The word Karma.
I have tried to understand Karma, but to no avail. I do understand the words cause and effect in the material sense. But not in the spiritual sense. What if our spirit undergoes a spiritual change instead of a material rebirth? Reincarnation in the spirit I can understand but not in the material sense. Thoughts please. Paul
Replies to This Discussion
-
ModeratorPermalink Reply by M K Ramadoss on -
Let us look at it from KISS principle. What goes around comes around, is a saying that it common in this part of the country. For an accountant, accounts have to be settled and balanced, whether in this life or if not in a future life. I think the principle is very simple. Everything in the universe has to be balanced otherwise there would be chaos. Let us not complicate it with a very complex way to explaining how it all operates. I drive a car and am a safe driver. I need not know all the innards and the electronics built into it. Just my simplistic view.
-
Permalink Reply by Hari Menon on
-
Dear Paul ,
A flawless diamond takes on different colours according to the background it is subject to - Similarly in the spiritual arena the words and utterances take on increasingly newer and more profound meanings and hold deeper knowledge , it grows as you grow so to say . Do not mix up the physical with the spiritual , everything fails and doubts alone will remain is such a case . There is a thing called the "Immaculate Conception" in Christian Spiritual literature , your conception has to be as immaculate as possible of things spiritual other wise you will get agonizing vision of Gods punctured with arroes and knives with deathly grimaces and most human contortions . These are what may be called as the "Imitations of Christ" . The waste land of the intellect is dotted with such painful imagery . On the other hand sublime thoughts and noble purpose and high thinking coupled with a simple living will endow you with the most sublime and beautiful imagery which you cannot express in words. The images itself would take you higher and higher .Look at the variuos paintings in the east and west on spirituality and you will understand what I have just mentioned. There is aesthetics which is divine and reflected in many paintings and sculptures and there are "Naiiive'' artists also in the bargain. Paul in western philosophy there are millions of principles and dognmas and religions within christianity and many things have been written on them , the multiplicity is bewildering - IN Hindu Spirituality there are no differences at all unlike in the western tradition . Every single Hindu sect or branch , including Buddhism has for its starting point the "Law of Karma" . Everyone is agreed upon on this and no body disputes this principle . Every philosophy from India thus has a common starting point , and so it should be seen as such . Nobody has any deviation from the acceptance of this Law . You have to understand it as a raisonne d'tre for the very philosophies and an exhortation to live sensibly and ethically and as the need for spiritual development that is all . It is a fist step only . To interminably cogitate on Karma and its consequences is worthless. If one is convinced of the need to live ethical then - the law of Karma may have been said to have served its purpose and one moves on to greater things spiritual , that is all . As with one action so with every action whether it is ones own or anothers - what is the use of thinking how the law will operate in certain circumstances - the rule is known , its logic understood and its necessity as a base - one simply moves on that is all. You are talking like a very learned scientist as if this is a newtonian law which requires evidence of proof , the intent , import and understanding of the law is only necessary . If you want test tubes and formulae obviously you will be meandering only in circles . This is the understanding of the Law of Karma - in things spiritual things have to be seen with understanding not taken literally . Nowhere has it been said a man becomes a dog and a dog becomes a celestial - these are popular rubbish thrust upon by worthless masters who have struggled to explain the sublime law to even less worthy disciples who want things off the shelf . As far as I have understood about the spirit is that it is unchanging , and eternal and does not go on changing as a person dies , it is strange that you talk of the spirit "undergoing a spiritual change " then what on earth is it that you are talking of ? There is a thing called espirit de corps or camradiere or group friendhip which in common usage (which is vulgar) called spirit - this spirit is only a term of usage and has nothing to do with the Spirit as a pure principle . I hate to spoil the party but knowing the meaning of words are not enough , the manner and idea that they ultimately convey is the true meaning and import of language . Look how well Kirkegaard puts it " What is man ?, Man is nothing but Spirit ". Dear paul when you read such a noble sentiment you should ensure that the word "man" as it strikes the ken of your sight and understanding should not suggest or even hold any image wrongly of a physical body . When you read you should not have images impinging in your mind . Your mind has to be blank like a white piece of paper - it is then that the intent will flash upon you without effort - this is the practice and aim . Th sounds should draw the correct word idea within our consciousness on the mind like a mantra , it is then only that you will get the True word idea and meaning underlying the word that is heard or read . What free will is there if man sits and imagines things based on words heard and read ?, it means he has no will at all and is susceptible to all and any suggestion - a very poor way of living . Show me ten of the richest people on earth and I will show you ten people without any will and living in utter bondage and to be pitied immensely.
-
-
Yes Paul , you are totally correct and really speaking I have nothing but total acceptance of what you have written . Write as you please and do not think of the reader , in time either views will get rectified automatically , nothing much to it . This is after all how life moves on .
-
Permalink Reply by Malcolm D. Muir ("Mac") on
-
Here is the contents of a booklet I wrote some years ago. I hope it helps:
Karma
Malcolm Muir
All of the world’s major religions teach
about karma in one form or another.
Each says: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
The word “Karma” literally means action, specifically action which disturbs a balance, any balance. Clearing karma becomes restoring the balance.
Karma is not some law imposed by an external God, but is instead a manifestation of the natural tendency of any system to return to balance. All the air in the room does not collect in one corner.
We have the choice of many ways of restoring this balance. Some of these choices result in quick resolutions and some will be long and drawn out. Likewise, when clearing so called “negative” karma, some will be painful and others will be painless.
When we create an experience, we create karma. We clear the karma by experiencing the creation.
Karma is not punishment; it is not retribution;
it is not fate; it is not judgement; it is completion.
KARMA:
There is no right or wrong
- only consequences.
Consequences are a shift in opportunity.
Some doors are closed, others are opened.
Some doors lead to pleasant gardens
and others to brambles, if not minefields.
The choice is always ours to make.
Most karma is generated and cleared within the same lifetime. Many people think that karma is different from ordinary consequence but it really isn’t. Ordinary consequence is, however, really quite extraordinary. Likewise many people believe that karma must involve others but it seems there is a great deal of self-karma also. Groups also have karma. This is true at the level of marriage and family as well as churches, corporations, political parties, cultures and nations. Thus we need to be mindful of what we join. Even the world has karma and we are each responsible for a part of that karma.
We deal not only with our individual karma but also with our group and national karmas as well. Those who willingly work to clear group, national, species and universal karma deserve great praise and support.
While we clear most of the karma we make in a given lifetime, we bring with us a load of karma to complete from our past lifetimes. We tend to travel in spiritual families and most karma stays within the family. The people in a family are not necessarily born in the same physical family or even in the same area of the world. Spiritual families will often split onto both sides of more conventional groups (e.g. nations, races) which are in conflict. This can set the stage to generate or resolve karma. Our souls are very good at arranging things so that we will find the people in our lives necessary to clear outstanding karma.
Sometimes karma will play out immediately while at other times conditions will not all be present for the rebalancing to occur. Under these circumstances the karmic load will wait until the correct circumstances to complete the karma manifest. Some literature refers to this as ripening of karma like the ripening of fruit.
Many people have the mistaken belief that karma is fate. We often hear people say things like: “It’s his karma,” implying that there is nothing to be done about the situation. The truth is that any karma is as a result of our previous choice and our present situation is nothing but an opportunity to choose again. Stoic acceptance will clear karma but an active acceptance, a willing acceptance, is generally easier, faster and less painful. This can be seen as making the choice to create rather than react.
People also tend to think of karma as something bad, something punishing but karma includes skills, gifts, grace and what we call good luck.
Many people see the law of karma in negative terms. This is incorrect. Karma is inherently neutral. If we choose to think in terms of merit and demerit, I will note that most people most of the time create far more merit than demerit but it is very easy to burn off merit thoughtlessly. Thus we tend to be more aware of so called negative karma.
The fact that we tend to burn off merit thoughtlessly while dealing with the consequences of demerit more thoughtfully is a major reason for all the pain and suffering in the world. Many people see the law of karma in negative terms. This is incorrect. Karma is inherently neutral. If we choose to think in terms of merit and demerit, I will note that most people most of the time create far more merit than demerit but it is very easy to burn off merit thoughtlessly. Thus we tend to be more aware of so called negative karma.
The fact that we tend to burn off merit thoughtlessly while dealing with the consequences of demerit more thoughtfully is a major reason for all the pain and suffering in the world.
Some people think that all suffering is as a result of karma, but often suffering is just suffering. The Buddha’s first noble truth: Life is dukkah, life is suffering. Again we have the power of choice. Likewise, it is silly to take on suffering because it exists around us. Even when suffering is as a result of karma there are always ways of clearing it painlessly. The Buddha’s four noble truths provide a means to escape suffering, specifically the “eight fold way.”
Generally we do not suffer because we deserve it, we suffer because we choose it. However, our belief that we deserve to suffer, whether conscious or subconscious, often drives our choice. It is foolish to try to convince another that they deserve to suffer. This too has karma.
Lingering or chronic illness is often a way of burning off karma generated by generalized negativity. This is an example of self karma.
Both suffering and joy act as motivators and each can move us in the direction of union, love and compassion or toward separation, fear, and apathy. Here again we face this set of choices.
There tends to be a view that karma is a result of “big” things or big decisions, but it seems that most karma is created by small decisions which set the stage for the major events of our lives. Most of these decisions pass unnoticed into our karmic history. This becomes a strong argument for living mindfully. This also becomes a strong argument for living compassionately, living lovingly.
Our karma is strongly modified by our intention. Thus, we need to become very aware of both our intentions and our rationalizations. The laws of karma see through rationalizations. This is another argument for mindful living.
Good intentions acted on without thinking through the probable side effects tend to lead to damaging results. When such results are deliberately ignored or when “good intentions” are used to mask selfish or corrupt ends the karma can be quite severe. Often the correct thing to do from a karmic standpoint is to compassionately leave things alone. Wu-wei.
There is no such thing as “good” and “bad” or “good” and “evil” but there is appropriate and inappropriate in a universe that does have consequences. Thus good and bad can become tools in our understanding of just how the universe works. Good and bad become views as to what serves our purpose, our spiritual development. All karma is good in the sense that it provides a teaching about something.
The Taoist story of the farmer talking to his neighbor: The farmer owned an old mare and one day this horse jumped the fence and ran away. His neighbor commiserated but the farmer said: "What is good, and what is bad?" Several days later the mare returned herding a stallion and several wild mares. The neighbor congratulated him for his good fortune but again the farmer said: "What is good, what is bad?" The farmer's son was thrown while trying to ride one of the new horses and broke a leg. The farmer still said: "What is good, what is bad?" The next week the army came through the area conscripting young men, but the son had a broken leg and was not taken. What is good, what is bad?
The concept of "Good and Evil" is a simplification, a model of very limited usefulness. This model keeps us trapped in a space where the less pleasant aspects of the laws of karma come to the fore. “Judge not, lest you be judged.”
Anything that works to limit us is a sin. Anything which works to free us, to create a more global, a more universal view is not. "We are punished by our sins not for them" (Derek Sparks).
It is not that we are punished for our sins.
It is not that we are punished by our sins.
It is that we are given opportunities to learn,
to grow, based on what we do.
In order to have saints
we must have sinners.
There is an underlying unity of all sentient beings and when we really understand what is happening we discover that what is truly beneficial to one individual will be beneficial to all. However, it is not always obvious just what is serving our spiritual purpose.
To understand some of what your karma is, look at what you are learning, what you are experimenting with. One useful technique is to adopt the role of observer within our lives.
It seems that being aware of what we are doing, being mindful, is a way of setting ourselves on a faster path. For example: One reasonable question is: Is what I am doing honoring love or honoring fear? Sometimes we can watch others and learn from them. One pattern I have observed over and over again is for someone to feel very aggrieved by another person’s actions and then to turn around and do the exact same thing to someone else. This seems to be a case of trying both sides of a karmic event. Another observation would be that everyone that I have ever known who was focused on personal power was profoundly unhappy as a result.
Every once in a while we will notice an event in our lives which seems to have a synchronistic flavor. These events tend to have a strong karmic component.
For example: We tend to be sexually attracted to people with whom we have unresolved karma. This sets the stage to work on that karma. It also explains why so many marriages have so many problems.
Many marriages end in divorce today. Some divorces indicate that the karma was cleared, while in other cases the divorce itself is part of the clearing, and in still other cases the karmic knot has only gotten bigger and tighter. Divorce is a place where the choice to live by love or by fear is often very clear. Likewise the consequences of those decisions are also often very clear.
We need to appreciate that even tragic things can work to our best purpose and need to be viewed without judgement or blame.
For example: Aids is part of a lesson. It is, among other things, the universe reminding people that casual sex with many partners and IV drug use are, generally, not being “on purpose.”
Sometimes an act will create karma and other times the exact same act will balance karma. This makes it very difficult to judge any activity.
We generate karma. We clear karma. When the karma is generated and cleared the lesson is complete.
We are free to choose when
we will dance with Shiva,
But dance we will.
Adopting a world view means accepting the consequences, the karma, of that world view. Be careful what you wish for. You tend to get it. Be careful what you believe. You tend to get that too.
Isn't it interesting that our “hang-ups” are almost always beliefs? Most of our limits are imposed by our beliefs. It is also interesting how many of our beliefs are negative in character even when there is nothing in our experience to justify that negativity.
It seems quite fascinating how people will routinely put their beliefs ahead of their experiences.
The choice is always to respond
with fear or respond with love.
The choice is always to respond
from fear or to respond from love.
The concept of soul age explains a great deal about what happens here in classroom Earth. Baby souls want to learn by using karma but do not wish to make too much at one time. Thus, baby souls want rules and regulations as a way to limit human activity. Young souls tend to create a great deal of karma to learn from the process. Young souls are very willing to make the rules and regulations wanted by the baby souls. They do this as an exercise in power. Old souls tend to attempt to clear karma and try to avoid making more.
Young souls have difficulty imagining that anyone would not want to make lots of karma. Older souls sometimes forget that it is appropriate for younger souls to make lots of karma.
Is an old soul better than a young soul? Is a senior citizen better than a young person? It is just the same. Each has a different perspective. Each perspective is necessary to the process. An old soul was once a young soul. A young soul is having the experiences necessary to become an old soul.
It is not always easy to tell who is who. There are young souls in old bodies and old souls in young bodies. A way to tell is to look at their actions, look at their reverence for balance, their reverence for life, particularly their reverence for life combined with a lack of fear of death, their lack of belief in fixed rules and regulations, their lack of belief in belief, their willingness to work for the greater good. The signs may be subtle, society tries to do a great deal of imprinting of a young soul outlook.
Balance is different from fairness and equality. Attempts to enforce fairness and equality tend to be young soul activities.
Baby souls generate solutions with primitive simplicity. Toddler souls generate somewhat more complex solutions. Young souls generate solutions with sophisticated complexity. Old souls generate solutions with elegant simplicity. A U-shaped curve.
Civil rights, discrimination, etc. It is the process which is important, not the result. It is the means that matter, not the ends. These are lessons in both karma and the underlying unity of all beings. How many of the problems in these areas would disappear if people would only recognize that, in general, they get to play out both sides of every karmic situation. We tend to travel in groups and we switch roles from lifetime to lifetime in a manner rather like children playing games. Cops and robbers: “You were the cop last time and so this time I will be the cop.” A parent may become our child or our lover. A lover may become our killer and vice versa. As this understanding grows we will find that our worst enemy is usually an old friend in disguise. This has profound implications for conflict in general and war in particular.
Anger is a measure of powerlessness. As we become aware of our spiritual power, anger naturally drops away. Thus the concept of an "Angry God" is a contradiction in terms.
Jealousy is a measure of lack of love and lack of belief in self. Therefore the “Jealous God” is also a contradiction in terms.
When we make up our lists of "shoulds"
and "should nots" there tends to be
a quiet sound in the background.
It is the sound of God crying.
It is not easy to give up thinking
in terms of “shoulds.”
Sometimes we try a karmic experiment one time and understand the result. At other times we will repeat the experiment over and over hoping for a different result. This is especially common when the expectation of the differing result comes from our list of “shoulds.”
This bring us to the joke definition of insanity: Repeating something over and over expecting a different result.
If you choose to be a master
you also get to be a slave.
Karma is not about creating guilt.
What is threatened to cause anger except ego?
What is threatened by anger except ego?
The lesson is incredibly simple: When we honor fear and separateness in our lives we will have more of it. Likewise we are free to honor love and union and thus experience more of that in our lives.
Some people buy into fear like a blanket. “If I am afraid, I have an excuse not to be responsible for my life.” This attitude tends to create even more karma.
Repayment of karma is often painful for both participants. This is, perhaps, a reminder that the “victim” needs to forgive.
Forgiveness is the doorway to grace.
In order to recognize our divinity it is
necessary to let go of our victimhood.
It is possible to examine and/or discuss things from the past without anger or hurt. This can set the stage for an easier clearing of the karma involved.
It is important to act with honor and by honor. Our integrity and how we act within our integrity has a large karmic effect. One major laboratory for experiments with integrity is our employment and other organizations we join. It is therefore very important to be careful about the groups we join and how we act within those groups changes not only our karma but the group’s karma.
Therefore we need to be mindful of what energies we feed our groups. We have the choice of coming from love or from fear in our activities and this choice helps to drive the group karma.
Examples of karma:
Attitude in school creating success or lack thereof later in life. Flossing or not flossing resulting in a different number of cavities. Choosing to drive drunk resulting in a smashed car. John F. Kennedy ordered the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South Viet Nam. Later he was himself assassinated.
Most people tend to think of karma as being somehow an inevitable thing, but it seems that in many cases it looks like another chance to roll the dice. For example, the couple that engages in unprotected sex and no pregnancy results or the drunk driver who gets safely to his destination. Given a universe without randomness, there seems to be an interesting paradox here.
The law of karma is often seen as a “mean” sort of law, being required to pay back all of our infractions, but when understood together with the law of synchronicity it can be very beautiful.
Classroom Earth is very like a perfect dance, with perfect choreography. In everything that happens the Universe delivers to each and everyone involved exactly what they need, exactly when they need it. We are free to change direction at any time and yet the dance continues perfectly. As we release old experiences, like releasing a dance partner, we find that new experiences, like a new partner, have stepped into our arms. Sometimes the dance is sedate, sometimes it is frantic and sometimes we are square dancers in a “grand right and left.” This, the law of synchronicity, is incredibly beautiful. To begin to see it is to be in absolute awe.
The law of synchronicity is especially apparent with older souls. It is often the case that everyone who is significant in the life of an older soul is someone with a past life tie to that person. Things like “Love at first sight” often involve a past life recognition at a subconscious level. At other times “love at first sight” is really “lust at first sight.”
Sometimes “Lust at first sight” is an indication of heavy karma, sometimes it is an indication of a dharmic tie (a confluence of spiritual missions) and sometimes it is just lust.
We often think of virtue as the choice to make good karma and yet: Virtue is much more the choice not to make negative karma. True virtue is the choice not to make karma at all while remaining active in the world. One way is by doing works just as an offering to the divine. In any case detachment from results (in terms of personal attachment, such as wanting credit ) tends to minimize the generation of karma. Perhaps this is what it means to walk with a light step.
A karma producing act may be viewed as starting to write a story. Balancing the karma is finishing the story. Some stories are one page long while others run thousands of pages.
The choice to move into conscious awareness increases our ability to deal with karma and also increases the pressure to resolve old karma. As a result, we may find that life may become rather tough for a while as a great deal of “stuff” is burned away.
If you are observant, the law of karma may become very obvious in the events happening around you.
Very often karma has more to do with balancing the motivating thought than balancing the action. The law of karma sees through rationalizations.
Our souls force the repayment of karma because the soul needs the balance.
Our beliefs are often at odds with our experience. We need to modify our beliefs in accordance with our experience. We need to allow our karma to run over our dogma.
It is not easy, this being human.
Karma is here to teach.
Once a lesson is learned
the karma drops away.
If person A owes person B a karmic debt:
1. A and B can interact and both suffer while not resolving the issue.
2. B can forgive A.
3. A can accept the debt.
4. B can balance the debt by doing to A what A did to B.
5. A can act to repair the effects of the debt.
6. A can double the debt by doing it to B again.
7. A can repeat the experience giving B the chance of responding differently.
8. B can balance his karma by doing it to C. This results in A owing C. Sometimes these chains get very long.
9. A and B can agree to set it down. This is a combination of acceptance and forgiveness becoming a transcendence. It is not necessary to understand the nature of the debt to “set it down.” (It does take unconditional love to be able to “set it down.”)
10. A and/or B. can recognize the true union, “that there is only one of us.” In that space the karma is just another part of the mirage of separation and it dissolves away as the illusion it ultimately is.
-
-
Dear Paul,
Mac has given a really beautiful dissertation on Karma, I do honestly believe that you have to closely read it and think on the same with reference to your life and in general and also reconcile it with your christian beliefs and thus make it seamless and doubt free , repeated readings may be required but if the pains are taken with a sincere resolve to gain knowledge of yourself and understand things as they are , I guess your own reasoned examples and conclusions aided by intution which may supply you examples long forgotten from your own memory at the appropriate junctures plus new intutive insights correlating your musings will be a highly profitable exercise . Sip slowly and stop to think and sip again , after all good advice is like old wine to be savoured and not swallowed .
-
-
Dear Mac ,
This is a very good piece on Karma and honestly one of the best I have read . You have a good idea of both the Gross and subtle aspects of the Karmic situation . I do not think Paul would have to look elsewhere , a close reading of your post with some deep thinking and drawing analogies from his own life , Past and Present would suffice to inhere in the knowledge very sensibly .A really good dissertation on Karma ,if I might say so .
-
Permalink Reply by Capt. Anand Kumar on
-
"As You sow,so shall ye reap" and several other attribute based (Good or Bad - reward and punishment) cause and effect based meanings of the Karma belong to the realm of political science (how a society organizes itself) and not spirituality.
The Hindu Realism, a treatise on the ancient Hindu system of Physics links the word Karma to two others namely Dharma and Adharma. Dharma being the principle that causes motion, Adharma being the principle that cause rest (deceleration) and Karma being the motion itself. The word Motion is very curious here and I am yet to develop even a working understanding of it. However Spanda Karika, available from our English Language download section may help those interested in understanding of motion.
Motion by itself is secular without good or bad attributed to it. But Karma being linked to Dharma & Adharma will mean the actions that either add to the motion or decelerate it. There is no algorithm to tell us that what the result of each Karma will be, good or bad, or to how many will be affected by one's Karma. But Sri Krishna in verse 4.7 of the Bhagvad Gita declares that every time the motion decelerates, he incarnates to restore motion. It implies that there is a built-in component in the universal software to detect the deceleration of motion and restore it to the original.
-
-
Paul and Anand.
As I understand it the word karma literally means action. Specifically any action which disturbs a balance, any balance. There is no inherent judgement here, no good and bad, just is.
I find it is often useful to look at the human experience as a combination of four models: Life is classroom where we function as both teachers and students, Laboratory where we conduct experiments, Inventors workshop/Artists studio where we create and Playroom where we play games. Yes, sometimes the games get very rough. Within this framework, we can if we choose explore using judgement or we can set it aside. Either way the exploration, the unfoldment continues.
I find the Taoist farmer story to be an important piece of the puzzle. What seems bad turns out to be good and vice versa leading to an ultimate good. This requires an attitude of allowing, of being in the flow.
There seems to be an idea within Buddhism and Taoism of living in such a way as to go through life while remaining in balance. Wu-wei.
To respond to Paul’s question: It seems to me that illness is just another part of the play, possibly a karmic result, possibly a karmic cause, it is a tool. In the end we are always responsible. But I come back to the idea that karma is not a system of rewards and punishments even though it may seem like it when you are in the middle of a karmic drama. Mac
-
-
Thanks Malcolm.
As per my understanding, good or bad Karma is political science and not philosophy, Tao story notwithstanding.
The Standard karma theory, cause and consequence has endured because time's motion is taken as linear. Once the format of the motion of time is grasped such theories are bound to disappear.
-
Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Smart on
-
My idea of karma, and this helps me understand the role of spiritual evolution as well as psychology to a certain extant, is that karma is a habit that we have built over a life time or life times. Like all habits we tend to do the same thing over and over again and again without thinking. I good habit (showing compassion to those in need) will hopefully go with us through many life times and with this habit we will grow and evolve. A bad or negative habit (abusing people who you consider your inferiors) can also go with us through many life times and impede our evolution until we figure out, by the reactions caused by our actions, that this is bad. Life is a form of Reality Therapy in which we learn to overcome our predispositions, short falls, imperfections, etc... through experience. Habits we picked up in physical realms may only be able to be overcome in physical realms. We cannot, for example learn to control our appetites for addictions to alcohol, food, or sex with out a body. In this sense, from this standpoint, karma makes sense to me. What do you think?
-
-
Karma is not either good nor bad. It just is. I think it is often profitable, or perhaps prophet-able, to look on outstanding karma as being out of balance. This is uncomfortable to the soul both in manifestation and while in bardo (between lives). A soul will try to arrange lifetimes in ways which restore balance. Most of the time however the personality does not listen well to the soul and blunders about making still more karma. All of this is creating experience which is what the ongoing process of creation is really all about. These games (and all of this really is a set of games) vary with the age of a given soul. (For a discussion of soul age see "Earth to Tao," "Tao to Earth" and "The Michael Handbook" by jose Stevens.) For most of our lives karma is a powerful learning tool. It is only the very old soul that has the wisdom to create a personality which really listens to its soul. Namaste, Mac
-
-
I beleive we do evolve and we do not return to start over but we start where we left off. Karma doesn't have to be a drag, all pain and misery. It is a learning experience, a process if you will. It is not so much punishment for past wrongs but a learning process in which we gain a growing realization of our mistakes and our successes and evolve through them. At least that is how I view it...Take care.
© 2024 Created by Theosophy Network.
Powered by
