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                   KARMA: Conclusion

     The Law of Karma may be represented by
an archer shooting arrows from a bow.  The
arrows already released are past karma.
We still have a quiver full of arrows that
we are simply carrying around for the
future.  Only the arrow that we have
fitted into our bow is the only one still
under our control.  It is our present
karma.  Once we let it fly it is beyond
our control; it speeds on to produce its
effect.
     Aristotle remarked:  "Though you have
the power to throw a rock, you do not have
the power to retrieve it in mid-flight."
And so it is with our words and actions.
They proceed on to exert their karmic
influence on our lives everyday.
     From the day we are born to the day we
die each of us is working on our karma.
You start with what you have carried forth
from your past and begin to work on it.
Karma, being made by human will, is
subject to human modification.  Fate,
being decreed by a Higher Power is not
subject to human modification, except
through how we handle our karma.
      Destiny follows tendencies.  What we
are makes us go in a certain direction. If
it is true that the course of life is
predetermined, it is not arbitrarily pre-
determined...NO!  The good and the bad
qualities of your character, the
development or the lack of development of
your capacities, your decisions made by
reason or by impulse, are the real
determinants of your life.  Karma provides
an inescapable connection between your
conduct and the consequences, between
character and destiny.  Life owes you only
what you have given to life.
     In mystical tradition the two-edge
sword has been the symbol of the law of
recompense and justice.  Karma is the law
that links the two.  It is educative not
retributive.  Thoughtful people learn
lessons from their sorrows and pain and
try not to commit the same error again.
     If misfortune seems to have visited one
through no known or contributory cause of
their own, where you do not seem to
deserve the cards dealt to you by destiny,
you have no other alternative than to
ascribe it to deeds and thoughts of a
former existence, or to a malevolent god
or a devil.  I believe in one power...
God, the good, the God of love.  It would
be an error in logical thinking to
separate karma from the universal Power
and treat it as an independent power.
Karma is an aspect of God and as such is
inseparable from God.  It is one of the
ways that God manifest Itself.
     Karma is a impersonal force.  It is not
swayed by prayers.  We may deceive
ourselves and others but we will not
deceive karma.  Thus those who do not
learn from the gentle hand of karma will
have to learn from the kicks delivered by
the fresh karma they make.  Events can
have a non-karmic source, but they are
what we need at that point for character
development or correction.
     Certainly there is also a law of
chance.  The unexpected events which
happen to us apparently without cause or
connection to our conduct can be called
fate.  Such events compel us to act.  How
we act and the results of our action
constitute karma.  What a Higher Power,
God has decreed must come to pass.  That
is fate, kismet, the will of Allah, but
what we have made for ourselves can be
modified or unmade.  That is destiny.  We
are in control of our destiny, not our
fate.
     Karma cannot prevail in one part of our
life and not another.  It could not be
here and not there.  It cannot be in major
events and not in minor ones.  It must
ever be present or never be present.
     Fate, in the original Greek sense of
the word, is decreed by whatever Powers
there be; karma is the result of our own
doing.  Karma is willed action; you choose
to and "will to" throw that stone, shoot
that arrow.  Only the past is fixed and
unalterable; the present and future can be
altered by our will.  The same destiny
which brings two people together also
parts them.  That is their life script.
What they do while together is, to a large
part, karma.
     Karma is part of the equilibrium of the
universe allowing each reaction to come
about by its own momentum.  Remember,
eliminate the cause and you eliminate the
effect.  It is not some mysterious
superhuman diva or deity manipulating
karma as a puppet performs pulling
strings.
     The ancestor of every destructive
action, any destructive decision, is a
negative thought.  Negative thoughts are
everywhere, all the time.  They may knock
at the door of our mind, but we do not
have to let them in.  We do not have to
embrace them and make them ours.  Thoughts
are like hitch-hikers: they are looking
for a ride, we can pick them up or pass
them by.  If we happen to pick one up that
looks good only to find out that it isn't,
you simply stop and let it out.  No one is
obliged to pick up these passengers; it is
our choice, no matter what our
conditioning.  If we don't let them in,
they can't go anywhere; they're not real
if we don't support them.  There's
sympathy in the world, pick it up.
There's antipathy in the world, don't pick
it up.  Leave it.  It will rot of its own
accord.  By not picking up hate, greed,
evil, etc., you are obeying the law of
non-resistance.  Victory of the spiritual
nature of humans is fore-ordained and
unavoidable.  The day and hour of that
victory, no one knows.
     You cannot gain freedom from the
bondage of karma by doing good deeds if
you are attached to the results of your
good action.  Our goal is not only the
performance but to become free of
attachment to the results.  People who
complain that life has brought them only
the worst, should pause and reflect
whether they have prepared themselves
inwardly to receive anything better than
the worst.
      When things happen for the worst we
readily blame fate.  But when favorable
things happen we willingly take personal
credit for bringing it about.  Everyone
feels, everyone thinks, everyone speaks,
but not everyone perceives the
consequences, near or remote, swift or
slow, of these activities.  Paramahansa
Yogananda ( incidentally died March 7,
1952 - he went into mahasamadhi and his
spirit departed his body), guruji would
say: "Our mouths are like tiny cannons and
words are their bullets.  And then we fire
them without consideration of who they
will hurt - then the hurt is reflected
back upon us."
     Whoever chooses wrong must endure the
consequences of that choice.  The process
is a cumulative one...every cause produces
and effect which then becomes a cause...
and produces another effect... cause-
effect, cause-effect, ad infinitum.
     The belief that any savior can suffer
your sins for you or that any priest can
absolve them is an erroneous belief.  You
may resent the law, but you still go it
alone.  No one pays your karmic debts for
you.
     It does not follow that the one who
does an act, good or bad, is entirely and
alone responsible for the act they
perform.  Everyone who takes part in life
takes a part in forming the ideas
prevalent in that generation of life and
has a share in the responsibility for the
actions of others.  Understanding this,
each of us must realize that we must have
some discipline, some control, as to the
kind of thoughts we generate.  Our
thoughts influence the society we live in.
The kind of thoughts that you attract
towards yourself are largely determined by
the kind of thoughts that you yourself
generate.
     Out of right thinking, right speaking,
right action must follow.  The possessor
of the mind that reflects soul qualities
cannot needlessly harm anything or being,
by thought, speech or action.  That on
which your mind constantly dwells, you
inevitably become.  Contemplate the ideal
and day by day you will become nearer that
ideal.  Contemplation removes the dust
from the mirror of the mind and you become
what it reflects.  To contemplate,
thinking must be trained to single-point
concentration, and the mind must not be
scattered.  The mind must be still.  As a
magnifying glass focuses the rays of the
sun to a single point, so must you focus
the energy of your mind to a single point.
     "Thou will keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusts in thee."  Isa. 26:2  "Perfect
peace," wouldn't that be a pleasant
change?
     Put your trust in the Lord of your
being...the highest ideals of human
conduct, keep your mind on them as you go
about your routine daily living.  If you
forget them for a moment, remember them
again the next moment, and do what you
know is right...each little bit purifies
your soul a little bit and you keep on
advancing...and you advance all others a
little bit.  Life becomes more simple, you
become more serene...your yoke is easier,
your burden lighter..Mat.11:28-30.  If you
do not put yourself under your own
discipline life will compel you eventually
to accept a sterner one.
     When considered from the long range
karmic point of view each of us creates
our own world and atmosphere.  We have no
one to thank or blame but ourselves.  It
should be remembered that the correct or
incorrect use of free will is right now
deciding the conditions and circumstances
of our lives to come.  Many will moan
about their unhappy past and cry because
they cannot undo it, but they forget that
by their moaning and complaining they are
busy making an unhappy future.  The
weapons that wound us today were forged by
our own selves yesterday.
     The choice between right and wrong can
only exist where there is free will to
make it, so this is not fatalism.  The
fatalist believes the future is
irrevocably fixed.  This is foolish.  We
certainly, at least in part, author our
own character, our own destiny, hence our
own future.  That which compels us to act
in a certain way is part of the pressure
of our current environment and culture,
and in part the result of our own past.
But the root of the whole problem is in
our minds.  Proper cultivation of our mind
frees us of former attachments and
compulsions.
     If you want to change your karma, begin
by changing your attitude: first toward
outer events, people and things, then
toward yourself.  What you have brought
upon yourself may come to an end of itself
once you find the positive quality that
you need to develop in your attitude
toward it to replace the negative one.
The person who can live without troubles
has yet to be found, but the person who
can live without worrying about them may
be found wherever these teachings are
understood.
     The same illness which brings
inactivity, boredom and worry to one may
bring discovery and awakening to another.
It may dull one mind and stimulate another
to reflect about life, suffering, death
and re-life.  (I prefer the term re-live
to re-birth.)
     In the making of our future the
character of our habitual thoughts,
feelings and desires make their
contributions, therefore our fears also
contribute their quota in bringing about
what we do not desire.  Job said, "The
thing that I feared most has come upon
me." 3:25.  It is here that the advantage
of our positive affirmations make their
contribution to our future.  They offer a
measure of counter-influence, even a kind
of repentance.  They aid in cultivating
the higher laws and we are able to start
the improvement or at least start the
process that eventually will bring
improvement to our future outer life.
     Karma waits for a proper time to call
in its accounts.  It is not necessarily
true that what you are reaping in the 20th
century you sowed in the first century.
You may will be getting some of the
results of causes you generated in this
incarnation.  The day of judgement is not
necessarily on the other side of the
grave.  It is here on this side, every
day, this month, now.
     Karma may seem to be rewarding or
punitive but in its balance it is neutral.
A friend of mine says that on a scale of
1-10 if you get a 7 good; then you had
better get ready for a 7 bad, or maybe a 3
and a 4 or a 5 and 2.  He may be right...
maybe not..."acintya...."
     The good merits of conduct in former
lives bring pleasant benefits in the
present one and good conduct in this one
will bring rewards in the next one.
Retribution will also come.
     Why do the innocent suffer?  Their
innocence belongs to the present, we do
not know their past deeds or misdeeds.
Karma expresses itself through events
which may seem to be accidents, but they
are accidents only on the surface.  The
consequences of several years of wrong
thinking and wrong doing may crowd
themselves into a single instant.  In
other cases the troubles which befall us
have no origin in the karma of former
lives but belong entirely to causes
started in the present life.
     Life is not trying to make us happy or
unhappy.  It is trying to make us
understand.  Happiness or unhappiness
comes as a by-product of our success or
failure in understanding.
--------------------------------------------

For more information contact

Don Parkison, MD
2000 S. Stewart
Springfield, MO
1-417-873-1570

or contact

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

tapes are available for $3 each
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