Theos-Talk Archives (January 2002 Message tt00063)

<<<Hi Jerry, and all of you,
That is allright Jerry.
But what do you have to offer on Karma to this list.
The buddhists as I understand it - often has a lot of problems on that issue too ??>>>

Morten, the "silly" (I restrained myself from using 'stupid') statement was that "Only Parabrahman is beyond Karma." This leaves out Buddhas and Jivamuktis, for starters, because both Buddhism and Hinduism teach that our personal karma can be overcome. Even higher Bodhisattvas are said to be able to eliminate all of their past karma and can perform karmaless actions. How? The Theosophical core-teachings offer us no answer, but Buddhism does. It says that karma and maya are both inherently connected to the belief in a self (atman), which itself is caused by ignorance (arigpa). When the belief in a separate self is eliminated through meditation, past karma dissolves (who is there to receive it?) and future karma is no longer created (who is there to earn it?). 

Also, what about the divine Monad, a spark of divinity itself? Does anyone seriously think that the Monad has karma? 

But perhaps the real key here is, how do we define karma? Buddhism does not define it as simply causation in the physics sense, which is a more universal concept. Rather, karma, literally action, but in Buddhism is a specific kind of action, is a special kind of causation relating to svabhava that allows for a cause-effect relationship over time for specific individual living beings (inanimate objects have no karma) over a series of lifetimes via the skandhas. Once one realizes that the skandhas are mayavic illusion, karma no longer applies to one's actions and one will no longer need to reincarnate. Then one can consciously chose to reincarnate to help others rather than to reincarnate unconsciously out of one's karmic propensities. 

I am sorry to use derogatory terms in my posts, and I try not to. But the perpetuation of exoteric karma and exoteric reincarnation is killing the TM, and has been the main reason for it lack of acceptance in the general public - and rightly so. I feel it almost my duty to at least try to show that karma and reincarnation have an esoteric side, one that includes the doctrine of liberation, which the Theosophical core-teachings hint at, but practically ignore. I am sowing seeds, which may die, but again may find life somewhere out there. Lets face it, if only Parabrahman is beyond karma, then there is no liberation at all, and it is this false assumption that is "silly."

Jerry S.
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