Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00099)

June 17 2004


CATACLYSMS, RACES, MANKIND AND KARMA


Der Dennis. and Friends

Here are some of the answers THEOSOPHY provides on the subject of
man's relation to cataclysms through Karma.

Best wishes,

Dallas
 
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KARMA - PERSONAL AND NATIONAL --- HPB



A correspondent once made this statement to HPB:
 
"Therefore, like Karma, also deliverance, redemption or salvation
(from the world) can never be any otherwise than "personal," or let us
rather say "individual." The world, of course, can never be delivered
from itself, from the "world," from pain and evil. And no one can be
delivered therefrom by anyone else. ---You certainly do not teach
vicarious atonement? Or, can anyone save his neighbor? Can one apple
make ripe another apple hanging next to it?"
 

To this HPB retorted:

 
"No; but the apple can either screen its neighbor from the sun, and,
depriving it of its share of light and heat, prevent its ripening, or
sharing with it the dangers from worms and the urchin's hand, thus
diminish that danger by one-half. As to Karma this is again a
misconception. There is such a thing as a national, besides a
personal or individual Karma in this world. But our correspondent
seems to have either never heard of it, or misunderstood once more, in
his own way. "
 
("World-Improvement or World-Deliverance")	HPB Articles I 456


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CATACLYSMS AND KARMA



Q. Are any beings free from Karma?

A. None whatever; Karma operates on all things and all beings from the
minutest conceivable atom up to the highest being. No spot in the
manifested universe is exempt from its sway, for manifestation means
action, and action brings its exact results. Karma is the inherent law
of power to act in every being of every grade; in each case the power
to act is exercised according to the degree of intelligence acquired.
The Universe is embodied Consciousness.	


Q. Race-Karma, National Karma, and Family Karma have been spoken
about; what do these terms mean?

A. As all beings are the same in kind-that is, spiritual in essence
and source-all are connected on inner planes, and each one affects all
the rest in a helpful or hindering way. Race Karma influences each
unit in the race through this law of cause and effect by distribution.
National Karma operates on the members of a nation through the same
law more concentrated. Family Karma governs only with a nation where
the families have been kept pure and distinct; for in any nation where
there is a mixture of family-as obtains in every Kali Yuga
period-family karma is in general distributed over a nation. All men,
flaying the same principles as constituents of their nature, are
connected by both inner and outer principles of their being; they
therefore affect each other in subtle and unperceived ways, as well as
by the external ways which are ordinarily perceived. ( P. 140)


Q. If all beings of every grade are affected by the dynamic power of
human thought and feeling, we, as human beings, must a the lower
kingdoms which constitute the earth upon which we live?

A. Such is the teaching. Cataclysms of nature are brought about by the
separative and destructive effects of selfish and wrong thinking by
human beings. A cataclysm may be traced to a physical cause such as
internal fire and atmospheric disturbance, but these have been brought
on by the disturbance created by the dynamic power of human thought.
Some hint of this is to be found in the writings of St. Paul when he
speaks of the whole of creation groaning in travail because of the
iniquities of man.


Q. Do all human beings have to suffer in such cataclysms?

A. No. 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 which induces them to
move elsewhere, or 

(b) by being warned by those who watch the progress
of the world.


Q. How can the actions of men produce convulsions of nature (p. 96)?

A. Through their cumulative effect upon the psychic nature of
elemental beings. Karma is the key-note of all conditions, for it
governs the smallest atom as well as the highest spiritual being. The
elementals of the mineral kingdom, and of the kingdoms below that (the
elementals proper) are psychic embryos." Every thought of man upon
being evolved passes into the inner world, and becomes an active
entity by coalescing with an elemental-that is to say, with one of the
semi-conscious forces of the kingdoms. It survives as an active
intelligence-a creature of the mind's begetting. Thus a good thought
is perpetuated as an active, beneficent power; an evil one as a
maleficent demon. The automatically acting brain stores up only brute
energies, and begets correlations that are unfruitful of benefit, at
last bringing about convulsions in nature. It is analogous to
combinations of chemicals produced by scientific minds-antagonistic
elements held in leash, which at last a spark suffices to release and
bring about terrific explosions.


Q. And similarly, man's actions or Karma can bring about beneficial
effects in the lower kingdoms of nature?

A. It is man who is the real motive and directing power in this
universe, for he is at the head, being self-conscious, with the power
of acquiring qualities, of understanding the natures of all beings,
and of manipulating the lower natures. It devolves on him so to use
those natures as to bring about the best results for all the beings
concerned in the stream of evolution which makes up this earth and
solar system. Man has produced many combinations and transformations
in the lower kingdoms, not possible to them of their un aided powers,
which are beneficent.


Q. Then man is a creator in a far wider sense than we are accustomed
to think

A. Undoubtedly. The impulse to action in the lower kingdoms originally
proceeds from him. The conscious action of the lower kingdoms all
proceeds from man. After the action there is always the reaction. The
elements, the "air, water, fire and earth," or any portion or
combination of these, all have their reactions upon us. We experience
those reactions from the elements because of our attitude towards them
and use of them, for we are the ones who induce them to act whether in
a beneficent or maleficent way. Tornadoes, earthquakes, sufferings of
any kind such as wars or strife, either in the elements or amongst
men, are all produced by man.


Q. There would seem to be no limit to any one's responsibility

A. There isn't. Whenever and whatever any one thinks or does, he
cannot do so without affecting other beings, whether human beings or
beings below or above, as every action is felt throughout the whole of
the universe in some degree. He gets the reaction in his own moral
nature from the lines of his mental action; and at the same time he
will he physically acting along the same lines, affecting others for
good or evil both on the inner and the outer planes of action; then he
gets the physical reaction.



Q. Then there is never any injustice?

A. There is no injustice. What we see as apparent injustice seems so
because we do not see the causes which have produced the present ill
effects. If we have no knowledge of our own real nature and the Law of
Karma that is inherent in it, then the feeling can only be that we
have received injustice, and we harbor hatred and resentments. What
prevents our understanding these things is mainly that we do not know
what we are here for. We look at things from a one-life basis, and
finding ourselves in this life we imagine it is something we had
nothing to do with. Seeing others, according to our view, more
fortunate than ourselves, we want to know why, and no answer being
possible on the basis we have assumed, we assume that we are receiving
injustice. If Karma is the doctrine of responsibility, Reincarnation
is the doctrine of hope. The two go together. The reason we are on
earth, according to the Occult teaching: we are not here because of
our virtues; we are here because of our defects. The "personality" is
really the working off of defects. If we do not learn what the object
of life is, and don't do the work, then we are only creating more
defects to adjust, and more trouble for ourselves.



Q. What does it mean to be Karma-less?

A. All that is Karma-less is that in us which lives and thinks, the
Perceiver, the Real Man. He is the institutor and the experiencer of
all Karma. There is no Karma unless he makes it. He is not changed by
Karma, neither made greater nor less; but while attached to action
(Karma) or in a body and circumstances created by him, he experiences
all that flows from the actions to which he is attached, until he
ceases from the attachment to that kind of action. He gets whatever
experiences his actions in that body bring him.


Q. What really is the cause of Karma?

A. Karma is first, last and all the time, action; and we cannot
understand Karma until we grasp the idea that the whole of the
universe is intelligence, expressing itself in myriads of forms and in
many ways. It is the action of intelligence that produces all the
effects perceived on this plane of existence.


Q. How does that statement apply to the individual?

A. Individually each one is Karma, for he is both the actor and the
one who receives the results that proceed from his action. Karma is
never an outside force, nor any being nor beings; it is the collective
actions of beings with which we have placed ourselves in some
relation, but that relation is wholly individual on our part. We set
certain causes in motion and are bound to experience the results that
flow from those causes, for every motion in the universe affects other
beings in every direction, and there is always the reaction upon the
point of disturbance. We must of necessity be the adjuster.


Ans. to Q. on OCEAN - Chapter on KARMA, p. 140.


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Q.:	How is the Johnstown disaster to be interpreted from the point
of view of Karma?


W.Q.J.-An imperfect view of Karma is held by many Theosophists. Karma
is thought to relate only to human beings, and when it is spoken of as
"the law of ethical causation," application of it is made solely to
man. This not only leaves us without any law to account for the
numerous operations and effects in the natural world, but raises grave
difficulties in the presence of such a calamity as the Johnstown
flood.

Another wrong view frequently taken is the looking upon Karma as
punishment only, whereas Karma works alike in reward and punishment. A
pleasant life is due to Karma as much as one that is full of woe.

The word "Karma" means "action," and, in its larger sense, the action
of the great unmanifested, whether that be called God or the Absolute.
The moment the unmanifested begins to make itself manifest in creation
or evolution, then its action and Karma begin. Hence, every
circumstance great or small, every manifestation of life, every
created thing and all of the facts and circumstances of man's life are
under the law of Karma.
The three sorts of Karma are: -
	
3

That which we are experiencing; that which we are making for the next
life; and that which we have made, but which is held over unfelt until
some other life or lives.

This division applies throughout nature.

By what means does Karma have its operation? By means of the apparatus
fit to carry it out into view and exhaust it; when this is furnished,
the appropriate Karma is felt or seen.
Having all this in view we see that the Karma of the material world
(so called), as it now exists, is its Karma left over from a previous
manvantara or period of manifestation, working out in the fit
apparatus which we call the world. And it may be that there is some
"World-Karma" left over to be felt or seen in the next cycle or
manvantara.

Under these laws it is possible that many individuals may congregate
at just such a place as Johnstown, who possess such physical, mental,
and psychical apparatus as tends to bring out at some one period many
accumulated weights of Karma; and in such a case they will feel the
effects as seen in the flood sweeping them away.

But to say that such a catastrophe is to be called evil Karma in every
case cannot be right. Some were killed, and for them we may not say it
was not a benefit; others doubtless will suffer through their lives;
and still more may be benefited through the circumstances which
brought about a complete change in life.

We must also remember that during any one hour of the day as many as
10,000 people die in various spots of the earth. Hence we have
accumulated and felt at any hour the Karma which brings death about
for that number of people.

WQJ -- FORUM ANSWERS p. 2

 
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"Q. On the basis that man is a spiritual being and can always change
his course, I do not see how Masters could work out cycles unless
people necessarily act very much alike.
 
A. They figure out cycles according to the average of the mass of
mankind, not on the basis of the individual's position in regard to
the cycle. An individual may take a very different position from that
of the mass toward some cycle, but none the less he moves with it and
is bound to that cycle; he has to move with that race, either above it
or below it. No one can escape from the race to 'which he belongs.

The effect of cycles upon us, however, or the use of the cyclic
return, depends upon the individual. Should there be, let us say, a
revolution all over the world, all forms upset, all ideas of valuation
and property destroyed, how would men be affected? Some would be
affected terribly; others, very little. It would depend altogether on
the individuals-on the measure of their attachment to the results
brought about by such a course of events. Freedom comes from lack of
self interest in the results of anything we do. If we work with things
,not for things, for the best of all, without being attached to either
success or failure, then we are not struck by such catastrophes They
cannot touch us. We are interested in their effects upon others and
not upon ourselves.
 
Q. Then masses of people must learn as the individual must, to act
regardless of self-interest?
 
A. That is the position. If every man did all that he could for every
other man, then no one would suffer. There would he no poverty of any
kind.
 
Q. Might we expect a cyclic return of the Reign of Terror?
 
A. Undoubtedly. The same conditions that brought it about in France
might bring the same upheaval in any other country. It is significant
to note that many years before the Revolution, a certain great
personage known as Count St. Germain was on the scene in France. He
performed many diplomatic missions for the potentates of the time, and
warned them over and over again of what would come, as soon as certain
changes were made and certain safeguards put up. There, an attempt was
made by One who knew to hold back that Karma. His effort all the time
was in the line of truth-of true fraternity in its highest sense.
 
Q. But the watchword of the French Revolution was "Liberty, Equality,
and Fraternity".
 
A. Yes; that very watchword was taken to help bring about revolution
and bloodshed-used for destructive purposes, rather than in line with
the spiritual constructive basis which the words truly represent. An
interesting parallel might be observable in this country. As early as
1886 Mr. Judge said that this great and glorious country will not long
be at rest, that the people will rise-for what, who can tell? He said
that if our legislators knew what was coming about and could bring
about contravening effects, they would do so; but that no legislation
and no efforts of any patriots would avail when the hour strikes, when
Karmic readjustments among the people have to take place.
 
Q. Why do men not listen to warnings of this kind?
 
A. Many take the position that, of course, no such thing could occur
here. They are obsessed with the idea that we are spiritually far
advanced beyond the times when those conditions were possible. But are
we so far advanced, as a whole? Are we not, as a whole, seeking
self-interest, personal greed, personal fame, and possessions of every
kind? There is no real understanding among men in general,
particularly among our politicians and so-called "men of
intelligence", as to what the purpose of life is; consequently, there
is no application of the only knowledge which would help. What is
behind the league of nations now in process of establishment?
Self-interest on the part of each nation. It is absolutely useless to
dodge the is sue. We have got to see what is the real trouble with
mankind. The fact is, we have no real ideals; it is every man for
himself-individualism, self-interest, selfishness. Yet we are
connected with other individuals, and with other nations. What comes
upon them we are bound to feel in a greater or less measure.
 
Q. If all men held the ideal of Brotherhood, as Theosophy presents it,
should we see any marked difference in conditions?
 
A. Everything depends upon the ideals that men hold. If people as a
whole could be brought into the position of listening to the message
of Theosophy, and applying it, the misery and suffering and hardship
that now exist in the world would practically cease to exist. But it
is beyond the reach of any power whatever to get men to listen and to
apply. They must first desire and choose to listen."	Q and A, p.
185-6


Q. What follows the Iron Age?
 
A. When the Iron Age has run to the completion of its cycle, then
follows in regular succession the Golden Age. But that is yet a long
time off. We have finished only the first five thousand years of Kali
Yuga, which leaves us something over four hundred thousand years yet
to run. Let us say that in fifty thousand years all the civilizations
of the earth outrun their possibilities as such. Then comes a great
disturbance, such as the geological changes apparent on any planet
show have taken place. These disturbances are the re-actions of the
forces that man has restrained so long, and cause a re-distribution of
continents. Suppose for a moment that a great catastrophe over whelmed
the earth; that the land went down, as it does in such periods, and
lands came up where the sea was before; that a remnant of the people
escaped and settled on those lands. Those who survived would be
concerned with the first necessities of existence-food, clothing and
shelter. The arts and sciences that had existed would have no place,
but would become merely a tradition to the children born under those
conditions. Their children would have a tradition still further
removed from the ancient arts. Thus an entirely new phase of existence
would be established. The in coming generations, heavy with the burden
of sustenance, would learn only those arts and sciences applicable to
their surroundings, and the cycle of the return of the ancient arts
would be long in coming.

Such would he the story of our present Western civilization. All our
landmarks would he gone in two hundred years or more. Then perhaps in
some other life, on some other continent risen from the sea, we should
he wondering what people left this or that small relic of
civilization. This civilization will go through the same phases as any
other; it merely presents the embodiments of souls who have come
through past civilizations. For we are the second race, the third, and
the fourth race; the second blended into the third, the third into the
fourth, the fourth into the fifth, and so the blending into future
races must go on. In all those races has been the living of life in an
age of innocence and purity, followed by an age when purity and
innocence decreased through the growth of the intellect along physical
lines, and then the physical rush of civilization went on in all its
complexity until extinction." Q and A , p. 185-6

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WHY RACES DIE OUT

A THEOSOPHIST'S REASON FOR IT
 
IN our own times we have instances of the disappearance of races, and
very often it is attributed to the influence of civilized vices. The
Hottentots have entirely gone, and the decimation of the Hawaiian
Islanders is about complete. Similarly the Red Indians of the
Continents of North and South America have been surely, if slowly,
passing away, so that now there is only a remnant of them left, and
soon after the Spanish conquest the great masses of the aboriginal
inhabitants had faded away.

The Hottentots had reached almost the acme of decline when we knew
them, but the Aztecs, Toltecs, and other South Americans had not
reached such a pitch when they encountered the Spanish. The Red
Indians had gone down between the two, while the Hawaiians were still
below the Indians. It has always seemed to me that the claim that
these races were destroyed by taking up our vices is not well founded.
It is pleasant, perhaps, to the pessimist who dislikes this
civilization, but it will not agree with all the facts. The decrease
of population in the Hawaiian Islands cannot be justly attributed to
rum and social evils taken over from us, although a great deal of
injury no doubt arose from those abuses. About the Hottentots we may
feel pretty sure, because their degradation was almost complete when
they were discovered, and the Mexicans and South American people had
no time to adopt Spanish vices, nor did such exist in a degree to kill
off the inhabitants.

The theory outlined by H. P. Blavatsky is that when the Egos
inhabiting any race have reached the limit of experience possible in
it, they begin to desert that race environment and seek for another,
which, in the sure processes of natures evolution, is certain to be in
existence elsewhere on the globe. The Egos then having left the old
families, the latter begin to die out through sterility attacking the
females, so that fewer and fewer bodies are made for inhabitancy. This
goes on from century to century pari passu with mental decay. And this
mental deterioration arises from the fact that the small stock of what
we might call the retarded Egos who come in during the process have
not had the experience and training in that particular environment
which had been gone through by those who have deserted to another
race, and hence--on the theosophical theory that brain is not the
producer of mind--the whole personnel of the old race rushes down in
the scale, sooner or later presenting the sad spectacle of a dying
race. Final extinction is the result when the process has gone far
enough.

At the time when the first steps toward old age and decrepitude are
taken by such a race, the eternal cyclic laws that always bring about
a universal correspondence between the affairs of man and the
operations of cosmos cause cataclysms to happen, and even in the
seeming height of a nation's power great numbers of bodies are
destroyed. Some indications of this may be seen in our own day in the
great destruction of human life that has begun to overtake the older
portions of the Chinese nation. These are finger posts that declare
the beginning of the exodus of the Egos who have had such a long
experience in that race environment that they have begun to emigrate
elsewhere because their experience has wrought in their character
changes which unfit them for dealing with the old bodies, and those
are left for the starting of other less progressed men. After the
lapse of more years the natural cataclysms will increase in violence
and extent, engulfing more and more millions of bodies and preparing
for other cycles.

We may suppose that the Red Indians predecessors went through similar
experiences, for there are in the Americas evidences of great
convulsions such as upheavals from below and overflowing by water that
deposited great masses of mud. In one of the States there was lately
found good evidence that animals had been thus buried for ages. The
men, having reason to guide them, removed themselves to other parts to
carry out the sad decrees of Karma which had ordered their demise. And
under the suggestion made above, the egos untried in that environment
only occupied the racial body for the sake of the experience which
might be gained during the time that is left. Now our civilization
with weapons and other means is completing the work, as it on its part
fulfils the law by creating on the old soil an entirely new race in
which the experience gained by the mind in prior cycles of existence
may show itself forth.
This process is almost exactly that which happens in families.
Reincarnating egos continue in families that suit their mental
progress just so long as is needed; and if no more egos are in the
cycle of rebirth exactly fitted to the physical, psychical, and mental
state of the family, it begins to die out. And it even exhibits often
in its own small way the phenomena of natural cataclysm, for we know
that sudden ruin and quick extinction often carry off an entire
family, leaving not even a descendant in the very remotest degree.

Hence I conclude that, like families, Races disappear when they are of
no further use in the gaining of experience by the great pilgrim soul.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
Path, October, 1891
 

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Q. With regard to "the persistence of savagery"; are those in savage
tribes souls of lesser experience?
 
A. In the nature of evolution-an unfolding from within outwards-there
must be souls of lesser experience, whose bodies and environment
correspond to their so-far acquired nature. On the other hand there
are diminishing physical tribes of which the Australian aborigines are
an example, where the more advanced egos have incarnated in other
races, leaving the use of that physical line to the less advanced. As
the latter in due course leave the physical race, those remaining,
being less capable, cause the physical strain to deteriorate, so that
only the lowest class of intelligences of that tribe or race occupy
such bodies. Finally, the physical race dies out through sterility,
the egos connected with it having incarnated in other races."	A to
Q p. 136

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I hope these will give you some idea of the scope of information
available 

More if you need it.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis K
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 5:38 PM
To: 
Subject: CYCLIC RETURN & OUR EVOLUTION

Dallas:

These articles you have been presenting on Karma, Return, and all that
are quite interesting. Thanks.

What do you have in your vast files of quotes on the Karma of groups,
and Nations?

Many years ago I subscribed to a periodical whose editor was saying
that all the random bombings and attacks that the U.S. was carrying on
at the time were bringing Karma of its own on the U.S. in the form of
tornadoes, floods, fires, and all sorts of disasters here in the
States.

We seem to be having tornadoes, floods and fires still, where towns
here in the U.S. are being torn apart to resemble the scenes in the
news where we bombed other countries recently.

Do you have any writings that would address that ongoing situation?

Dennis