I was surprised to receive an invitation to speak about Karma by the Optimist Club of Virginia Beach this week. I was surprised not because I don’t think an understanding of the Law of Cause and Effect leads to a healthy, optimistic life and world-view, but because my experience has been that many still view karma in punishing, negative terms.
The law of reciprocal action is anything but negative. It is a totally just, logical, impersonal and infallible law demonstrated throughout nature. And, whether we like it or not, as physical creatures we are part and parcel of the natural world and subject to the same laws that govern every other part of material life.
The fact that we are spirits ensouling a physical body does not absolve us from taking full responsibility for our thoughts, words, and deeds and experiencing the effects of every cause we have set into motion.
I think the reason some view the law of karma as harsh and unjust is that they fail to take into account the fact that our spirit enters into a physical body and life experience bringing with it a long history for which we are totally responsible and accountable.
Life is a continuum, not a flash-in-the-pan, one time “event.” At the end of each life cycle, we step out of our physical body and our soul simply goes home to its natural world of non-matter and continues to learn, grow, act, create, and set into motion both positive and negative causes in the ethereal realm– causes we bring with us into future incarnations.
While nearly everyone understands the “What goes around, comes around” fact of life to be true–we often wish it wasn’t. It is awesome and scary to realize how much power, authority, accountability, and responsibility we possess over our individual life direction and circumstances. And, it is much easier and more comfortable to blame other people, Powers, and possibilities for our predicaments than to take responsibility for them ourselves.
However, if we were not in control of our life experiences we would be nothing more than puppets, pawns, and victims. Now that would be truly scary!
Fortunately for us, the perfect Law of Reciprocal Action does exist as a method by which to learn and regain the original state of purity and enlightenment we started out with as creatures made in God’s image. The God-quality of free will is an inherent aspect of every human spirit. But, we obviously need to learn how to use it in the service of goodness, light, and the upliftment of all creation rather than for personal gain, ego-gratification, and self-aggrandizement. I mean, just look around! And, the only way to truly learn anything is through direct experience.
Without free will and the redemptive gift of karma, we would be pathetic, impotent creatures indeed. But we aren’t; and we have every reason to be grateful and OPTIMISTIC about life and our future.
