: the one thing that you are (19:30):
undefined
avoiding doing is the answer,and the solution to how to stop
this repetitive circumstancefrom reoccurring.
And let's say, people takeadvantage you.
Your friends, people you know,they steal from you, they
(19:51):
embarrass you, they belittle you.
Well, what's the thing you haveto do?
You have to tell them off.
And you go and you scream atthem with justifiable anger and
you tell them how they'rehurting you and this is terrible
.
You thought they were yourfriend.
You do not call them names, youdo not belittle them, you do
not demean them, but you expressyourself fully that you're
(20:16):
really angry and you give themthe reason why you're angry and
you tell them you don't wantthem to do that to you anymore.
So what are you doing is you'resticking up for yourself.
You're now rising up.
You're not the doormat anymore.
Now you're the doorway.
And I can guarantee you, ifthis is the thing you're
avoiding to do, when you do it,that experience will go away,
(20:39):
never to come back.
The reason I can say is,because, hey, I've been there,
done that.
But the point being is, onceyou have faced the circumstance,
there's no need to go back andrelearn it again.
You handled it.
So it comes down toresponsibility and duty.
If nobody else can do this butyou, then it's your duty.
(20:59):
So you have to go and you telloff the person who might be your
best friend, who might be alongtime friend, who might just
be the neighbor next door, ormight be somebody that you
really, really like, but they'repretending to be your friend,
you see.
And you're allowing them topretend to be your friend and
(21:22):
you are being naive at allowingyourself to be emotionally
bruised, vandalized, hurt, takenadvantage of, and so that's the
karma.
And so, as soon as you say, ohmy God, this is it.
Okay, what do I have to do?
Well, I don't want to tell themoff.
(21:42):
I'll write them a letter, I'llsend them a text.
No, no, no, no.
You got to go tell them off.
You got to go say, "you arehurting my feelings, I don't
want anything to do with youanymore, out of my life.
" Right, I have to do it.
Whatever that thing is, you'reavoiding to do.
This is the key.
The last thing you want to do,the thing you're avoiding doing,
(22:06):
that is the answer.
That's what you have to do.
So, for people listening to mywords and you're thinking, oh
yeah, you know my, this, my that.
You know somebody keepsborrowing my clothes and they--
you know, my friend, myroommate, they take my clothes,
they bring them back wrecked.
Or somebody keeps borrowing mycar and I just want to go out in
my car, and they come and theytake it away and you're getting
(22:28):
trounced upon.
Then you have to change thelocks, put your clothes in a
locker, don't give them the keysto your car, and you have to
rise to the occasion and say N-O, no, put your hand up in their
face and say, No, and mean it.
Don't say no, well, I didn'tsort of mean it, I'm so sorry.
Say no, no, no.
(22:48):
I've had it with you.
And a relief will come over youand a calmness.
There won't be any anger, therewon't be any regret and there
won't be a continuous battle inyour mind.
It'll be neutral.
Then you know the karma hasbeen met for sure or the lesson
has been learned for sure.
(23:08):
And it doesn't matter if you doit right, one hundred per cent.
It doesn't matter if you have aperfect solution.
It only matters that you did it.
You faced up and did the bestyou can, and it's over.
You'll feel calm.
It won't happen again,guarantee it, in your life.
Or, if something comes that way, you'll know exactly how to
handle it next time and youwon't allow yourself to be
pushed around.
Les Hubert (23:30):
It's interesting you touch upon that, because I just
went through a similarsituation.
Longtime friend I thought was afriend, and I was dreading
having to cut her off from mylife.
I've known her for years.
I tried everything and finallyone night in meditation, this
voice said, "feel free to cuther loose.
And I ignored it.
I said, I can't do that, Ican't.
(23:51):
And then the next meditation,feel free to cut her loose.
And just as you said, doug,when I did that, it was, a
resounding peace came over me.
I thought, wow, exactly exactly.
So that's very--i t was noteasy to get to, but I finally
had to do it.
And yeah, you're right, that'sthe solution.
Douglas James Cottrell (24:11):
Well, you're very wise for you to do
that, Les.
I know how hard it would be,because everybody-- remember the
lessons that come at you arealways hard.
They're not really easy to do.
But what was the real effort?
It was just to say "goodbye,you're out of my life.
That's not so hard to say, butto get to that point, okay.
But that's why it's hard anddifficult, because this is the
(24:34):
lesson you're learning.
Our Buddhist friends talk aboutfour types of people that you
think are your friends.
The friend that always comesalong and criticizes you.
They're always right, you'realways wrong.
They're not your friend.
The person who always borrowsthings from you all the time and
comes in and eats your food.
They're not your friend.
(24:55):
And so-- I'm not going to gointo the four types, but the
idea that people come along,they're not your friends, but
you think they are.
The person that constantlyembarrasses you in front of
other people and you're oh, theydidn't really mean it.
That's the third type.
They're not your friends.
(25:16):
Who are your friends?
Well, your friends are friendly, they don't embarrass you, they
don't take advantage of you,they don't belittle you.
And the fourth type of friendwho's in competition with you
all the time?
Not your friend.
So there's the four types ofpeople.
I went ahead and did it anyway.
Those are the four types offriends that are not your
(25:38):
friends.
And so as soon as you learnthat "they're not my friends,
then what are you doingassociating with these people?
Rule of thumb is (25:42):
never go where you're not wanted or
welcomed.
You know, we go to a club andeverybody's there and you're
trying to, you know, join theclub, fit in, and nobody's --
they're all giving you the coldshoulder.
Well, go down the street to thenext club, forget that one.
(26:04):
Oh yeah, but it's prestigiousand everybody goes there.
Well, it's not right for you.
Down the street is where you'resupposed to go.
So, people with square heads,you know, it takes a little
while to figure it out.
Like, I'm not really having funhere.
What am I doing?
I'm buying beer and I'm doingthis and, you know, buying
(26:31):
sandwiches, and they don't evengive me the time of day.
Oh, I get it, I'm in the wrongplace.
And you go down the street andthe next club, you going, "Hi,
come on in.
Where you been?
You're just our kind of people.
" and you're like, wow, nightand day.
That choice and doing that iswhat awareness and loving
consciousness is all about.
You're loving yourself, butit's really hard because humans,
(26:52):
as we know humans, "give ussomething really hard and I just
want to dig my feet in and Iwant to battle, I want to go and
do it the hard way.
" and you go like no.
As you get older, you go, like,no, no, I've been here, done
that, a thousand times.
No, down the street is whereI'm going.
Now where I'm coming from, therewas a lady I had-- coming with
that comment--t There was a ladywho had a dream and in the
(27:14):
dream she perceived a mountainin front of .
her And and on the outside ofthe mountain was rickety wooden
staircases and it was dark outand it was rainy.
And she could get to the top bywalking up this rickety old
walkways up the side of themountain.
And as she was looking at thewalkway, she noticed that there
(27:36):
was an elevator right at thebottom of these walkways and all
she had to do was to go inthere and take the elevator to
the top.
What did she do?
She got on the rickety oldwalkways that go up to the top.
So when she came to me andasked me to interpret that dream
her, for because I'm very goodat interpreting dreams, dreams
I just smiled at her and I said,said"well well, there you go.
(27:57):
Humans, as you know, humans, wewant the hard way.
Don't give us the easy way.
We want the hard way".
And she was so disgusted withthat decision she made about
taking the hard way I said well,the lesson here in the dream is
when you see a choice, take theeasy way".
You don't need to take the hardway to prove to somebody you
(28:19):
can do it.
Or because it's a challenge,yeah, it's okay.
You get older, you start sayingno, no, no.
Where's the easy way, where'sthe elevator?
And so that was a revelation of, again, humans as we know
humans, humans and how we decidewhat we're going to do.
We always have a choice to makeand that decision can be easy
(28:40):
or hard.
here, the same as when life,when you rose to the occasion,
after time after time after time, of dealing with somebody that
was hurting your feelings andgiving you problems and causing
you difficulties, they mighthave been the most beautiful
looking person in the world.
They might have had a charmingpersonality, but they were
causing you heartache or pain.
(29:00):
So I'm sorry, this isn'tworking out.
You got your way, I don't fitinto your life.
So we'll just say adios.
"you can't do this to me, youcan't do that.
Well, I did it, you're not myfriend.
So they might try to-- what I'msaying is retaliate with
(29:22):
calling you names or whatever.
And so that's the risk peoplehave to take, that when they
stand up for themselves, morethan likely, the other person
won't do a thing.
They'll just say, well, that'sthe way you feel.
And they leave.
And you go like, wow, that waseasy.
And then you're looking atyourself like, why didn't I do
that last year?
What's the matter with me?
(29:43):
You have to stop beatingyourself up.
But that is a prime example ofhow people can enter into this
situation, of being able tostick up for themselves and say
"humans, as we know, humans liketo do the hard way.
I'm going to be smart and I'mgoing to do it the easy way.
" Yeah, the lesson here is thelast thing you want to do is
(30:06):
usually the thing that you haveto do, because it's your duty.
Les Hubert (30:11):
In wrapping this up, it's an interesting perception
that people have been telling methat they have, that over the
years, it seems to be that timeis speeding up, also, karma, the
relationship between cause andeffect, or the deed, whether it
was good or bad, is being doneand then the resulting karma of
that, there seems to be a lot ofinstant karma going on.
Is there a reason for that?
Douglas James Cottrell (30:32):
There's instant karma is, when you know
better, and you do somethinganyway-- wham bam, thank you,
ma'am-- that is going to comeright back in your face.
Absolutely.
And if you're aware, you cansee it.
When you do something, you knowyou shouldn't do something.
You know you're like a littleannoyed at somebody you're
(30:52):
playing pool with, and so youthrow the ball down the table,
and it hits their finger, andsecretly inside you're going
like, yeah, you know.
You're angry with that person.
Maybe they're winning, maybeyou're jealous, who knows what.
Well, you'll have your hand onthe cushion, they'll hit the
ball and the ball will come backand hits you on the finger,
instantly, like within a fewminutes.
(31:12):
And you go, "Ok, thank you, Igot the message Calm right, ok?
So the more aware you become ofthis cause and effect process,
the more you can see itinteracting with people, and the
more you can stand back and letother people engage in this
process.
Because if you step in and youprevent them from going through
(31:37):
the experience, what are youdoing?
A disservice to them, becausenow they have to set up another
situation where the samecircumstances will come back and
they'll have to go through it.
So if you can be wise, likeBuddha, and stand back and let
the process work out, then, whenthey fall down, you can be
(31:58):
there to pick them up or to putthe bandaid on their knee or
whatever.
But as you come to that point,you will come up to this process
and the words are here (32:11):
it's okay to intervene, but you can't
interfere.
And so if you're intervening insomebody's life, you're just
helping them to get from wherethey are to where they need to
go.
But if you're interfering intheir life, you're preventing
them, you're taking on theirkarma, their responsibility, and
(32:33):
they're getting away with it,only to face it another time.
Now, in In the Good good Bookbook, the disciples were sitting
around talking to the Messiahand he warned them about this.
He said, said"don't don't judgeother people, because if you do
, their problem is going tobecome your problem".
And so that's why, when wejudge people or we say how could
(32:57):
they do that?
Okay, well, you're about tofind out how they could do that,
because that circumstance islining up right in of you,
It's the sooner rather thanlater time.
n awareness, wisdom, practicalthinking, application of the
laws of nature, you observethese things, and so you don't
(33:20):
say, how could they do that?
You go like, well, okay, letthem figure it out, the sooner
the better.
Or you say, when they're doingsomething really silly, you say,
"od Almighty, please let themfind out, the sooner the better,
the lesson that they'reexperiencing.
That's the best thing you cando, when you see people banging
(33:40):
their head on the wall, anddoing silly things, you don't do
it for them, you don't jump inthere, otherwise they're going
to beat you up, they're going tothrow you against the wall,
they're going to yell and screamat you.
You just stand back and say,okay, whatever they're teaching
themselves, may they find outthe sooner the better, on how to
handle a situation or to beblessed, or whatever comes to
mind.
So, in essence, don't judgepeople, don't wonder, "wonder
(34:06):
what goes on in the court.
If you're thinking, "I wonderwhat's going on in the
courthouse, you know whereyou're going to be in the
courthouse.
You'll go there to sign papers.
You'll be send a notice thatyou have to come in for jury
duty.
Somebody will sue you, oryou'll be suing somebody else,
or you'll complain to the police.
(34:27):
And you'll find out, "Gee whiz,I know everything that goes on
in the courthouse.
That's enough, thank you.
I don't need to know anymore.
That's a fact.
If you wonder about something,your subconscious says oh, we
want to know about milkweed.
Okay.
And next next thing, for thenext few days or weeks, you find
out milkweed's made of rubber,farmers are growing plantations
(34:51):
of milkweed, it's a big businessin some far away place.
And you go, "That's enough.
I don't need to know aboutmilkweed anymore.
Thank you, k indly.
I understand.
"So the essence there is, what we
wonder about, what we complainabout, what we're curious about,
(35:12):
that mechanism inside of usleads us to find out.
So, I wonder what it's like toown a yacht.
I wonder what it's like to goto parties every night.
No, I don't really do that, butyou could wonder about, "I
wonder what it's like to stay ina hotel in Niagara Falls and
(35:33):
see the water down below.
" You'll end up there.
I wonder what it's like to goto Disneyland with the family.
You'll end up there.
Now, the wondering has to besincere, not like oh, I wonder
what it's like to work in theWhite House.
Well, you could end up theregoing and helping clean up the
floor as a cleaner or avolunteer or something.
(35:56):
I mean that's a possibility.
But if it's frivolous, it'sjust in one ear and not the
other.
There's no energy behind it.
So, not to steer people wrong.
To our listeners, who we aregreatly appreciative of and hope
they support the show bysigning up and supporting the
show for a few dollars everymonth, we would love to tell
them more of the secrets of life, as we're doing here, Les.
(36:17):
So the situation comes down towe're going to provide this
information, okay.
We can show them theinformation, but we can't
understand it for them.
They have to understand.
And the same in life, the samewith the concept of cause and
effect.
(36:42):
As soon as you become aware ofthis, as we are telling people
right now, guess what?
We've condemned them in a way,because now there's no excuse.
They've heard it.
They might not believe it rightaway.
They might say, wow, that'samazing.
You said it so concisely andnow I understand.
You've filled in the blanks,which is what we hope to do.
But whoever's listening to this, it's now on their mind and
they've got to say okay, howdoes this work?
(37:03):
Well, you wonder about it.
You're going to find out aboutit.
So it's been our pleasure toteach people because we're
helping to do what?
We're intervening in theirlifetime so they can get from
here to there more quickly.
We're not interfering becausewe know better.
And, as people listen to yourwords, your questions and my
answers, we're doing a greatservice, and so we'd like a
(37:27):
little reward for them tosupport us, for a few dollars a
month.
We're giving them gold here forpennies and I'm making fun of
it, but it's really a seriousthing to help us continue on the
way we do.
So we're spending a lot of timebeing of service, so we must be
building up some good karma.
So where are you going onvacation this year?
Les Hubert (37:47):
I hope to go to Paris pretty soon and I'm going
to get there.
Douglas James Cottrell (37:50):
I hear Italy's good this time of year
but anyway.
Les Hubert (37:54):
Well, thanks, Doug, for a great podcast.
Ladies and gentlemen, if youlike what you hear, please
consider subscribing to the show.
By going todouglasjamescottrell.
com, you can click on that bigblue banner and we'll be talking
about some interesting thingsin the future.
Coming up, we'll be talkingabout the Great Pyramid, what's
going on underneath it, possiblecommunications with higher
beings, and also, will we bevisited shortly by
(38:17):
extraterrestrials?
We will see in the near future.
Thank you.
Douglas James Cottrell (38:22):
Until next time.
God bless you, my friend.
Announcer (38:24):
Thank you very much for listening to Wake Up.
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notified when a new episode isposted, and we'd greatly
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For more about Dr Douglas'self-development classes, books
(38:45):
and other related products,please visit his website
douglasjamescottrell.
com.
Until next time, we wish youall of God's blessings health,
wealth and peace of mind.
Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell,
your source for helpfulinformation, advice and tips to
live your life in a mindful wayin this increasingly chaotic
world.
For over four decades, DrDouglas has been teaching people
how to develop their intuitionand live their lives in a
conscious way.
His news and views of the worldtomorrow, today, are always
(00:21):
informative and revealing.
And now here's your host, DrDouglas James Cottrell.
Douglas James Cottrell (00:30):
Welcome to the Wake Up, a broadcast
where curiosity leads to deeperunderstanding.
I'm your host, Douglas JamesCottrell, and my good friend and
co-host Les Hubert is here withme, along with editor Jack
Bialik, as we delve into thefascinating realms of life,
metaphysics, spirituality andthe pressing questions that
shape our world.
Good morning, Les.
Les Hubert (00:51):
Now we got another interesting question for you,
Doug.
This one concerns karma versussin.
With reincarnation and pastlives, we hear of karma, both
good and bad.
How does karma differ from sin?
Douglas James Cottrell (01:06):
Well, karma isn't a thing, it's a
process.
The first thing to understand.
Sin tends to be associated withactions, activity and basically
the both of them haveconsequences to behavior, and
(01:27):
all the great religions of theworld talk about having
consequences to your misbehaving.
And to understand misbehavingis, to some degree, not
desirable, right?
We don't want to go to hell.
So as we go through thisunderstanding of this
consciousness that we're talkingabout under this awareness,
(01:51):
this spiritual awareness, thenthese two items become a process
, a mechanism to correct you.
I like to look at sin in a waythat I've described in my
lectures around the world, thatthe word sin comes from an
ancient archery term.
And that is, when an archerstands at the line, draws the
(02:15):
bow back with an arrow in it andlets it fly, it goes in the
direction of the target.
When it doesn't hit the centerof the target and it goes off
the mark, that's called sinning.
The arrow has sinned, so it'soff the mark.
When somebody in life doessomething that is constructive
(02:39):
or destructive, let's say theygive the term, which is not
accurate, that karma is good orbad.
Karma doesn't have a value,it's a process.
It's like baking a cake.
The baking of the cake is aprocess.
So if we look at it that way,then karma is the balancing
between your actions and theconsequences of your actions.
(03:02):
Therefore, the better youractions, the more you are
helping and being of service,the greater the consciousness is
, or the rewards or the benefitof that.
They come back to you.
So karma has the concept of,like a boomerang what you throw
(03:23):
out, all your actions,activities come back to you.
That's the consequences.
And the reason thoseconsequences come back to you is
to teach you what it's like tobe on the other side of the coin
or the other side of theexperience.
Announcer (03:37):
Oh, okay.
Douglas James Cottrell (03:37):
In basic understanding, the idea of
sinning doesn't mean that you goto hell, that you can't repent
and you can't regret, you justsuffer.
It's got nothing to do with it.
The idea of making a mistakeand then going through the shame
(03:58):
and the apologies and all that,it's a lesson, so that you
become a better person.
And that's important.
So when you sin, it's kind oflike teaching you if you will,
that's not what to do, it's notthe right thing, it has a
consequence.
You feel bad and you correct.
You are back on target, you'reback on the path.
And again, to repeat, with thekarmic experiences, it's like,
(04:23):
exactly not one iota, more orless, what you give out always
comes back to you.
So if you don't give anythingout, you're pretty much safe,
you're okay.
Maybe that's why all these holypeople live up in caves and
mountains just vegetating, youknow.
They don't want to get any morekarma.
Taking that a step farther.
(04:44):
First of all, to sin, which isa corrective mechanism.
When you're off the mark, youlearn to be on the mark, you
learn to correct your behavior.
And as you do so, you become abetter soul, a more aware soul,
a more loving soul, and you reapthe rewards of coming closer to
God and being in yourenvironment, which is, of course
(05:07):
, favorable.
On the karmic side, you learnthe steps through the
consequences on what ispreferred and what is not
preferred.
So you learn how to find thestepping stones across the creek
to get to where you want to go,and that invokes wisdom.
And so we have good karma.
It's kind of like both of themin the concept of spiritual
(05:30):
development is, the more goodyou give out, the more service
you are.
These are the rewards you'regiving to yourself and, as
Muhammad Ali once said, that tobe of service in the world is
the currency you have when youdie to pay the rent on your
(05:51):
spiritual house.
A very, very profound way ofthinking from his religious
perspective.
So, in answering the two, you'renot going to go to hell, in
either case.
You're going to experience in aspiritual world, which is the
same.
Doesn't matter what you believeor don't believe.
It's the spiritual developmentyou are going to receive,
(06:12):
exactly what you give forth.
So it's better to be of serviceand to apply the golden rule.
You know, don't do anythingthat you wouldn't want to have
happen to yourself.
In all the world's greatreligions--t here's a poster, I
think, in the Vatican that hasall these sayings from the
world's great religions-- thatall can be interpreted down to
the golden rule, no matter whatlanguage it's in or what
(06:33):
religion it is, it all comesdown to the golden rule.
Les Hubert (06:34):
Wow, that's interesting.
Douglas James Cottrell (06:36):
It's there and it makes sense.
I mean, on the other side oflife, what's the religion over
there?
Well, there is none, becausereligion is in the world.
But the heavens and thedimensions are there and
learning how to become aware andprogress through them on your
spiritual journey, that is thesame over there, no matter what
(06:58):
your spiritual beliefs are here.
And, of course, all spiritualbeliefs are incomplete because
we're not divine beings like anavatar or a messiah or a saint
or a prophet.
We are always learning.
Twoaspects of sinning, meaning off
the mark, attempting to getbetter, aim aim, to be on the
(07:18):
path.
The Bible's full of being onthe path.
It refers to the path.
, The the correct path that, Ican say, is when you're shooting
the arrow down to the target,you're on the mark.
And the other is again the sameprocess of learning, sort of an
in an experiential way, hands-onif you will will, what to do
and what not to do.
But the concepts they blendtogether when you get to that
(07:41):
point of correctness, awareness,these mechanisms on how to
teach you what's the right way.
Les Hubert (07:49):
I remember years ago I used to study Transcendental
Meditation and the MaharishiMaharishi Yogi, he said
meditation is a way ofovercoming much karma.
How is that even possible?
Douglas James Cottrell (08:01):
Well, if you're full of anger, hate,
frustration and difficulty andyou learn how to be loving and
kind and peaceful, what have youlearned?
What have you overcome?
All the things that separateyou from the path, which are the
hate, the anger, thefrustration, the brutality, all
the animalistic sides of us.
(08:23):
After all, we are animals.
We were cavemen once and so wehave the tendency, all of us are
able and capable of doing badthings to each other.
But the spiritually enlightenedone chooses not to do that.
They resist doing thoseanimalistic activities so that
(08:43):
they become more spiritual, andthat's spiritual--l ike the
Messiah, the Christ, theMuhammad, the Prophet, the Moses
, etc.
--t They never retaliated.
They had great power, spiritualpower.
They could make duplications ofwater into wine and fishes and
loaves to feed a multitude.
Think what they could do ifthey could think of somebody who
(09:06):
is their enemy.
They could reach in their heartand squeeze their heart to a
pulp.
They don't show the violence.
Instead, they put forward thisnonviolent-- like Mahatma Gandhi
.
For a handful of salt hebrought down the British Empire
and he freed the millions ofpeople in India with a handful
(09:26):
of salt and his non-violentphilosophy, teaching them not to
be violent.
And that is the greatestexample of understanding the
spiritual technique, awareness,ability, that these two aspects
of being off the mark with sinand suffering consequences to
your actions take hold.
(09:47):
Think about it.
A man picked up a handful ofsalt and he changed the whole
country.
The empire, the British empire,fell after that separation of
control in India.
Think about that.
So that's the power of one man,one person and nonviolence.
Les Hubert (10:07):
hey heard of storing up good karma.
Can you also store up bad karma?
Douglas James Cottrell (10:11):
It's the same.
See, you've got to think it'snot a bank, it's a process.
And when somebody says, oh,you've got a lot of good karma,
I used to say, you've got a lotof brownie points, okay.
Spiritual brownie points.
What does that mean?
Let's go back to Muhammad Ali.
You have a lot of service, andso that's the currency you have
(10:35):
for your residence in heaven.
But what about here?
You know, if you keep doing goodthings and being of service,
that when you get in difficultyhere in the world, somebody
shows up to help you.
Right.
Out of the blue.
Somebody will, if you're out ofgas, pick you up and take you
to the gas station and bring youback.
Somebody will knock on yourdoor and say, hey, your house is
(10:58):
on fire.
Or some other not so grandiosesituation.
When you're feeling really bad,somebody will come by, you
haven't seen for a while, andgive you a big hug.
Or somebody will come and sayto you, I know exactly what you
need to do.
That happened to me when I wasyounger.
And so this good karma, thisbeneficial aspects to your life,
(11:21):
is not really karma, it's theservice you've given.
Now I'm going to maybe sound alittle contradictory to that,
because when you have a dreamand in the dream you're going
out and you're mowing the lawn,in your dream.
I've learned that that's thesymbol for collecting the
brownie points that you've savedup and earned from previous
(11:44):
lifetimes or this one.
It's a bank of good things.
So when you're mowing the lawn,you're cutting the grass,
you're collecting your benefitsof service that you've given
before.
So you can call it good karma,but to the purist, karma is not
good or bad, it just simply is.
It's a mechanism.
But yeah, if you start doingbad things to people, bad things
(12:09):
are going to happen to you,because all action has a
consequence.
Les Hubert (12:13):
It sounds like it's kind of a balancing act.
I remember reading Edgar Caycewas once asked where he got his
ability to do the work, such asyourself and Ross Peterson and
Solomon, etc.
And he described a past life,where he was I think it was back
in the pioneer days and hesacrificed his life.
He was a trader or something, Iforget exactly, but he
(12:36):
sacrificed his life in order forsome people to get away from
marauding Indians who werebasically, you know, violent at
the time because their land wasbeing invaded.
And because of his sacrifice tobalance out, he was given this
ability to help people goinginto a deep trance meditation.
I thought that was fascinating.
So is it also kind of likebalancing the factors of
(12:59):
positive and negative energies?
Douglas James Cottrell (13:02):
Well, Edgar Cayce gave up his life in
a previous lifetime to saveother people so they could get
away.
So what was he doing?
Giving up his life for thebenefit of others.
Edgar Cayce, being a intuitivecounselor, gave up his life for
(13:25):
the benefit of others.
How did he give up his life?
One hour at a time, to go intomeditation.
He wasn't living his life, hewas giving his life to people,
so they would get the benefit.
So he gave up his life.
So I think he said somethinglike 40,000 consultations.
(13:48):
So 40,000 hours of his life iswhat he gave up.
Wow.
You can see the parallelbetween giving up your life,
holding off the marauders whileyour family escapes parallels
with giving up your life to doconsultations for people.
I can relate to that because Iremember looking out the window
and the sun would be out, theperson would come for a session.
(14:11):
I used to do four of them a daywhen I was younger.
And it was depressing that Icould see the light out the
window.
I'm looking out my window now,so I'm looking to the side, and
when I woke up it was dark.
S o that had an effect on me,but I still did it because
that's what I was required to do.
(14:32):
So it wasn't that he did thatbefore and then he was
bequeathed his ability.
It said he had the ability, butjust the parallel was he was
giving up his life a differentway, one hour at a time, as
opposed to canceling his lifeout.
If he was 40 or 50 years old,he was dead and lost 30 or 40
(14:54):
years of his life.
So how did he come across thisability?
How did he become this greatseer, being able to tap into the
higher dimensions?
Well, because he had done sobefore.
All of us have done, and hecould have lived in a temple and
he could have spent times in amonastery.
I think there were such timesas that.
(15:16):
He could have been a highpriest in Egypt.
I think he was the Ra-ta priestat the, back in Egypt.
So he wasn't like a neophyte,he was highly trained in
previous experiences.
And so that is, let's say, theassumption that that high
training from another time cameforward.
(15:36):
Then he became a spiritualmaster in this life.
The same as a child prodigy whowas a great pianist in France
and comes back and goes intoTaiwan and can play, or Vietnam
and can play the piano at two orthree years of age, with a
masterful skill.
Les Hubert (15:55):
Oh yeah, you see that a lot.
Douglas James Cottrell (15:58):
They've learned the skill in a previous
lifetime and they come by andthey just remember.
They remember all that trainingthey had before and everybody
goes, oh my God, gift from God,this is amazing.
I said, well, yeah, but theyspent a whole lifetime just a
few years ago.
They're only two or three nowand somehow they've been
(16:22):
connected, they've remembered orthey brought forward that
knowledge and they can play apiano or instrument masterfully.
The same as other children whoare masterful at mathematics and
art, etc.
It's because they remembertheir previous teachings,
lessons, accomplishments.
At least that's my theory.
(16:43):
I could be right, could bewrong.
Les Hubert (16:45):
When we are on the other side, once we leave this
dimension, is there karma in thespirit realms or in the higher
realms?
Douglas James Cottrell (16:51):
No, because in the higher realms,
you are selecting where you wantto go next.
Okay, speaking of coming backinto the world, you have a life
plan, you have a map, a book oflife.
You sit down at a table with abunch of other souls and you say
, okay, let's all go back in theworld in 2025.
(17:14):
And you live in Ukraine and youlive in America, you live in
Canada and you live in Panama,and we'll go through this
turbulent time and we'll allmeet up in Switzerland and we'll
be a committee that will helpbring peace and order to
different parts of the world.
I'll be an ambassador, you canbe a president, you can be a
(17:37):
policeman.
And so they select the mission,if you will, the blueprint, and
then they come down to theworld and act it out, each in
its own way, gaining theknowledge and experiences that
they do that.
But there's no cause and effectin the higher realm.
There just is.
It's the process of selectingwhat to do, that the karma, if
(17:57):
you will, the consequences forprevious activities helps the
soul select where it wants to go.
Les Hubert (18:05):
So karma in many respects is just cause and
effect.
Douglas James Cottrell (18:10):
It's a process.
The process is cause, effect,consequence and then retribution
or re-experiencing to learn.
Les Hubert (18:23):
So if we don't get it the first time, it's going to
come back and get us and remindus again, so to speak.
Douglas James Cottrell (18:29):
Over, and, over, and, over and over,
until we get it right.
That's exactly right, andthat's when our Eastern friends
talk about the wheel of karma.
The wheel.
Because we just keep goingaround in circles until we get
it right.
And here's a little tip forpeople who want to know in their
own life when they're having anexperience that's happening the
(18:52):
same over and over again.
Let's say, people are stealingfrom you or your friends.
And it happens as a child,happens as a teenager, happens
in your twenties, happens to youa couple of times in your
twenties or thirties, and you go, what am I doing wrong?
Les Hubert (19:11):
Right, yeah sure.
Douglas James Cottrell (19:12):
Okay.
Well, when you get to thatpoint, you say, I've been trying
to be nice, I've been trying toforgive everybody.
You know, I'm getting treatedlike a doormat.
I'm trying to be my brother'skeeper.
What is going on?
Well, the answer to that is: the one thing that you are (19:30):
undefined
avoiding doing is the answer,and the solution to how to stop
this repetitive circumstancefrom reoccurring.
And let's say, people takeadvantage you.
Your friends, people you know,they steal from you, they
(19:51):
embarrass you, they belittle you.
Well, what's the thing you haveto do?
You have to tell them off.
And you go and you scream atthem with justifiable anger and
you tell them how they'rehurting you and this is terrible
.
You thought they were yourfriend.
You do not call them names, youdo not belittle them, you do
not demean them, but you expressyourself fully that you're
(20:16):
really angry and you give themthe reason why you're angry and
you tell them you don't wantthem to do that to you anymore.
So what are you doing is you'resticking up for yourself.
You're now rising up.
You're not the doormat anymore.
Now you're the doorway.
And I can guarantee you, ifthis is the thing you're
avoiding to do, when you do it,that experience will go away,
(20:39):
never to come back.
The reason I can say is,because, hey, I've been there,
done that.
But the point being is, onceyou have faced the circumstance,
there's no need to go back andrelearn it again.
You handled it.
So it comes down toresponsibility and duty.
If nobody else can do this butyou, then it's your duty.
(20:59):
So you have to go and you telloff the person who might be your
best friend, who might be alongtime friend, who might just
be the neighbor next door, ormight be somebody that you
really, really like, but they'repretending to be your friend,
you see.
And you're allowing them topretend to be your friend and
(21:22):
you are being naive at allowingyourself to be emotionally
bruised, vandalized, hurt, takenadvantage of, and so that's the
karma.
And so, as soon as you say, ohmy God, this is it.
Okay, what do I have to do?
Well, I don't want to tell themoff.
(21:42):
I'll write them a letter, I'llsend them a text.
No, no, no, no.
You got to go tell them off.
You got to go say, "you arehurting my feelings, I don't
want anything to do with youanymore, out of my life.
" Right, I have to do it.
Whatever that thing is, you'reavoiding to do.
This is the key.
The last thing you want to do,the thing you're avoiding doing,
(22:06):
that is the answer.
That's what you have to do.
So, for people listening to mywords and you're thinking, oh
yeah, you know my, this, my that.
You know somebody keepsborrowing my clothes and they--
you know, my friend, myroommate, they take my clothes,
they bring them back wrecked.
Or somebody keeps borrowing mycar and I just want to go out in
my car, and they come and theytake it away and you're getting
(22:28):
trounced upon.
Then you have to change thelocks, put your clothes in a
locker, don't give them the keysto your car, and you have to
rise to the occasion and say N-O, no, put your hand up in their
face and say, No, and mean it.
Don't say no, well, I didn'tsort of mean it, I'm so sorry.
Say no, no, no.
(22:48):
I've had it with you.
And a relief will come over youand a calmness.
There won't be any anger, therewon't be any regret and there
won't be a continuous battle inyour mind.
It'll be neutral.
Then you know the karma hasbeen met for sure or the lesson
has been learned for sure.
(23:08):
And it doesn't matter if you doit right, one hundred per cent.
It doesn't matter if you have aperfect solution.
It only matters that you did it.
You faced up and did the bestyou can, and it's over.
You'll feel calm.
It won't happen again,guarantee it, in your life.
Or, if something comes that way, you'll know exactly how to
handle it next time and youwon't allow yourself to be
pushed around.
Les Hubert (23:30):
It's interesting you touch upon that, because I just
went through a similarsituation.
Longtime friend I thought was afriend, and I was dreading
having to cut her off from mylife.
I've known her for years.
I tried everything and finallyone night in meditation, this
voice said, "feel free to cuther loose.
And I ignored it.
I said, I can't do that, Ican't.
(23:51):
And then the next meditation,feel free to cut her loose.
And just as you said, doug,when I did that, it was, a
resounding peace came over me.
I thought, wow, exactly exactly.
So that's very--i t was noteasy to get to, but I finally
had to do it.
And yeah, you're right, that'sthe solution.
Douglas James Cottrell (24:11):
Well, you're very wise for you to do
that, Les.
I know how hard it would be,because everybody-- remember the
lessons that come at you arealways hard.
They're not really easy to do.
But what was the real effort?
It was just to say "goodbye,you're out of my life.
That's not so hard to say, butto get to that point, okay.
But that's why it's hard anddifficult, because this is the
(24:34):
lesson you're learning.
Our Buddhist friends talk aboutfour types of people that you
think are your friends.
The friend that always comesalong and criticizes you.
They're always right, you'realways wrong.
They're not your friend.
The person who always borrowsthings from you all the time and
comes in and eats your food.
They're not your friend.
(24:55):
And so-- I'm not going to gointo the four types, but the
idea that people come along,they're not your friends, but
you think they are.
The person that constantlyembarrasses you in front of
other people and you're oh, theydidn't really mean it.
That's the third type.
They're not your friends.
(25:16):
Who are your friends?
Well, your friends are friendly, they don't embarrass you, they
don't take advantage of you,they don't belittle you.
And the fourth type of friendwho's in competition with you
all the time?
Not your friend.
So there's the four types ofpeople.
I went ahead and did it anyway.
Those are the four types offriends that are not your
(25:38):
friends.
And so as soon as you learnthat "they're not my friends,
then what are you doingassociating with these people?
Rule of thumb is (25:42):
never go where you're not wanted or
welcomed.
You know, we go to a club andeverybody's there and you're
trying to, you know, join theclub, fit in, and nobody's --
they're all giving you the coldshoulder.
Well, go down the street to thenext club, forget that one.
(26:04):
Oh yeah, but it's prestigiousand everybody goes there.
Well, it's not right for you.
Down the street is where you'resupposed to go.
So, people with square heads,you know, it takes a little
while to figure it out.
Like, I'm not really having funhere.
What am I doing?
I'm buying beer and I'm doingthis and, you know, buying
(26:31):
sandwiches, and they don't evengive me the time of day.
Oh, I get it, I'm in the wrongplace.
And you go down the street andthe next club, you going, "Hi,
come on in.
Where you been?
You're just our kind of people.
" and you're like, wow, nightand day.
That choice and doing that iswhat awareness and loving
consciousness is all about.
You're loving yourself, butit's really hard because humans,
(26:52):
as we know humans, "give ussomething really hard and I just
want to dig my feet in and Iwant to battle, I want to go and
do it the hard way.
" and you go like no.
As you get older, you go, like,no, no, I've been here, done
that, a thousand times.
No, down the street is whereI'm going.
Now where I'm coming from, therewas a lady I had-- coming with
that comment--t There was a ladywho had a dream and in the
(27:14):
dream she perceived a mountainin front of .
her And and on the outside ofthe mountain was rickety wooden
staircases and it was dark outand it was rainy.
And she could get to the top bywalking up this rickety old
walkways up the side of themountain.
And as she was looking at thewalkway, she noticed that there
(27:36):
was an elevator right at thebottom of these walkways and all
she had to do was to go inthere and take the elevator to
the top.
What did she do?
She got on the rickety oldwalkways that go up to the top.
So when she came to me andasked me to interpret that dream
her, for because I'm very goodat interpreting dreams, dreams
I just smiled at her and I said,said"well well, there you go.
(27:57):
Humans, as you know, humans, wewant the hard way.
Don't give us the easy way.
We want the hard way".
And she was so disgusted withthat decision she made about
taking the hard way I said well,the lesson here in the dream is
when you see a choice, take theeasy way".
You don't need to take the hardway to prove to somebody you
(28:19):
can do it.
Or because it's a challenge,yeah, it's okay.
You get older, you start sayingno, no, no.
Where's the easy way, where'sthe elevator?
And so that was a revelation of, again, humans as we know
humans, humans and how we decidewhat we're going to do.
We always have a choice to makeand that decision can be easy
(28:40):
or hard.
here, the same as when life,when you rose to the occasion,
after time after time after time, of dealing with somebody that
was hurting your feelings andgiving you problems and causing
you difficulties, they mighthave been the most beautiful
looking person in the world.
They might have had a charmingpersonality, but they were
causing you heartache or pain.
(29:00):
So I'm sorry, this isn'tworking out.
You got your way, I don't fitinto your life.
So we'll just say adios.
"you can't do this to me, youcan't do that.
Well, I did it, you're not myfriend.
So they might try to-- what I'msaying is retaliate with
(29:22):
calling you names or whatever.
And so that's the risk peoplehave to take, that when they
stand up for themselves, morethan likely, the other person
won't do a thing.
They'll just say, well, that'sthe way you feel.
And they leave.
And you go like, wow, that waseasy.
And then you're looking atyourself like, why didn't I do
that last year?
What's the matter with me?
(29:43):
You have to stop beatingyourself up.
But that is a prime example ofhow people can enter into this
situation, of being able tostick up for themselves and say
"humans, as we know, humans liketo do the hard way.
I'm going to be smart and I'mgoing to do it the easy way.
" Yeah, the lesson here is thelast thing you want to do is
(30:06):
usually the thing that you haveto do, because it's your duty.
Les Hubert (30:11):
In wrapping this up, it's an interesting perception
that people have been telling methat they have, that over the
years, it seems to be that timeis speeding up, also, karma, the
relationship between cause andeffect, or the deed, whether it
was good or bad, is being doneand then the resulting karma of
that, there seems to be a lot ofinstant karma going on.
Is there a reason for that?
Douglas James Cottrell (30:32):
There's instant karma is, when you know
better, and you do somethinganyway-- wham bam, thank you,
ma'am-- that is going to comeright back in your face.
Absolutely.
And if you're aware, you cansee it.
When you do something, you knowyou shouldn't do something.
You know you're like a littleannoyed at somebody you're
(30:52):
playing pool with, and so youthrow the ball down the table,
and it hits their finger, andsecretly inside you're going
like, yeah, you know.
You're angry with that person.
Maybe they're winning, maybeyou're jealous, who knows what.
Well, you'll have your hand onthe cushion, they'll hit the
ball and the ball will come backand hits you on the finger,
instantly, like within a fewminutes.
(31:12):
And you go, "Ok, thank you, Igot the message Calm right, ok?
So the more aware you become ofthis cause and effect process,
the more you can see itinteracting with people, and the
more you can stand back and letother people engage in this
process.
Because if you step in and youprevent them from going through
(31:37):
the experience, what are youdoing?
A disservice to them, becausenow they have to set up another
situation where the samecircumstances will come back and
they'll have to go through it.
So if you can be wise, likeBuddha, and stand back and let
the process work out, then, whenthey fall down, you can be
(31:58):
there to pick them up or to putthe bandaid on their knee or
whatever.
But as you come to that point,you will come up to this process
and the words are here (32:11):
it's okay to intervene, but you can't
interfere.
And so if you're intervening insomebody's life, you're just
helping them to get from wherethey are to where they need to
go.
But if you're interfering intheir life, you're preventing
them, you're taking on theirkarma, their responsibility, and
(32:33):
they're getting away with it,only to face it another time.
Now, in In the Good good Bookbook, the disciples were sitting
around talking to the Messiahand he warned them about this.
He said, said"don't don't judgeother people, because if you do
, their problem is going tobecome your problem".
And so that's why, when wejudge people or we say how could
(32:57):
they do that?
Okay, well, you're about tofind out how they could do that,
because that circumstance islining up right in of you,
It's the sooner rather thanlater time.
n awareness, wisdom, practicalthinking, application of the
laws of nature, you observethese things, and so you don't
(33:20):
say, how could they do that?
You go like, well, okay, letthem figure it out, the sooner
the better.
Or you say, when they're doingsomething really silly, you say,
"od Almighty, please let themfind out, the sooner the better,
the lesson that they'reexperiencing.
That's the best thing you cando, when you see people banging
(33:40):
their head on the wall, anddoing silly things, you don't do
it for them, you don't jump inthere, otherwise they're going
to beat you up, they're going tothrow you against the wall,
they're going to yell and screamat you.
You just stand back and say,okay, whatever they're teaching
themselves, may they find outthe sooner the better, on how to
handle a situation or to beblessed, or whatever comes to
mind.
So, in essence, don't judgepeople, don't wonder, "wonder
(34:06):
what goes on in the court.
If you're thinking, "I wonderwhat's going on in the
courthouse, you know whereyou're going to be in the
courthouse.
You'll go there to sign papers.
You'll be send a notice thatyou have to come in for jury
duty.
Somebody will sue you, oryou'll be suing somebody else,
or you'll complain to the police.
(34:27):
And you'll find out, "Gee whiz,I know everything that goes on
in the courthouse.
That's enough, thank you.
I don't need to know anymore.
That's a fact.
If you wonder about something,your subconscious says oh, we
want to know about milkweed.
Okay.
And next next thing, for thenext few days or weeks, you find
out milkweed's made of rubber,farmers are growing plantations
(34:51):
of milkweed, it's a big businessin some far away place.
And you go, "That's enough.
I don't need to know aboutmilkweed anymore.
Thank you, k indly.
I understand.
"So the essence there is, what we
wonder about, what we complainabout, what we're curious about,
(35:12):
that mechanism inside of usleads us to find out.
So, I wonder what it's like toown a yacht.
I wonder what it's like to goto parties every night.
No, I don't really do that, butyou could wonder about, "I
wonder what it's like to stay ina hotel in Niagara Falls and
(35:33):
see the water down below.
" You'll end up there.
I wonder what it's like to goto Disneyland with the family.
You'll end up there.
Now, the wondering has to besincere, not like oh, I wonder
what it's like to work in theWhite House.
Well, you could end up theregoing and helping clean up the
floor as a cleaner or avolunteer or something.
(35:56):
I mean that's a possibility.
But if it's frivolous, it'sjust in one ear and not the
other.
There's no energy behind it.
So, not to steer people wrong.
To our listeners, who we aregreatly appreciative of and hope
they support the show bysigning up and supporting the
show for a few dollars everymonth, we would love to tell
them more of the secrets of life, as we're doing here, Les.
(36:17):
So the situation comes down towe're going to provide this
information, okay.
We can show them theinformation, but we can't
understand it for them.
They have to understand.
And the same in life, the samewith the concept of cause and
effect.
(36:42):
As soon as you become aware ofthis, as we are telling people
right now, guess what?
We've condemned them in a way,because now there's no excuse.
They've heard it.
They might not believe it rightaway.
They might say, wow, that'samazing.
You said it so concisely andnow I understand.
You've filled in the blanks,which is what we hope to do.
But whoever's listening to this, it's now on their mind and
they've got to say okay, howdoes this work?
(37:03):
Well, you wonder about it.
You're going to find out aboutit.
So it's been our pleasure toteach people because we're
helping to do what?
We're intervening in theirlifetime so they can get from
here to there more quickly.
We're not interfering becausewe know better.
And, as people listen to yourwords, your questions and my
answers, we're doing a greatservice, and so we'd like a
(37:27):
little reward for them tosupport us, for a few dollars a
month.
We're giving them gold here forpennies and I'm making fun of
it, but it's really a seriousthing to help us continue on the
way we do.
So we're spending a lot of timebeing of service, so we must be
building up some good karma.
So where are you going onvacation this year?
Les Hubert (37:47):
I hope to go to Paris pretty soon and I'm going
to get there.
Douglas James Cottrell (37:50):
I hear Italy's good this time of year
but anyway.
Les Hubert (37:54):
Well, thanks, Doug, for a great podcast.
Ladies and gentlemen, if youlike what you hear, please
consider subscribing to the show.
By going todouglasjamescottrell.
com, you can click on that bigblue banner and we'll be talking
about some interesting thingsin the future.
Coming up, we'll be talkingabout the Great Pyramid, what's
going on underneath it, possiblecommunications with higher
beings, and also, will we bevisited shortly by
(38:17):
extraterrestrials?
We will see in the near future.
Thank you.
Douglas James Cottrell (38:22):
Until next time.
God bless you, my friend.
Announcer (38:24):
Thank you very much for listening to Wake Up.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure to subscribe so you'll be
notified when a new episode isposted, and we'd greatly
appreciate your review of ourshow on iTunes or wherever you
get your podcasts to let othersknow about the great content
we're producing.
For more about Dr Douglas'self-development classes, books
(38:45):
and other related products,please visit his website
douglasjamescottrell.
com.
Until next time, we wish youall of God's blessings health,
wealth and peace of mind.
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