Is there any way to avoid Karma?


A human being fashions his consequences as surely as he fashions his goods or his dwelling. Nothing that he says, thinks, or does is without consequences.
                                                                         – Norman Cousins

Galatians 6:7-9(KJV)

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."


This Judeo-Christian scriptural truth, illustrated by the concept of photosynthesis and growth of vegetation from the Letter to the Galatians, by the founder of Christianity, Saul of Tarsus, nee "Paul", is also even more sharply defined and enumerated in other traditions. 
The Hindu and Buddhist scriptures give us the same general truth in what is called the law of karma, which is the psychological equivalent to the physical law that every action has a reaction equal and opposite to it.
This "law" of reality makes inherently a lot of sense to me, something I never was taught in Sunday School. 
The Buddha says we can fly higher than the heavens or hide in the depths of the earth, but we will not be able to escape the consequences of our actions. Though we drive to another city or fly to another country, though we change our job or our name, our mistakes will pursue us wherever we go.

 Paradoxically, the only way we can begin to escape from the consequences of our actions is to stop running from them and to face them with fortitude. 
In this sense, every difficult situation is a precious opportunity. 

 When we find ourselves in some situation where we always make the same mistake, if we can manage not to make that mistake, the chain can be broken. 

 Often, if we face it squarely, that situation will not come up again.

 One can hope.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baylor has need of Christ’s wisdom

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can not serve both God and Mammon.” We ( Baylor - as a university community which says its follows Christ) have blindly served mammon, with the other schools in Texas…and look where it has taken us. Now money is driving the conference groupings even more than before- in 1995. Where will this lead? Texas—that is the University of Texas at Austin, is the driving force of the ‘we deserve more money’ movement. Fair enough, that is as it probably should be. UT is a dominant force in NCAA athletics. It is a secular school. It has absolutely no ties to the Gospel, other than the Gospel’s influence on our culture. Although far less in influence, the same goes for our militaristic land grant school, and our state’s other outpost, which defies description. But Baylor—why do we follow them? We say we are of Christ . I question that. Especially
Read more

You can do it! Yes you can.

Image
I claim to be an average man of less than average ability.I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith. -Mahatma Gandhi So, are you willing to give it your best? In this transformation of the small i's to the Real I, the essence, are you willing? to do the Work? Resolve to awaken to the inner motivations of the small self within. Observe yourself. Put some separation between you and your small self/ego. Observe your own behavior, thoughts, actions, motivations. Let the Spirit filter the way you respond to stresses from outside. For the Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two edged sword, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart-----------your heart! Who is The Living Word? The logos? You know.
Read more

Expecting God to show up(sic)

*At my church several of our well intentioned staff members have used the above term to describe times when something good happens in a group in which they have been leading or participating...or it will be used as a salutation. I have found it quite amusing that our "leaders" describe their experience with the Spirit in this way. For I believe that God has "shown up" since "in the beginning"--since the earth and fullness thereof, was created. After all, way down through the centuries, when Moses the great leader of Israel asked what is His name--the response came back in the form of the Tetragrammaton, *YHWH*..."I am that I am." My belief is that we are the ones who must make the effort to "show up"! "The Great I Am"--has been showing up every second of every day since before there were human beings on the planet who could even have expectations. I suppose the expectation that I should be tilted to the Knowledge that He li
Read more