Transcript KARMA: Questions we all ask Andrew Rooke

KARMA
Questions we all ask
Andrew Rooke
What is Karma?
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From the ancient Indian language, Sanskrit, the word, ‘kri’ meaning ‘to do’ or ‘to make’. Philosophically meaning
‘consequences’. When and entity acts, he acts from within; he acts through an expenditure in greater or less
degree of his own native energy. This expenditure or out flowing of energy, as it acts upon the surrounding
environment, brings forth a reaction from universal nature, either instantaneous or delayed. Nature in other words,
reacts against the impact; and the combination of these two – of energy acting upon Nature and Nature reacting
against the impact of that energy – is what is called Karma. Karma is essentially a chain of causation, stretching
back into infinity of the past and therefore necessarily into the infinity of the future. It is inescapable, because it is
in universal nature, which is infinite and therefore everywhere and timeless. Sooner or later a reaction will
inevitably be felt by the entity which aroused it.
Karma is the universal law of harmony and balance, which ensures that every cause set in motion will, some time
in the future, bring about its corresponding effect. It is intimately enmeshed with its companion doctrine of
Reincarnation as our environment and choices from previous lives have an impact on our current and future
choices and circumstances.
It is a very old doctrine known to all religions and philosophies. Common observation tells us that if you throw a
stone into a pool, it causes ripples which spread outwards to the very edges of the pool. Also, modern science tells
us that vibrations, such as TV, radio, or light waves, are carried outward into infinity. Every religion has stressed
the doctrine of moral responsibility. In Christianity we read in the New Testament: ‘whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap”. Islam speaks of Kismet as representing one’s individual portion or lot in life. The ancient
Greeks had, Nemesis, or the goddess of retributive justice, and they personified the past, present and future as
the three Moirai or Spinners of Destiny. In Judaism there is the injunction from Moses: “an eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth”. In Hindu and Buddhist philosophy the term is used to signify action followed by reaction.
There are many aspects to karma, such as world, national and racial karma, family as well as the better known
individual karma. We can even say there is business karma, community karma, and so forth. In other words, every
avenue of experience, from the individual to the international, men are thinking and acting and hence setting
certain causes in motion which are bound to have their effects. So there is no end to the ramifications of actions
and reactions.
Karma: questions we all ask
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Is Karma always punishment?
When we think of karma we tend to think of punishment
inflicted on us from the outside for evil deeds in this, or
previous lifetimes. However, there are different ways of looking
at karma as awakener, friend, or certainly an opportunity to
restore balance. In reality, karma is an out flowing of our very
self, and can provide us with the opportunity to learn new life
skills, or settle old debts with others, but it is up to us how we
react to these opportunities. We therefore can view outwardly
difficult life situations as ‘punishment’, but more accurately as
opportunities to restore balance and learn valuable ‘soul’
lessons at the same time; eg. serious illness can be a time
when we learn forbearance, patience, and concentrate our
attention on spiritual realties rather than our everyday
concerns.
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If Karma is true, then why do good people suffer?
Picture a good person in their late adulthood stricken down
with diseases caused by the dissolute lifestyle of their youth.
Equally, we may be paying the price for the ‘sins’ incurred
many lifetimes ago. The balancing karma appearing much
later when we have learned in the meantime to be a better
person. Karma has to find the right combination of
environment and people to be able to balance disharmonies,
and this may not occur for many lifetimes after an ‘evil’ deed.
What about children suffering and dying in wars and natural
disasters – were they all evil in the past? It may be that they
have chosen to work out difficult karma in one short life with
others of similar karmic background. Equally, they may well be
very advanced souls who sacrifice themselves to elicit
compassion in others. Outwardly difficult circumstances may
be impulsed by the Higher Self to bring about an ‘initiation’ of
individuals or groups into the finer qualities of human nature
that we might normally take many lifetimes to achieve.
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What good is suffering if we don’t remember what we did
in previous lives?
If we suffer now, we feel it would be a lot fairer if we knew why
we were suffering so we could make the necessary changes in
our lives. However, according to Theosophy we are our own
karma, ie our past actions have determined who we are and
our situation of today. The physical brain is newly formed in
each life, and therefore cannot remember all details of
previous lifetimes. However, there is an aspect of ourselves
that endures from one life to another – our Higher Self – which
does remember, and which directs the circumstances for soul
learning and setting the balance aright. According to
Theosophy, there will come a day in the future when we have
developed spiritually enough to withstand the shock of
remembering the details of all our former lives. Until then, in
quiet moments we can intuit some of the major lessons we
have come into incarnation to learn.
Is Karma fatalism?
People often ask does karma mean that everything in our lives
is predetermined? Don’t we have some measure at least of
free will to direct our lives? Theosophy teaches that we retain
the power of free will at all times as this is a necessary
precondition for spiritual growth and for us to grow to join the
spiritually self-ware forces that administer nature’s operations.
However, we exist as part of the whole of the Universe, and
we are subject to the results of actions we have done in the
past which must eventually be balanced. Just as a single cell
is subject to the general health of the body, we are part of
larger communities we determine our lives to a greater or
lesser degree. Similarly, most people are weighted down with
the heavy karma of past lives when they lived unaware of real
action of the law of karma in their lives. Once such awareness
is attained, it can make a big difference to how we choose to
live our lives from thereon.
Karma: questions we all ask
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If Karma is true, then why should we bother helping those
doomed to die of disease, poverty and starvation. Isn’t it
their karma? Better luck next life?
Such an attitude is reprehensible from the viewpoint of
Theosophy. Obviously, it is their karma; but if indeed we are
one human family, and we certainly helped create the difficult
present circumstances in past lifetimes, how can we isolate
our karma from theirs? Surely it is part of our karma being in
incarnation in the more fortunate parts of the world, to help
those millions in less fortunate circumstances elsewhere. As
HP Blavatsky said: “Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes
action in a deadly sin.” Many people all over the globe are
increasingly hearkening to this call and dedicating their
energies to practical humanitarian aid to those less fortunate.
How do you reconcile heredity with Karma?
The law of Karma will attract us into the family, culture and
nation where we can best fulfil our individual needs for soul
learning. This may be into either outwardly comfortable, or
difficult circumstances, so that we individually have the
opportunity to develop patience, tolerance, and other finer
human qualities. The power of both love and hate can bind us
into a particular group of people for as long as is needed to
work out our Karma together, and then go our separate ways.
According to Theosophy it is we who determine heredity by
our behaviour in each life impressing our ‘life atoms’ with
individual patterns of attributes. We merely pick up these
bundles of attributes or ‘skandhas’ as they are called in
Sanskrit, at each rebirth, and go on from where we left off last
life.
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What about the fact that all of us are subjected to the will
of our families, nations and the global environment. How
does individual karma fit with such group karma?
There are many aspects of karma, such as world, national,
and racial karma, family as well as individual karma. In every
avenue of experience, from the individual to the international,
we are thinking and acting and hence setting certain causes in
motion which are bound to have their effects. According to
Theosophy, we are all part of a single, living, universe and
hence connected in a web-work of life over vast periods of
time. We have developed strong karmic relationships at family,
national, and global levels during this long process of learning,
and so we are bound to have to work out our group, as well as
our individual karma. The current crisis of global warming
could be said to be an ultimate example of group karma for the
whole human race.
Do the Gods step in to save us from our Karma?
Just as we are more progressed in self-consciousness than
the animals, there are beings, call them ‘God’, ‘Gods’ or
whatever, who are more advanced than us humans on the
ladder of spiritual evolution. People pray to their vision of them
all the time, but it is said in Theosophy that they never interfere
with our Karma, though the may ‘dam’ it back to stop it
overwhelming the human race. Humans, as learning beings,
must be free to work out our own destiny, which means that
our mistakes will eventually recoil upon ourselves, for it is thus
that we learn and may one day grow in self-consciousness to
join ‘the Gods’. Men themselves decide their fate by their
choice of the various alternatives life presents. The ‘Gods’
however, do guide, protect, and help forward the evolution of
their ‘younger brothers’ wherever they can without interfering
with our right to learn and grow through our own choices.
Karma: questions we all ask
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Is life fair?
Most people think that it is ‘bad karma’ when we undergo life’s
trials such as illness, loss, handicap, and grief. But surely it is
a common experience that such events give us the opportunity
to learn soul lessons of patience, tolerance, and spiritual
understanding in the most meaningful and enduring way –
‘blessings in disguise’ we often call such experiences. ‘Bad
Karma’ may actually be ‘Good Karma’ from the viewpoint of
soul learning. Theosophy teaches that ‘we are our own karma’
– meaning everything that comes to us is an out flowing of
ourselves – our past. Perhaps our souls rejoice at such
opportunities to reconcile past imbalances, learn valued
lessons, nurture compassion, and possibly be of help to those
around us a result of what we’ve learned in the ‘school of hardknocks’.
All of this sounds good, but how do I know that any of it
is true?
We can observe the cycle of ebb and flow, action and reaction
everywhere in nature. If you toss a stone into a pool, it causes
ripples in the water; and these ripples spread and finally
impact on the banks. Modern science tells us that we live in a
universe of waves and vibrations extending infinitely outwards
into the universe impacting and reacting with atomic particles
everywhere. Do you think human beings are any exception?
Much of theosophical teaching is based on the learning of the
Masters of Wisdom who have ventured self-consciously into
the invisible realms which support the physical. Such Masters
during their initiatory journeys, see the universe ‘as it is in
itself’. They have returned from their initiations to teach us
ordinary people what they have observed to be true there, and
confirmed by comparison with the experiences of other
Initiates.
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Further Reading:
Grace F Knoche: To Light a Thousand Lamps. Chapter 7 on
Karma.
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James Long: Expanding Horizons. Chapter on ‘Karma: law of
cause and effect.’
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Gertrude van Pelt: The Doctrine of Karma: Chance or Justice?
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G. de Purucker: Fountain-Source of Occultism pages 410-420
particularly the chapters ‘Man is his own Karma’ and
comments on the question, ‘Is Karma ever unmerited?’.
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Alternative perspectives on the common view of karma as
punishment are offered by William Q. Judge in Karma the
Compensator [ULT Pamphlet no.20] comprising ‘Is Karma only
punishment?’ and ‘Good and Bad karma’.
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Why not check out the articles on Karma listed at the
Theosophy Downunder website at:
www.theosophydownunder.org
Karma – some quotations
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“Let not the fruit of good Karma be your motive; for your
karma, good or bad, being one and the common property of all
mankind, nothing good or bad can happen to you that is not
shared by many others.”…”There is no happiness for one who
is ever thinking of Self and forgetting all other Selves.” –
HPBlavatsky.
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“The Universe groans under the weight of such action
(Karma), and none other than self-sacrificial Karma relieves it.”
–HPBlavatsky.
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“Karma is not a punishment but the path through which
experience is gained and truth revealed, and it relies as much
on the present and future as it does on the past”. — Shawn
Hawk.
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“Karma – the word should be explained as meaning
‘circumstances currently the soul chose as the best
opportunity for the soul’s growth and for teaching others.’” –
Viola Henne.
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Karma …”is the will of the spiritual beings who have preceded
us in bygone kalpas or great manvantaras (evolutionary cycles
of vast time duration) and who now stand as gods, and whose
will and thought direct and protect the mechanism and the type
and quality of the universe in which we live. These great
beings were once men in some former great manvantara. It is
our destiny ultimately to become like unto them, and to be of
their number, if we run the race of kalpic evolution
successfully.” – G de Purucker.