The following, among others not yet used, were given to me by teachers,
among them being H. P. Blavatsky. Some were written, others communicated in
other ways. To me they were declared to be from manuscripts not now accessible
to the general public.
Each one was submitted for my judgment and reason; and just as they,
aside from any authority, approved themselves to my reason after serious
consideration of them, so I hope they will gain the approval of those my fellow
workers to whom I now publish them:
1) There is no Karma unless there
is a being to make it or feel its effects.
2) Karma is the adjustment of
effects flowing from causes, during which the being upon whom and through whom
that adjustment is effected experiences pain or pleasure.
3) Karma is an undeviating and
unerring tendency in the Universe to restore equilibrium, and it operates
incessantly.
4) The apparent stoppage of this
restoration to equilibrium is due to the necessary adjustment of disturbance at
some other spot, place, or focus which is visible only to the Yogi, to the
Sage, or the perfect Seer: there is therefore no stoppage, but only a hiding
from view.
5) Karma operates on all things
and beings from the minutest conceivable atom up to Brahma. Proceeding in the
three worlds of men, gods, and the elemental beings, no spot in the manifested
universe is exempt from its sway.
6) Karma is not subject to time,
and therefore he who knows what is the ultimate division of time in this
Universe knows Karma.
7) For all other men Karma is in
its essential nature unknown and unknowable.
8) But its action may be known by
calculation from cause to effect; and this calculation is possible because the
effect is wrapped up in and is not succedent to the cause.
9) The Karma of this earth is the
combination of the acts and thoughts of all beings of every grade which were
concerned in the preceding Manvantara or evolutionary stream from which ours
flows.
10) And as those beings include
Lords of Power and Holy Men, as well as weak and wicked ones, the period of the
earth's duration is greater than that of any entity or race upon it.
11) Because the Karma of this
earth and its races began in a past too far back for human minds to reach, an
inquiry into its beginning is useless and profitless.
12) Karmic causes already set in
motion must be allowed to sweep on until exhausted, but this permits no man to
refuse to help his fellows and every sentient being.
13) The effects may be
counteracted or mitigated by the thoughts and acts of oneself or of another,
and then the resulting effects represent the combination and interaction of the
whole number of causes involved in producing the effects.
14) In the life of worlds, races,
nations, and individuals, Karma cannot act unless there is an appropriate instrument
provided for its action.
15) And until such appropriate
instrument is found, that Karma related to it remains unexpended.
16) While a man is experiencing
Karma in the instrument provided, his other unexpended Karma is not exhausted
through other beings or means, but is held reserved for future operation; and
lapse of time during which no operation of that Karma is felt causes no
deterioration in its force or change in its nature.
17) The appropriateness of an
instrument for the operation of Karma consists in the exact connection and
relation of the Karma with the body, mind, intellectual and psychical nature
acquired for use by the Ego in any life.
18) Every instrument used by any
Ego in any life is appropriate to the Karma operating through it.
19) Changes may occur in the instrument during one life so as to make it
appropriate for a new class of Karma, and this may take place in two ways: (a)
through intensity of thought and the power of a vow, and (b) through natural
alterations due to complete exhaustion of old causes.
20) As body and mind and soul
have each a power of independent action, any one of these may exhaust,
independently of others, some Karmic causes more remote from or nearer to the
time of their inception than those operating though other channels.
21) Karma is both merciful and
just. Mercy and Justice are only opposite poles of a single whole; and Mercy
without Justice is not possible in the operations of Karma. That which man
calls Mercy and Justice is defective, errant, and impure.
22) Karma may be of three sorts
(a) Presently operative in this life through the appropriate instruments; (b)
that which is being made or stored up to be exhausted in the future; (c) Karma
held over from past life or lives and not operating yet because inhibited by
inappropriateness of the instrument in use by the Ego, or by the force of Karma
now operating.
23) Three fields of operation are
used in each being by Karma: (a) the body and the circumstances; (b) the mind
and intellect; (c) the psychic and astral planes.
24) Held-over Karma or present
Karma may each, or both at once, operate in all of the three fields of Karmic
operation at once, or in either of those fields a different class of Karma from
that using the others may operate at the same time.
25) Birth into any sort of body
and to obtain the fruits of any sort of Karma is due to the preponderance of
the line of Karmic tendency.
26) The sway of Karmic tendency
will influence the incarnation of an Ego, or any family of Egos, for three
lives at least, when measures of repression, elimination, or counteraction are
not adopted.
27) Measures taken by an Ego to
repress tendency, eliminate defects, and to counteract by setting up different
causes, will alter the sway of Karmic tendency and shorten its influence in
accordance with the strength or weakness of the efforts expended in carrying
out the measures adopted.
28) No man but a sage or true
seer can judge another's Karma. Hence while each receives his deserts
appearances may deceive, and birth into poverty or heavy trial may not be
punishment for bad Karma, for Egos continually incarnate into poor surroundings
where they experience difficulties and trials which are for the discipline of
the Ego and result in strength, fortitude, and sympathy.
29) Race-Karma* influences each
unit in the race through the law of Distribution. National Karma operates on
the members of the nation by the same law more concentrated. Family Karma
governs only with a nation where families have been kept pure and distinct; for
in any nation where there is a mixture of family (as obtains in each Kali-Yuga
period) family Karma is in general distributed over a nation. But even at such
periods some families remain coherent for long periods, and then the members
feel the sway of family Karma. The word "family" may include several
smaller families.
30) Karma operates to produce
cataclysms of nature by concatenation through the mental and astral planes of
being. A cataclysm may be traced to an immediate physical cause such as
internal fire and atmospheric disturbance, but these have been brought on by
the disturbance created through the dynamic power of human thought.
31) Egos who have no Karmic
connection with a portion of the globe where a cataclysm is coming on are kept
without the latter's operation in two ways: (a) by repulsion acting on their
inner nature, and (b) by being called and warned by those who watch the
progress of the world.
(* Note: the word “race” here does not mean ethnicity, but concerns
Life-Waves of incarnating human beings.)
(The Path, March 1893, p.366-369)
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