I AM Gautama Buddha, having come to you again today at the beginning of a new yearly cycle.

Every time a new annual cycle begins, we come to give you instructions related to the new cycle of time. And I have come today to give such an instruction.

You know that a yearly cycle is subject to the operation of the Law of Karma in such a way that karma descends not in one lump but is spun out throughout the whole yearly period. Every month you receive the return of a certain amount of karma. This way you have an opportunity to work off your past karma gradually, year after year and month after month. If you had a chance to immediately work off the entire amount of your karma (your negative energy, the energy you distorted in your previous lives), you would not be able to endure it. Your bodies would be torn to shreds momentarily. That is why the action of the Law is such that every moment of your life you are given a chance to come to grips with the exact amount of negative energy of your past that you can cope with at that moment. You are never given more than you can endure. Therefore, you are simply required to be reconciled to the Law of this universe and to wait humbly for the return of the karmic energy that you created yourselves and that is given to you in cycles in order to be worked off.

A new year is considered by convention to be the beginning of the working off of a new layer of the energies of the past. By completing year after year successfully, you work off your past karma and charge toward a new level of consciousness. And if it were not for the new karma that you are tirelessly creating, just a few years would be enough for you to get free from the lion’s share of your past karma.

But not all of you can sensibly dispose of your Divine energy and the time of your embodiment. That is why for many of you the amount of negative energy that you work off through suffering, diseases, and misfortunes is immediately replenished with new karma that you are untiringly creating by wrong actions and wrong choices in your lives.

If it were not for the Divine mercy, you would be completely deprived of an opportunity to progress onward because many of you are creating such huge karma in your lives. However, owing to the Divine mercy, this karma does not return to you at once, but is waiting for a favorable opportunity when you are able to meet with the negative energy of the past and not only withstand your karmic burden but also think over the reason why so many misfortunes rain thick upon you all at once. In such a way many of you will be able to comprehend the existence of the Supreme Law and will wish to aspire with all your being to obey this Law.

Many have reached such a level of consciousness that they appeal to the Karmic Board with requests to speed up the return of karma so as to have a chance to work off the maximum amount of karma during the current embodiment and to acquire an opportunity to serve at a new level of consciousness free from karma.

The only thing I would like to warn you about is the following: After you have written such letters and the return of your karma accelerates, do not forget what you yourselves have asked about and do not repine at your unhappy lot. The fact is that the process of karma descending, when being sped up by your request, can be suspended exactly the same way and returned to its natural flow. Do not forget about your requests, and if you have been too hasty and overrated your strength, write another letter to the Karmic Board and ask them not to speed up the process of the descending of your karma in the future.

Many of you do not realize the obligations that you took upon yourselves while being in your higher body, at the level of your soul. Thus, when you face difficulties in your life and these difficulties exhaust you too much, do debate this matter in your mind. Talk to your Higher Self, and seek its advice. In any case, owing to the great mercy of Heaven, the process of karma descending can be regulated by you. It is especially important if you have good karma created by helping living creatures and the Masters because your good karma can be always used in order to mitigate the heaviness of your karmic burden.

As soon as you have realized the action of the Law of Karma and you aspire to act in your life in harmony with this Law, you meet one of the predominant constituents of your further progress, and the mercy of Heaven will not fail to come to your help at your first call.

Pitiful are those individuals who disregard the Law of Karma and go on living by the principle: After me — the deluge. You should think about this expression of yours. It might be that in your next embodiment you will get into the deluge that you drew upon yourselves.

Think about how many misfortunes and problems people could avoid if every minute of their lives they thought not only about the consequences of their actions but also about the consequences of their thoughts and feelings.

One of the objects of our Messages is exactly to teach you to be aware of your every action, every thought and feeling because there are no secrets for God and for the cosmic Law, and all your thoughts as well as your actions and deeds are recorded in the Akashic Records. You can play cat-and-mouse with one another and hide your true motives and your negative thoughts. God sees everything, and it is impossible for you to hide even the slightest secret workings of your heart from Him.

It would not be amiss for you to make it a rule to constantly feel the presence of an invisible witness near you who keeps watch over your actions and even over the workings of your heart. Then you will be able to approach all your actions and choices in life in a more responsible manner.

I wish to give you one more important piece of advice; if you are guided by it, you will be able to increase the percentage of worked off karma very quickly: Every time you face a choice about how to act in your life, try to understand the motive you are driven by while making this choice. And if you strive to do something for your personal benefit, it is a wrong motive and the result of your choice will increase your karmic burden.

If you are guided in your choices by the motive to do good for other people and other living creatures, then even if it seems to you that your choice can cause damage to you and is unprofitable according to all the human laws and from the viewpoint of elementary human logic, never say die. From the viewpoint of the Divine logic, you will make a correct choice, and this choice will inevitably lead to the easing of your karmic burden. You lose in the small things, but you win in the great.

For example, you are driving along a mountainous road and a person who needs your help appears on the road in front of you. You expend time in helping him and lose this time. The sun sets and you are delayed on the way. But if you do not yield to the feeling of annoyance, tomorrow a new gateway will open for you that you were not aware of before, and this gateway will speed up your movement a lot, and you will get to the right place much earlier than you planned. This is how the Law of Karma operates.

Never think about the profit you will get if you perform good actions. May your karmic debts and merits be counted by those heavenly beings that must act by virtue of their positions. Simply perform good actions and do not think about a reward.

I am glad to have reminded you at the beginning of the year about the Great Law existing in this universe, and I hope that I have done it, as always, just in time.