Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/hold me in your arms/nanomius/etc/natlkarma

Internet Message Format | 1994-09-24 | 10KB

From: [e-mail] (Sue D. Nym)
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Man's Shadow
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 94 08:53:02 -0700


I can see that the Communism topic is probably a bit off charter,
but an earlier post sparked a few neurons here, and I thought I would
talk about the concept of karma and "national karma".

Karma is one of my favorite subjects. Simply put, it is the concept
of a cosmic force involving reaction to human action. That is, I like
to define it as an actual universal law. We have not discovered the
mechanism yet, but I believe it exists. I also believe that Karma
in the physical realm is not a perfectly symmetrical operation, but
in the mental plane it is. Let me draw an example.

First, I'm going to presume that "reincarnation" exists and everyone
can accept the idea. Actually, if you can't just pretend that my next
comments apply to one lifetime, they are all analogous.

Suppose in one lifetime a person becomes unbalanced. Because of
circumstances, say they wind up on a desert island as a hermit.
Depending on how they approach the situation this will encourage the
expression of positive and negative attributes (virtues/vice). For
example, the person might decline in hygiene or something, but also
develop fantastic abilities of self-reliance. By the law of karma,
they will be placed in new situations that help sharpen the virtues
and remove the vices. The person might be reincarnated in a situation
that requires cooperation & dependence on a lot of people and to have
meticulous hygiene (say, the modern day business world, a sales job
or whatever). This is the concept of the "swing of the pendulum"
and it permeates intra- and inter-lifetime experiences.

The point to make about this is that the ultimate result is a
*mental* consequence. Many make the observation that the earth is
one big classroom. This is in fact its sole purpose: to effect
mental and spiritual advancement through physical experiences.
This is also why mere thoughts have physical consequences. If
you hate someone or an entire race with enough passion, the logical
progression of that idea is something like what manifested in
Nazi Germany.

I used to fantasize about coming up with some kind of a "karma
detector" that would measure what kind of karma is being generated
by a given action. It is difficult to tell! But that is the purpose
of sharpening our inner intuition about "truth". And I believe that
the NDE (Near Death Experiences) that people have also relate to
an actual "karma detector" that goes by the euphemism "seeing
one's life flash before one's eyes." People that have very shallow
NDE's (i.e. not a "deep" experience) see their life flash before
their eyes. People with even deeper experiences actually describe
seeing the "ripples of their actions spreading out to the people
around them". They see their entire life as one might behold an
entire picture, perceiving the complex time/space/people relationships
at once, and *knowing* what was positive and negative, but without
"judgement" (a strange concept).

There are all kinds of fascinating concepts to explore about reincarnation
and karma. But one point I should emphasize is that I think the goal
is to actually transcend reincarnation and karma. We are chained to
the earth by our desires. A monk made the comment, "it is mathematically
impossible to achieve happiness in this world". That is the ultimate
lesson of our experiences, I think. We crave God "by design", and
God is not to be found in this realm. I truly believe that is "engraved
into the Universe", or it is simply an aspect of the "program of
the computer" that this is true--happiness does not truly lie in this
realm.

How does one "transcend" karma? The works I have read say that one
must dedicate one's actions and thoughts to God, not to yourself. You
do not live for petty personal pleasures but for others and for God.

Where does "forgiveness" and "love" enter into this? Why is "forgiveness"
and "love" emphasized with such fervor by Jesus and in all important
religious works? The key is that one is held into especially intense
karmic entanglements by hatred and the negative emotions. If you want
to "get revenge" against someone, by karmic law exactly such an opportunity
will arise in this or another lifetime, if the desire persists. (A
book I have read says the Antichrist is materializing now to realize
his burning promise to himself, "I will rule the world".)

The only way to break the constricting chains of this endless torture is
to forgive your enemy, and ideally, to love him-- Jesus showed he could
do this better than any man in existence, on the cross. Is there any
other soul in existence that would not have been branded with intense
hatred at his persecutors after going through such a nightmarish drama?
This to me is one of the meanings of "dying for the sins of others".
In a sense, he was pinned to that cross by our own deadly feuds with
our enemies.

You can imagine that there are probably some people who are locked in
this struggle. People that hate each other upon first sight, the
unconscious soul-feelings of hatred so deeply grooved into their psyche!
For how long, how many lifetimes, will they escalate the battle by
cutting each other with sharp axes of thoughts, words, or deeds?

Now, I also want to emphasize the concept that nations can have karma
too. Nations can be "friends" and "enemies" just as people can, and
the karma will manifest itself. When hatreds associated with race or
nationality build up, we have what I described happening on the personal
level occur at the national level. And it can develop into the most
ghoulish and grisly earthly dramas. In fact, that is the consequence
of upcoming "times of troubles". We will see the power of hatred that
manifested itself in the Nazi era magnified and erupting at an
incendiary *international* level. And it will ravage the entire earth.

Another point I want to make out is that "accidents are rare" from the
point of view of karma. (I would say they are "nonexistent" but again
I don't think there is total mathematical exactitude in the earthly
realm, or at least is impossible for us to percieve.) There is this
concept that a lot of people have about a leader "tricking" the people
or "enslaving" them to his ends. This obviously happens at one level.
But from another level, that of karma, these souls had ingrained
destructive thoughts and actions that led to the oppression. Again,
I want to bring up the concept of Nazi Germany. Anyone who elevates
the concept of race hatred to an entire national religion is generating
immensely powerful and apocalyptic karma whether they realize it or
not. Anyone who shrugs with passivity in the face of evil is building
up immensely negative karma too.

So finally, returning to the example of Russia, I think it is wrongheaded
to say that the population was "tricked" or "enslaved" by communism.
You will find interesting tidbits in the psyche of Russians that tend
to sabotage democracy and capitalist philosophies. As an example,
Russians tend to look with spite at successful businessmen and think
that they are only prosperous by "profiteering" and "gouging". They
equate *all* business with "black marketeering" to some degree. Granted,
some of this was conditioned into them by communist party propaganda.
But you are still free to think what you want, in fact you have the
most freedom here of anywhere. And your thoughts have consequences, and
you are responsible for them. Your environment is a crude, rough physical
reflection of your ideas over the present and past lifetimes.

Russians also have the habit of throwing insults at people who
talk candidly about their situation, I think. There is a pervasive
mentality that "you cannot be candid about certain subjects, you
cannot talk freely", or "Who are you to question authority? Who are
you to claim you have answers?". Again, is this the party mentality or their
own? If they adopt it, it is their own. Also, I sense a kind of submissive
attitude in front of the State. Does anyone in the U.S. have that
kind of attitude?

So the point is that the system that you live in is a reflection of
your accrued karma, roughly speaking. A totalitarian regime is built
up through the deep fears of the populace, of the attitude that it
is OK to "turn in your neighbor" if it ensures your own self-preservation,
that some people don't have the authority to even *talk* or *speculate*
about subjects related to the State, that the State is infallible,
that you are not capable of making independent descisions about your
life, etc. An ugly, oppressive, suffocating system? So are these kinds
of *ideas*.

Finally, I want to talk about the idea of karma relatted to "bondage".
I believe it is true that in a sense karma is "bondage" and
entanglement. But it is *wrong* to believe that you are ever
*prevented* from mental and spiritual advancement by your karma.
There is always the opportunity for advancement, no matter how
bleak your situation. That is also the essence of karma-- along
with every black cloud of bondage there is a silver lining of
light that you can grab hold of. The "strings to pull" to lift you
from your misery are always hanging all around you, but you do not see
them because of ingrained delusions grooved in your (sub)consciousness
over lifetimes of thought and habit. This is why "delusion" and "karma"
are always mentioned in the same breath by the Masters.

"Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it is dark."
--Zen saying

Books on the subject that have influenced me:

Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
Many Mansions (Karma/Reincarnation in the Cayce readings) by Gina Cerminara

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I renounce all rights.