KARMA: THE LAW OF COMPENSATION

We do not need to ask whether or not Karma exists in our life any more than we need to know if life itself exists.Whether or not we are consciously aware of Karma, it is a part of life and is within us. Karma is the term used by Rosicrucians and mystics of many traditions to mean the operation of the law of compensation. The word karma comes from the Sanskrit root "krm" and literally translated means "action". We act, either physical or through our thoughts, and receive in return the results of our actions.Our acts so to speak "press" against the collective consciousness of the universe, and this consciousness presses back" upon the reality of our life experience. On the physical plane, the law of compensation is expressed in the form of Isaac Newton's third law of motion: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. "And on the mental, emotional and psychic plane we can express it in the words of the master Jesus: "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

 In any form of energy utilization we see a good example of this principle. If i move the switch on the wall at the entrance to my office, the overhead lights come on immediately. This id because the cause, namely, the moving of the switch, brought about the closing of an electrical circuit and thereby mandate the manifestation of electricity in the form light. If the electrical circuit were connected to a motor, the motor would move. When petrol of diesel is placed in the tank of a car, the energy is the fuel is combusted and thereby converted into rotary energy which eventually manifests as the movement of the car. Unfortunately we do not fully understand the principle of physics that lie behind or manifest in the functioning of the law or laws of cause and effect, and even under primitive conditions, people have recognized to some extent the fact that such laws exist. Primitive people's interpretation was not always correct, but the realization of the law was nevertheless still present to a degree.


 Almost every superstition that exists in the world is due to human misinterpretation of the laws of cause and effect.Probably every superstition with which we may be familiar and which we, as a modern society,do not accept as fact any more, is based upon this principle. For example, it is considered unlucky to walk under a ladder leaning against a building. Maybe someone walked under a ladder at some time in the past and had an unfortunate experience immediately afterwards. Actually, there was no relationship between walking under the ladder and the event that followed, but the sequence of events was misinterpreted by the individual as a manifestation of the law of cause and effect. In other word,the found disagreeable, was interpreted as being the result of a cause that appeared to the individual to be walking under the ladder. All superstitions are based upon this same principle .


 The universal law that every condition that exists has something that start it to exist or causes it to manifest is misinterpreted. People do not know or have not yet attained a degree of intelligence and experience where they can take every isolated event and relate it to its true cause. Not long ago i was sitting at my desk when i suddenly developed the symptoms of an ordinary head cold or allergy. I had never had such symptoms developed so suddenly and so quickly. Now, obviously, that change in my physical condition was due to some circumstance or substance with which i had been in contact and resulted in the allergy symptoms that developed suddenly while i was least expecting them. I tried to relate the symptoms to the cause by a reviewing my behavior and experience of the past hours and days. Had i been exposed to a viral infection from someone? Was there something in the air, perhaps pollen, dust or some other foreign substance to which i was allergic or to which i was not accustomed? Was it due to a malfunctioning of the heating system that caused a radical change in temperature to which i was sensitive? I thought about all the possibilities but could arrive at no satisfactory answer.


 Now, if i had performed some act immediately before, such as looking over my right shoulder, breaking a mirror, or dropping some object, i might have gone the way of superstition and said that the allergy was caused by one of those acts. Thereby relating my physical condition to the breaking of a mirror or looking out of the window over my left shoulder, or dropping an object. If i made such an interpretation, it would be pure superstition. Sometimes we resort to superstition as an excuse, although we do not like to call it by such terminology. It is our acknowledgement of our inability to expand the cause of circumstances that we would like to explain, coupled with our desire to find and immediate cause-effed relationship so that we will have an understanding of every situation that exists in our experience.


 Defining Karma as "the law of compensation in action", throughout our lives events are occurring , and for some of them, we know what their causes are, i.e. we know what precipitated them. For example, if i picked up a razor blade without being careful, i would cut my finger. The fact that i picked up the razor blade carelessly and the razor blase was sharp would be the cause of the cut. There is no mystery is such a circumstance.The cause-effect relationship is very clear. But when we have a sudden influx or "good luck" and gain something that we might want, good health, or on the other hand, suffers poor health, an accident or other disaster, usually we cannot immediately relate such events to the cause. The cause is buried deeply in the background of either our present life or a past one. But we can be sure of one thing, the operation of the law of cause and effect, is an immutable law of the cosmic, and cannot be by passed. Therefore, we can be certain that for every one of our experiences there is a cause, or more likely, a series or many causes. To accept our experience as result of causes, some of which we know and some of which we do not know, is to help us in our general evolution. When events occur that are outstanding in their seriousness and impact upon our consciousness and environment, and we cannot relate them to a cause, we are naturally perplexed and confused, particularly if these experience are unfortunate, unfavorable or uncomfortable. We have a tendency to exaggerate the experiences that are not favorable and sometimes we pass by, without proper thanks or realization, the good things in life. We realize that every event in our lives to a cause, we know through logical reasoning, that such causes must exist. Manifestations of Karma in our lives are always due to cause that have their roots in past experience either of this life or another .


 Karma is neither good nor bad. All karma is a part of experience. We should constantly be thankful for the existence of karma though, and through the understanding that we have of the law of compensation, we should acknowledge with thanks every experience, whether that experience comfortable, uncomfortable, pleasant or unpleasant, whatever the experience is, it is part of the overall evolvement of our own selves;the rounding out of our experience through the fact that we are experiencing karma and reaping the results or the effects of the cause previously shown.


 Pleasant experience should be accepted with gratitude and the realization that the positive forces of the cosmic are expressing through us .Unpleasant experiences should also be accepted with gratitude and with the realization that as we experience them, despite being unpleasant to us, we are compensating for cause that are deep within us and that eventually must have an expression which, when over, proves the debt has been paid. At the same time, we should let every experience in life cause us to pause and think: Are we living at this moment in such a way as to lay the groundwork that will be causes of effects that will be of maximum benefit and, we hope, of pleasant experience to us in the future ?