KARMA Questions we all ask Andrew Rooke

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KARMA Questions we all askAndrew Rooke
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What is Karma?

• 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 ones 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.

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Karma questions we all ask

• What good is suffering if we dont 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 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.

• 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.

• Is Karma fatalism?
• People often ask does karma mean that everything
  in our lives is predetermined? Dont 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 natures 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.

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Karma questions we all ask

• If Karma is true, then why should we bother
  helping those doomed to die of disease, poverty
  and starvation. Isnt 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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Karma questions we all ask

• Is life fair?
• Most people think that it is bad karma when we
  undergo lifes 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
  weve learned in the school of hard-knocks.

• Further Reading
• Grace F Knoche To Light a Thousand Lamps.
  Chapter 7 on Karma.
• James Long Expanding Horizons. Chapter on
  Karma law of cause and effect.
• Gertrude van Pelt The Doctrine of Karma Chance
  or Justice?
• 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?.
• 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.
• Why not check out the articles on Karma listed at
  the Theosophy Downunder website at
  www.theosophydownunder.org

• 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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Karma some quotations

• 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.
• The Universe groans under the weight of such
  action (Karma), and none other than
  self-sacrificial Karma relieves it.
  HPBlavatsky.
• 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.
• Karma the word should be explained as meaning
  circumstances currently the soul chose as the
  best opportunity for the souls growth and for
  teaching others. Viola Henne.
• 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.