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Law of Cause and Effect – Law of Karma

DHY course paper

By: Larry Harrington

At an early age, we are exposed to basic Cause and Effect actions, such as when a toy wagon is pushed, it moves. As well, in the non-physical realm we also learn that poor behavior generally has a negative effect or outcome as it often leads to some sort of punishment. So we become aware of the world of cause, leading to reaction/effect.
Every action has a series of consequences.

The esoteric teachings use the parable of the Tortoise and Hare race to the finish line to portray the significance of cause and effect and that every action has its consequences. The lesson is around the fact that the tortoise will finish first as the more thoughtful, careful, planned and patient approach will win over the helter skelter, distracted rushing around of the hare. We are told that if we rush and push meditation and esoteric work beyond our capacity, we can actually regress (hare) due to overstimulation as opposed to a more steady and measured approach (tortoise).

A somewhat deeper thought would be around the energy play concerning the hare – Effect and the tortoise – Cause. We could say that the hare is focused on outcomes, want and desire, or effects, while the tortoise is more focused on the steady stride and directedness, closer to the cause level – more the mindfulness or power of being in the ‘Now’, than the pure focus on winning.

The effects or outcomes level of the hare might correspond to the Sacral (desire) or Astral (want) level, while the cause or initiating of planned action of tortoise might correspond to the Throat (creative thinking or initiating), and Heart (pure reason over reactivity).

Regardless, Cause and Effect can be seen in the more mundane everyday world and not just in the interplay of karmic retribution for debt incurred over previous lifetimes.

In the spiritual world we are led to believe (through instruction and experience) that inappropriate actions will eventually lead to a Karmic lesson and that good actions lead to Dharma. As we witnessed Bill Clinton and Elliot Spitzer work through the embarrassment and public exposure of their actions, we feel a sense of relief that its not me (yet it is a learning) as well as compassion for their situation.

This whole area of Karma reminds me of a sign I recently read as I drove past a local church; it said: ‘God is not wanting to punish you, he is only trying to teach you’.

Behaviors that might be o.k. for someone of Lemurian consciousness are not o.k. for someone at or striving to Aryan consciousness.

The Business World

Understanding and applying Cause and Effect can also be a tool and a learning tool within the context of the business world and corporate culture. Often success in a business from the executive view point, is focused on the Effects such as Sales, Profits, Expenses, Share Price and while this is all completely necessary to attract investment and to create employment opportunity, it tends to ignore, or not pay enough attention to, the Cause level – where people transact the day to day business. As we focus on measuring Effects, we may manipulate the expense, sales, profit actions to the exclusion of other critical components, possibly to the point of immoral behavior , or at least, lost opportunity.

One way we can look at and study Cause and Effect in a business could be something like this:

The Transaction Level is where we conduct our day to day business – this is where our behaviors directly influence how we do business, either at a highly ethical and efficient manner, or not.

.. This is the level where the future results are created.

.. It is at the level where we can best influence the final (future) results or Effects and create the right conditions for growth and Profit.

.. Managing and measuring at the Transaction Level measures and influences the Cause rather than just the Effects.

A business that pays close attention to the Transaction (Cause) Level, from the executive on down, ensures that the strategy, business acumen, behaviors, ethics and moral compass of the company is well enshrined throughout. The executives can’t help but concentrate on people management while focused on this level, rather than just on the financial (Effects) results. Creating the right conditions that lead to growth, Profit and high share price ensures the business is managed far closer to the Cause level, than the pure focus on Effects or outcomes.

I believe we can see the parallels between this overview of a business model and how Cause and Effect influences our own behaviors and success. You could say that the business transaction or cause level that represents where we create the conditions for the business outcomes, mirrors our own individual day to day, moment to moment behavior patterns at the cause level and this is the key area of influence for our spiritual growth and relinquishing of karma.

Looking at ‘Businesses’ (or any organization) another way, we cannot help but notice the working of karma in a group setting.

Blair Little (S.E.Q.L.) has often said that a business is really only a convenience for humans to work together for a cause beyond themselves and success could be measured with the inner growth of people and their communities, rather than the current overemphasis on stock price/profits. We get ‘people done’ through work just as much as work is done through people.

With any sizeable business we need a C.E.O. who sets the tone (as the President/C.E.O. goes so goes the company). The C.E.O.’s karma will attract certain people, especially in the executive and management area, in a karmic group setting. Possibly to challenge the C.E.O.’s weakness’s so he can rise to the occasion and the C.E.O. will also challenge and pressure employees to come in line with his vision and strategy and moral code of conduct.

As well, the company could have a so called karmic debt represented by the employee group, that attracts a certain C.E.O. with similar interactions as mentioned above.

Blair, Little, (SEQL); So, to work out the karma you bring the personality to harmony and integration by revealing the business’s karmic debt which is the collective karma of the collection of employees, through the infusion of ‘right’ human energy. You focus on the ‘human’ interaction – how humans deal with each other, how a high purpose that serves humanity inspires, how right human relations are fostered. The business is the arena in which the people play out, as a group, their own individual and together, a group karma payout. The trappings of the business can represent the physical, emotional, mental vehicle that is the arena for the soul to fight its way through the personalities.

I have observed an international C.E.O. who seemed arrogant, become humbled over time as his mistakes piled up, including his choosing some wrong people to run certain divisions, received poor advice and/or didn’t listen to good advice. Things ended in failure and he just couldn’t come around to dealing with people or his business from the heart.. it seemed to be all about him.

Having worked with C.E.O.’s who do connect from the high astral/heart, they where able to bring people onside and these people came along at least to a certain extent, for the good of the whole. The executive group learned to live by the C.E.O.’s code and became proud of it, or left.

Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and I believe Jack Welch are seen as great and inspirational leaders that helped others forget about themselves and pull together for the group. The former president of AIG, was known as a very tough person/C.E.O. that was impossible to please and he made many people very successful from the shear force of his will. He was impossible to work for with any sense of comfort or job security, yet most of these same people loved to be at AIG as they were so very successful and knew that they worked for the best. Friends of mine from AIG tell me that they worked hard and demanded a lot from themselves and employees and were certainly much better for it as people and team players.

I’ve envisioned a board game being developed that would incorporate a company with a C.E.O., management team and employees. We start with a purpose, then develop a business model then pick the attributes (including astrology, and possible karmic obligations) for the C.E.O., and then determine the options for the type and karma of key executives and so forth. They would in turn attract staff that could work out their individual and group karma. The personality elements of; physical (location, bricks and mortar), emotional (Relationship of participants), mental (decision making and market strategy) along with Board chairman (Soul energy/fixed design) could be considered in the mix and the goal is to bring this to harmony and develop right human relations with an effective and profitable business.

In another example, Bernie Madoff and the former president of World Com. are both doing what is effectively life in prison for fraud which is I suppose some karmic rebalancing for bad judgment that may lead to more remedial work in future life times. My sense is that they need to come back and pay restitution to those affected.

Disease
Karma also governs all disease whether it be individual, group, national or collective humanity. For the individual it is based on the blocking of the free life of the soul and overall energy and its presence in excess as it pours through the centers, or its deficiency.

Disease has three main influences or sources:

1. Ancient mistakes, so-called sins and errors of the individual concerned, committed in this life or another earlier incarnation.

1. Human taints and predispositions, inherited in common with all the rest of humanity.
2. Planetary evil, incident to the point achieved by the planetary Logos and conditioned by planetary Karma.

It seems we are relatively free from disease as commonly understood once we take the 3^rd initiation, which is also when the bulk of kamic liabilities have been resolved along with Saturn’s influence as an influence for holding us to account.

The Tibetan mentions that liberation has played a role in making Cause and Effect evident from a world wide perspective and he gives four key examples.

1. The life of Christ Himself: He, for the first time, presented the idea of the sacrifice of the unit, consciously and deliberately offered for the service of the whole. There had been other world saviours, but the issues involved had not so clearly been expressed, because the mind of man had not been ready to grasp the implications. Service is the keynote of liberation. Christ was the ideal server.

1. The signing of the Magna Charta: Here the idea of liberation from an imposed authority was presented with the emphasis upon the personal liberty and rights of the individual. The growth and development of this basic idea, mental concept and formulated perception falls into four phases or chapters:

1. The signing of the Magna Charta, emphasizing personal liberty.

1. The founding of the French Republic with its emphasis upon human liberty.
2. The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, determining national policy.
3. The Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms bring the whole question into the international field, and guaranteeing to men and women everywhere in the world liberty and freedom to develop the divine reality within themselves.

The ideal has been gradually clarified so that today the mass of men everywhere know what are the basic essentials of happiness.

1. The emancipation of the slaves: The spiritual idea of human liberty, which had become a recognized ideal, became a demanding desire, and a great symbolic happening took place – freedom from slavery became a reality and an ongoing spiritual demand.
2. The liberation of humanity by the United Nations: We are participating in a great spectacular and symbolic happening and are watching it in process. The liberation of the individual has moved onward through the symbolic liberation of a section of humanity to the liberation of millions of human beings. (Although the U.N. currently has a credibility issue due to its lack of effectiveness around enforcing human rights.)

As a further illustration, if the nations that are members of the U.N. were enforced to hold a certain basic protection and care of human rights (cause) for their own citizens or as a consequence lose their privilege of voting, until remedied, the U.N. would finally be able to go beyond making pronouncements, to action and achieve desired effects. .

One important event in history that is not mentioned by the Tibetan is that a few hundred years ago the British army entered the Clan of Donald in Scotland under false pretense in that they said they arrived only to rest and refresh. Actually it was a plot to wipe out the Clan and due to a number of issues, it failed as they managed to only kill 30 or so of the Clan of which the majority where children that died due to exposure as the children ran away to hide. This caused a huge uproar not only in the U.K., but in Europe as well and the British government passed a law that the national army was forbidden to attack its own citizens… and it was adopted internationally.

The Tibetan goes on to say that what has really been happening in the lives of individuals, in the lives of nations and in the life of humanity is a tremendous move to put right most ancient evil, to offset consciously the Law of Cause and Effect by a recognition of the causes in the personal, national and international worlds which have produced the effects under which humanity suffers.

The Law of Karma is now a great and incontrovertible fact in the consciousness of humanity everywhere. We may not call it by that name but we are well aware that in all recent past and todays events the nations are reaping that which they have sown.

Why does, or what does bring in the factor of cause and effect with constant inevitability. Historical conditions, the relationships between nations, social taboos, religious convictions and tendencies can all be traced to originating causes , some of them most ancient. Everything that is happening in the world today and which is so potently affecting humanity – things of beauty and of horror, modes of living, civilization and culture, prejudices and likings, scientific attainment and artistic expression and the many ways in which humanity throughout the planet colors existence – are aspects of effects, initiated somewhere, on some level at some time, by human beings, both individually and en masse.

Karma is therefore that which Man – the Heavenly Man in whom we live, humanity as a whole, mankind in groups as nations, and individual man has instituted, carried forward, endorsed, omitted to do or has done right through the ages until the present moment.

From the angle of disease, the etheric body is a focusing point for all the interior energies of the body, and therefore the energy transmitted will not be pure vital energy or simple planetary prana but will be qualified by forces coming from the astral or the emotional apparatus, from the mind or from the soul body. These ‘qualifications of force’, indicating the karma of the individual, are in the last analysis the major conditioning forces. They indicate the point of development of the individual and the areas of control in his personality. They therefore indicate the state of his karma. This lifts the whole subject of medicine into the psychological field and posits the entire problem of karmic effects and of ray types.

Cause of disease can also be found in the karmic effect of the three planetary diseases: Cancer, Tuberculosis, sexual diseases. Someday medicine will realize that behind every single disease lie these three main tendencies in the human body.

Spiritual Growth

From a spiritual perspective, our task is to stop dealing with and reacting to Effects and focus on the world of Causes. This leads us to the conclusion and necessity of soul contact as it is only at the soul level of consciousness that we can see the causes lying behind the current effects. It is necessary to take action with as full an understanding of the probable following effects as possible. We are in essence, directing agents.

The Law of Karma (cause and effect) ensures that we balance and workout all of our past obligations and we are told that there are three kinds of Karma.

Sutras, pg. 145

1. Latent Karma: Those seeds and causes which are yet undeveloped and inactive and must work out to fruition in some part of the present or subsequent lives.

1. Active Karma: Those seeds or causes which are in fruition and for which the present life is intended to provide the needed soil for the flowering forth.
2. New Karma: Those seeds or causes which are being produced in this life, and which must inevitably govern the circumstances of some future life.

The sutra goes on to tell us that we must begin by dealing with active karma, interpreting each life-event and every circumstance as providing conditions wherein he can work through a certain specified series or effects. Endeavour to watch our thoughts that new seeds are not sown so that no future karma can be brought to fruition in some later life. The seeds of latent karma are more difficult and it is here that the Master can help by manipulating his circumstances to work out the karma more quickly.

It seems that all of the past life memory the soul holds within needs to be worked out and balanced. Pg. 394, sutras, “No matter what the race may have been, no matter in what continent, past or present, a life may have been passed, and no matter how distant that life may be or how many millennia of years may have elapsed, the memory remains with the ego or soul. In due time, under proper adjustment, every cause then initiated must inevitably work out into effects and those effects will appear, working out in some one life. Nothing can prevent it.”

Karma needs to be worked out before we can leave the wheel of re-birth and so symbolically we need to realize the tree of life has its roots above, in the mental plane, and flowering into expression on the physical plane. We must ‘lay the axe’ to the roots on the mental plane and deal with the thoughts and desires which ultimately produce the physical consequences and circumstances (body.)

Rebirth

We are told that we cycle (re-birth) until all karma has been resolved and the scales balanced. The term immortality infers timelessness and tells us that this timelessness exists, after Saturn has done its work (father time), for that which is not perishable or conditioned by time.

The Tibetan says we do not reincarnate under any time consideration, but we do cycle under the demands of:

.. Karmic Liability

..The pull of that which the soul has initiated

.. A sensed need to fulfill instituted obligations.

.. A sense of responsibility.

.. To meet requirements from an earlier breaking of the laws governing right human relations.

When these requirements, soul necessities, experience and responsibilities have all been met, we enter permanently ‘into the clear cold light of love and life’ and no longer need the experience on Earth.

Although we are free of the karmic impositions here, we are still under the impulse of karmic necessity which exacts from us the last possible ounce of service that we can give under the Law of Karmic Liability.

We have three aspects of the Law of Karma, as it affects the principle of re-birth. Pg. 405, E.H.

1.”The Law of Karmic Liability, governing life in the three worlds of human evolution, and which is ended altogether at the fourth initiation.

2. The Law of Karmic Necessity. This governs the life of the advanced disciple and the initiate from the time of the second initiation until a certain initiation higher than the fourth; these initiations enable him to pass on to the Way of the Higher Evolution.

3. The Law of Karmic Transformation, a mysterious phrase governing the processes undergone upon the Higher Way. These fit the initiate to pass off the cosmic physical plane altogether, and to function upon the cosmic mental plane. It is concerned with the release of those like Sanat Kumara, and His Associates in the Council Chamber at Shamballa, from the imposition of cosmic desire which demonstrates upon our cosmic physical as spiritual will.

Origins

The Law of Cause and Effect (West), Karma (East), must be regarded in reality as the effect (in the form life of our planet) of causes, deep-seated and hidden in the mind of God.

It seems the origins of Karma can be traced back to the earliest of times, to the primordial substance and to creation itself. The world is constructed of substance which is already tainted with the karma of a previous solar system. As well, the seven rays or streams of force are somewhat tainted by the limitations of these great beings that are the planetary logoi of our sacred and non-sacred planets.

If the great informing Lives of the planets within our solar system are imperfect, the effect of this imperfection must inevitably affect Their planetary creations, Their bodies of manifestation, and thus introduce a karmic condition over which the individual human being has absolutely no control, but within which he moves and which he shares.

The seven great energies manifest as dualities and produce when anchored in one body (planetary, man or atom) an area or cycle of distress which produces the evolutionary urge and in itself the ‘cause’ of manifestation, while the ‘effects’ (karma) are the liberation ultimately of the perfected one.

We reap what we have sown, whether we are a man or a nation.

In Cosmic Fire we are told the types of Karma in detail and that we should bear in mind that Karma is imposed upon the ensouling entity through the medium of matter or of substance itself (which is colored by it) and that this matter or substance is intelligent material composed of deva essence. This notion of ‘deva essence’ is important in that with the 7^th ray now cycling into manifestation will influence all forms and will be a major impact in the deva kingdom that I will touch on once we numerate the types of Karma.

Cosmic Karma: Imposed upon the solar Logos from outside the system.

Systemic Karma: The working out by the Logos of effects set in motion in previous Kalpas, and which influence His present type of body.

Planetary Karma: The individual karma of a Heavenly Man, which is just as different from that of another Heavenly Man, as is the karma of the different members of the human family.

The Karma of a chain: Which is bound up in the life experience of that entity who ensouls a chain, and is a centre in the body of a Heavenly Man, in the same sense as a Heavenly Man within His scheme is a centre in the body of the solar logos.

Globe Karma: The individual destiny of the entity who is a centre in the body of the ensouling Life of a chain.

These five existences above enumerated, who are worked upon by karma, are all cosmic and solar Lords of Light, Who achieved intelligence, and passed through the human kingdom many kalpas ago.

Plane Karma: This is inextricably mixed up with the karma of the planetary Logos and of the Raja-Lord, and is dependent upon the interplay between these two opposite poles, the masculine and feminine aspect of the Divine Hermaphrodite.

The Karma of a subplane: Or the destiny of certain lesser entities who manifest through these planes.

In these two types of karma above, we have what one could term the ‘Karma of the Hierarchies’ as it has been brought about since the manifesting of the solar system. It is the result of the past of this system, and not so much the working out of effects originating in previous solar systems.

The Karma of the kingdom of nature as we know them on this planet:

1. The mineral kingdom

1. The vegetable kingdom
2. The animal kingdom

This is the karma of the different lunar Lords who ensoul these kingdoms, and who are working out their purpose through them. We have touched upon cosmic, solar, and lunar karma.

The Karma of the Human Hierarchy:

1. World karma

1. Racial karma, or the destiny and purpose of each root-race.
2. Subrace karma, for each subrace has its own destiny to work out.
3. National karma
4. Family karma
5. Individual karma

We are told that these different karmas are intertwined and bound up in a manner inconceivable and inextricable to man or even the adepts themselves.

Remembering as earlier mentioned, that the deva kingdom and human evolution are related through karma. We need to be aware that the incoming Ray 7 force we will be closely associated to the devas and will facilitate a closer relationship than has previously been evident. This will not be an entirely beneficent relationship due to the evolutionary status of the various groupings within the human kingdom, and until the true method of contact and exchange is comprehended and the consequent association wisely utilized, suffering will eventuate and even the possibility of bitter experience undergone. We must remember that the devas are the mother aspect, the great builders of form and the nourishes of that which is as yet unable to guard itself, any return of man to a closer dependence upon the devas is as if a full grown man returned to the care of his mother, offering up his self-reliance in exchange for material benefit. The devas are the mother of the form, but the self-conscious unit, Man, should realize his independence of the form and should follow the path of ‘Self-determination and creative expression’. I would therefore conclude that it would be disastrous to contact the deva kingdom at this point to, for instance, further material gain - Another karmic pothole on the path of life.

Cosmic Fire covers much more of the issues around the Deva kingdom and Karma.

Astrology

Esoteric Astrology, pg. 105. “Saturn is the Lord of Karma, the imposer of retribution and the one who demands full payment of all debts and who therefore condemns us to the struggle for existence both from the form side and from the soul side.”

Once we are finished with the Common and experience on the Fixed crosses, we are released from further karma and Saturn’s influence as Saturn cannot follow us onto the Cardinal cross which we begin to mount after the 3^rd initiation. What is known as esoteric Saturn then begins to influence the life and direction of the initiate as he proceeds onto the buddhic plane of intuitive response to Life.

The 3^rd ray pours through Capricorn to Saturn and this 3^rd ray controls not only the daily life of karmic liability upon the path of evolution, but also controls the experience and processes of evolution. Saturn is regarded as the planetary Dweller on the Threshold, for humanity as a whole and brings about those conditions or opportunities in order to face that Dweller as well as the Angel of the Presence and in doing this discovers that both the Dweller as well as the Angel are that complex duality which is the human family.

The Tibetan tells us that many believe we can just wait for happenings (karma) to work things out over time, whether it be a man or a nation. However, he says that if there is a static condition or quiescent attitude, the process moves slowly and the life within the form fails to register, respond and experience the needed forceful awakening. Only through conscious active resistance to evil can karma be brought to an end.

To aid and inaugurate the new world order, based on Spiritual will, drive and aspiration, mental freedom, loving understanding and physical plane rhythm, energy from Shamballa is fused and blended with the organizing energy of the 7^th ray and carried to humanity along the stream of love which originates from the Hierarchy. Pisces governs this effort due to its relationship with mediatorship. The Hierarchy stands as a ‘mediating transmitter’ between humanity and its karma, for it is equally essential that the laws for the transmutation of karma into active present good are clearly grasped.

Astology Illumined, pg. 24. Saturn in our chart tells us the type of karma we have chosen to work with in this life and the arena in which that will transpire (house, sign etc.). Once we have started to address karma, our dharma or life work can unfold. Dharma is our highest duty or our duty to a greater whole. For instance, Gandhi unified India and Mother Theresa worked with the poor.

Om- Union through Astrology. Pg. 263. Saturn is the Lord of Karma, the custodian of the law of the 3^rd aspect of Deity – the Great architect of the Universe. He is the overseer who takes the Masters plan and sees to it that the building of the Temple of the Lord adheres to the exact design. This temple is the egoic lotus – the body of the soul. Saturn ensures its correct construction. Saturn uses the law of Karma to bring this about. This is the impersonal law of universal harmony, which forces people who have made mistakes, to make the necessary corrections. However, this law only becomes operational at an advanced level – when the intelligence is functioning (ignorance is bliss) and people know right from wrong.

The final development and beautification of the lotus occurs on the Path of Discipleship. Both Saturn and Mercury oversee this path. Saturn offers the opportunity to demonstrate wise choice and correct decision through adversity. For the more advanced it presents an opportunity to take initiation, by bringing the personality life into line with divine law and correcting any imbalances of the past. Saturn toughens and strengthens us, shaping us into ever greater likeness of the soul.

Our attitude to Saturn determines where we stand upon the path – if we see adversity and difficult situations as opportunities to grow and move forward and not as disaster, then we are on the Path in truth and in deed and not just theoretically.

Saturn rules the throat chakra, the center through which the lower mind expresses its force. This association of Saturn with mind is the reason why Saturn demands that we think carefully and make correct moral choices. This is also why verbalizing harmful thoughts brings a karmic backlash. Saturn monitors our words carefully. As we obey Saturn and begin to think with intelligence and discrimination, desire force that normally flows down to feed the sexual-sacral force, begins to flow up and out the throat chakra. This is a first major step in spiritual development.

Retribution

Looking at Karma as more than retribution is important if we are to look back of the effects or results of bad behavior.

We should consider that our bad behavior is an effect and the cause is an energy glitch in our system, from one of the 3 Karmic seeds. That ‘glitch’ may cause me to steal due to a perceived lack, or injure or be hateful due to a sense of separation, so the task is to clarify the energy field, clear the static, through mediation, study, selfless thoughts and behavior, positive thinking etc. – which we have discovered through trial and error gives us better results. Clarifying the energy field gives the soul more freedom to flow. So its possible that the karma clearing need not be wholly a balancing of accounts, but more a clearing of that root energy glitch that is behind (cause) the bad behavior.

Conclusion

From the angle of creation and the universe, the 7 great energies may be imperfect, yet they contain the perfect ‘will to good’ within them and this is more potent in the long run than the ‘will to harm’.

Man is intended to be the intelligent arbiter of his own destiny, and a conscious exponent of his own innate divinity and not a helpless victim of circumstance.

Some evidence of humanity clearing the Karmic energy field can be seen when we consider the 10 commandments from the bible, for instance ‘though shall not kill’ which may have been somewhat of a new concept at the time, but today we know it is wrong. With what we know and face today, it would be interesting to consider a new list of 10 commandments.

Attempting to live as soul and obey Saturn by making the necessary adjustments along the line of what the ‘personality’ will see as sacrifice, takes focus and dogged determination. Once we accept these facts, we are ready to turn around and hold the life and light upwards and we are ‘on the way’.