Karma is a word that is used now and then by students of meditation. Originating in the Indian language Sanskrit, karma (rhymes with dharma, as in "Dharma and Greg") refers to your life at this very moment. To change your life, whether to make space for something new to enter or something old to leave, you must erase your karma.

Karma and manifestation are two sides of the same coin, in a sense. In order to manifest, i.e. bring something new into your life, you must make a place for it. Because there are only have so many things that we can have in our lives, you make room for new things by releasing old things.

Here is a way to think about this. Say you enjoy live music and want to manifest more live music in your life. If your schedule is already full and it is difficult to make time to attend concerts, you will need to really evaluate your day-to-day tasks to determine how you will make time to hear music. It might come down to giving up another enjoyable activity. If you continue with your schedule as it is, you experience one karma. If you swap music listening for another activity, you will experience a different karma.

So, this leads us to a definition of karma. For our purposes karma is what you do. Karma is your job. Karma is your friends. Karma is whether you wake up anticipating or dreading the day ahead. Karma is what you eat for lunch.

The following steps describe a technique for erasing karma.

1. Sit quietly

2. Imagine that your throat is a blue color. See your blue throat.

3. Think of what you want to erase from your life (e.g. credit card debts, low self-esteem, poverty consciousness).

4. Chant Thiru Neela Kantum (tih-ru nee-la khan-tum) while visualizing your blue throat and the part of your life you want to erase.

5. Repeat the chant for about 10-15 minutes. As you continue chanting, imagine that your throat gradually turns darker and darker blue, until it is almost black.

For this chant to work, most people will find that they need to repeat it. Change happens gradually. Try repeating this meditation every day for a month to erase the karma you want to remove.

This technique works! The editors have heard amazing success stories. One woman explained that she was able to leave an abusive relationship after working with this mantra.