Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00579)

According to Keith Price:
>
> Hello, Liesel. Eldon and Don!
>
> I have just had a bad accident and trying to get back into the threads of
> conversation. Are there any real "accidents"? I think this has been much
> discussed in relation to Karma and Dharma and chaos and entropy and all the
> other "gods" of occultism and science, but when you have a bad accident, I
> don't analyze, but I try to utilize. That is, I try to do everything
> to improve my health and situation without sorting out immediately
> my karmic guilt or my victimhood or the "just" wheels of the
> universe. In short, I hurt and want to stop the pain at all costs.

Dear Keith,

I'm sorry to learn of your collision (does that avoid the
"accident" question"?) and hope you find the resources--
spiritual, physical, psychological-- to get through your
recuperation rapidly.

As for the philosophical question about accident, let me share
with you what Gurdjieff says, which I have seen confirmed in my
own experience. He distinguishes between the Law of Accident
and the Law of Fate, saying our behavior and attitude can
determine which law governs us. Under the Law of Fate, all
circumstances are necessary instruction and are personally
meaningful. Under the Law of Accident, we experience random
events that have no relation to our personal fate. We choose
which law applies to us by the way we think and live. If we
live on the assumption that our experiences have personal
instructional meaning, then we attract to us circumstances that
are individually meaningful. If we live on the assumption that
our experiences are random, that's what we get.

What this means to me personally can be illustrated by the last
car accident I had. I was visiting one friend in the DC area
and had driven with him to see two others. A snowstorm
started, and I kept looking out the window worriedly. But my
hosts said "oh, this is nothing, we never get much snow here"
and I ignored my sense of danger in order to enjoy the
company. In a three hour period something like 6 inches of
snow fell. I made it all the way back to the street on which I
was staying. Just as I reached the last block, kids playing on
sleds got in the road, I swerved to avoid them, skidded
downhill into a parked car. My immediate thought was
"goddamnit, it's my own fault, I knew better than to stick
around, we should have left hours ago." Since then, I've
noticed that every significant "accident" I've had could, after
the fact, be recognized as the result of my failure to heed
warnings from my own consciousness or omens of some kind. If I
had taken those omens or warnings as personally meaningful,
rather than random occurrences, then the "accident" would never
have occurred. I experienced the "accident" precisely because
I assumed that previous experiences were NOT meaningful.
Looking back over your experience with the collision, were
there any promptings you had not to take that route, or go out
that night, etc.?

This is all philosophical b.s. and cold comfort to someone in
your position. But I have found it to be a pretty reliable
explanation of how and why "accidents" have occurred in my own
life. On the other hand, there have been times that I have
heeded vague feelings of danger ahead, and been extremely glad
I did.

Best wishes for an end to your pain and a rapid recovery.

Namaste
Paul