Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00451)

Aug 23 2004



Dear Reed:



The following might be of help or interest in this regard:







FATE AND KARMA





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"All that we are is the result of what we have thought, founded on our
thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain pursues him,
as the wheel of the wagon follows the hoof of the ox that draws it. If a
man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness pursues him like his
shadow that never leaves him." -- Buddha: DHAMMAPADA, p. 1.



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To consider these two: fate, and karma, which some hold to be antagonists
and others believe are co-workers in Nature we should perhaps start with
their accepted meanings.



Karma is a Sanskrit word, and physically it means "action." Metaphysically
it is called the "Law of Retribution," or, "the Law of Cause and Effect,"
or, "Ethical Causation." It has been likened to Nemesis only in the sense
of "bad" karma. It is a power that controls all things, the resultant of
moral action, or the moral effect of an act committed for the attainment of
something which gratifies a personal desire. Karma neither punishes nor
rewards. There is the karma of merit and of demer-it. It is the one
universal LAW which guides unerringly, and, so to say, blindly, all other
laws along the grooves of their re-spective causations.





"Fate"



Fate comes from fatum: an "oracle," in Latin. The princi-ple, determining
cause or will, by which things in general are supposed to come to be as they
are or events happen as they do. The lot of man as decreed. Among the
Greeks there were three Fates, Goddesses: Clotho - who spins the thread of
life; Lachesis - who determines its length, and Atropos - who cuts it off;
chance; fortune. 





Karma - A Universal Law of Cause / Effect



With these definitions we can see why it is said in Theo-sophy that Karma is
the universal law of retributive justice, and its ultimate law. Unerringly,
it adjusts effects to causes on the physical, mental and spiritual planes of
being. Though itself unknowable, its action is perceivable. We do not know
the ultimate Cause. Karma is one with that Unknowable, of which it is an
agent. It cannot be considered an entity. 



Its effects are absolute and unerring equity, wisdom and intelligence -- an
unfailing redresser of human injustice, and of all the failures of nature;
a stern adjuster of wrongs; a retributive law which rewards and punishes
with equal impartiali-ty. It is no respecter of persons. It can neither be
propitiat-ed nor turned aside by prayer.



A stone falls into the water and creates disturbing waves, oscillating until
at last they are brought to rest. Similarly all action, on every plane,
produces disturbance in the balanced harmony of the Universe. Since each
disturbance starts from some particular point, it is clear that equilibrium
and harmony can only be restored by the reconverging to that same point of
all the forces which were put into motion from it. The consequences of a
man's deeds, thoughts, etc., must all react upon himself with the same force
with which they were set in motion.





Why is there a Universe?



What, then, is the universe for? And for what final purpose is man the
immortal thinker here in evolution ? It is all for the experience and
emancipation of the soul (mind), for the purpose of raising the entire mass
of manifested matter up to the stature, nature and dignity of conscious
godhood. 



The great aim is to reach self-consciousness [the man-stage]. Nothing is to
be left out. The aim for present man is his initiation into com-plete
knowledge. This is evolution carried to its highest power, and gives to
every part of nature the possibility of being one day the same. Every atom
is alive and has the germ of self-consciousness.





Fatalism



The ancients rejected fatalism, for fatalism implies a blind course of some
still blinder power. They believed in destiny, which from birth to death
every man is weaving thread by thread around himself. And this destiny is
guided either by that Pres-ence, termed by some the "guardian angel," or our
more intimate astral inner man, who is but too often the evil genius of the
man of flesh.



"Good" and "harmony," and "evil" and "disharmony," are synonymous. All pain
and all suffering are the results of want of harmony; and that the one
terrible and only cause of the disturbance of harmony is selfishness in some
form or another. Hence karma gives back to every man the actual
consequences of his actions. He will be made to atone for all sufferings
which he has caused, just as he will reap in joy and gladness the fruits of
all the happiness and harmony he has helped to produce. 





Choices have Consequences



We have made ourselves what we are by former actions, and are building our
future eternity by present actions. There is no salvation or condemnation
except what we ourselves bring about, karma offers no shelter for culpable
actions and necessitates a sterling manliness. It is karma, or our old
acts, that draws us back into earthly life. 



Our present lives and circumstances are the direct result of our own deeds
and thoughts in lives that are past. But we, who are not seers or
initiates, cannot know any-thing about the details of them.





Moral content of the Universe and of Living



Karma, thus, signifies the law of ethical causation ("What-soever a man
soweth, that shall be also reap"), and, the balance or excess of merit or
demerit in any individual determines also the main experiences of joy and
sorrow in each incarnation. "Luck" is in reality "desert;" desert acquired
in past experi-ence. It is the force that will make men pursue in fact the
ethics they have in theory.





"Spiritual Man" is the "Real Man"



The "Higher Triad" (or man's Spirit-Soul) are:-- Manas (soul, or mind),
Buddhi (the accumulated wisdom of past experi-ences, discrimination,
intuition, the "Voice of Conscience"), and, Atma (Spirit, the eternal,
immovable "Witness," or "Perceiver") in every human being, they are the real
man. They are the immortal part of us. This should be firmly grasped by
the mind, for upon its clear understanding depends the comprehension of the
entire doctrine. 



"I am the Ego which is seated in the heart of all beings." - Krishna (
GITA X, p. 73 )



This was symbolized in the old Jewish teaching about the Heavenly Man, who
stands with his head (Spirit-Soul) in 'heaven,' and his feet (body) in
'hell.' This is the real mean-ing of "the Word made flesh." And out of
this comes the idea of 'crucifixion.' Manas (the thinker-soul) is thus
crucified (in all humanity), for the purpose of "raising the thief to
paradise" (the body made up of gross matter, which is to be purified). 



Nature intends us to use the matter which comes into our body for the
purpose, among others, of benefiting it by the impress it gets from
association with the human ego (Soul-Mind).





Free Will



Will is not directly free elsewhere in nature; the law of karma adjusts the
encroachments of matter on the flow of the will, which is the "power of
Spirit." Only in the human kingdom, with the birth of intelligence, will
becomes free; and, thus, at last, karma finds the aid of an agent
independent of itself, instead of a passive instrument for its compensating
operations. Thus, even the "Law of Laws" offers itself to become the
servant of man.



Karma, as strict impartial justice, can, therefore, have neither wrath not
mercy, only absolute equity, which leaves every cause, great or small, to
work out its inevitable effects. "With what measure you mete it shall be
measured to you again," (Math. vii, 2) points to no hope of future mercy
or salvation-by-proxy, no vicarious atonement, nor is there the possibility
of the remission of the smallest sin by any "God." 



Recognizing, in our philosophy, the justice of this statement, we strongly
recommend mercy, charity, and forgiveness of mutual offenses, in view of the
implacability of karmic law. For man to take the law into his own hands is
a sacrilegious presumption: "use restrictive, not punitive measures." A
man who revenges himself and refuses to forgive every injury, thereby
rendering good for evil, is a criminal, and only hurts himself by seeking to
inflict additional punishment on his enemy.





National Fate and Free Will



The aggregate of individual karma becomes that of the nation to which those
individuals belong. The sum total of national karma is that of the World.
It is upon this broad line that interdependence lies, that the law of karma
finds its legitimate and equable issue. The interdependence of humanity is
the cause of what is called "distributive karma."



We know that the guiding mind and real character of each are not the result
of a body and brain, but are peculiar to the Ego (soul-mind) in its
essential life as an immortal being.





Why Suffering?



As suffering comes to nearly all, it is objected to that reincarnation is
unjust, because we suffer for the wrong done by some other person in another
life, which, is based on the false notion that the person in the other life
was someone else ! When we come again, we do not take up the body of
someone else, nor another's deeds, but are like an actor who plays many
parts--for the great life of the soul is a drama--all through it we are the
self-same person. In no other manner could justice be preserved. 





Good and Evil



The whole mass of detail of life is preserved in the inner nature to be one
day fully brought back to the conscious memory in some other life when we
are perfected. But all now are subject to the limitations imposed upon the
Ego (Soul) by the new brain in each life. By living according to the
dictates of the Soul, the brain may at last be made porous to the Soul's
recollections. If the contrary sort of life is led, then more and more will
clouds obscure that reminiscence. We should be very miserable if the deeds
and scenes of our former lives were not hidden from our view until, by
discipline, we become able to bear a knowledge of them.





Heredity and Character



While heredity has something to do with the differences in character as to
force or morale, swaying the soul and mind a little, and, furnishing the
appropriate place of receiving reward and punishment, it is not the cause
for the essential nature shown by everyone. One short human life gives no
ground for the production of its inner nature. 



It is needful that each Soul have all possible experience and one life
cannot give this even under the best conditions. So the Soul has to be
reborn until it has ceased to set in motion the causes of rebirth, after
having developed character up to its highest possible limit. When every
experience has been passed through, and not until all of truth that can be
known has been acquired will this process come to an end, man having
acquired 'perfection,' (inasmuch as this world provides).





Reincarnation a Cyclic Fact



We come back to earth because on it, and with the beings upon it, our deeds
were performed. Because it is the only proper place where punishment and
reward cane be justly meted out. It is the only natural spot in which to
continue the struggle to-wards perfection, the development of the faculties
we have, and the destruction of the wickedness in us. Justice to ourselves
and to all other beings demands it, for we cannot live for our-selves, and
it would be unjust to permit some of us to escape.



Belief in karma is the highest reason for reconcilement to one's lot in this
life, and the very strongest incentive towards effort to better the
succeeding rebirth. Both of these would be destroyed it we supposed that
our lot was the result of anything but strict law, or that destiny was in
any other hands than our own. 



We do not administer the law, it administers itself. In the light of karma
and reincarnation, evolution becomes the logic of what must be: the
synthesis of occult science as wisdom and as an art.





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Note: These ideas for the article have been drawn from the writings of H.
P. Blavatsky and W. Q. Judge. 



Some of the sources include:



The Theosophical Glossary, p. 173; The Key to Theosophy, pp. 198 201 205
206 206-7 209 215 216-7; Isis Unveiled, II 593; The Ocean of Theosophy,
pp. 60-1 65 68 70 73 76 80-82 84; An Epitome of Theosophy, pp. 23-4; The
Synthesis of Occult Science; Studies in "The Secret Doctrine" p. 129.





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best wishes,





Dallas



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-----Original Message-----
From: Reed 
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 10:10 AM
To: 
Subject: Re: freedom







Walter,

Welcome!

Please feel free to speak up and ask any question or make a comment. In
particular we welcome questions from people new to Theosophy.

It is interesting that you respond to this quote from HPB below. Obviously
it contains much that is not "new comer" material. But you may have liked
the slant. I will add some more info. In HPB's magnum opus, the Secret
Doctrine (SD), she does not mention "freedom" too often. However her other
writing abounds with references to freedom. It appears to be an idea that
is dear to her soul. And we do see here that she gives it an almost cosmic
significance.

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Hi, 

I just take this opportunity to introduce myself as being new to the list.
My name is Walter Davis and I am also new to Theosophy. I suspect that I
will mostly be listening for a while. So far it has been quite fascinating.


thanks, 
Walter 


CUT



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