Theos-Talk Archives (October 2004 Message tt00421)

Oct 30 2004

Dear C:

This may help:

KARMA - PERSONAL AND NATIONAL --- HPB

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A correspondent once sent 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

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

 
"MEN KARMIC AGENTS" 

THE above is the title of an essay in the T.P.S. series by A F, in which he
treats the question solely in regard to whether we should take punitive or
reformatory measures with those of our fellow-beings who transgress in those
respects in which we so often see culpability. In that essay he has said a
great deal that cannot be Controverted from the general rules prevailing,
but there are other considerations, and also other ways of understanding the
term "Karmic Agent."

For this H.P.B. had a particular and technical meaning under which the
Karmic Agent is at once removed from the ordinary general mass to which the
essay in the Siftings has reference. 

A statement of the law of Karma of course makes not only men karmic agents
but also every other being in the Cosmos, inasmuch as they are all under the
law of action and reaction, and, with the same law, go to make Cosmos what
it is.

Taken as a unit in the general mass of men, each man is a Karmic agent in
the above sense, just as each horse and dog, or the rain and the sun are. So
in our daily actions, even the smallest, whether we are conscious or not of
the effect, we are such agents. 

A single word of ours may have an influence for a lifetime upon another. It
may cause once more the fire of passion to blaze up, or bring about a great
change for good. 

We may be the means of another's being late for an appointment and thus save
him from calamity or the reverse, and so on infinitely. But all this is very
different from the technical sense I have referred to, and which might be
taken to be the sense of the title of the article thus specially removed
from the general class.

The special sense is in this: a "Karmic Agent" is one who concentrates more
rapidly than is usual the lines of influence that bring about events
sometimes in a strange and subtle way. 

Of these there are two classes; the first, those among the mass who, from
the lives they have led in the past, arrive in this one gifted--or cursed
with the power unknown to themselves. The second, those who by training have
the power, or rather have become concentrators of the forces, and know it to
be the case. 

Of these are the Adepts, both great and small. An instance of this may be
found in the life of Zanoni as related by Bulwer Lytton. It was observed
that those who met Zanoni soon showed in their affairs very great changes,
and although Lytton's son has said, out of his imagination, I think, that
his father never intended what theosophists say he did by the book, there is
no doubt that Bulwer meant to teach and illustrate the law.

In Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms it is also spoken of in the 36th Aphorism,
second book, thus (Amer. Ed.): 


"When veracity is complete the Yogee becomes the focus for the Karma
resulting from all works, good and bad"; and in the Bombay edition, "when
veracity is complete he is the receptacle of the fruit of works."


It is a well-known tradition in India, called by the civilized West a
superstition, that if one should meet and talk with an Adept his Karma good
and bad would come to a head more quickly than usual, and thus that the
Adept could confer a boon, letting the evil pass and increasing the good. 

I have conversed with those who asserted they had by chance met Yogis in the
forest with whom they talked, telling them that some dear friend was sick
unto death, and then on returning home found that the sickness had all gone
at the very time of the conversation. 

And others met such men, who told them that the meeting would bring on the
opposite by reason of quick concentration, but that even that would be a
benefit, as it would, as it were, eat up much unpleasant Karma once for all.
Of this class of traditions is the story of the centurion's daughter and
Jesus of Nazareth.

And H.P.B. held that there are many people in the world, engaged in its
affairs, who are, without knowing it, Karmic agents in this special sense,
and continually bring to others good and bad sudden effects which otherwise
would have come slowly to pass, spread over many more days or years, and
showing in a number of small events instead of in one.

If this theory be true, we have here also the explanation of the
superstition of the evil eye, which is only a corrupt form of the knowledge
that there are such Karmic agents among us who by looking at others draw
together very quickly effects that without the presence of the Karmic agent
might never have been noticed because of their taking more time to
transpire.

But if we follow too strictly the theory that men are Karmic agents for the
punishment or reformation of others, many mistakes will be made and much bad
feeling engendered in others, making it inevitable that we who cause these
feelings must receive some day, in this life or another, the exact reaction.
And on the other hand, we should not shrink from the duty to relieve pain
and sorrow if we can, for it is both cowardice and conceit to say that we
will not help this or that man because it is his Karma to suffer. In the
face of suffering it is our good Karma to relieve it if in our power. 

We are ignorant at best, and cannot tell what will be the next result of
what we are about to do or to suggest; hence it is wiser not to assume too
often and on too small occasions to be the reformers or punishers as agents
for Karma of those who seem to offend. 
D. K.
Path, March, 1892 Theosophical Siftings, vol. 4, Nos. 14-15. 

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

UNIVERSAL APPLICATIONS OF DOCTRINE


DURING the last few years in which so much writing has been done in the
theosophical field of effort, a failure to make broad or universal
applications of the doctrines brought forward can be noticed. 

With the exception of H. P. Blavatsky, our writers have confined themselves
to narrow views, chiefly as to the state of man after death or how Karma
affects him in life. As to the latter law, the greatest consideration has
been devoted to deciding how it modifies our pleasure or our pain, and then
as to whether in Devachan there will be compensation for failures of Karma;
while others write upon reincarnation as if only mankind were subject to
that law. And the same limited treatment is adopted in treating of or
practicing many other theories and doctrines of the Wisdom Religion. After
fourteen years of activity it is now time that the members of our society
should make universal the application of each and every admitted doctrine or
precept, and not confine them to their own selfish selves.

In order to make my meaning clear I purpose in this paper to attempt an
outline of how such universal applications of some of our doctrines should
be made.
Before taking up any of these I would draw the attention of those who
believe in the Upanishads to the constant insistence throughout those sacred
books upon the identity of man with Brahma, or God, or nature, and to the
universal application of all doctrines or laws.

In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad(1) it is said:

"Q. --	Tell me the Brahman which is visible, not invisible, the atman who
is within all?

A, --	This, thy Self who is within all. . . . He who breathes in the
up-breathing, he is thy Self and within all. He who breathes in the
down-breathing, he is thy Self and within all. He who breathes in the
on-breathing, he is thy Self and within all. This is thy Self who is within
all."

The 6th Brahmana is devoted to showing that all the worlds are woven in and
within each other; and in the 7th the teacher declares that "the puller" or
mover in all things whatsoever is the same Self which is in each man.

The questioners then proceed and draw forth the statement that "what is
above the heavens, beneath the earth, embracing heaven and earth, past,
present, and future, that is woven, like warp and woof, in the ether," and
that the ether is "woven like warp and woof in the Imperishable." 

If this be so, then any law that affects man must govern every portion of
the universe in which he lives. 

And we find these sturdy men of old applying their doctrines in every
direction. They use the laws of analogy and correspondences to solve deep
questions. 

Why need we be behind them? If the entire great Self dwells in man, the body
in all its parts must symbolize the greater world about. So we discover that
space having sound as its distinguishing characteristic is figured in the
human frame by the ear, as fire is by the eye, and, again, the eye showing
forth the soul, for the soul alone conquers death, and that which in the
Upanishads conquers death is fire.

It is possible in this manner to proceed steadily toward the acquirement of
a knowledge of the laws of nature, not only those that are recondite, but
also the more easily perceived. If we grant that the human body and organs
are a figure, in little, of the universe, then let us ask the question, "By
what is the astral light symbolized?" 

By the eye, and specially by the retina and its mode of action. On the
astral light are received the pictures of all events and things, and on the
retina are received the images of objects passing before the man. We find
that these images on the retina remain for a specific period, capable of
measurement, going through certain changes before fading completely away.
Let us extend the result of this observation to the astral light, and we
assume that it also goes through similar changes in respect to the pictures.


>From this it follows that the mass or totality of pictures made during any
cycle must, in this great retina, have a period at the end of which they
will have faded away. Such we find is the law as stated by those who know
the Secret Doctrine. In order to arrive at the figures with which to
represent this period, we have to calculate the proportion thus: as the time
of fading from the human retina is to the healthy mans actual due of life,
so is the time of fading from the astral light. The missing term may be
discovered by working upon the doctrine of the four yugas or ages and the
length of one life of Brahma. 

Now these theosophical doctrines which we have been at such pains to
elaborate during all the years of our history are either capable of
universal application or they are not. If they are not, then they are hardly
worth the trouble we have bestowed upon them; and it would then have been
much better for us had we devoted ourselves to some special departments of
science. 
But the great allurement that theosophy holds for those who follow it is
that its doctrines are universal, solving all questions and applying to
every department of nature so far as we know it. 

And advanced students declare that the same universal application prevails
in regions far beyond the grasp of present science or of the average mans
mind. So that, if a supposed law or application is formulated to us, either
by ourselves or by some other person, we are at once able to prove it; for
unless it can be applied in every direction--by correspondence, or is found
to be one of the phases of some previously-admitted doctrine, we know that
it is false doctrine or inaccurately stated. Thus all our doctrines can be
proved and checked at every step. It is not necessary for us to have
constant communications with the Adepts in order to make sure of our ground;
all that we have to do is to see if any position we assume agrees with
well-known principles already formulated and understood. 

Bearing this in mind, we can confidently proceed to examine the great ideas
in which so many of us believe, with a view of seeing how they may be
applied in every direction. For if, instead of selfishly considering these
laws in their effect upon our miserable selves, we ask how they apply
everywhere, a means is furnished for the broadening of our horizon and the
elimination of selfishness. And when also we apply the doctrines to all our
acts and to all parts of the human being, we may begin to wake ourselves up
to the real task set before us. 

Let us look at Karma. It must be applied not only to the man but also to the
Cosmos, to the globe upon which he lives. You know that, for the want of an
English word, the period of one great day of evolution is called a
Manwantara, or the reign of one Manu. These eternally succeed each other. 

In other words, each one of us is a unit, or a cell, if you please. in the
great body or being of Manu, and just as we see ourselves making Karma and
reincarnating for the purpose of carrying off Karma, so the great being Manu
dies at the end of a Manwantara, and after the period of rest reincarnates
once more. the sum total of all that we have made him or it. And when I say
"we," I mean all the beings on whatever plane or planet who are included in
that Manwantara. Therefore this Manwantara is just exactly what the last
Manwantara made it, and so the next Manwantara after this millions of years
off-- will be the sum or result of this one, plus all that have preceded it.

How much have you thought upon the effect of Karma upon the animals, the
plants, the minerals, the elemental beings? Have you been so selfish as to
suppose that they are not affected by you? Is it true that man himself has
no responsibility upon him for the vast numbers of ferocious and noxious
animals, for the deadly serpents and scorpions, the devastating lions and
tigers, that make a howling wilderness of some corners of the earth and
terrorize the people of India and elsewhere? It cannot be true. 

But as the Apostle of the Christians said, it is true that the whole of
creation waits upon man and groans that he keeps back the enlightenment of
all. What happens when, with intention, you crush out the life of a common
croton bug? Well, it is destroyed and you forget it. But you brought it to
an untimely end, short though its life would have been. Imagine this being
done at hundreds of thousands of places in the State. Each of these little
creatures had life and energy; each some degree of intelligence. The sum
total of the effects of all these deaths of small things must be
appreciable. If not, then our doctrines are wrong and there is no wrong in
putting out the life of a human being.

Let us go a little higher, to the bird kingdom and that of four-footed
beasts. Every day in the shooting season in England vast quantities of birds
are killed for sport, and in other places such intelligent and inoffensive
animals as deer. These have a higher intelligence than insects, a wider
scope of feeling. Is there no effect under Karma for all these deaths? And
what is the difference between wantonly killing a deer and murdering an
idiot? Very little to my mind. Why is it, then, that even delicate ladies
will enjoy the recital of a bird or deer hunt? It is their Karma that they
are the descendants of long generations of Europeans who some centuries ago,
with the aid of the church, decided that animals had no souls and therefore
could be wantonly slaughtered. The same Karma permits the grandson of the
Queen of England who calls herself the defender of the faith--of Jesus--to
have great preparations made for his forth-coming visit to India to the end
that he shall enjoy several weeks of tiger-hunting, pig-sticking, and the
destruction of any and every bird that may fly in his way.
 
We therefore find ourselves ground down by the Karma of our national stem,
so that we are really almost unable to tell what thoughts are the
counterfeit presentments of the thoughts of our forefathers, and what
self-born in our own minds. 

Let us now look at Reincarnation, Devachan, and Karma.

It has been the custom of theosophists to think upon these subjects in
respect only to the whole man--that is to say, respecting the ego. 

But what of its hourly and daily application? If we believe in the doctrine
of the One Life, then every cell in these material bodies must be governed
by the same laws. Each cell must be a life and have its karma, devachan, and
reincarnation. Everyone of these cells upon incarnating among the others in
our frame must be affected by the character of those it meets; and we make
that character. Every thought upon reaching its period dies. It is soon
reborn, and coming back from its devachan it finds either bad or good
companions provided for it. Therefore every hour of life is fraught with
danger or with help. 

How can it be possible that a few hours a week devoted to theosophic thought
and action can counteract-- even in the gross material cells the effect of
nearly a whole week spent in indifference, frivolity, or selfishness? This
mass of poor or bad thought will form a resistless tide that shall sweep
away all your good resolves at the first opportunity.

This will explain why devoted students often fail. They have waited for a
particular hour or day to try their strength, and when the hour came they
had none. If it was anger they had resolved to conquer, instead of trying to
conquer it at an offered opportunity they ran away from the chance so as to
escape the trial; or they did not meet the hourly small trials that would,
if successfully passed, have given them a great reserve of strength, so that
no time of greater trial would have been able to overcome them.

Now as to the theory of the evolution of the macrocosm in its application to
the microcosm, man.

The hermetic philosophy held that man is a copy of the greater universe;
that he is a little universe in himself, governed by the same laws as the
great one, and in the small proportions of a human being showing all those
greater laws in operation, only reduced in time or sweep. 

This is the rule to which H. P. Blavatsky adheres, and which is found
running through all the ancient mysteries and initiations. It is said that
our universe is a collection of atoms or molecules--called also "lives";
living together and through each the spirit struggles to reach
consciousness, and that this struggle is governed by a law compelling it to
go on in or between periods. In any period of such struggle some of these
atoms or collections of molecules are left over, as it were, to renew the
battle in the next period, and hence the state of the universe at any time
of manifestation or the state of each newly-manifested universe--must be the
result of what was done in the preceding period.

Coming down to the man, we find that he is a collection of molecules or
lives or cells, each striving with the other, and all affected for either
good or bad results by the spiritual aspirations or want of them in the man
who is the guide or god, so to say, of his little universe. When he is born,
the molecules or cells or lives that are to compose his physical and astral
forms are from that moment under his reign, and during the period of his
smaller life they pass through a small manvantara just as the lives in the
universe do, and when he dies he leaves them all impressed with the force
and color of his thoughts and aspirations, ready to be used in composing the
houses of other egos.

Now here is a great responsibility revealed to us of a double character.
The first is for effects produced on and left in what we call matter in the
molecules, when they come to be used by other egos, for they must act upon
the latter for benefit or the reverse.

The second is for the effect on the molecules themselves in this, that there
are lives or entities in all--or rather they are all lives--who are either
aided or retarded in their evolution by reason of the proper or improper use
man made of this matter that was placed in his charge.
 
Without stopping to argue about what matter is, it will be sufficient to
state that it is held to be co-eternal with what is called "spirit." That
is, as it is put in the Bhagavad-Gita: "He who is spirit is also matter."
Or, in other words, spirit is the opposite pole to matter of the Absolute.
But of course this matter we speak of is not what we see about us, for the
latter is only in fact phenomena of matter: even science holds that we do
not really see matter. 

Now during a manvantara or period of manifestation, the egos incarnating
must use over and over again in any world upon which they are incarnating
the matter that belongs to it. 

So, therefore, we are now using in our incarnations matter that has been
used by ourselves and other egos over and over again, and are affected by
the various tendencies impressed in it. And, similarly, we are leaving
behind us for future races that which will help or embarrass them in their
future lives. 

This is a highly important matter, whether reincarnation be a true doctrine
or not. For if each new nation is only a mass of new egos or souls, it must
be much affected by the matter-environment left behind by nations and races
that have disappeared forever.

But for us who believe in reincarnation it has additional force, showing us
one strong reason why universal brotherhood should be believed in and
practised.

The other branch of the responsibility is just as serious. The doctrine that
removes death from the universe and declares that all is composed of
innumerable lives, constantly changing places with each other, contains in
it of necessity the theory that man himself is full of these lives and that
all are traveling up the long road of evolution.

The secret doctrine holds that we are full of kingdoms of entities who
depend upon us, so to say, for salvation. 

How enormous, then, is this responsibility, that we not only are to be
judged for what we do with ourselves as a whole, but also for what we do for
those unseen beings who are dependent upon us for light.

W.Q.J.	Path, October, 1889

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These ideas are I think most useful for all of us

Best wishes,

Dallas
 
==============================

-----Original Message-----
From: cassilva
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 8:57 PM
To: 
Subject: : RE: re mind/brain, karma

Dear Teos

I have the opinion that the madness will continue until we evolve morally
as a species, we will continue killing the body until we recognise that
the soul is immortal. Can we feel compassion towards another with
inaction? Perhaps it is more compassionate to do nothing but watch and
empathise, send love, try to understand that the killer and the victim
maybe at different stages of evolution? What do the Masters do when they
look down on us, their younger brothers/sisters, they send us their
compassion and their understanding of "forgive them for they know not what
they do?"

In regard to Global Karma, what I have read (if I have understood it
correctly) is that every thought generated by a nation, either empowers or
disempowers the group karma. And if the group karma becomes so bad that
it effects the evolution of mankind as a whole, then karmic forces are
brought into play, through nature, in the form of natural disasters.