Theos-Talk Archives (September 1997 Message tl00268)

Hi Douwe:  Hope you had a good time in Greece.  You wrote:
> Abcense of karma in this life is impossible, you first will have to find
> the Other Life trough the Spark of Divine heritage before you will be able to turn yourself away from this
> world and its karmic bond.
My discoveries so far:
In the time before (chronologically) the concepts and precepts of
Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism and Christianity (et al) became popular as a
vehicle for "finding the way to understanding everything", the pagans
had one universal law (for this life and any other plane of existence):
"Harm None".  The major difference between pre and post Hindu thought
seems to be that "the journey of life" is what counts for the pagan and
total involvement in all aspects of the journey means the individual is
fully involved in the process, which process is the same for all of
creation:  to reach the end of the journey and a state in which the
individual (being) knows the mystery (divinity) within.  Far from being
unwilling pawns in a set of greater cycles (4.32 million human years
each to the Hindus), ancient peoples not only understood the concept and
place in creation of what the peoples (formed from the synthesis of the
Aryan and Indian tribes) called "karma", they understood it so well that
they were able to "manipulate" it, hence "magic".  The striving of these
people was to "turn to the Spirit of the Journey" and make connection
with it so that it could guide and counsel them.  If one uses the
terminology "karma", as far as we can tell, there were three main spirit
helpers:  the spirit of the journey - the stream of being (soul essence)
of accumulated experience of previous lives "carrying" personal karma;
the spirit of the ancestors carrying family karma, and the spirit of the
tribe carrying racial karma.

Although many concepts have been (vastly) expanded (and even diluted) in
the few thousand years of written knowlege, the concept of karma appears
to remain pretty much constant.  It simply means deed or action.  Our
way of explaining the "mechanism" of the natural law.  I.e. how and why
we act governs the results of our actions.  Perhaps the struggle to
define the parameters of this law are the actions of a people with too
much time on their hands, having lost the connection to Spirit.

It is not difficult to follow the thread of this concept (karma)and
perceive the stops along the way in the beliefs of Hindus, Buddhists,
Daoists, and the later organized religions, and (dare I say it)
theopsophists.  It is also not too difficult to follow this same concept
in the doctrines of science, psychology, psychiatry,and medicine.

Thank you for your comments.  They helped me to synthesize some of my
scattered thoughts in the moment.  I have set myself a task currently of
wrapping my mind around two thoughts:  "What is the benefit to the
people (myself, for I am all the people and all the people are in me) of
having an explanation to the mystery and a guide on the path, that
expresses it in hundreds of concepts and words rather than one thought
(phrase, essay)", and "Why have a goal of freedom (unattachment,
alleviation of suffering)from anything to obtain release from life"? 
Ancilliary questions I hope to answer include, why are we punishing
ouselves with "death" when there is no need to, and why do we constantly
restrain ourselves in these bodies when we are quite capable of flying
free of them?  I suspect the answer to most of these questions is
"fear".  If so, next step:  Understand fear and in so doing deny it it's
existence?   

In other words, what's the big deal about reaching nirvana, when I know
instinctively that I was born with it and only have to ignore the human
chaos around me and act from the never ending goodness within to
experience bliss every moment?
Cheers.  Annette.