Theos-Talk Archives (May 1999ar Message tt00088)

In a message dated 5/6/99 3:33:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Richtay@aol.com 
writes:

<< don't think we should be trying to 
 level the playing field, BECAUSE KARMA IS ALREADY DOING THAT by 
 redistributing the wealth etc.  The people who are wealthy or poor now are 
 exactly where they ought to be. >>

Rich,
 I get the sense that you keep referring to KARMA in its retributive or 
effects form. However my understanding of the word simply means action. And 
complex actions, mental, emotional and physical can only be expressed once. 
here and now, instantly, in each moment. So for me, ones action/reaction to 
the effects discovered in any given moment, is the cause of some further 
effects. If the Action is mentally, emotionally and physically sound, 
Spiritually alive, filled with the energy of ones highest possible self, that 
action will be the cause of mitigating or resolving the effects of 
retributive karma. If we come to the action in bits and pieces, holding 
something back as it were, such as pervasive pessimism tends to do, we add to 
and sustain the dilemma. So for me the doing, of anything that is 
Idealistically resonant or compassion driven, is the only action worth while. 
Lingering on the cumulative effects of untold millennia, focusing on the easy 
to observe negativity of the human condition, sets up a continuation of the 
problem in the very moment one embodies it. 
It's not an intellectual exercise, where one puts equal amounts of everything 
in neat little piles in 6.1 boxes. But rather a spiritual exercise where 
changing the greed and avarice, the selfish disdain for human suffering 
begins with changing one human heart, mine!

Look Rich, my view of this problem is really quite simple. I do not buy the 
overpopulation argument as the reason there is so much suffering in the 
world. It may be a contributing factor but it is certainly not the reason 
that humans suffer, as some suggest. Also, I do not buy the fact that it is 
their Karma, so we should just let it go at that. To do nothing, to feel 
nothing, to remain intellectually distant because my circumstances are a bit 
more fortunate at this moment, is not acceptable to me. Do something! That is 
what is needed here and historical observation and commentary is NOT the 
something that will work for the deprived and the oppressed people of this 
earth. Finally, I do believe it is a problem related to human selfishness and 
extreme avarice. I suggest that the only way to deal with that human failing 
is to try anything that is it's opposite. If we have tried it before and it 
did not work, tweak it a bit and try it again until it does. If we loose our 
ideals from lack of striving for them, it seems to me we will loose the best 
part of who we are as an evolving species. The journey is meaningless without 
compassion and empathy. 

Louis

-- THEOSOPHY WORLD -- Theosophical Talk -- theos-talk@theosophy.com

Letters to the Editor, and discussion of theosophical ideas and
teachings. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message consisting of
"subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to theos-talk-request@theosophy.com.