Anthony J. Fisichella...
Karma - Part 2
If with trust and faith you will share your blessings, meager though they seem, then they will be increased. Hold back and nature will hold back in response. Serve and your power to serve will be magnified. It is in this manner that a “divine circulatory flow” is established within your being and between you and nature which shall cleanse, heal, uplift, and enrich your life, and all those so touched.
Failing to recognize this karmic relationship of give and take, cause and effect, and action and reaction, we have created a society where the individuals demand more for doing less. Since this is a violation of the “Law” and is not karmically possible, our inflationary economy sees the escalation of dollars outstripping the growth in standards. We are caught in a numbers game, and we are literally chasing our own tail. Some estimates see the average family income in the year 2050 up to $650,000 per year, continuing at our current pace. I would hate to think what a loaf of bread will cost.
In the event you’re thinking, “That will have no effect on me, I’ll be gone by then,” I would remind you of the reincarnating process and the likelihood that you will be back to face the mess we are collectively creating.
The questions that are often raised at this point in the discussion of karma relate to whether or not karmic conditions can be changed. The answer depends upon the context within which the question is asked. There are two categories within which karma may be viewed. There are life scenarios which should be defined as “fixed karma,” and others that would appropriately be referred to as “mutable karma.” This is to be understood within the context of an incarnation, since all karma is ultimately changeable.
Fixed karma implies a permanent relationship such as a parent, brother, sister, or child, or a condition such as race, color, or nationality. These are scenarios that are fixed for your present incarnation and cannot be changed. Sex used to fall into this category but with the advent of sex change operations we have to assign this now to the mutable category.
A fixed karma is a condition that you must work through during the present incarnation if you are to proceed in your evolutionary growth. To do otherwise is to compound the karmic predicament. A fixed karma is not a condition you can throw over or escape. To try this is to incur more karmic liabilities. You may reject your child/children or your parent(s) but you cannot change the fact. After all, why would you reject your parents(s) or child/children if not out of fear, anger, or resentment? These destructive seeds will bloom too and bear fruit creating another karmic predicament you shall have to work through. Rejecting the demands of a fixed karmic condition ends up by simply reinforcing the condition and postponing the inevitable. You incarnated within your present life script because it is perfect for your growth that you should have that one. Fixed karma is embodied in the Biblical injunction: “What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.” Stay with it!
On the other hand, mutable karma, as the name implies, is changeable karma within an incarnation. Friendship is a mutable karma. Some of the friends you had in childhood just slipped out of your life without struggle or conflict. The relationship simply dissolved quietly. Your association with a bridge club, or bowling team, or some other chosen group or activity is a mutable karma and may be changed at will when you no longer resonate with the activity or individuals involved. Be certain, however, that the condition has run its course and that you are not copping out on some unfinished business. A good rule of thumb is, if you feel you have to get away from a situation, if you feel like running because you can’t handle whatever is going on, there is, in all likelihood, some residual stuff in the relationship that needs to be dealt with. Deal with it or it will haunt you until you do. In the final analysis, you cannot escape the growth demands of your Soul.
Turning to religious scriptures, we read, “Whatsoever thou sowest, that also shall ye reap.” That is karma! “He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.” Again, karma! “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” is also karma; but, I must hastily point out “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord,” lest you believe it to be your prerogative to exact compensation. It is within the working order of nature that proper, just, and equitable compensation or retribution will be fulfilled, and we, individually and collectively, are reaping the karmic outgrowth of our past mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual activities at each moment—activities that may have been initiated in the present incarnation, or in some previous cycle through which we have passed.
In other words, a cause set in motion may produce a discernible effect immediately, or on the other hand, may initiate a chain reaction, the result of which may not become apparent until the far distant future. We are, therefore, at each moment of our lives, sowing seeds that will condition our future environment, and simultaneously reaping the harvest of causes sown in days gone by.
I am not suggesting that a specific cause initiated in your last or an earlier incarnation will produce an equivalent effect in your present one, though this is the generally accepted notion. Contrary to popular belief, there is no time lag between cause and effect. Every cause has an instantaneous effect. Cause and effect are two sides of one coin, two aspects of the same thing, so inextricably interwoven that the one may not be found in the absence of the other. Built into every cause, is its effect. One of the capacities of an enlightened being is his ability to see the effect in the cause, even before it is initiated. For many of us the effect of any given action is not known or understood until after the cause has been set in motion, and then it may be too late. And, of course, in many instances we fail entirely to see the connection between an action and its reaction.
Let’s take an example. You plant a grain of corn in some fertile soil and three months later find yourself harvesting a fully grown corn stalk. The generally accepted idea of the karmic relationship between these two events would be to define the process as follows: Cause: “I plant a grain of corn.” Effect: “I harvest a corn stalk.” This is the equivalent of saying, “I did something in my last incarnation and I am harvesting the fruit of it now.” Certainly, in one sense this is true, but it is a rather simplistic view of karma. The cause—planting the kernel of corn—produced an immediate effect, germination. The corn stalk should be viewed as the ultimate effect of a long series of actions and reactions, a chain reaction of causes and effects including those initiated by rain, sunlight, and the mineral content of the fertile soil. Without these contributing causes, the final effect of “cornstalk” would not be forthcoming. Every cause has an instant, though maybe not discernible, effect. It’s all instant karma.
Another analogy: having placed a stone under a water drip, you observe the drops of water hitting the smooth flat surface of the stone and perceive no discernible change in it. Concluding that the dripping water has had no effect, you leave the scene. Years later, upon your return, you discover the stone now disfigured with a hole through its center. Unless you choose to assume that someone has replaced the original stone, you must conclude that the dripping water has eroded the stone and created the hole. Clearly, the hole is not the result of any one single drop and yet each drop must have had its effect. The hole is therefore a composite effect. Such is the nature of karma.
As the condition of the stone, at any given moment, is the aggregate result of its exposure to and interaction with the dripping water and any other environmental forces with which it is in contact, so too, you are at any given moment the aggregate result of your interaction with the environment in past and present incarnations, up to that moment. Each thought, emotion, or action, for better or for worse, builds or erodes our health, wealth, and wisdom. Every attack of fear and anxiety builds toward a potential ulcer. Every experience of hatred and resentment disrupts the body’s natural energy flow, leading to potentially dire results. Love, faith, and compassion, on the other hand, have a healing and soothing effect. The bottom line is this: every experience in the conscious, subconscious, or super-conscious, instantly leaves its indelible mark and an individual’s constitution is the accumulative effect of it all.
There is a current trend toward “life readings” among those interested in psychic phenomena who are searching for past causes to current problems. For those unfamiliar with the idea of life readings, it is an attempt on the part of a psychic to read your past incarnations in order to discover your karma. That’s the equivalent of searching for the one water drop that created the hole in the stone. If you want to discover your karma, look in the mirror. You’re it.
There is no single cause for our present circumstances, nor is there a past action whose effect has been held in abeyance till now. We may find the first initiating cause in a life trend, but it is the continual reinforcement of that mode of action or habitual thought pattern that has made it a force to be reckoned with in the present. In any event, understanding one’s past doesn’t necessarily lead to change. Yet change we must if we are to alter our karmic patterns.
Admittedly, the conditions you are faced with in your present incarnation may have originated in the initiated actions of some previous cycle, but they are not the result of one cause. They are the accumulated effects of many causes. More often than not, the missing variable exists in consciousness. This applies to each of us as individuals and also the family of man en masse.
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