Theos-Talk Archives (November 1999 Message tl00010)

Jerry writes:

> Most Theosophists want to make
> karma universal and applicable everywhere period. This
> implies that many Hindu and Buddhist saints and Teachers
> were wrong about karma being eliminated (Buddha taught
> that nirvana eliminates suffering, not karma). I don't see
> much point to evolution unless its goal is to free us from
> karma.

> Freedom from karma implies action without cause or
> effect, a concept that is paradoxical at best. However,
> logically we can say that karma as causation requires
> time and divinity=paranirvana is outside of time and so
> is outside of karma.  While being perfectly logical,
> it is not at all clear to the human mind what this means.
The way I understand it, and the way it has been explained
to me, (so I am copying the idea's of TS-Adyar-The
Netherlands here - or at least of a majority of *us*) is
that freedom from karma, for the Jivamukti means that
he/she is no more attached to the karma, so that that
specific Ego is no longer attracted to the results of the
action. But the action still has results, so that another
jivamukti may have to bear the results. An example in
Secret Doctrine 3 is clear about this, for me: one
jivamukti (or saint, buddha or Mahatma, I do not remember)
withdrew from the world and left his body at 30, because he
felt he had done all he needed. Then another one, later on,
was killed at that exact age, because the karma had to go
somewhere. The cause has to have an effect, but the
jivamukti is so impersonal that he is no longer attached to
what we would call his personal karma.

Katinka
----------------------
NHL Leeuwarden
hesse600@tem.nhl.nl