Theos-Talk Archives (December 1998 Message tt00157)

Dec, 11th 1998

On Karma == some general statements from Theosophical sources:


There is no Karma unless there is a being to make it or feel its
effects.

Karma is the adjustment of effects flowing from causes, during
which the being upon whom and through whom that adjustment is
effected experiences pain or pleasure.

Karma is an undeviating and unerring tendency in the Universe to
restore equilibrium and it operates incessantly.

The apparent stoppage of this restorations to equilibrium is due
to the necessary adjustment of disturbance at some other spot,
place, or focus which is visible only to the Yogi, to the Sage,
or the perfect Seer;  there is therefore no stoppage, but only a
hiding from view.

Karma operates on all things and beings from the minutest
conceivable atom up to "Brahma."  Proceeding in the three worlds
of men, gods, and the elemental beings, no spot in the manifested
universe is exempt from its sway.

Karma is not subject to time, and therefore he who knows what is
the ultimate division of time in this Universe knows karma.

For all other men Karma is in its essential nature unknown and
unknowable.

But its action may be known by calculation from cause to effect;
and this calculation is possible because the effect it wrapped up
in and is not succedent to the cause.

The Karma of this earth is the combination of the acts and
thoughts of all beings of every grade which were concerned in the
preceding Manvantara or evolutionary stream from which ours
flows.

And as those beings include Lords of Power and Holy Men, as well
as weak and wicked ones, the period of the earth's duration is
greater than that of any entity or race upon it.

Because the karma of this earth and its races began in a past too
far back for human minds to reach, an inquiry into its beginning
is useless and profitless.

Karmic causes already set in motion  must be allowed to sweep on
until exhausted, but this permits not man to refuse to help his
fellows and every sentient being.

The effects [of any Karma] may be counteracted or mitigated by
the thoughts and acts of oneself or of another, and then the
resulting effects represent the combination and interaction of
the whole number of causes involved in producing the effects.

In the life of worlds, races, nations, and individuals, Karma
cannot act unless there is an appropriate instrument provided for
its action.

And until such appropriate instrument is found, that Karma
related to it remains unexpended.

While a man is experiencing Karma in the instrument provided, his
other unexpended karma is not exhausted through other beings or
means, but is held reserved for future operation;  and lapse of
time during which no operation of that Karma is felt causes no
deterioration in its force of change in its nature.

The appropriateness of an instrument for the operation of Karma
consists in the exact connection and relation of the karma with
the body, mind, intellectual and psychical nature acquired for
use by the Ego in any life.

Every instrument used by the Ego in any life is a operating
through it.

Changes may occur in the instrument during one life so as to make
it appropriate for a new class of karma, and this may take place
in two ways:  a) through intensity of thought and the power of a
vow, and  b) through natural alterations due to complete
exhaustion of old causes.

As body, and mind and soul have each a power of independent
action, and one of these may exhaust, independently of the
others, some Karmic causes more remote from or nearer to the time
of their inception that those operating through other channels.

Karma is both merciful and just.  Mercy and Justice are only
opposite poles of a single whole;  and Mercy without Justice is
not possible in the operations of Karma.  That which man calls
Mercy and Justice is defective, errant, and impure.

Karma may be of three sorts:
a)	Presently operative in this life through the appropriate
instruments;
b) that which is being made or stored up to be exhausted in the
future;
c) Karma held over from past life or lives and not operating yet
because inhibited by inappropriateness of the instrument in use
by the Ego, or by the force of karma now operating.

Three fields of operation are used in each being by karma:
a) the body and circumstances;
b)	the mind and intellect;
c)	the psychic and astral planes.

Measures taken by an Ego to repress tendency, eliminate defects,
and to counteract by setting up different causes, will later the
sway of karmic tendency and shorten its influence in accordance
with the strength or weakness of the efforts expended in carrying
out the measures adopted.

Egos who have no connection with a portion of the globe where a
cataclysm is coming on are kept without the latter's operation.

>From APHORISMS ON KARMA by W. Q. Judge  PATH March q893