Karma and Reincarnation

A simple way of thinking about the law of karma is: “If this, then that.” 

For us today it might mean, “If I lift weights my muscles will grow. If I eat bad food I will get sick.”

But this principle of natural consequences has contributed to the evolution of consciousness from the un-awareness of pre- and early creation to the higher consciousness of which human beings have become capable. It predicts that consciousness will adapt to all of the circumstances it encounters - eventually - as a way of moving forward.   

When we expand our perception to recognize serial rebirth as natural and likely, we fortuitously cultivate the preconditions of serenity. This occurs because in seeing that we have been around before, we add to the breadth of our sense of rootedness in the very long past. The larger the perspective we have about who we are and where we come from, the less any particular experience will bother us.

By allowing that we have been around before, we also present ourselves with an opportunity to gain a useful, helpful and reassuring perspective on the less-than-happy experiences that all of us encounter at some time in our lives. This occurs because serial lives introduce the possibility of the action of karma into the human drama.

Karma is an integral part of the cyclical nature of our experiences and their effect on the progression of conscious awareness. Taking a karmic point of view involves seeing the experiences that confront us as opportunities for growth. Congruent with the evolutionary characteristic of consciousness, karma connects what we experience in the present directly with things we experienced in past lives that we might not have recognized as the opportunities for growth they in fact were. 

According to the law of karma, it does not really matter whether we were completely unaware of past experiences as opportunities and just passed them by, or if we sense what they were and know that we did not handle them as well as we could have and wish we had done something other than we did.  

The intent of karma is that, because consciousness is meant to progress, if we missed viewing an experience as an opportunity for growth, the cycling action of creation will bring it or something that contains the essence of it around again, presenting us with another chance to adapt in a more beneficial manner. This re-occurs until forward movement makes another repetition unnecessary.

Examples of the law of karma in action are easy to find. One might have to do with our treatment of animals. If in this life we have not yet found our true relationship with them so that we treat them as chattel, in another we may watch a loved pet suffer and not be in a position to assuage its pain. 

Within this suffering on our part is the possibility that our conscious awareness will expand so that we will begin to think about the suffering of other animals, too, and eventually all other living things. Again, while other creatures may benefit by not suffering because of our ignorance, from a developmental perspective, our sense of connectedness has expanded and our awareness has moved farther along the continuum. 

A karmic perspective also helps with a more peaceful adaptation in the world through its effect on how we view the attitudes, behavior and experiences of others. When we consider life experiences in terms of contexts for learning, we are less likely to be judgmental, to compare other people with ourselves, or to intervene in their lives prematurely and inappropriately. 

In truth, regardless of what we might believe or what values we might hold, we really have no idea what contexts other people require for their development. This includes our own children and other loved ones. 

The very idea that we all are here to grow should help us leave everyone alone to do what has to be done. Of course, our own experiences in the very same developmental process should season our observations with compassion, and guide us as to when an intervention is warranted. Too much protectiveness, bailing people out of the troubles they have caused and need to learn from, and thinking that we can walk another’s rightful path might only enable repetitive growth-inhibiting behavior  and encourage another cycle of suffering. 

(adapted from “Live Like a Window, Work Like a Mirror: Enlightenment and the Practice of Eternity Consciousness”)