What is karma? Contents:
Why
do children have to suffer? Have I been a perpetrator, too? Or have I been a great benefactor or a famous personality? Is the karma valid for everyone? Starting point The starting point for this discussion is that the
soul of a human being reincarnates. This is what an estimated 2/3 of the
world’s population believe, among these 1/3 of the population in the Western
culture, not few of them Christians. The latter in this respect privately have
another opinion than their Church. The belief in reincarnation will be as old
as humanity. It was there in almost all ancient cultures and religions, even in
the Gnostic Christianity of the early Christians. One could state it in a
simplified manner like this: Where there is no such belief to day (anymore),
there it has once been earlier. Those who do not believe in
reincarnation belong to a minority – actually and historically – of the world’s
population. All religions teach that the human being
has a self, called soul, which survives the death of the body. A self that
after death remembers, thinks, feels and acts, even though it no more has a
physical body. In this sense, the soul is an entity without a material body.
(Only Buddhism speaks about another form of transfer than through what in the
common concept is called a soul.) The existence of a soul is, of course, a
necessary condition for reincarnation. Because it is this soul, which, some
time after the death of its previous body, connects with the embryo of a woman
who just became pregnant and then is born in a new body. Reincarnation can have a sense only if
this soul carries information about its existence(s) from one embodiment into a
new one, even if that information is unconscious in the new body. It is an important achievement of modern
psychology that it has proven that the human being has an unconscious self.
Since we (with rare exceptions) have no memory in our conscious self of this
information brought by the soul, this information will have to be in the
unconscious self – in a similar manner as, e.g., forgotten childhood memories
(which according to experience can pop up in the conscious self under certain
circumstances). It is also an achievement of modern
psychology that it has shown how the human being – without knowing in the
conscious self what is going on – is influenced by what is stored in the
unconscious self, in certain cases to a remarkable extent. From this starting point – the hypothesis of
reincarnation – the following discussion deals with the question what in this
case the world looks like for man and soul. Moral presumption We furthermore assume that the human soul develops in
the course of repeated incarnations, i.e., that it in some manner becomes
“better”. If the soul would essentially remain unchanged, or only change
randomly (sometimes becoming better, sometimes worse), reincarnation would have
no sense. We assume that it has a sense. We assume that the gradual (even
though it may be slow) “betterment” manifests in an increasingly better
interaction between different souls, in an increasing order in a soul
population. A specific form of interaction is called “love” and is expressed in
that the souls to a growing degree support and help each other, so that their
interaction becomes increasingly effective and destructive aspects of their
interaction gradually become less. Such an order has a voluntary character. Other kinds of order in a population of
incarnated souls have been and are observed, brought about by force, power and
pressure. Since humans in such an order are not doing very well, this
empirically leads to less productivity (in whatever sense productivity may be
defined) and that the order is rather unstable. Such an order tends to break
apart due to opposing (revolting) forces when the power pressure reaches a
critical point. We, therefore, here assume a development
that in principle leads to an increasing order in the sense of a gradually
improving voluntary interaction between the incarnated souls. Causality and karma If there is a development of the souls, of the selves
that incarnate, there must be a causal relationship from one incarnation to the
other. The development during one embodiment will have to build upon the
preceding one(s). This causality is called karma (from the Sanskrit root kri,
which in the widest sense means “do, act”). It concerns the consequences of
doing or action, since action is dynamic and the consequences will lead us to
the development of an increasingly correct action. Being in itself is, in
contrast to doing, rather static and has less to do with karma. When an incarnated soul acts in such a
way that it has a negative or even destructive effect on the order of a
population, development will require that such action be corrected. Such a soul
must, therefore, learn to act differently and so that its action will increasingly
harmonize with a good order. How will it learn that? It could be that
it learns for the purpose in the soul state between two incarnations, but if
reincarnation shall have a sense it will also learn from experiences during
incarnations. If the soul earlier acted contrary to a good order, it will,
therefore, have to learn to act more in harmony with it. It will have to
experience what effect its earlier and less developed action had on the
population and its order. Hence the concept of reincarnation is
inseparably connected with the concept of karma. The latter concept says that
we after unsuitable action will on ourselves have to experience what effect
this had on others. This will logically have to mean that if a soul was a
perpetrator in an earlier life, it will have to experience what its victim(s)
felt. It will be on the victim side in a similar situation. This is too often understood as
“punishment”, which is a limited view. This has nothing to do with revenge or
retaliation, but with instruction and learning, with having an educating
lesson. After experiencing and knowing what went on in the victims of one’s
earlier perpetratorship, one has learned never to act like that again. Calling
it “punishment” is a misunderstanding. This can also be seen as a completion of
experience. If someone once was a perpetrator, he or she experienced only one
side of the situation, being what the perpetrator felt but not the victim(s).
The latter side of the experience is missing and the experience was only “half”.
The soul will also have to have “the other half” of the experience. That way,
the experience becomes a whole one. The missing part is added to it later and
it becomes complete. In the East, karma is said to be
something inescapable. There would be no way to escape the consequences of
one’s actions. The growing empiricism from past-life recalls, gathered and
gathering from a continuously growing number of recall experiences, reveals
another view. Who reaches understanding, regret and conversion before dying in
a perpetrator life and, therefore, knows never to do such a thing again, will
of course not need to have a lesson on his own body. He already comprehends it!
But regrettably most humans only know excuses and justifications for their
actions up to the bitter end. Those are the ones who need a corresponding
lesson so that they, too, can finally learn and develop. Is karma unjust? If someone is
“punished” (to still use this wrong expression) but doesn’t know for what, of
what use would that be? As was shown above one does know for what in the
unconscious self, the self of the soul. It is only the conscious self in the
head that doesn’t know. On the level of the soul the equation proves right,
there the connection is realized and there one nevertheless learns from such an
experience. Let us take the example of a rapist. A
man during his lifetime rapes a number of women. Who will then hold it for
unjust if he is later reborn as a woman and experiences rape on the own body?
Again not as a “punishment”, but as a lesson. At a first glance it appears especially
cruel when a child has to suffer, and that is well understandable. But if the
soul of the child had a large number of incarnations before, it is not really a
child, but only its body. And if it has (to keep the example above) of all
things abused children, can it then really be unjust if it in a new embodiment
experiences the same while still being a child? Its victims were children, too!
If someone has a better explanation, I would appreciate being informed. The
simple rejection of this empirical finding without giving a better explanation
is not valid. To take it that easy is unacceptable, because that would involve
that a child would suffer without a reason, which would be far more
cruel! The latter would be still more true if the reincarnation hypothesis
is rejected… In such a case it certainly raises the question, how
God can let such a thing happen (see below)! Here the discussion will for some become
difficult to accept, but on the basis of our starting point, which is
reincarnation and karma, a systematic connection is viewed. It will be
difficult to deny a justice in it, since this unavoidably involves the fact
that only the body is that of a child, but not the soul (which even could have
had even more incarnations before than the mother had). Karma is often understood as something
negative, but it is, in fact, neutral. Good actions have good consequences, bad
have bad consequences. There is in the East not rarely the
opinion that one should not interfere with the karma of another person. One
hesitates to help and thinks that the person deserves it. Even though it may
actually look like that in this systematic context, such a view is nevertheless
wrong. It all has to do with a development towards an order, which we have
characterized as “love”. If we intervene and show a love to the suffering,
which he himself or she herself before wasn’t capable of, the lesson will be so
much deeper. It could through this even take a new turn. Helping is never
wrong, but our duty! If the help is accepted and if it reduces or even ends
suffering, the one who suffered has really learned an important lesson! And he
or she may even not have to suffer more! Who doesn’t want to help will, instead,
easily acquire new karma through an act of omission… But if the help is not accepted or doesn’t
bring relief, we may assume that the one suffering has not yet finished the
lesson. Our attempt to help has then not caused any damage, instead it
nevertheless was a demonstration of love, which the one suffering will
understand later. The attempt was still our duty and it isn’t our fault if it
was unsuccessful. Instead it is easily our fault if we refrain from helping. Why do children have to suffer? This
world is full of suffering in any possible way. What touches us most is
normally the suffering of children. Uncountable masses of children are born
into suffering – in areas, where there is hunger, war, epidemics, persecution,
misery, poverty, etc., and so on, and so forth… – and they experience no happy
minute. Children are born sick, deformed, disfigured and retarded. They are
despised and tormented because of their origin or descent. Children are hated
already in the womb by raped mothers. Masses of children are born into
families, where they have no love but from immature and primitive parents
suffer rejection, unwantedness, violence, abuse and even hatred – including
lots of children in our Western world. In certain parts of the world children
are abused for slave labor. The medieval and primitive mentality
that a girl would be worth less than a boy is still around. Man
years ago I had a lecture in Switzerland. When I talked about such things, a
physician said: “I have been around a lot in the world for my profession. I
have seen such inconceivable suffering of children that I can no more believe
in a benevolent God. What is reported in the media is only the tip of an
iceberg,” How can that be? How can God allow it
to happen? The only answer which gives a
reasonably decent explanation is that of reincarnation and karma (see
above)!
Otherwise innocent children would suffer for no sensible reason and God would be a monster! This is to me one of the
strongest arguments for reincarnation and karma! Is karma everything? Karma is not everything. It can also be for other
reasons if we get into painful situations. It happens that we out of
unconscious feelings of guilt develop a kind of “self-punishment pattern” and
attract unnecessary suffering. We had our lesson but unconsciously react like
this: “Who knows if that is enough? I will rather seek to have another lesson,
so that I can be sure”. This is, of course, a mistake and for that reason it is
so important to uncover and dissolve old feelings of guilt in regression therapy
and dissolve them! Fear tends to attract what we are afraid
of. It is a matter of experience that it rather happens to the one who fears
than to another, who has no fear. For that reason, fear can bring us into a
situation that would not have to be. It is, therefore, also very important to
uncover reasons for fears and then dissolve the fears. We should generally
strive for casting off our fears. This is often difficult, and then help is welcome. Yet it would be a great injustice if
someone would suffer without a reason. That would be most cruel. If there is any
reason for it, suffering is bad enough, but not to the same extent as it would
be without a reason. That there will nearly always be a reason for
suffering in no way exonerates the perpetrator! It also no way plays down the
suffering! Who sees it differently,
has not understood it (or may even “tactically” want to misunderstand it). It
means only one thing: The suffering could at least in principle be easier to
accept for the one who suffers, if one would know the connection. Or he could
take it a bit more in humility, maybe a little like in the splendid example of
Jesus: “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing”.
And if the one who suffers doesn’t yet know the connection, he will later (at
least after dying) and will then, looking back, see it all in another light. If
someone is exonerated, than it is God… (see below: “Why does God
let it happen?”). Karma in the Bible Even though theologians of the Church don’t want to
hear the word “karma”, its principle is clearly enough repeated in the Bible! Gen. 9:6:
“Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed…” Num.
14:18 “The Lord is longsuffering, and
of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing
the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation.” Cf. Deut. 5:9. The
Gnostic Christians here understood: “…third and fourth incarnation”. If the common interpretation is true,
this is a heaven-crying injustice, but if the Gnostic one is true, it is just! Cf. Deut. 24:16: “The fathers shall not be put
to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the
fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin” and Ezek. 18:20:
“…The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father…” Prov. 22:8:
“He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity…” Job 4:8:
“Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the
same.” Hosea 10:12-13:
“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy… Ye have plowed wickedness,
ye have reaped iniquity…” Obadja 1:15:
“…as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon
thine own head.” Mt. 5:7:
“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Mt. 6:14-15:
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive
you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses.” Mt. 7:1-2:
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be
judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Mt. 7:12:
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even
so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Cf. Lk. 6:31. Mt. 7:17-18: “Even
so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit.” Mt. 23:12:
“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble
himself shall be exalted.” Cf. Lk. 14:11 and 18:14. Mt. 26:52:
“…Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall
perish with the sword.” Lk. 6:37-38:
“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be
condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given unto
you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall
men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it
shall be measured to you again.” Jn. 5:14:
“…sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” Rom.
7:9: “For I was alive without the law
once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the
commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” This was by the Gnostic Christian understood as a
reference to reincarnation. That “sin revived” could refer to the revival (as
karma) of past actions in a new embodiment. 2.
Cor. 9:6:
“…He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth
bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” Gal. 6:7: “…
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Rev.
14:13: “… and their works do follow
them.” Why does God let it happen? The history of humanity is from the beginning a
ceaseless history of atrocities and suffering. At all times people became innocent
victims of murder, violence, terror and horrors of wars. There were repeated
genocides – at Cathars, Incas, Aztecs, Mayas, North-American Indian tribes,
etc. … and so on… The Inquisition tortured people of other belief in its
chambers of horror. Millions of women were burned at the stake as alleged
“witches”. Human beings were enslaved. And lots and lots of more. Such things
happen still to day. It seems to have no end. Since archaic times the same helpless
and despairing question echoes in humanity: “Why does God let it happen?”
It was asked already in ancient Egypt by Ipuwer.
This question is in theology called the theodicy problem (theodicy = defense of
God – see an extensive discussion in Chapter 1 in my book Reincarnation,
Christianity and the Dogma of the Church; an English translation
downloadable here as a PDF file). The theology
of the Church has dealt with this question already in medieval times but
couldn’t reach a satisfying solution within the frames of its dogma. Therefore,
one later gave up and declared that this surpasses the understanding of man.
The question was swept under the carpet. One didn’t get further than referring
to the evil in the world and the inherent evil in man. This dissatisfying
reference can at most explain why there are perpetrators, but fails to explain
why people have to suffer under their actions. The theodicy problem is this: 1. God is
omnipotent, 2. God is good, 3. The world is continuously filled with suffering.
How can that be made to fit together? Either God isn’t omnipotent, or he isn’t
good? Unacceptable hypotheses! What then? In my opinion there is (at least until
to-day) only one satisfying explanation: reincarnation, karma and free will. Early
Christianity had two main streams: The Paulinian and the Gnostic Christians.
Beginning with the council in Nicaea in 325 AD, at which emperor Constantine
made the Church a tool for his worldly power, the Gnostic Christians were
regarded as heretics. The last Gnostics in Europe (in Asia there were for some
time still the Manicheans) were the Cathars, who in the 13th century
were eradicated in a genocide led by the Church. The Gnostics taught
reincarnation. In their world concept we are “fallen angels” who once wanted to
leave God’s world in order to have experiences, which are not possible there.
We wanted to live out our free will fully, even if it would conflict with the
free will of others and they would, therefore, suffer from it. This would be
impossible in God’s world, because there we were all connected. Who would there
cause pain and suffering to another being, would in the same moment feel that
pain and suffering himself. Therefore, we didn’t do such things there. We
requested from God to be able to live such that there would be no such limit to
our free will, set by respect for others. The full acting out of our free will
is possible only where it can, if needed, also be done inconsiderately. Therefore – so the Gnostics taught – God
created new worlds. A hierarchy of angels with nine levels came into being,
under it a 10th level: That of the humans. Those beings – we – who
fell to that level “became souls, which were put into bodies like in prisons”.
Under that level there is an 11th one, the level of demons and
adversaries. What is then the fate of the human
being? It is on this 10th level in order to develop and learn where
inconsiderate living out of free will leads. When we will finally understand
how foolish this is, we can climb the Jacob’s ladder through the angelic
levels, until we reach final resurrection in God’s world. Some make a detour
through the 11th level, which is a kind of hell. There is, however,
no eternal condemnation. One has to stay there only until one has reached
understanding, regret and conversion. According to the Gnostic doctrine we
would have to later experience ourselves the suffering we cause to others, so
as to finally learn to act so no more. It is in principle still like in God’s
world, where one – would one hurt another – would feel his pains
simultaneously. Here, however, we experience the same with a delay. Not
immediately, but later. That is the karma. This way we can inconsiderately live
out and “test” our free will, until we understand, how wrong it is to do so without
respect for others. In this Gnostic-Christian doctrine of reincarnation,
karma and free will is the so far best and most acceptable solution of the
theodicy problem! Then God is still good, because he lets no one go astray.
Everyone will at the end, even if detouring on many wrong tracks, return to
God’s world. God is omnipotent. That is why he made this way possible as an
answer to our own request. Have I been a perpetrator, too? The history of mankind is a so far never-ending story
of violence, cruelty and suffering. There have been uncountable perpetrators
and there are new ones every day. If there is reincarnation – and that is still
the staring point and the hypothetical basis of this discussion – it will on
pure statistical grounds be quite improbable that I, of all people, would not
have been one. The common way of thinking is: “Certainly not me. If so, then
only others”. The logical consequence is rather: “I will surely have been one.
If someone never was a perpetrator, then probably another”. And if I had to
suffer, this would rather confirm this view, as the above consideration shows. This should actually lead to a more conciliatory
attitude towards our fellow men and women. If someone does anything to us, we
can assume that we ourselves once did something similar to others, and that
this is the reason why it happens to us. This also follows from the Bible
quotations above. Or have I been a great benefactor or a famous
personality? Again we have to consider statistical facts. There
were and are uncountable masses of perpetrators in the human history (every
soldier and every executor is one, too…), but in comparison only a “handful” of
great benefactors and famous persons. The latter will most probably be incarnated
again to day, and who once was famous may be nothing near it now. But it will
on purely statistical grounds be highly improbable that I was one of them. And
if I once had been a great benefactor, I would probably have come so far in my
development that I would no more need to incarnate… The much too often repeated allegation that any number
of Cleopatras would have surfaced in past-life regressions has no factual
background. How did it all begin? As
has been described above it – according to the Gnostic-Christian doctrine –
began with wanting a complete free space for acting out our free will. Who then
became a human being was as a soul still undeveloped and hadn’t yet learned
love. That is why he was able to also do evil. He didn’t care what it meant for
others. Thus we must learn that this is anything else but indifferent. How will it end? According to the Gnostic Christian and many other
doctrines of reincarnation there is an end to it. It doesn’t go on eternally.
Everyone will at some point arrive at his last incarnation and not incarnate
anew after his death. What is required for this? Obviously that he finally not
only understands the unconditional and undiscriminating love, but also
consequently lives it. According to empirical material from
actual recall experiences another necessary requirement seems to be that there
is no soul left in the world, with which one would still need to reconcile. There will probably be further conditions for not
having to incarnate again, but these two will be the most important ones. Is the karma valid for everyone? After all that has been discussed here, the karma
would have to be valid for everyone. It cannot well be expected that souls
incarnate and have no karma (except in the very first incarnation). There is no
reason to assume that there would be exceptions. Certainly not in view of the
logical consequence that if someone suffers, there will be a reason for it, and
this will be valid for all of us. The only case that would seem possible
would be that some souls incarnate only once, but don’t reincarnate. But most
of us will do the latter. If there would be souls, which are on Earth only
once, they could hardly have a karma. And if they would suffer, it would be a
suffering without a reason and, therefore, be still much more cruel than when
someone suffers and there at least is a reason for it. Here the equation would
not prove right. Cases of voluntary suffering will be
extremely rare! But even that is a possibility in exceptional cases. Jesus obviously
was such an exception. He took the crucifixion upon himself voluntarily since
he knew that his teaching on Earth would be put at such an end by the
adversaries. But: Did he really suffer? Christ will have been above all
suffering! He will be an exceptional case also in this respect! Only very
highly developed incarnated beings are able to take heavy suffering upon
themselves, but this will mean that those are the ones who to a large extent
stand above suffering. Is it allowed to kill? Jesus said: “Thou shalt not kill!”, “Love your
enemies” and also: “If someone hits you on one side, turn the other side
towards him”. In spite of that people are killed every day, even by Christians…
In Northern Ireland, as an example, Catholics and Anglicans kill each other
since decades, and they still feign to be Christians. Very many wars were lead
and fought by self-claimed Christians, often with the blessing of the Church.
The worst of such atrocities were the crusades! There we taught Muslims what
their terrorists to day do against us. Is that a common karma for us? Karma in agreement with Jesus’ words
teaches us something else. It is always wrong to kill, except – as the only
exception – if it saves the lives of others. Defense is basically
correct, especially the defense of others. But it has to be done with
proper means. To kill only in order to save one’s own life seems to go to far,
according to karma. Considering that only my body can die, but never my soul,
it will really have to be a very special situation to justify that I kill in
self-defense. But if it is for saving the lives of others, it will be a
different matter. If I can save people only through killing the murderer in the
last minute, it is a different situation, since the alternative would be that I
let the others die. It must, however, never become an excuse… In this sense a
military self-defense will under circumstances be at the limit of being
acceptable. However, most wars of aggression are declared as “self defense”… A
much greater principle is that of Gandhi: Non-cooperation, civil disobedience.
That way he could without weapons bring the whole British occupation of India
to a fall! Just self-defense with appropriate means
is one thing. Revenge is another. “Revenge is sweet” – but expensive!
The “sweetness” passes soon but a heavy karmic bill is inevitably awaiting you…
(unless you in time reach understanding, regret and conversion).