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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

 

Reincarnation On Trial

the doctrine of Karma misunderstands and misconstrues the nature of suffering, spirituality, and what it means to be human

 

 

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The concept of karma is closely associated with reincarnation. The word karma is from the Sanskrit, meaning "action, fate." Here are definitions of karma, from various web sources:

 
"the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person's deeds in the previous incarnation"

"the principle of retributive justice determining a person's state of life and the state of his reincarnations as the effect of his past deeds"

"the doctrine of inevitable consequence, destiny, or fate"

"the sum of a person's actions in one life, which determine his form in the next"

"the law of karma says only this: for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful"

The Dalai Lama: "Countless rebirths lie ahead, both good and bad. The effects of karma (actions) are inevitable, and in previous lifetimes we have accumulated negative karma which will inevitably have its fruition in this or future lives. Just as someone witnessed by police in a criminal act will eventually be caught and punished, so we too must face the consequences of faulty actions we have committed in the past, there is no way to be at ease; those actions are irreversible; we must eventually undergo their effects."

 

Retributive justice?

The Dalai Lama, whom I admire, describes karma as a kind of cosmic policeman who will eventually bring to justice those who commit wrongs.

So far so good.

There are thousands of afterlife testimonies saying the same; but, in a sense, go further, in that every thought and deed is written upon one's spirit... we become the sum of our thoughts and actions - the preponderant of which, especially in the afterlife, will be evident upon our faces for all to see.

 

  • Frederic Myers: "We are undisguised, for on our foreheads is the insignia of whatever we have gained in culture, love for humanity, charity, selflessness, energy and force, ambitions for the sake of others - all this is here waiting for us when we are given ... our Price, our Wage, whatever we have earned during our years of apprenticeship."

 

But there is no evidence, nor logical dictate, that this damage we do to ourselves must find salvation only in "countless rebirths... good and bad."

I suppose we could say that all of us, even the best, have some bad karma because none is blameless; we've all done bad things, or thought them, at times in our lives. This "bad karma," bad resultant consequences in our lives, is actually a form of negative energy which gives rise to and strengthens the dysfunctional ego, the false self.

As we've discussed elsewhere, the Small Ego begins to die when, upon honest introspection, the light shines in. Yes, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Again, Eckhart Tolle instructs us that this enlightenment, the beginning of the death of the Little Me - call it karma - can occur in an instant.

Suffering, in its cosmic essence, is not retributive, not penal, in nature; rather, it is educative, didactic. While we clearly understand from the afterlife testimonies that we must offer some form of restitution to those whom we've harmed, repentant ones who engage themselves in this work of service, once eyes have opened, begin to do so as a joyous burden - an opportunity to make some small restorative contribution toward past wrongs. In this work, these helpers will discover, within themselves, a rising sense of self-respect and self-love. None of this is felt as punitive in nature, but cleansing, soul-healing, for both parties concerned.

Those with "bad karma," to employ the phrase - and I think nearly everyone will have at least some of this negative energy when we cross over - will find that their time of required acts of restitution will pass quickly. When our hearts open to the joy of living, and giving, why would we not want to do as much as we can to make right, for others, concerning whatever it was that once beset us?

 

James Webster:

"Although the belief in karma has been sanitized in the Western world for the consumption of New-Age enthusiasts, its basic premises cannot be glossed over.

"Its precepts are based upon the ignorant belief of a vengeful, vindictive, punishing God, or Gods...

"Mother Theresa of Calcutta spent most of her life fighting the ultimate result of this belief. Sick and starving children and adults are left dying in the streets by people who could easily help them, simply because [as the passing Pharisees would proclaim] it is their karma to suffer and die in this way."

"This belief is so ingrained into their religious teachings that they walk past [like the priest in Jesus' parable on his way to Temple, ignoring the wounded Samaritan in the ditch] these karmic victims very carefully in case their shadows fall upon these poor souls, thus giving them a few seconds relief from the heat of the sun ...

"Karma is not punishment or reward. It simply means that you sow what you reap... It is an immutable spiritual law which rationally means that if you send out negative thoughts then you will attract the negative thoughts of others...

karma: punishment for some wrong that is unknown?

"When one has a whole continent (India) that for thousands of years [has] been obsessed by the idea of personal karma linked to reincarnation, it clearly can be seen how corrupting this belief can become and how convenient it can be for the families at the top of the spiritual and material dung-heaps that result, to use it to maintain their status quo, generation after generation. In the end it produces a whole continent of people unable to adapt to true science..."

Editor's note: This institutionalized means by which the Small Ego has subjugated others is reminiscent of other similar despotic philosophical systems.

Think of Calvinism in early America with its self-serving notions of "predestination"; that, only the wealthy offered ostensible evidence that God loved them more than the unwashed and poor masses.

  • J.J. Morse: "If you are brought back into this world as a consequence of your past-life [misdeeds], then ... it follows that [another person has] no right to alleviate the wretchedness of men."

 

 

Countless rebirths are not necessary to effect healing in our spirits; nor even allowed. That's not how it works. When one desires to do better, progress will be made - and it all begins with one moment of clarity, a meeting with divine love.

  

 

James Webster:

"A person redeems his past by 'overshadowing' those called upon by Destiny to bear the reflex of his Earthly acts."

 

Editor's note: Many afterlife testimonies affirm James's assertion. The murderer or thief, the gossip or abusing parent, is not redeemed by re-entering the womb and re-living life; instead, a growing awareness prompts the discarnate, repentant person to desire to make good and help those once harmed. This is done by returning to the Earth, not as a mortal but in spirit form, an "overshadowing" - not possessing - the one to be served. This close association allows the spirit-person to offer help, as practicable (without violating free-will), serving his mortal charge toward a good path.

Via psychic-medium, I learned that my father has been assigned to me, an "overshadowing," to offer small remedy for things left undone long ago.

 

  

a question to Bishop John Shelby Spong from one of his readers:

Question:

Do you believe it is possible for persons to be reincarnated?


Answer:

Prior to writing my book on Eternal Life (Eternal Life: A New Vision-Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell), I made an intensive study of reincarnation. I came out of that study completely agnostic about that question. It seems to me that reincarnation plays the same role in Eastern religious thought that heaven and hell play in Western religious thought. I feel its primary function is to control life here and now. Instead of reward and punishment being meted out in some place after life like heaven and hell, it is meted out in the next incarnation. Sinful people come back as lower caste people or sometimes even as animals. I am not interested in playing the game of judgment.

I found no evidence that supports the idea of reincarnation and most of the evidence cited is anecdotal and, to my mind, bogus. It is more a human hope than a human reality. So put me down in the negative column or at least the unconvinced column. I would rather try to master the meaning of the life I have than to speculate about some future or past reincarnation.

John Shelby Spong

 

 

Karma, in the sense of our responsibility for restitution, the lion's share of it, can be defeated not in eons but rather quickly. It will be overcome by displacing the Small Ego, that reservoir of dark energy in our hearts, replaced with a spirit of service and compassion.

This is the rebirth we all would welcome - and we need engage this process only once.

 

"karma is a human invention"

spoken by Tim, in the afterlife, as he communicated with his mortal friend, a New York psychiatrist; documented in the book, "The Risen," by August Goforth.

 

Editor's note: Rather, karma is an invention of the Small Ego; which, ever burdened with self-images of "not having enough" and "not being enough," wants more time, one more opportunity to "beat'em and show'em," to "make good," in order to prove its worthiness. Time, without something more, will avail nothing. Time per se is not required but, instead, "no time," one moment of vivifying clarity in the eternal Now!

 

 

The following are excerpts from "Field Guide":

 

… the subject of karma. Perhaps you are familiar with the notion of karma, which the reincarnationists have co-opted to buttress their contention that our deeds from past lives carry over, often in the way of payback.

Under this scheme of karmic debt, our current suffering or failures can be blamed on the transgressions or sins we committed in a previous incarnation. But here again, the narcissist’s bias lies concealed… typically places blame elsewhere, leaving our own reputation intact. Lightening the load of personal accountability, the past-life focus conveniently turns away from here-and-now issues.

“Reincarnation has robbed man of his personal responsibility . . . reducing him to a state of spiritual impotence.” Justin Titus, Eternal Progression

Of course the moral escape hatch is attractive to the self-centered soul. In this landscape, social conscience or duty need not trouble us. In the trenchant words of James Webster,

“Reincarnation paralyses the initiative of millions. Those imprisoned by it rarely strive for social improvements or justice, for that would then deprive people of their karma - a merciless law of consequences.”

The narcissist, like his first cousin the sociopath, both with deficient conscience, impresses us as someone bereft of natural emotions such as compassion or remorse, the shortfall known in psychiatry as “no empathy” or flat affect (no show of feelings). And how well this dovetails with the reincarnationist’s heartless conviction that hardship and suffering come well earned, yea deserved, by those who have yet to work out their evil karma!

This fictitious version of “God’s justice” presumably satisfies our sense of fairness; how satisfying it is to know that “if a man has murdered another . . . he will be struck down by a murderer during . . . his next incarnation” (Kueshana 1970, 77). The next thing you know, these “just desserts” are part of a formula that excuses every human atrocity merely by discovering its karmic origin.

In the Jewish Holocaust, for example, the victims purportedly “chose to be incarnated at this time . . . to be the victims of the Holocaust as a selfless act of sacrifice, to make us all aware that. . . there were those who would attempt to rule and control humanity. . . and that evil people existed.” But, rejoins one reviewer, “Aren’t we already aware of the existence of evil?” (Picknett and Prince 2001, 194).

But no, every horror and calamity known to man was meant to happen, according to this fatalistic outlook, and that includes African slavery, genocide, natural disasters, accidents, wars, terrorism, and 9/11. All these things were, allegedly, planned and prearranged for souls to hasten their destiny.

 

 

 

Editor's last word:

In thousands of afterlife testimonies, I've found no support for the notion of karma. But allow me to say a word about a related fallacy, which many, not all, on the other side do subscribe to. It is the arrant idea that we advance spiritually by performing good works.

I will address this error elsewhere in more detail, but have decided to introduce it here as it is closely related to the theory of karma.

Karma might be viewed as retributive good works producing a spiritually cleansed person. But "good works in the afterlife" as a "salvation theory" is not far off this mark.

Here is the essential problem: both of these philosophies emphasize "doing" rather than "being."

A discussion of this sort quickly confuses the uninitiated because good works naturally flow from the spiritual heart - but good works per se do not produce the spirituality.

I am reminded just now of a similar nuance, a fine distinction, made by Kant in his debate with Hume about the nature of experience and how the mind gathers knowledge.

Kant agreed with Hume that our knowledge arises from experience; however, it is a mistake, he said, to assume, because knowledge arises from experience, that it is grounded in experience. (This brilliant synopsis of Kant's teaching is formulated by Oxford professor Daniel Robinson, to whom I am indebted for this insight.)

Good works assuredly arise from the spiritual heart, but spirituality is not grounded in, does not spring from, good works!

Spirituality, fundamentally, is "being" not "doing." Spirituality, like all primary jewels in God's treasure, is a natural by-product of coming to "see" the True Self, that part of us "made in the image" and linked to God - and it all happens in a timeless moment of clarity, that eternal moment of Now, suffused in joy and bliss.