Theos-Talk Archives (September 1997 Message tl00384)

"Jerry Schueler" <gschueler@netgsi.com> wrote:

> Personally, the notion that I did something wrong in a past
> life that I am unconsciously suffering for now is anathema to me
> (all animal and child training agrees that punishment or reward
> must be immediate and consistant in order for learning to take
> place--no damn wonder we have been evolving for so many eons).

Probably this idea explains the general resistance to a sowing and reaping
interpretation of karma.  I wouldn't say that God punishes, but rather that
His/Her law corrects.  If you bang your fist into a wall and it hurts, do you
blame the wall or say that the wall is punishing you?  No, you have experienced
the painful aspect of the law of impenetrability.

As for the delay involved, that is a more interesting question.  My thoughts
are a considerable interpolation from the writings of Ann Ree Colton on the
Undersoul.  The Undersoul, she says, is a kind of buffer for our karma.
Consequences are stored until the best possible moment to experience them.
Considering the interdependency of everything in the world, and lacking a
perspective encompassing everyone and everything, it can sometimes seem that
God does a poor job of this, but that's a rather anthropomorphic presumption.
The circumstances to maximize our learning from consequences may need to wait
for other persons and events.  Think of how computers use buffers to time use
of resources or wait until the resources are available.

> Also, the idea that God is in full control of what I see going on
> in this world is anathema to me (I think I could do a better job).

I think it's rather astonishing how we can have free will we do and how the
world is not a LOT worse.  If I were "God" and tried to rearrange the world,
watch out!  I don't think I would improve it.  It reminds me of what Jung said
about his life when he was 81. He said there is not one thing - not one
mistake - he would change.