Shorts | Karma: No Consequence, No Power

What if karma isn’t a cosmic system of reward and punishment? In this Living the Tao Short (2-30), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan unpack the idea of the karmic nursery—a condition in which actions may have social consequences without accumulating the kind of karmic weight that produces lasting power. That protection comes with a tradeoff: no consequence also means no power. Steenrod explains why karma, in this framework, is not the universe handing out justice. Instead, karmic accumulation depends on consistency. A person may act positively, negatively, or neutrally—but without consistency, little accumulates. Leave the nursery, and actions begin to add up. They can build power, diminish it, move you toward what you seek, or move you away. The conversation also explores why someone might choose to return to the nursery, why doing so can mean living a “much smaller life,” and why the karmic nursery is not simply a product of the social mind. A short discussion about consequence, responsibility, ling, and what it means for your actions to truly matter.   hat if the future already exists—and your choices still matter? In this Living the Tao Short, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the Taoist concept of nonlinear time: a model in which past, present, and future are not simply points moving along a single line. The conversation moves from memory and our ordinary experience of time into much stranger territory. If every moment remains part of existence, does that mean everything is predetermined? Steenrod argues that it does not. Change, in the Taoist model he describes, does not necessarily depend upon linear time. Along the way, they examine why our sense of the past may be tied to fading memory, why every action may remain part of existence, why Taoism resists placing the individual at the center of creation, and why nonlinear time was traditionally a subject reserved for more advanced practice. The future has already happened. And somehow, you may still be writing it.   Prefer the video format?  That's here: https://youtu.be/gI1MFRJGASs 🌐 Explore more Taoist teachings: https://www.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com 🎧 Listen to more Living the Tao Shorts & full episodes: https://podcast.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com -From Beginner to Expert, examine our collection of free videos and articles on qi gong: https://www.watermountainvirtual.com/qi-gong-collection/ Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), AMA, and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com