Anthony J. Fisichella...
Karma - Part 1
How often have you sat observing the world around you, quietly contemplating the meaning of objects, events, and personal existence? In these moments of reflection, have you felt troubled and discouraged due to your inability to discern rhyme and reason behind the seeming inequities of existence? Have you sought to reconcile the doctrines of religion with the hard, cold facts of a pragmatic, materialistic existence and finally, in the absence of any logical, intelligent explanation for the universal state of affairs, succumbed to the cynical conviction that the Cosmos (and all within it) is mechanistic, arbitrary, and chaotic? And further, have you felt that existence within this universe is without meaning or purpose? Have you squirmed restlessly, disconcerted by the growing number of unanswered questions within your being? Questions such as: “Why is one infant born healthy and another invalid or deformed? By what law shall a person be born to wealth and position and another to poverty and want? Who or what dictates that a Mozart, da Vinci, or Einstein shall possess genius, while mediocrity rules the minds of many and some are mentally deficient? Can there conceivably be a discernible purpose for these discrepancies, or must we trudge along, the ignorant and unwilling servants of chance or, equally unacceptable, the blind, obedient puppets of an arbitrary deity?”
Have you ever posited questions of this nature before your spiritual leaders and found yourself faced with the option of either believing blindly, for “it is only for God to know,” or, unable to accept this position, found yourself issuing a blanket rejection of religious thought? I, for one, am not willing to accept “only God knows” as an answer to the questions posed by my life and the lives of the loved ones around me; nor do I accept the implication that man is not entitled to know the truth. We were told by Jesus, “all things shall be revealed” and further it is written, “ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set ye free.” I have often wondered why the mind is looked upon, in certain religious quarters, with such disrespect. Why is thinking for one’s self and coming to one’s own conclusions looked upon as sacrilegious? Is thinking ungodly? It is alien to me to believe that the greatest instrument with which God endowed man—the human mind, that which separates him from the creatures of the lower Kingdoms of Nature—is evil.
Are we doomed to spend eternity in darkness or shall we earn someday our rightful heritage and walk in the full light of Divine awareness? We were given an injunction two thousand years ago to “Be ye therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). And it was prophesied “…ye shall do the same as I and even greater things than I shall ye do.” Did that great and noble Spirit lie, or may I accept His statement as absolute? If so, then I conclude that each of us, in due course, shall achieve union with the Divine Nature, as did He. Reason dictates that we all shall not achieve such a level of awareness, power, and love in our present incarnation, starting as we do on varying levels of development and confronted with such varying sets of circumstances.
Wherein lies the clue to this labyrinth of existence—the clue that will lead man to a proper realization of his relationship to himself, his environment, his fellow man, and his God? By what means may each of us gain the insights required to establish a criterion of conduct that will lead to self-enlightenment and self-mastery? The answer has been ever available to those who have “eyes to see, and ears to hear.” It has been formulated and expressed in many ways and still it remains a relative secret. Consider for a moment an occurrence that transpired more than three hundred years ago, the depth of what transpired and yet how superficially and materialistically we regard this occurrence.
The year was 1666. A great scientist, mystic, and metaphysician formulated a body of laws that thereafter became axiomatic within the world of science and have contributed much to man’s understanding of the physical universe within which he resides and could have contributed equally to man’s understanding of the spiritual aspects of existence. Unfortunately, this has not been the case, and man continues to wander about in a fog of uncertainty and misunderstanding.
The body of laws in question is known as “the Laws of Inertia”; the man is Sir Isaac Newton. In his formulation of natural law, Newton said, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” and thus gave physical-plane expression to a universal law known as the Law of Karma. What is this “Karma,” of which much has been said of late?
Karma means literally “deed” or “action.” Therefore, the Law of Karma enfolds the law of action and reaction, and that of cause and effect. However, the phrase “action and reaction” should not be viewed within a strictly material context. Man, blinded by his preoccupation with material existence, insists upon limiting Life’s activities to so-called physical-plane realities. Action and reaction, in this sense, require motion; cause and effect are relegated to the world of objective phenomena. It must be realized, though, that Life manifests Itself upon many levels, and that the causal factors of Life are not merely physical, but transcend material existence. Further, cause and effect have, as it were, an interdimensional relationship as yet not realized by the materialist, nor formulated by the scientist, and only guessed at by the philosopher.
Therefore, Newton’s laws of inertia should be looked upon as the microcosmic correspondence to a macrocosmic law which governs all causal relationships, regardless of dimension—the “Law of Karma.”
Karmic law states that for every idea or thought, whether positive or negative, for every emotion felt, whether loving or hateful, for every word uttered, whether good or bad, and for every act committed, whether creative or destructive—nature balances, adjusts, adapts, and compensates, thereby imposing upon the thinker, feeler, speaker, or doer, the fruits of his or her thoughts, emotions, words, or deeds. Put very simply, you get back, in like kind, what you put out. Force expended results in energy received.
Examining Newton’s law further, we gain additional insight into the workings of its Cosmic counterpart, Karma. Newton said that every action produces a reaction that is “equal and opposite” to the force originally expended in the action. The “Law of Cause and Effect,” as karma is sometimes called, dictates that the response to a cause set in motion shall be equal and opposite— equal in intensity and nature, possessing the same force and qualities; opposite in direction, rebounding upon whomsoever generated the cause.
Push against a stationary object and it rebuffs your efforts, pushing back with equal force. Tug at it and it resists your urgings, in effect pulling away, again with equal intensity. Pull on nature—grasping, clinging and exploitively and greedily attempting to milk her for all she is worth—and like a stubborn mule she shall resist and withhold her bounty. Instead, caress her, serve her and her children, flow with her process, and pour forth your energies upon her and she will bless your efforts with the content of her infinite cornucopia.
Nature abhors a vacuum. The more productive and constructive energy you expend in creative work, the more she will respond in like kind. The fear of most is that in giving they will come up empty-handed, and so they withhold their gifts or give with reluctance and reservation, or they give strictly in anticipation of a return. This is not giving and serving; it is an attempt to exploit nature and is in reality grasping and clutching. You’re a fool if you believe you can circumvent the “Law.” Nature will not refill your cup until you first empty it.
There is a great law which can be embodied in the words: ‘to those who give all, all is given.’ This is true of the individual disciple and of a Masters group. Most aspirants to discipleship today do not know or realize this law; they do not give freely and fully either to the work of the Hierarchy or to those in need. Until they do, they limit their effectiveness and shut the door on supply, not only for themselves but for the group with which they are affiliated in service. Herein lies responsibility.
The clue to supply is personality harmlessness and the dedication of all individual resources to the service of the Great Ones, without restraint and spontaneously. When you, as a disciple, try to live harmlessly—in thought and word and deed—and when nothing is held back materially, emotionally or from the angle of time, when physical strength is so given and the gift of all resources is accompanied with happiness, then the disciple will have all that is needed to carry on his work and the same is true of all working groups of servers. Such is the law. Perfection is not as yet possible, it is needless for me to say, but greater effort on your part to give and serve is possible (Disciples in the New Age. Volume I, Alice A. Bailey).
And then Gibran:
“It is well to give when asked,
but it is better to give unasked,
through understanding.
All you have shall someday be given,
therefore, give now that the season
of giving may be yours and not
your inheritors.”
And further:
“Seek first that you yourself
deserve to be a giver,
and an instrument of giving.
For in truth, it is life that
gives unto life,
while you who deem yourself
a giver,
are but a witness.”
In Part II we will examine how this principal manifests in our lives
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