Theos-Talk Archives (June 1997 Message tl00457)

In a message dated 97-06-17 10:39:13 EDT, Alan asked me <gasp>:
>  Two questions:
>
>  1. What *is* your interpretation of the operation of the law of karma?
>  Mine is partly indicated by my use of lower-case here ... :-)

Ooooh, I wrote quite a tome in response to Tom about that. I'm trying to
think about how to respond without repeating myself extensively. But, before
I begin... Am I correct in interpreting your lowercase use as an indication
of it being an impersonal law, all-pervasive law, such as that of gravity?
;-D (I agree with that concept.) Basically, I view it as the law of cause and
effect.

I do look at the operation of karma much as I do as that of the law of
gravity. In fact, it may even be useful to think of it as a field, similar to
a gravitational field. Whatever is within that field will be affected by that
field. This concept eliminates the potential "messiness" of "accounting-type"
theories of karma which imply an Intelligence or the law as the embodiment of
some entity. (It could be the embodiment of such, but that's an unnecessary
speculation at this point, IMHO.)  Like gravity, it acts upon everything
within the extent of the field, so there's no need for "cosmic books" in
which every deed is recorded for future reference.

I think the ideas of accountings or "cosmic books" (that seem to enter many
discussions of karma) stem from the idea that the effects of a cause may not
show up for several incarnations and that they would thus have to be recorded
*somewhere*. ;-D Well, yes, the effect of the action is indeed imprinted
somewhere and, to me, the likely place would be in the Causal Body or
whatever concept one uses for what initiates an incarnation.

However, this starts to get a little messy because it divorces the concepts
of "cause" and "effects" from each other. I don't think they truly are when
viewed from causal realms. Cause and effect are artifacts of temporal
relationships which in themselves are mere artifacts of linear states of
consciousness. So, karma, as cause and effect, is one of those dualities that
exist as dualities only in the lower worlds and is only a duality where the
concept of time is functional. In the causal realms, karma exists as a
unitary force that is intricately bound up somehow (I'm really straining my
mind here ;-D) with the inexorable force of that massive "indrawing" of
"cosmic breath" that we associate with evolution. (Ahhhh geeeesh, my head!!!
Alan, look at what you made me do!!!) At any rate, its manifestation would
necessarily be different when viewed from causal realms, IMHO. Let me leave
that alone because that's the kind of thing that'll obsess me all day and I
won't get any work done today either.

Lynn