Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00643)

Jan 20 2005

Dear Donna:

Re: Re-phrasing/ Is man a free agent? LUCK FATE


Thanks for reminder – have been ill and weak so there is delay in answering.
Please excuse the delay.


”Luck” to me seems to be something that happens without reason – outof any
law we know.

But THEOSOPHY holds the Universe in its vast variety is crammed full of
interactive laws. So where would there be room for lawless “Luck?” 

If you mean someone receives good or ill without any apparent cause,
THEOSOPHY would say: Karma (universal Law) still operates and the event had
a cause, however remote, and perhaps originating in an earlier incarnation. 

Let me offer this to consider

FATE AND KARMA				
	

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


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.

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


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 demerit. It is the one
universal LAW which guides unerringly, and, so to say, blindly, all other
laws along the grooves of their respective causations.


“Fate” or “Luck” ?

Fate comes from fatum: an "oracle," in Latin. The principle, 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 Theosophy 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 impartiality. It is no respecter of persons. It can neither be
propitiated 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 complete
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 Presence, 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 anything about the details of them.
	

Moral content of the Universe and of Living


Karma, thus, signifies the law of ethical causation ("Whatsoever 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 experience. 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 experiences, 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 meaning 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 towards 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 ourselves, 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.


Best wishes,

Dallas

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

Have a look at this please:

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

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

-----Original Message-----
From: puree
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 3:03 PM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] Re: Re-phrasing/Is man a free agent?

Dallas, 
 
I was not sure you received my answer. So I am resending it.   
The Luck is the out come or yes the fate of the trinity. 
Each part of the trinity has that set amount to influence life for everyone.
 
Your karma attracts you to the property and provides the stage for your
karmic lessons to play out. So your earlier choices show up in your Earth
Luck, your choice of where you live, how you live determines the intensity
of the lessons. If you learn to work in cooperation with nature and to
harness the positive energy, to participate in good feng shui, the lessons
are easier, shorter, mitigated.    
 
It is said that all can be altered: 

Heaven's Luck - by intense, devout prayer

Earth Luck - by improving the environment where you live - the property you
own and have the ability to improve

Man's luck - by education, virtue and philanthropy 
 
So even some one who is said to have bad Heaven's Luck  - a bad destiny
can first recognize, acknowledge the destiny, pray for things to change,
correct their environment and behave with great virtue, kindness and educate
themselves continuously. So they create their own reality through these
things.
 
Hope that answers your question, 
 
Blessings,

Donna from Dallas