Theos-Talk Archives (December 1998 Message tt00201)

Dallas:

When I was discussing karma, I was starting from the simple
case and then generalizing. There cannot be karma in a world
that consists of a single being. It takes at least two beings
for there to be karma. Karma is something that exists *between*
them, based upon their relationship, both visible, as well as
unseen. When karmic events arise between the two, the events
come from unseen energies, karmic seeds, potential energy
between the people involved.

As you say, there certainly are much more than two individuals
in life, and there's a vast karmic web of life that we weave
as we act and our actions affect countless other lives.

When you mention "dynamic harmony," it leads me to think of
the process of sympathetic vibration. There's a natural,
physical process whereby things synchronize their cycles,
in a process of self-adjustment leading to a form of group
harmony. This may work the same with karmic adjustments, where
by groups of individuals adjust their mutual interactions or
karmic interplay, leading to an overall harmony, that might
be considered a form of group karma.

We can take different models of karma, models that simplify
and clarify in different ways, but which also limit and
restrict our understanding of the vast doctrine. One model
is the "banker's model," wherein we acquire and pay off various
debts (bad karma), and accumulate and spend various types of
savings (good karma). This and other models offer, as has been
discussed before on the list, a limited view of what is happening,
falling far short of containing the wisdom-treasure that the
doctrine embodies.

At the moment, my favorite simplification or summarization
of karma is: "unfinished business." If we have unfinished
business in life, either in terms of experiences that we still
need to fulfill, or interactions with others in life that haven't
reached closure, we have unspent karma drawing us back into
participation in life.

-- Eldon