Theos-Talk Archives (December 1998 Message tt00190)

In a message dated 12/15/98 8:32:12 PM, you wrote:

<<>If we invoke the aspect of mercy and/or forgiveness, then what

>happens to the victims if something has been done to hurt them ?


This is an area in which karma becomes murky and too profound

to really be sure of what is going on. If someone hurts me, I will

NOT feel better by knowing that that person is suitably punished.

I am not vindictive nor do I insist on "justice" in the sense of an

eye for an eye.  I would, in fact, forgive the person in the hopes

that the person would then learn to forgive others.  In a sense,

we are all "victims" in this world--victims of our own ignorance.


Jerry S.>>

Once again, I side with Jerry on this one.  Karma, we are told, IS a universal
and unerring law, as Dallas quotes (extensively).  But who among us has the
vision of the Lords of Karma, who can say exactly how this law is meted out?
Even the Mahatmas don't dare interfere with its workings, because They
Themselves don't have total and complete knowledge.  I suspect (and nothing
stronger than that) that Karma does indeed take note of true contrition and
sorrow over misdeeds.  Confession and repentence practices exist in pretty
much every religion I know of.  Are they all misguided?  Surely not.  But we
mustn't assume that Karma is a force to be bandied about either.  Even minor
actions *will* have their effect, we are told, though they may be accompanied
by the very different karma of repentence.

I also would posit that cause and effect is not a linear, easily-understood
doctrine.  None of our actions is entirely "free" as it were, being so
conditioned by our past.  Nor must we think we are utterly determined, as the
entire Lila (play) of this phantasmagoric universe would be useless and not
"fun."  The interactions of cause and effect in our multi-leveled, multi-
motivated actions are complex, from the silent whisperings of the highest
spiritual insight to the basest selfishness and ignorance -- simultaneously.
So who can judge just what is the cause, and what the effect?  Where does any
action truly begin, or end, at what "point" in time?  And does it matter?  The
Masters merely say, "TRY."

Rich