Theos-Talk Archives (May 1995 Message tl00027)

Jerry Schueler wrote:

> > Ann: <I had a yoga teacher who once said, "Never fulfill
> > another person's bad karma.">
>
> Very good advice.  If someone wants to die in a car
> accident, for example, thats fine with me, but I don't
> want to be the one who accidently kills them.

Likewise, and I think it also means avoid letting another person
express and therefore reinforce negative aspects of their nature
with you, in ways that are destructive to one or both or you.
For example allowing yourself to be drawn into conflict with an
argumentative kind of person.  The underpinning idea is that
karma can be expressed in inner makeup as well as external
circumstances.

I'm not saying to prevent others from ever expressing anger
towards you, for instance; just that there are modes of
interaction that it's better not to put energy into, and negative
beliefs that you can reinforce in others by going along with
them.

> > JRC:< the "Law" of Karma ...seems straightforward when
> > looked at in broad, general terms, but seems
> > absolutely unknowable when minutely analyzed ...>
>
> I have been saying this for many years.  You can't
> begin to know how glad I am to hear this from a
> fellow theosophist.

Well, I agree to a considerable extent with JRC here and am also
glad to hear it from a theosophist.

The intellectual part of the mind only gets so far when it tries
to delve into the minute recesses of the universal fractal of
which karma is an aspect.  When I ask myself how much of
theosophy I know for myself, ie as first-hand experience that can
be put up as intellectually justifiable, it isn't a lot, and,
with obvious variations that must apply to all of us.
Intellectual integrity makes you feel pretty small at first, but
can lead on to a sense of wonder and amazement.  Before you know
it, you're meditating!

I keep getting a sense of how amazingly the different principles
of nature (Mahatma Letter terminology) are interwoven, so that
intention can so powerfully affect karmic outcomes, physical,
emotional and mental, and that meaning can be so deeply imbedded
in events.  This goes down to the quantum level where
consciousness and events are inextricably connected.

I feel that the theosophies of the world give us frameworks to
try and fit the coloured panels of our own experience and
intuitions into.  Sometimes the fit is not very good, and then we
have to reassess our understanding of the framework or our
understanding of that area of life.

In another metaphor, theosophies are maps of territory around and
ahead of us.  Like all maps, they are a model, and only a very
partial one at that.

To me, theosophy says to us "It's something like this, but these
words can only tell you so much.  Go and see for yourself."

>         The concept of karmaless action begs for
> techniques and initiations, which are anathema to
> the TS.

You're so right! I often see people in our study groups asking
for simple, tried and accessible techniques in meditation and
living, beyond what's in the few relevant TS books.

Murray