Theos-Talk Archives (October 1999 Message tt00078)

Oct 18th

Dear Friend:

To answer briefly:

Your 2 questions below should be really be just one --  as the first
is part of the 2nd.

Yugas of whatever description are closely associated with the moral
condition of many Monads and Egos who interact all the time.

They are never arbitrary, nor are they imposed as a blanket on every
one.  An Ego who does not belong in a Kaliyuga cycle in one portion of
the World will find that karma removes them to some other part where
that kind of karma is not operating.

The universal and minutely attentive sensitivity of Nature provides
for even the smallest as well as the largest (and everything in
between) the kind of environment that they deserve and desire.  Thus
KARMA  is simultaneously individual and social, which may include a
family, race, sect, nation, or the whole world.  All, all is under the
sway of the return of impressions to their originators.

Let me place here some aphorisms on KARMA that may serve to make this
plainer

=========================

APHORISMS ON KARMA



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

(2) 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.

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

(4) The apparent stoppage of this restoration 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.

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

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

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

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

(9) 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.

(10) 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.

(11) 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.

(12) Karmic causes already set in motion must be allowed to sweep on
until exhausted, but this permits no man to refuse to help his fellows
and every sentient being.

(13) The effects 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.

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

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

(16) 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 or change in its nature.

(17) 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.

(18) Every instrument used by any Ego in any life is appropriate to
the Karma operating through it.

(19) 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.

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

(21) 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.

(22) 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; 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.

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

(24) Held-over Karma or present Karma may each, or both at once,
operate in all of the three fields of Karmic operation at once, or in
either of those fields a different class of Karma from that using the
others may operate at the same time.

(25) Birth into any sort of body and to obtain the fruits of any sort
of Karma is due to the preponderance of the line of Karmic tendency.

(26) The sway of Karmic tendency will influence the incarnation of an
Ego, or any family of Egos, for three lives at least, when measures of
repression, elimination, or counteraction are not adopted.

(27) Measures taken by an Ego to repress tendency, eliminate defects,
and to counteract by setting up different causes, will alter 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.

(28) No man but a sage or true seer can judge another's Karma. Hence
while each receives his deserts, appearances may deceive, and birth
into Poverty or heavy trial may not be punishment for bad Karma, for
Egos continually incarnate into poor surroundings where they
experience difficulties and trials which are for the discipline of the
Ego and result in strength, fortitude, and sympathy.

(29) Race-Karma influences each unit in the race through the law of
Distribution. National Karma operates on the members of the nation by
the same law more concentrated. Family Karma governs only with a
nation where families have been kept pure and distinct; for in any
nation where there is a mixture of family - as obtains in each
Kaliyuga period - family Karma is in general distributed over a
nation. But even at such periods some families remain coherent for
long periods, and then the members feel the sway of family Karma. The
word "family" may include several smaller families.

(30) Karma operates to produce cataclysms of nature by concatenation
through the mental and astral planes of being. A cataclysm may be
traced to an immediate physical cause such as internal fire and
atmospheric disturbance, but these have been brought on by the
disturbance created through the dynamic power of human thought.

(31) Egos who have no Karmic connection with a portion of the globe
where a cataclysm is coming on are kept without the latter's operation
in two ways: (a) by repulsion acting on their inner nature, and (b) by
being called and warned by those who watch the progress of the world.

Wm. Q. Judge
Path, March, 1893

[ULT  2 Vol. Edn. of  WQJ Articles I 120 ]

==================================






Dallas
dalval@nwc.net 


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-theos-talk@theosophy.com
[mailto:owner-theos-talk@theosophy.com]On Behalf Of Street, Nicholas
{QA~Welwyn}
Sent: Monday, October 18, 1999 6:04 AM
To: Theos-Talk-Digest (E-mail)
Subject: Theos-World Yugas and Karma


Dallas & All,

Dallas wrote (from one of the Masters):

"....The cycles must run their rounds. Periods of mental and
moral light and darkness succeed each other as day does night. The
major and minor yugas must be accomplished according to the
established order of things. And we, borne along on the mighty tide,
can only modify and direct some of its minor currents. If we had the
powers of the imaginary personal God, and the immutable laws were but
toys to play with, then, indeed, might we have created conditions that
would have turned this earth into an Arcadia for lofty souls."

----------------------------------------------------------------------
-

Can anyone help answer a question for me?

It seems that there are two separate universal "forces" that can be
considered to affect the world we live in:

1) the action of the yugas, of fixed duration and therefore outside of
the
chain of cause and effect with regard to humanity's  actions

DTB
NOTHING  CAN BE outside OF THE CHAIN OF CAUSES AND EFFECTS

-----------------------------------

2) universal karma - the combined effect of all the thoughts, words,
deeds
of humanity

DTB
THAT IS CORRECT -- AND QUEST. 1 OUGHT TO BE INCLUDED HERE.

-----------------------------------

In the age we live in, I often hear it said that the ignorance &
materialism
etc is due to the actions of man, that we have chosen a lower path and
are
therefore facing the consequences of our past actions. But, from the
above
text and from what I understand of the yugas in general (very little),
it
seems that the "moral darkness" associated with kali yuga is something
completely outside of our control.

DTB

ONCE WE REALIZE ITS INFLUENCE WE CAN PLACE IT UNDER OUR CONTROL SO FAR
AS WE ARE CONCERNED AND START GENERATING CONTROLLED CAUSES FOR
OURSELVES IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION.  THAT IS WHY BROTHERHOOD IS
EMPHASIZED.  CONSIDER THE APPLICATION OF THAT -- AND YOU WILL SEE THAT
IT HEALS ALL THINGS.

LET US PUT IT QUITE SIMPLY  THE CHOICES OF THE SUPERIOR MIND IN EACH
OF US ARE DISTINGUISHED BY WISDOM THAT IS UNIVERSAL IN SCOPE,
LIBERALISM, COMPASSION, NOBILITY, CONSIDERATION FOR OTHER (AND
OURSELVES) AS NEEDED MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY.

THE CHOICES OF THE INFERIOR (EARTH BOND AND SELFISH) MIND ARE
SELF-CENTEREDNESS, IGNOBLE, IGNORANT, VICIOUS AND DEVIOUS, ALWAYS
SELECTING AS A MOTIVE FOR ACTION THAT WHICH DRAWS ADVANTAGES SOLELY TO
ITSELF.  IT DOES NOT CONSIDER THAT THESE DISSIPATE AND HAVE NO
RESIDUAL VALUE AT DEATH.

ON THE OTHER HAND THE MOTIVES AND ACTIONS OF THE SUPERIOR MIND ALWAYS
CARRY FORWARD TO THE NEXT LIFE AN EFFLUVIUM OF VIRTUE WHICH BECOMES
PART AND PARCEL OF THE SUPERIOR MIND THAT IS TO BE.

THE CARRY-OVER OF THE INFERIOR MIND RESULT IN ADVERSE KARMA AND THE
TRIALS AND PAINS OF A KALI-YUGA AND A FUTURE LIVE AND LIVES OF
TORTURE -- AS NATURE TRIES TO SHOW TO SUCH AN INDIVIDUAL THE RESULTS
OF THE PAINS AND TORTURES THAT IT VOLUNTARILY INFLICTED ON OTHERS
EARLIER.
------------------------------------------

If this is true, then my reasoning would suggest that we are no more
responsible for the "moral darkness" than we are responsible for it
getting
dark at night or cold in the winter! If the masters can only modify
some of
the "minor currents" then what can be expected of the rest of us
"mortals"?

DTB
MAN -- AS A MIND -- IS THE MOST POTENT OF CREATORS -- BUT OUR SOJOURN
IN THE HUMAN KINGDOM IS PRECISELY THE METHOD THAT NATURE EMPLOYS TO
GET US TO SEE THAT, AND THEN TO CONTROL AND USE THIS POWER FOR THE
BENEFIT OF ALL AROUND.

NATURE ALLOWS US TO LIVE BY THE COOPERATIVE SACRIFICE OF MANY MILLIONS
OF ITS COMPONENT WHICH JOIN TOGETHER TO FORM OUR BODIES, EMOTIONS,
FEELINGS, DESIRES, AND LOWER-MINDS.  OUR MOTIVES WHETHER NOBLE OR
VICIOUS GIVE IMPETUS AND 'LIFE' TO THE IMPRESSIONS MADE ON THE LIVING
"LITTLE LIVES" OF ALL NATURE.  THOSE "RETURN" TO US WITH OUR IMPRESS
HUNGRY FOR US TO CHANGE AND REDRESS AND MAKE HARMONIOUS AS THEY WERE
BEFORE.  OUR RESPONSE TO THEM AN THE EVENTS THEY BRING EITHER
INCREASES THAT DISTRESS OR CURES IT.  THERE IS NO VAGUE "IN BETWEEN"
THERE IS NO "DUST HEAP."

THUS WE ARE FOREVER INTIMATELY CONNECTED ALL THE TIME WITH THE WHOLE
OF NATURE.  IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT THE TAPPING OF A PENCIL ON YOUR DESK
FLOWS OUT AS A VIBRATION, HOWEVER MINUTE, CONVEYING TO THE REST OF
NATURE, AT THE MOST REMOTE OF ITS LIMITS THE MOTIVE, THOUGHT AND WILL
OF YOUR CREATIONS WHEN YOU WERE DOING THAT TAPPING.

WE ARE, ALL OF US INTIMATE PARTS OF A MOST ENORMOUS LIVING AND EVER
CHANGING HOLOGRAM.

---------------------------------


The only solution I have found to satisfy my reason so far is that
kali yuga
is like a "spiritual winter" (where the sun has moved further away
from the
earth). And like in a physical winter, although food may be scarce,
this
does not give us the right to steal it from others. So the temptation
to
break universal law to further one's selfish ends is greater. And like
in a
physical winter, the harshness of the environment will cause the
strong to
survive and the weak to fall.

Does this make sense to anyone? Any thoughts or pertinent quotations
would
be gratefully received.

DTB
NOT A BAD ANALOGY EXCEPT AS NOTED ABOVE WE ARE STILL RESPONSIBLE IN IT
AND FOR IT.

Here is a series of quotations that may be useful, I hope.

THE COMING RACES



1.	 RACES  AND  ROUNDS


	PURPOSE OF EVOLUTION

	Theosophy holds that there is a final purpose for man, the immortal
thinker here in evolution.  It is all for the experience and
emancipation of the soul, for the purpose of raising the entire mass
of manifested matter up to the stature, nature, and dignity of
conscious god-hood.  The great aim is to reach self-consciousness;
not through a race or a tribe or some favored nation, but by and
through the perfecting, after transformation, of the whole mass of
matter as well as what we now call soul.  Nothing is, or is to be,
left out.  The mineral, vegetable and animal forms each imprison a
spark of
the Divine, a portion of the indivisible SPIRIT.    [OCEAN: 60;
EPITOME: 11]

	These sparks struggle to "return to the Father," or in other words,
to secure self-consciousness and at last come into the highest form on
Earth, that of man, where alone self-consciousness is possible to
them.  The period calculated in human time, during which this
evolution goes on embraces mil-lions of ages.  Each spark of divinity
has, therefore, millions of ages in which to accomplish its
mission--that of obtaining complete self-conscious-ness while in the
form of man.  But by this is not meant that the mere act of coming
into human form of itself confers self-consciousness upon this divine
spark.  That great work may be accomplished during the Manvantara in
which a Divine spark reaches the human form, or it may not;  all
depends upon the individual's own will and efforts.  Each particular
spirit thus goes through the Manvantara, or enters into manifestation
for its own enrichment and for that of the Whole.  Great Sages,
Mahatmas and Rishis are thus gradually evolved during a Manvantara,
and become after its expiration, planetary spirits, who guide the
evolution of other future planets. The planetary spirits of our Globe
are Those, who in previous Manvantaras--or "Days of Brahma"--made the
efforts and became in the course of that long period Mahatmas.
[EPITOME.: 11]



	EVOLUTIONARY PERFECTION IS FOR ALL BEINGS


	Each Manvantara is for the same end and purpose, so that the Mahatmas
who have now attained those heights, or those who may become such in
the succeeding years of the present Manvantara, will probably be the
planetary spirits of the next Manvantara for this or other planets.
This system is thus seen to be based upon the identity of Spiritual
Being, and, under the name of "Universal Brotherhood," constitutes the
basic idea of Theosophy whose object is the realization of this
Brotherhood among men.   [EPITOME.: 12]

	We postulate a double evolution, physical and spiritual, carried on
by reincarnation.  Every atom is alive and has the germ of
self-consciousness.  What is now called human flesh is so much matter
that one day was wholly mineral, later on vegetable, and now refined
into human atoms.   [OCEAN: 66]


	THE SCENE OF EVOLUTION -- A 7-FOLD SYSTEM:
GLOBES - RACES - ROUNDS

	In dealing with these doctrines one is compelled to greatly extend
the scope and meaning of many English words;  "race" is one of these,
as in the Theosophical scheme, as given out by the Sages of the East,
seven Great Races are spoken of.   Each one includes all the different
so called "races" of our modern ethnology.  Hence the necessity for
having 7 great "Root Races," 7 "Sub-Races," 7 "Family-Races," and
countless "offshoot races;"  all being included in the Great Root-Race
then undergoing development. [ECHOES: 26]

	Thus, there are 7 "Races" for each "Globe;"  but the total of 49
"Races" in one "Round of 7 Globes" involves every one of the original
"7 great human categories of character and quality of innate nature."
These had already been developed to a point in that earlier series of
"Globes and Rounds" comprising the "Moon chain," on which we had our
earlier evolution.  We shall start with this Globe:  seven "Races" of
men appeared simultaneously, coming over from the corresponding
earlier "Globe" of that chain after its "death." [OCEAN: 23-25]


PRINCIPLES or QUALITIES in MAN


	These 7 categories of nature give the corresponding 7-fold
constitution of the human being, which is:  (1) SPIRIT-a RAY
thereof--the HIGHER-SELF;  (2) Wisdom: Spiritual-Soul, or Buddhi;  (3)
Mind-Manas--Thinker and Chooser, the INDIVIDUALITY, a dual principle;
(4) Kama-desire--passion, the "Lower ego," the selfish sense of self,
the "personality;"  (5) Prana-Jiva--Life Energy, (6) the "astral," or
electro-magnetic model-body Linga Sharira, on which the (7) physical
molecules, cells, and organic structures of the physical body arrange
themselves.  The first group of 3 form the immortal
INDIVIDUALITY--reincarnating "MAN."  The last 4, PERSONALITY, make up
the "mask" that we wear each life.  This mask-persona is reassembled
under Karma at each new birth from "life-atoms," Skandhas, we have
used in previous "lives."  These are the "Divine Sparks" referred to
earlier.  [KEY: 95-6, 135-6, 175-6]



	PRESENT  POSITION OF THE EVOLUTIONARY SCHEME


	At the present time the original 7 "Great Races" are mixed together,
and representatives of all are in the many so-called races of men as
classified now by our present science.  The object of this
amalgamation is to give every individual the benefit of the progress
and power of the whole.  Nature never does her work in a hasty or
undue fashion, but, by the sure method of mixture, precipitation, and
separation, brings about the greatest perfection. Hence man did not
spring from a single pair.  Neither did he come from any tribe or
family of monkey...or from the animal kingdom.     [OCEAN: 127-8]



	PAST ROUNDS and RACES


	The appearance of these great Root-Races is always just when the
World's development permits.  When the Globe was forming, the
body-form of the 1st Root-Race was more or less ethereal, and had no
such body as we now inhabit.  The Cosmic development became more dense
and the 2nd Root-Race appeared, soon after which the 1st wholly
disappeared.  Then the 3rd Root-Race came on the scene, after an
immense lapse of time, during which the 2nd had been develop-ing the
bodies needed for the 3rd.  At the coming of the 4th Root-Race it is
said that the present human form was evolved, although gigantic, and
in some respects, different from our own.  It is from this point--the
4th--that the Theosophical system begins to speak of man (as
body-form).
[ECHOES: 27]



	SEVEN-FOLD MAN EVOLVES ON THE SEVEN-FOLD EARTH


	"...the Earth is seven-fold.  It is an entity ...(not a mere lump of
gross matter) of a septenary nature (and) there must be six other
globes which roll in space with it.  This company of seven Globes has
been called the "Earth Chain"...The whole seven "globes" constitute
one single mass or great globe and they all interpenetrate each other,
but, are not of the same substance.  Hence only one of the 7 is
consciously perceptible at any one time by the average man.  This is
in perfect correspondence with man himself who has six other
constituents of which only the gross body is visible to him because he
is now functioning on the Earth--or the 4th Globe--and his body
represents the Earth.  		 [OCEAN: 23]



	LIMITED NUMBER OF EGOS IN EVOLUTION


	The "mass" of Egos which evolves on the 7 Globes of our chain is
limited in number, yet the actual quantity is enormous...the whole
number of "Monads" [Spirit-Souls] now going through evolution on our
Earth Chain came over from the old 7 globes [of the Moon-Chain]...It
reached this planetary mass...and began on Globe A, or # 1, coming in
like an army or a river.  [OCEAN: 25]



	   DIAGRAM:  Globes - Rounds - Races


	The journey went for four circlings round the whole, [each such
circling being called a "Round"] and then the whole stream or army of
Egos from the old Moon Chain had arrived, and being, complete, no more
entered after the middle of the Fourth Round.  [OCEAN: 26]

	The same circling process of those differently arrived classes goes
on for 7 Rounds, of the whole 7 planetary centers of consciousness
["Globes"] and when the 7 are ended as much perfection as is possible
in the immense period occupied will have been attained, and then this
chain or mass of "Globes" will "die" in its turn to give birth to
still another series.  Each one of the globes is used by evolutionary
law for the development of seven races, and of senses, faculties and
power appropriate to that state of matter:  the experience of the
whole seven globes being needed to make a perfect development.
[OCEAN.: 26]

	The evolution of these 7 Great Races covers many millions of years,
and when the new Race is fully evolved the preceding Race disappears
as the monads in it have been gradually reincarnated in the bodies of
the new Race.  The present Root-Race to which we belong, no matter
what the sub-race or family-race we may be in, is the 5th.  It became
a separate, distinct and completely defined race about one million
years ago, and has yet many years to serve before the 6th is ushered
in.  This 5th race includes all the nations of Europe also, as they
form together a family race.   [ECHOES: 27]

Best wishes

Dallas

=======================


"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible."
- Stanislaw J. Lec; 1909-1966

DTB
THAT APPLIES TO SNOWFLAKES AND NOT TO MANKIND -- THERE IS A VAST
DIFFERENCE IN THE LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND RESPONSIBILITY.

NO MAN-MIND CAN EVER SHIRK HIS SELF-MADE RESPONSIBILITIES.  HE LIVES,
AND LIVING, HE MAKES HIS FUTURE -- THIS IS INEVITABLY THE RESULT OF
HIS IMMORTALITY AND THE GOAL WHICH HE ENVISAGES DETERMINES THE
RAPIDITY OR SLOWNESS WITH WHICH HE WILL ATTAIN IT.

IN THIS HE INFLUENCES THE WHOLE OF NATURE AT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

THERE IS NO WAY IN WHICH WE CAN PULL THE "SAFETY CORD" AND SAY "Stop
the train.  I want to get off!"

And where would be the place that one would "get off" to ?

=================================


Kind Regards,

Nicholas John Street.

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




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