Theos-Talk Archives (October 2002 Message tt00048)

Oct 7 2002

Dear Friends:

Some questions arose on the actuality and or validity of the Law of
Karma. The following may help make it understandable.


APHORISMS ON KARMA


(1) There is no Karma unless there is a being to make it or feel its
effects.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](3)
Karma is an undeviating and unerring tendency in the Universe to
restore equilibrium, and it operates incessantly.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](6) Karma is not subject
to time, and therefore he who knows what is the ultimate division of
time in this Universe knows Karma.[PARA][PARA](7) For all other men
Karma is in its essential nature unknown and
unknowable.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](14) In the
life of worlds, races, nations, and individuals, Karma cannot act
unless there is an appropriate instrument provided for its
action.[PARA][PARA](15) And until such appropriate instrument is
found, that Karma related to it remains unexpended.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](18) Every instrument used by any Ego in any life is
appropriate to the Karma operating through it.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA](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.[PARA][PARA]Path, March, 1893[PARA]
-- W Q Judge


Best wishes,

Dallas