
2-7-93


                   KARMA & THE BIBLE

     Mass education, mass literacy, radio,
television, printing and electronic
communications have made the modern public
vastly different than the ancient publics.
What were once truths are now a melee of
opinions.  Numerical majority is not
synonymous with authoritative consensus.
     Indulging in one religion as the only
true religion results in a plunge into
disillusionment.  Only those who can
reconcile themselves to this fact will be
able to navigate the spiritual stream.  It
is mandatory to become interested in a
variety of ancient wisdom.  There are none
living who can speak with an authoritative
voice regarding what was actually meant
and what actually took place.  It is now
the responsibility of each one of us, the
present public, to guard the ancient
literature, and serve as a court of
appeals for beliefs.  We cannot afford to
wait for perfect enlightenment.  To make
"heaven on earth," we must do what we can
each day.  All excesses must be
controlled; even the excesses of democracy
must have a method of control.  This
control is administered by the laws of
society.  Without laws there would be no
 order.  Without order, chaos!  We can't
all run around doing whatever we feel like
doing when and where we feel like doing
it.  Freedom includes individual
responsibility and restraint.  This is not
to say that all of our laws are good,
fair, just, but we must have laws at this
stage of our human development.
     All great spiritual teachers have
taught the principle of non-resistance.
If this were practiced to its fullest
extent by all people of all nations all
the time it might have redeeming value;
but at this time and level of human
evolvement we need resistance or the
entire fabric of humanity would be
trampled to shreds in a short time.
     Mat 5:39:  "...I say to you resist not
evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on
thy right cheek, turn to him the other
also."
     "...ye have heard, thou shalt love thy
neighbor and hate thy enemy, but I way to
you, love your enemies, bless them that
curse you...that ye may be children of
your Father which is in heaven, for he
maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on
the good...."
     Love your enemies; turn the other
cheek; don't resist evil...perhaps the
most difficult of all the teachings, but
this is not an original Christian
teaching.  It was taught hundreds of years
before by Buddha, thousands of years
before by Lord Krishna.  It is a part of
the great ethical religious philosophies
of mankind, but none stated it as clearly
or as positively as did Jesus.  In actual
practice most of us find it impossible to
do and nearly impossible to understand why
we should.
     Perfect non-resistance is rare.  There
is a great variety in character and in
levels of spiritual evolvement among
humankind.  Even if we were all created
equal, which, unfortunately we are not, in
the material realm we are not all afforded
equal opportunities, so all do not succeed
to the same degree.  When speaking of good
and evil, the differences between us must
be taken into account; we face similar
situations differently.  Most of us do
well to practice justice, temperance,
prudence and fortitude, the four
Aristotelian virtues.  God may be manifest
equally in all people, but all people are
not living equally in God consciousness.
     This high goal of non-resistance should
be kept in mind by all Seekers, but we
need not feel a failure if we don't, or
haven't achieved it yet.  Non-resistance
is a high virtue, as such it must be kept
in mind, but not manipulated to our
individual temperaments or convenience.
     The Vedanta points out that for some it
is necessary to learn to resist evil in
order to gradually grow in spiritual
strength to the point where they can
endure it.  Let us look at two different
situations.
     The first, a person who does not resist
because they are too lazy or weak of
character to do so.  What merit is there
in this type of non-resistance?  The
other, a person who knows they can strike
a fatal blow to their enemy yet does not
strike it.  In the first instance,
according to Vivekananda, the one who does
not resist out of cowardice or weakness
generates no special benefit from their
non-resistance; in fact they generate
karma by not resisting.  The other would
generate karma by offering resistance.  In
the tradition of yoga, we must first
gather the power to resist; then having
gained it, we must renounce it; only then
will non-resistance be a virtue.
     This power to resist is not only
strength of physical force but also mental
and emotional strength.  To renounce
something you don't have generates no
benefit to anyone.  Having the power to
resist, then to follow a path of non
-resistance, is the highest manifestation
of power in your actual possession.
Resisting evil is but a step in the
direction of complete non-resistance.
     Restrained or non-restrained conduct
varies with the person and the
circumstance.  Krishna urges Arjuna to
fight.  Jesus urged his disciples to be
non-resistant.  Arjuna is a warrior; this
instruction from Krishna was given on a
battlefield where a war is about to begin,
and it is a just war.  Jesus is speaking
in the quiet, serene mountain atmosphere.
His disciples wee more like monks than
soldiers.  Arjuna had not yet reached the
level of non-resistance, and as subsequent
events proved neither had the disciples of
Jesus...but Jesus had.  It would have been
wrong if Arjuna had not resisted; likewise
it would have been a "sin" if Jesus had
fought back.  We are more closely
identified with Arjuna than with Jesus or
Krishna or Buddha.
     This doesn't answer the question of
what are we to do.  I want to re-tell a
story that I have used before.  It is a
parable attributed to Rama Krishna:
     Once upon a time there was a holy man
who came to a certain village.  The
villagers warned him that he should not
walk along a certain path because there
was a poisonous snake that always stayed
there.  This snake had killed many people.
The holy man said, "It won't hurt me" and
went directly to that path.  The snake
coiled, reared its head and was ready to
strike...then recognized the man as holy.
The holy man taught it the philosophy of
non-resistance and the snake renounced its
biting and killing.  The holy man went on
his way, the snake crawled to its favorite
place to meditate and pray.
     Soon the villagers discovered that the
snake no longer bit them.  The children
began to throw rocks at it, then they had
a tug of war with it, some tied it in
knots, others used it as a jump rope.  In
time the snake was so bruised, sore and
weak from its injuries it could hardly
crawl anymore.  It rarely came out except
at night to get a little food and water.
     When the holy man came back to the
village he was told the snake was dead.
He went to the path and searched for the
snake.  When he found it, he observed its
pitiful state and asked it about the
reasons.  The snake replied, "O, most
revered one, see what your philosophy of
non-resistance has done for me.  But you
should be very proud of me, no matter what
they did to me I kept my vow of non-
resistance."
     The snake was surprised when the holy
man became very cross.  "You foolish
snake," said the holy man.  "I told you to
not bite or kill; I did not tell you to
not hiss."
     We must live in this material world; we
have a duty to our families, ourselves and
others.  We have to "hiss" once in a while
to defend our rights.  To allow others to
cheat you, to walk on you, is foolish, not
saintly.  It is our duty to defend
ourselves from hostile actions, but we are
never to be malicious or revengeful.
Avatars such as Jesus are to practice
perfect non-resistance.  If we persevere
on the spiritual path, we will reach a
stage where we have no violent thoughts,
words or actions.  It will be natural to
us, then we will be able to practice
perfect non-resistance, love our enemies,
do good to those who do bad to us and
bless those who persecute us.  But we are
not yet there.  We are still in the
resistance stage on our way to non-
resistance.  If you look at events in your
own life, I believe you will see that you
are more non-resistant now than you used
to be.
     Rigid expectations expressed in terms
of shoulds, musts and ought to's, result
in more resistive behavior and predispose
us to anger.  So, we must recognize the
content and tone of our expectations and
to change these into more realistic,
flexible and acceptable expectations.  We
begin to cultivate evenmindedness in all
that we do.  We have preferences, not
demands.  Achieving this is to progress in
non-resistance.  When anger does flare, it
is important to use it constructively and
non-violently, then let go of it...never,
never, never nurse an anger.
     Life is imperfect.  No matter how hard
we pray, how long we meditate, how many
affirmations we voice, life will not
become perfect.  Believers and non-
believers alike will experience some
tragedy and some failure as long a we live
in a difficult world.  We have the freedom
of choice in most of our actions.  Some
choices will be better than others.  The
worst ones will cause us some discomfort
and pain, but the pain is not God's
punishment for "sin."  If you play with
fire, sometimes you will just feel the
heat, sometimes you will bet burned, but
you will always get the karmic bill to pay
at sometime.  The pain is from the fire,
not God.  Pain is often the result of
wrong choice but not punishment for
choosing wrongly.
     Problems result from poor decisions,
negative circumstances and an imperfect
world.  We inflict further difficulty on
ourselves by believing that we attract
every problem to ourselves by some past
wrong.  Or in the Christian tradition that
some committed sin is behind every
problem.  In the bible story of Jesus and
the Blind Man (John 9:1-7), Jesus told his
disciples to forget about who sinned.
Plain and simple he said none of them had.
This idea of sin and punishment was
impeding the spiritual growth of the
people even then.  And he said "No,"
that's not why bad things happen.  Rather
than to focus on an unknown past actin or
a mistake that no longer exists, we should
focus on how we can use the experience to
better ourselves, others and the world.
     Paul speaks of "large forbearance."
"Forebearing one another, and forgiving
one another."
     In practicing large forbearance towards
others, we need not allow them to practice
imposition toward us.  We should consider
the circumstances and the individual and
decide by wisdom how far to go along and
at what point to stop.  One thing we
should never do is, we should not recruit
others on our behalf by gossiping,
exaggerating, lying, complaining or "bad-
mouthing."  Each of us must handle it but
we must use discrimination.  To keep your
inner peace you must rise above those who
have it not.  This can be done if you keep
biased negatives out of your emotional
system: such as resentment, bitterness,
jealousy, spite and revenge.  When you
repeatedly talk about it to others the
perceived threat to you looms larger and
stronger.  When others show their enmity
towards you, retaliate by showing
calmness, indifference, generosity,
positive forgiveness or love by doing
something nice for that person even if you
don't feel like it, but do it with the
right motive.  We react the way we do
because of what we are.  "Enemies" afford
us beneficial practical instruction in
non-attachment which no friend can ever
do.
     How far should we go in "resist not
evil"?  We may have to "hiss."  A useful
guideline to follow is, if your actions
contribute to the betterment of the
situation, they are right actions.  On a
larger scale, if your motive is to further
the progress of humanity then your motive
and action is right and acceptable.  If
your motive is to ease your own personal
discomfort of mind, then that can best be
done by forgiveness and working on
yourself.  Often we lie to ourselves, then
we have difficulty judging our true
motives.  But silent submission in the
face of violence, dishonesty and abuse
will only allow or enable that abuse to
continue and such attitudes are passed on
to future generations.  They become part
of our inner garbage dumps.
     We have human standards.  As spiritual
seekers, we are to live above human
standards.  Morality is an invention of a
society and varies with different
societies.  In most human societies it is
not only acceptable for certain people to
kill certain other people but is morally
commendable: such as police killing
criminals, soldiers in war, self defense,
justifiable homicide, judicial death
penalties.  In a spiritual society all
killing is wrong.  Not only all killing,
but all violence - Ahimsa = harmlessness,
mental and physical.  A-H-I-M-S-A:
remember that word!
     In this earthly world, including
nature, violence is everywhere.  Nature is
both kind and beneficial as well as
destructive and cruel.  Living beings must
practice both violence and non-violence to
survive: a paradoxical coincidence of
opposites.  Thus our logical standard for
consistency is challenged, but if we
understand that as soon as birth takes
place, death begins to emerge.  Death is
an unseen visitor in the birthing room.
Your birth certificate has an expiration
date.  As soon as death happens, birth is
not far away.  We can harmonize these
opposites.  There is an overall harmony in
nature which includes violence, but that
violence is not premeditated or motivated
for selfish reasons, it is not
deliberately vengeful.
     "Resist not evil...."  To understand
this we must again recognize that we are a
composite of three natures: spiritual,
human and animal, lion and lamb, predator
and victim.  Our ego is the controller of
our human nature.  In the Vedanta
philosophy, the ahamkara is our sense of
"I"ness.  The yogic concept of ego is much
more encompassing than is the Western
psychological ego.  Nevertheless, it is
the ahamkara that gives us our
individuality, but in doing so it
separates us from the whole.  Our ahamkara
gives us pleasure, and its opposite, but
does not give us spiritual enlightenment,
peace and unconditional love.  That is
achieved only when we completely forget
our ahamkara, completely forget our ego.
Most of what we do is for the sake of our
human side.  We do not romantically love
someone; our ahamkara loves their
ahamkara; all of us want to satisfy our
personal ego.  To not resist evil or
violence or other negative traits makes no
sense to our ahamkara.  But our spiritual
aspect, which is beyond all dualities, has
no need to resist evil or to not resist
evil.  In the spiritual aspect of our
nature all is one.
     The soul or atman is never born and
never dies; it neither kills nor can it be
killed; it experiences no fear nor anger.
We do not yet live in this realm, or at
least very few humans have evolved to the
state that they are able to practice ALL
of the spiritual ideals, so we do the best
we can.  We hold the ideals up as an
example, and strive on towards the mark,
but don't be ashamed or feel guilty if you
are not perfect.  I have yet to meet the
perfect human.
     The soul or center of consciousness, is
not subject to change, destruction or
death, but we are not in touch with this
center much of the time.  We get caught up
in our human emotions; we feel fear and
insecurity, lust and pride.  From the soul
center of consciousness, all consciousness
flows on varying degrees and grades; that
which we experience as human consciousness
is but a small part of the consciousness
available to us.  We are evolving to the
level of "perfect," - "Be ye therefore
perfect as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect."  Three degrees of ancient
Elysian mystery schools were: neophyte -
new growth; Initiate - beginner; Adept -
completed, master, perfect.  Even when we
reach this level, we must follow Jesus's
example with the money changers in the
temple.  We must overturn the system, be
it political, church, organization or
marriage, when that system is wrong.

Blind submission must be replaced with
responsible actions.  This is a positive
use of anger.  An act born or inner
understanding, even if accompanied by
anger, is more effective than an act born
of revenge and accompanied by negative
anger.  Inner understanding and calm
positive anger cause fewer casualties.
Anger can be calm or stormy.  Jesus
demonstrated calm, positive anger.
     To return evil for evil, to answer
violence with violence, hate with hate,
starts a vicious cycle to which there is
no end while you live.  The only way you
can free yourself from this cycle is at
the point you forgive.  Hatred ceases not
with hatred; hatred ceases with love and
forgiveness.
     The phrase "Turn the other cheek" is an
Aramaic idiom meaning: "don't quarrel,
don't fight."  When I was young there was
an expression used when a 12-14 year old
would do something or say something of a
rebellious or non-conformist nature.
"Well it looks like he's beginning to lose
his tail," relating to a tadpole shedding
its tail and becoming a frog.  When Jesus
was scourged, whipped by Pilate, Jesus
didn't "turn the other cheek" in a literal
sense.  He did nothing to encourage more
stripes.  He didn't resist, he met it with
dignity.  He didn't become angered, he
didn't cower.  He stayed true to his
beliefs and teachings.
     Shakespeare said: "There is nothing
good or bad, thinking makes it so."  The
more you think about something, negatively
or positively, the more it takes on the
flavor, the color of your thoughts...you
create your tomorrow by the color of your
thoughts today.  Color your thoughts today
with the colors of peace, love and
understanding.  Think only good thoughts.
------------------------------------------

For more information contact: 

Don Parkison, MD
c/o The Oneness Center
2000 S. Stewart
Springfield, MO. 65804
1-417-889-5215

or contact:

Sandra Price
Shadow Rider BBS
1-901-873-1570

Tapes may be purchased for $3 each and have two lectures
on each.

 

