The Theosophical Society,
The Writings of W Q Judge
W Q Judge 1851 – 96
Karma
By
William Q. Judge
First Published 1886
THE
child is the father of the man, and none the less true is it: My brothers!
each mans life
The
outcome of his former living is;
The
bygone wrongs bring forth sorrows and woes
The
bygone right breeds bliss.
"This
is the doctrine of Karma."
But
in what way does this bygone wrong and right affect the present life? Is the
stern nemesis ever following the weary traveler, with a calm, passionless, remorseless
step?
Is
there no escape from its relentless hand? Does the eternal law of cause and
effect, unmoved by sorrow and regret, ever deal out
its measure of weal and woe as the consequence of past action? The shadow of
the yesterday of sin--must it darken the life of today? Is Karma but another
name for fate? Does the child unfold the page of the already written book of
life in which each event is
recorded without the possibility of escape? What
is the relation of Karma to the
life of the individual? Is there nothing for man to
do but to weave the
chequered warp and woof of each
earthly existence with the stained and
discolored threads of past actions?
Good
resolves and evil tendencies sweep with resistless tide over the nature of man
and we are told: "Whatever action he performs, whether good or bad, every
thing done in a former body must necessarily be enjoyed or suffered." Anugita, Cp. III. There is good Karma, there is bad Karma,
and as the wheel of life moves on, old Karma is exhausted and again fresh Karma
is accumulated.
Although
at first it may appear that nothing can be more fatalistic than this doctrine,
yet a little consideration will show that in reality this is not the case.
Karma is twofold, hidden and manifest, Karma is the man that is, Karma is his action. True that each action
is a cause from which evolves the countless ramifications of effect in time and
space. "That which ye sow ye reap." In some sphere of action
the harvest will be gathered. It is necessary that the man of action should
realize this truth. It is equally necessary that the manifestations of this law
in the operations of Karma should be clearly apprehended. Karma, broadly
speaking, may be said to be the continuance of the nature of the act, and each
act contains within itself the past and future.
Every
defect which can be realized from an act must be implicit in the act itself or
it could never come into existence. Effect is but the nature of the act and
cannot exist distinct from its cause. Karma only produces the manifestation of
that which already exists; being action it has its operation in time, and Karma
may therefore be said to be the same action from another point of time. It
must, moreover, be evident that not only is there a relation between the cause
and the effect, but there must also be a relation between the cause and the
individual who experiences the effect. If it were otherwise, any man would reap
the effect of the actions of any other man.
We
may sometimes appear to reap the effects of the action of others, but this is
only apparent.
In point of fact it is our own action.
...None else compels
None other holds you that ye live and die.
It
is therefore necessary in order to understand the nature of Karma and its
relation to the individual to consider action in
all its aspects. Every act
proceeds from the mind. Beyond the mind there is
no action and therefore no
Karma. The basis of every act is desire. The plane of
desire or egotism is
itself action and the matrix of every act. This plane
may be considered as
non-manifest, yet having a dual
manifestation in what we call cause and effect,
that is, the act and its consequences. In reality,
both the act and its
consequences are the effect, the
cause being on the plane of desire. Desire is
therefore the basis of action in its first
manifestation on the physical plane,
and desire determines the continuation of the act
in its karmic relation to the
individual.
For
a man to be free from the effects of the Karma of any act he must have passed
to a state no longer yielding a basis in which that act
can inhere. The ripples in the water caused by the action of the stone will
extend to the furthest limit of its expanse, but no further; they are bounded
by the shore. Their course is ended when there is no longer a basis or suitable
medium in which they can inhere; they expend their force and are not.
Karma
is, therefore, as dependent upon the present personality for its fulfillment,
as it was upon the former for the first initial act. An illustration may be
given
which will help to explain this. A seed, say for
instance mustard, will produce
a mustard tree and nothing else; but in order
that it should be produced, it is
necessary that the co-operation of soil and
culture should be equally present.
Without
the seed, however much the ground may be tilled and watered, it will not bring
forth the plant, but the seed is equally in-operative without the joint
action of the soil and culture. The first great result
of Karmic action is the
incarnation in physical life. The birth-seeking
entity consisting of desires and
tendencies, presses forward towards incarnation. It
is governed in the selection
of its scene of manifestation by the law of
economy. Whatever is the ruling
tendency, that is to say, whatever group of
affinities is strongest, those
affinities will lead it to the point of
manifestation at which there is the
least opposition. It incarnates in those surroundings
most in harmony with its
Karmic
tendencies and all the effects of actions contained in the Karma so
manifesting will be experienced by the individual.
This governs the station of
life, the sex, the conditions of the irresponsible
years of childhood, the
constitution with the various
diseases inherent in it, and in fact all those
determining forces of physical existence which are
ordinarily classed under the
terms, "heredity," and "national
characteristics." It is really the law of
economy which is the truth underlying these
terms and which explains them.
Take
for instance a nation with certain special characteristics. These are the plane
of expansion for any entity whose greatest number of affinities are in harmony with those characteristics. The incoming
entity following the law of least resistance becomes incarnated in that nation,
and all Karmic effects following such characteristics will accrue to the
individual. This will explain what is the meaning of such
expressions as the "Karma of nations," and what is true of the
nation will also apply to family and caste.
It
must, however, beremembered that there are many
tendencies which are not exhausted in the act of incarnation. It may happen
that the Karma which caused an entity to incarnate in any particular surrounding, was only strong enough to carry it into
physical existence. Being exhausted in that direction, freedom is obtained for
the manifestation of other tendencies and their Karmic effects. For instance,
Karmic force may cause an entity to incarnate in a humble sphere of life. He
may be born as the child of poor parents. The Karma follows the entity, endures
for a longer or shorter time, and becomes exhausted. From that point, the child
takes a line of life totally different from his surroundings. Other affinities engendered
by former action express themselves in their Karmic results. The lingering
effect of the past Karma may still manifest itself in the way of obstacles and
obstructions which are surmounted with varying degrees of success according to
their intensity. From the standpoint of a special creation for each entity
entering the world, there is vast and unaccountable injustice.
From
the standpoint of Karma, the strange vicissitudes and apparent chances of life
can be considered in a different light as the unerring manifestation of cause
and sequence. In a family under the same conditions of poverty and ignorance,
one child will be separated from the others and thrown into surroundings very
dissimilar. He may be adopted by a rich man, or
through some freak of fortune
receive an education giving him at once a
different position. The Karma of
incarnation being exhausted, other Karma asserts
itself. A very important
question is here presented: Can an individual
affect his own Karma, and if so to
what degree and in what manner?
It
has been said that Karma is the continuance of the act, and for any particular
line of Karma to exert itself it is necessary that there should be the basis of
the act engendering that Karma in which it can inhere and operate. But action
has many planes in which it can inhere. There is the physical plane, the body
with its senses and organs; then there is the intellectual plane, memory, which
binds the impressions of the senses into a consecutive whole and reason puts in
orderly arrangement its storehouse of facts.
Beyond
the plane of intellect there is the plane of emotion, the plane of
preference for one object rather than another: the
fourth principle of the man.
These
three, physical, intellectual, and emotional, deal entirely with objects
of sense perception and may be called the great
battlefield of Karma.1 There is
also the plane of ethics, the plane of discrimination
of the "I ought to do
this, I ought not to do that." This plane
harmonizes the intellect and the
emotions. All these are the planes of Karma or
action: what to do, and what not
to do. It is the mind as the basis of desire that
initiates action on the
various planes, and it is only through the mind
that the effects of rest and
action can be received. An entity enters incarnation
with Karmic energy from
past existences, that is to say the action of past
lives is awaiting its
development as effect. This Karmic energy presses
into manifestation in harmony with the basic nature of the act. Physical Karma
will manifest in the physical tendencies bringing enjoyment and suffering.
The
intellectual and the ethical planes are also in the same manner the result of
the past Karmic tendencies and the man as he is, with his moral and
intellectual faculties, is in unbroken continuity with the past. The entity at
birth has therefore a definite amount of Karmic energy.
After
incarnation this awaits the period in life at which fresh Karma begins. Up to
the time of responsibility it is as we have seen the initial Karma only that
manifests. From that time the fresh personality becomes the ruler of his own
destiny. It is a great mistake to suppose that an individual is the mere puppet
of the past, the helpless victim of fate.
The
law of Karma is not fatalism, and a little consideration will show that it is
possible for an individual to affect his own Karma. If a greater amount of
energy be taken up on one plane than on another this will cause the past Karma
to unfold itself on that plane. For instance, one who lives entirely on the
plane of sense gratification will from the plane beyond draw the energy
required for the
fulfillment of his desires. Let us illustrate by
dividing man into upper and
lower nature. By directing the mind and aspirations
to the lower plane, a "fire"
or centre of attraction, is set up there, and in
order to feed and fatten it,
the energies of the whole upper plane are drawn
down and exhausted in supplying the need of energy which exists below due to
the indulgence of sense
gratification.
On
the other hand, the centre of attraction may be fixed in the upper portion, and
then all the needed energy goes there to result in increase of spirituality. It
must be remembered that Nature is all bountiful and withholds not her hand. The
demand is made, and the supply will come. But at what cost?
That energy which should have strengthened the moral
nature and fulfilled the aspirations after good, is drawn to the lower desires.
By
degrees the higher planes are exhausted of vitality and the good and bad Karma
of an entity will be absorbed on the physical plane. If on the other hand the
interest is detached from the plane of sense gratification, if there is a
constant effort to fix the mind on the attainment of the highest ideal, the
result will be that
the past Karma will find no basis in which to
inhere on the physical plane.
Karma
will therefore be manifested only in harmony with the plane of desire. The
sense energy of the physical plane will exhaust
itself on a higher plane and
thus become transmuted in its effects. What are the
means through which the
effects of Karma can be thus changed is also
clear.
A
person can have no attachment for a thing he does not think about,
therefore the first step must be to fix the thought on the highest ideal. In
this connection one remark may be made on the subject of repentance. Repentance
is a form of thought in which the mind is constantly recurring to a sin. It has
therefore to be avoided if one would set the mind free from sin and its Karmic
results.
All
sin has its origin in the mind. The more the mind dwells on any course of
conduct, whether with pleasure or pain, the less chance is there for it to
become detached from such action. The manas (mind) is
the knot of the heart, when that is untied from any object, in other words when
the mind loses its interest in any object, there will no longer be a link
between the Karma connected with that object and the individual. It is the
attitude of the mind which draws the Karmic cords tightly round the soul. It
imprisons the aspirations and binds them with chains of difficulty and obstruction.
It
is desire that causes the past Karma to take form and shape and build the house
of clay. It must be through non-attachment that the soul will burst through the
walls of pain, it will be only through a change of mind that the Karmic burden will
be lifted. It will appear, therefore, that although absolutely true that action
brings its own result, "there is no destruction here of actions good or
not good.
Coming
to one body after another they become ripened in their respective ways."
Yet this ripening is the act of the individual. Free will of man asserts itself
and he becomes his own saviour. To the worldly man
Karma is a stern Nemesis, to the spiritual man Karma
unfolds itself in harmony with his highest aspirations. He will look with
tranquility alike on past and future, neither dwelling with
remorse on past sin nor living in expectation of
reward for present action.
The Theosophical Society,