Theos-Talk Archives (November 1995 Message tl00365)

An interesting discussion has reminded me of some ideas few would discuss today.

DISCUSSION between Richard and Eldon:

RI
Practically speaking perhaps karma need only be regarded as uncorrected
tendencies for specific types of semi-Self indulgence. Genetic twins born at
the nearly the same astrological moment could thus be regarded as starting
out with roughly the same "karma." The only difference--and it is a big
one--between the twins would be in their degrees of Self-awareness. This
would change the level animating physical desire-feeling desire-mental
mental Spirit-mental and Spirt at which Self Undifferentiated
Consciousness will become completely transformed into semi-Self delusion
differentiated consciousness. One of the twins might regularly lose all
Self-awareness when he or she started to eat a bowl of ice cream; the other
not until he or she started to share an idea. In the former case the
temporary egoic delusion is of the nature "I *really am* the taste of
chocolate chip"; in the latter "I *really am* what I think I know about the
subject of reincarnation."

Naturally complete semi-Self indulgence at any level usually brings negative
consequences and of course Self-awareness is never so perfect as when we
are suffering. Increased diffidence because of learned lessons may be the
mark of the "older soul"; kamikaze-like boldness in semi-Self adventure the
"younger." Shit like "bad" karma may be found everywhere and in many
disguises; however perhaps it is not really necessary to think that it
"belongs" to you--no matter who killed whom 20000 years ago. Undoubtedly
the important thing is to become the more Self-aware twin who egoically steps
in less shit and thus *becomes* less of it.

clip

The general theme I believe is that reincarnation is not determined by
astrology but by past spiritual growth or lack of it - the old soul young
soul idea.

I would like to suggest that karma can be evidenced by genetics as well as
astrology. We are on very dangerous terrritory here. Many when they hear
genetics think Nazi and turn off their brains and ears. Nothing seems to be
more dangerous than the new genetic research.

I of course am not a geneticist. But research such as sociobiology reveals
"scientifically" for what that's worth knowing it all changes tomorrow that
much of our behavior including altruism is the result of selfish genes. The
individual is expendable to the group. Bees and ants will sacrifice their lives
to the genetically encoded program of "Long live the QUEEN!"

I would like to make to put forward the hypothesis that much of what we call
skandhas are really genetic messages that we must obey. They are not our
individual encoded karma exactily. They are the behaviors of our ancestors for
good or bad and we relive their lives and loves and hates just as we resemble
them in our physical bodies.

We do not reincarnate as a collected set of seven bodies but the seven bodies
physical emotional mental etc. get reshuffled in the great gene pool
unmanifest quantum possibility karmic wheel of sangsara CHAOS etc and do
not live one continuous life through several incarnations but experience the
karma of all the generations and individuals before us but our mother and
father etc. most closely through the genetic selection program. Or we may
almost the relive the life of a great-aunt or great- great-great grandfather
yet with our own variations on a theme as these traits are translated shuffled
and the genotype becomes a unique phenotype in a different time and environment.
Some traits are recessive or dominant and we likewise have some elements of
humanity borught forward or stopped down according to our genetic makeup.
Intelligence time and time again has been show through twin studies and other
methods to be primarily genetic and a distant second-environmental. Oh what and
ugly can of worms for some!
The big lie that more money will make a genius out of a average person to be
kind has lead us down some compassionate but spendthrift paths.

We quiff-pop into the manifest world as a set of genes encoded with the ability
of rational thought and the ability to aquire language and culture. We have
lived before but not as the King of Babylon or the Queen of Egypt as is usual
related in accoutns it makes for much better stories but as the collective
experience of humanity from lowest criminal to highest saint - from untouchable
to Brahmin.

When we endevor to remember past lives we are searching in the collective
unconcious for remenants of archetypal human patterns and not specific real past
lives with verifiable details etc.

The bad news is that many may feel this is not an acceptable or "spiritual"
hypothesis in that it reduces the importance of the individual as center of the
universe - ie the integrity of the evolving monad.

The good news is that it may shed some light on the true unity and
interconnectedness of the human family and cannot be used for selfish or racist
purposes because at depth we are trully all one right now as we speak. My
father and mother are primordial and the same as yours and everyones. The Adam
and Eve story has more than allegorical significance.

Of course gentics or astrology for that matter can't explain everything. But
as Darwinism though flawed replaced literal Christianity in our cultural
paradigm so must we make way for advances in genetics even if they are not SC
spirititually correct.

Of course one can refute this as not being a part of theosophy at all. But J.
Ranjadasa and others have introduced genetics of the time into theosophy.
Many American we asked if they believed in creationism or the theory of
evolution responded with what was reported as "a strange blend of creationism
and evolution."
Thus we see the popular mind making the same attempts as those in the late
1800's to maintain a spiritually active universe within scientific rationalism.

Thus genetics and sociobiology are not new "scriptures" nor are they of the
"devil". They are a tool of hard cold science that like quatumn physics can be
used or abused in the future as rationalizations for wise policies or the
horrors of Nazi Germany. Genetics and biology and depth psychology can be seen
as living evidence of karma and evolution or they can be ignored at our own
peril.

Namaste

Keith Price