Theos-Talk Archives (December 2004 Message tt00340)

Dec 25th 2004

Dear Z:

THEOSOPHY states, as I understand it:

KARMA is both (1) a general law of cause / effect, and it operates
uniformly throughout the universe.

And (2) a personal law that responds to our free-choices of action in the
realms of thought, will, feeling and acts.

Here are some aphorisms that apply


APHORISMS ON KARMA


(1) There is no Karma unless there is a being to make it or feel its
effects.

(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.

(3) Karma is an undeviating and unerring tendency in the Universe to restore
equilibrium, and it operates incessantly.

(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.

(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.

(6) Karma is not subject to time, and therefore he who knows what is the
ultimate division of time in this Universe knows Karma.

(7) For all other men Karma is in its essential nature unknown and
unknowable.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(14) In the life of worlds, races, nations, and individuals, Karma cannot
act unless there is an appropriate instrument provided for its action.

(15) And until such appropriate instrument is found, that Karma related to
it remains unexpended.

(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.

(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.

(18) Every instrument used by any Ego in any life is appropriate to the
Karma operating through it.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

Path, March, 1893
 
-- W Q Judge

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

2

 
ENVIRONMENT 


To the Western mind the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation contain
difficulties which while they seem imaginary to the Eastern student are
nevertheless for the Western man as real as any of the other numerous
obstructions in the path of salvation. 

All difficulties are more or less imaginary, for the whole world and all its
entanglements are said to be an illusion resulting from the notion of a
separate I. 

But while we exist here in matter, and so long as there is a manifested
universe, these illusions are real to that man who has not risen above them
to the knowledge that they are but the masks behind which the reality is
hidden.

For nearly twenty centuries the Western nations have been building up the
notion of a separate I--of meum and tuum-- and it is hard for them to accept
any system which goes against those notions.

As they progress in what is called material civilization with all its
dazzling allurements and aids to luxury, their delusion is further increased
because they appraise the value of their doctrine by the results which seem
to flow from it, until at last they push so far what they call the reign of
law, that it becomes a reign of terror. 

All duty to their fellows is excluded from it in practice, although the
beautiful doctrines of Jesus are preached to the people daily by preachers
who are paid to preach but not to enforce, and who cannot insist upon the
practice which should logically follow the theory because the consequences
would be a loss of position and livelihood.

So when out of such a nation rises a mind that asks for help to find again
the path that was lost, he is unconsciously much affected by the education
not only of himself but also of his nation through all these centuries. He
has inherited tendencies that are hard to be overcome. He battles with
phantasms, real for him but mere dreams for the student who has been brought
up under other influences.

When, therefore, he is told to rise above the body, to conquer it, to subdue
his passions, his vanity, anger and ambition, he asks, "what if borne down
by this environment, which I was involuntarily born into, I shall fail?" 

Then when told that he must fight or die in the struggle, he may reply that
the doctrine of Karma is cold and cruel because it holds him responsible for
the consequences which appear to be the result of that unsought environment.


It then becomes with him a question whether to fight and die, or to swim on
with the current careless as to its conclusion but happy if perhaps it shall
carry him into smooth water whose shores are elysian.

Or perhaps he is a student of occultism whose ambition has been fired by the
prospect of adeptship, of attaining powers over nature, or what not.
Beginning the struggle he presently finds himself beset with difficulties
which, not long after, he is convinced are solely the result of his
environment. 

In his heart he says that Karma has unkindly put him where he must
constantly work for a living for himself and a family: or he has a life long
partner whose attitude is such that he is sure were he away from her he
could progress: until at last he calls upon heaven to interpose and change
the surroundings so opposed to his perfecting himself.

This man has indeed erred worse than the first. He has wrongly supposed that
his environment was a thing to be hated and spurned away. Without distinctly
so saying to himself, he has nursed within the recesses of his being the
idea that he like Buddha could in this one life triumph over all the
implacable forces and powers that bar the way to Nirvana. 

We should remember that the Buddha does not come every day but is the
efflorescence of ages, who when the time is ripe surely appears in one place
and in one body, not to work for his own advancement but for the salvation
of the world.

What then of environment and what of its power over us?

Is environment Karma or is it Reincarnation? The LAW is Karma, reincarnation
is only an incident. It is one of the means which The Law uses to bring us
at last to the true light. The wheel of rebirths is turned over and over
again by us in obedience to this law, so that we may at last come to place
our entire reliance upon Karma. Nor is our environment Karma itself, for
Karma is the subtle power which works in that environment.

There is nothing but the SELF--using the word as Max Müller does to
designate the Supreme Soul and its environment. The Aryans for the latter
use the word Kosams or sheaths. So that there is only this Self and the
various sheaths by which it is clothed, beginning with the most intangible
and coming down to the body, while outside of that and common to all is what
is commonly known as environment, whereas the word should be held to include
all that is not The Self.

How unphilosophical therefore it is to quarrel with our surroundings, and to
desire to escape them? We only escape one kind to immediately fall into
another. 

And even did we come into the society of the wisest devotees we would still
carry the environment of the Self in our own bodies, which will always be
our enemy so long as we do not know what it is in all its smallest details. 

Coming down then to the particular person, it is plain that that part of the
environment which consists in the circumstances of life and personal
surroundings is only an incident, and that the real environment to be
understood and cared about is that in which Karma itself inheres in us.

Thus we see that it is a mistake to say as we often hear it said--"If he
only had a fair chance; if his surroundings were more favorable he would do
better," since he really could not be in any other circumstances at that
time, for if he were it would not be he but some one else. 

It must be necessary for him to pass through those identical trials and
disadvantages to perfect the Self; and it is only because we see but an
infinitesimal part of the long series that any apparent confusion or
difficulty arises. 

So our strife will be, not to escape from anything, but to realize that
these Kosams, or sheaths, are an integral portion of ourselves, which we
must fully understand before we can change the abhorred surroundings. This
is done by acknowledging the unity of spirit, by knowing that everything,
good and bad alike, is the Supreme. We then come into harmony with the
Supreme Soul, with the whole universe, and no environment is detrimental.

The very first step is to rise from considering the mere outside delusive
environment, knowing it to be the result of past lives, the fruition of
Karma done, and say with Uddalaka in speaking to his son:

"All this Universe has the Deity for its life. 
That Deity is the Truth. 
He is the Universal soul. 
He Thou art, O Svetaketu!"

HADJI ERINN
Path, February, 1887
 
======================================


Hope this helps,


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

-----Original Message-----
From: Zakk 
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 10:10 PM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] help needed Transfusions and reincarnation



Thoughts on organ donations and effects :

Traits : It has been said and observed that an individual who has
received a donated organ may gain a new trait. To go beyond only
perceiving traits as an effect from an organ may open a wider 
spectrum of thought and greater insight. A main avenue of 
developing traits is by association. Whether it be from family 
members, friends, school mates, or business interaction with
other individuals. Traits can be effected by heavenly bodies,
such as the full moon or astrological signs. Traits can also be
effected by the intake of food. Certain foods are related to
certain traits. It has been observed that a diet change can effect 
the traits in an individual. Traits can alter due to a menstrual 
cycle, menopause ( males also experience this although it is 
referred by another term), or pregnancy.. Drugs can effect traits. 
An injury or bodily change can effect an individual's traits. How 
one responds or reacts to the enviroment one is experiencing is 
a deciding factor whether a personal trait is altered or retained. 
The changing of traits is a natural occurence.  
To fear a change of traits due to an organ transplant can be 
viewed as the same as to fear a change of traits due to 
associating with a family member or school mates. To not have
a transplant due to that fear can be viewed as not associating
with family or friends due the fear of a possible trait change. 
Or not drive a car due to a possible accident which may result 
in a change of traits. There are many possibilities which one
encounters in life which may change a trait. To not fear and
accept life's events with a positive attitude seems to be a
path that would have optimal results, whether it be an organ
transplant or a drive in the country. 

Karma : What is karma based on? What generates karma? 
There is karma and karma attachment. These are two different
issues. Karma is impersonal. This would mean no predjudices. 
To think clearly and have clarity on what karma entails can 
result in fuller understandings of karma itself. A manner in which
karma is percieved by some is a law of action and reaction or
law of merit and demerit. In the Key To Theosophy it states the 
following :
" Karma neither punishes nor rewards; it is simply the one Universal 
LAW which guides unerringly and, so to say, blindly, all other laws 
productive of certain effects along the grooves of their respective 
causations."
It also states :
"Karma is that unseen and unknown law which adjusts wisely, 
intelligently and equitably each effect to its cause, tracing the 
latter back to its producer. Though itself unknowable, its action 
is perceivable."
In taking into consideration the comments given in the Key To 
Theosophy, it would seem to be an unjustifiable reason to not accept 
a transplant due to any karmic reasons in regards to the previous 
body or individual in which the organ resided. The organ does not 
generate your karma, you do. Nor is karma passed on from one 
individual to another through an organ / blood. Karmic consequences
are not based on physical objects, but by personal choices and
actions thereof.

Impressions : Impression are made upon matter. In regards to the
matter that consists of a human body, it is not only the individual
occupying the body that leaves impressions upon it. Whether it be
the outer skin or the inner organs, it is subjected to the impressions
made by other individuals. This includes the atomic level. Being 
within the aura or energy field of another individual will leave 
impressions on the matter that your body consists of. It is not the
impressions that generate karmic consequences but the cause of
those impressions. The effect of an organ changing owners is
similar to the effect of a shirt changing owners. The effect is 
physical, perhaps mental or emotional, but not karmic. A body is 
a raiment of an individual. This raiment is utilized by other life
forms when an individual passes out of the body when an
incarnation ends. Whether one chooses to have a portion of
the raiment utilized by another life form when still incarnated is
a personal choice.  

Brotherhood : What is the definition of brotherhood? What are
the acts of brotherhood? Is the human race all one? If one was 
to perceive all as one, what would be the thoughts on sharing parts
of the one? To say all is one, and to act as all is one, can be seen
as being different. How does unification occur? How is 
separateness maintained? What path is being chosen and
followed? The answers to some questions can be difficult to
discern and be applied as well. 





 
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