1. Karma and Reincarnation
2. The Law of Karma
3. The Law of Cycles
4. Collective or Group Karma

“All beings who have similar karma will have a common vision of the world around them, and this set of perceptions they share is called ‘a karmic vision’ … never forget: What we see is what our karmic vision allows us to see, and no more.”

Sogyal Rinpoche

The term Karma is mentioned quite frequently nowadays, not only among people who are following spiritual paths, but also among psychologists or even some scientists who are interested in universal laws that guide our lives.

Karma sometimes is misunderstood by people as a doctrine of punishment or retribution, while in fact, it is a natural law of balance, whereby the effects of all actions or thoughts are ultimately brought to a state of equilibrium, similar to the way a pendulum pushed in one direction will return with equal force in the opposite direction, eventually settling into a condition of stasis.

When mentioning Karma, people usually refer to the Law of Karma, a conceptual principle that seems to be originated in India. This concept, however, “is closely associated with the idea of rebirth in many schools of Indian religions (particularly Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism), as well as Taoism” (Wikipedia).

Karma and Reincarnation

Some of the older schools of Reincarnation accepted Karma as determining the Re-Birth. They believed that the souls’ character, together with its strongest desires, would re-incarnate into this world together with some of its accumulated Karma, as an environment for it to work out those desires into action, taking the pains and pleasures of experience arising from such action, and thus giving birth to a new (and hopefully fuller) character, which would probably create new Karma, which would determine the future Reincarnation…

For most people, the process of Reincarnation simply refers to the periodic manifestation of souls through the medium of the physical world in order to learn certain lessons and to develop a higher consciousness with the supreme goal of seeking freedom. In Buddhist tradition, this destination is referred to as Nirvana, literally meaning “where the wind of Karma doesn’t blow”, and the only way to achieve spiritual progress is to awaken to a level of awareness beyond the domain of Karma and the Planes of Illusion. In fact, the meaning of the name Buddha says it all: “one who is awake”.

According to the Hindu teachings, karma is divided into three groups:

1. Pralabd Karma, or ‘Beginning’ Karma, considered the fate, or destiny, Karma which must be met in the present lifetime.
2. Kriyaman Karma, is that Karma which we are now, by our actions, making in this present life, the effects of which we will have to face in the future.
3. Sinchit Karma, or ‘Pile up’ Karma, refers to the reserve of Karma that we have accumulated over many lifetimes, but which is not yet activated in the current incarnation, since it would be impossible to encounter all the results of past thoughts and actions in one lifetime.

The Law of Karma

The Law of Karma comes embedded in a body of philosophical and religious doctrines, here are some of them:

1. All actions for which we can be held morally accountable and which are done out of desire for their fruits have consequences.
   Whether or not our actions have consequences of a karmic sort is not simply a product of the action itself but also of the attitude from which we do the act. If we have certain passions or desires for the object or the fruit of the action, the action has karmic consequences. This is because the Law of Karma rooted in ethical considerations.
2. Moral actions, as actions, have consequences according to the character of the actions performed: right actions have good consequences, wrong actions bad consequences.
   That actions have corresponding consequences does not entail that the moral character of the actions is determined by those consequences. Rather, the reverse is true: the consequences are determined by the moral character of the actions performed.
3. Some consequences are manifested immediately or in this life, some in the next life, and some remotely.
4. The effects of karmic actions can be accumulated.
   The karmic consequences accumulate in the sense that the tendencies get stronger and bear fruit. An individual’s karmic residues would appear as a pool of dispositions which has been filled by prior actions by that individual and will continue to be affected by his or her ongoing free actions. Some specific tendencies include: tendencies to be greedy, generous, cruel, loving, jealous, forgiving, etc. A person may add to this pool by performing actions, either right or wrong; or dilute the pool by performing actions to counteract the karmic residues, wrong actions diluting the good pool, right actions diluting the bad pool.
   Accordingly, the events which we experience have no unique connection with any particular, prior action, but rather with the pool as a whole. And to be liberated, all good or bad karma must be exhausted.
5. Human persons are reborn into this world.
   The Law of Karma presupposes that the human person is capable of undergoing a series of transmigrations or rebirths. It also seems to imply certain things about the nature of the person who is to be reborn, in particular, that this person is a substantial self with certain continuous features. These features must account both for personal identity over time and for continuity of dispositions.

The Law of Cycles

The process by which karmic imprints are sown and reaped is not haphazard but takes place according to ordered cycles that can be mathematically defined; these cycles are known in esoteric thought as the Principle of Periodicity. This principle holds that all forms and phenomena are subject to the influence of cycles, with alternating phases of growth and decay, ebb and flow.

Karma is also susceptible to this rule. How or when a karmic imprint unfolds depends in part on the cycle associated with its gestation; when an action or thought is generated helps determine the intensity, quality, and duration of the karmic result that follows from it. Thus, according to some systems of thought, an act of kindness may create a more powerful imprint on the soul if it is “planted” during a sensitive and impressionable period, such as a solar eclipse, than at some other time. Similarly, an outburst of intense anger may create far more lasting karmic damage if it occurs during the start of an important cycle, such as the first day of a new year or on one’s birthday.

On the other hand, the activation of latent karmic imprints also takes place in accordance with the astrological cycles unfolding at the time. Like a time release mechanism, cyclic patterns can serve as the triggering mechanisms by which karmic imprints are released into manifestation. Hence thinking in terms of astrological cycles, karmic imprints related to the physical or earth-based aspects of life may be triggered by an important activation of Saturn in one’s horoscope; imprints related to romance may come to fruition during a time when Venus is active in the chart; spiritual karma by a significant placement of Jupiter or Neptune…

The play of symbols in our lives often reflects a complex blend of many karmic cycles simultaneously. This accounts for the sense of disparity we often experience as various areas of our life cycle pass through positive and negative periods.

Importantly, karmic ripening will intensify, for better or worse, when several cycles overlap or converge, thus producing an unusually concentrated period of change or psychological transformation. Periods of great good luck or misfortune in one’s life usually reflect just such a convergence of cyclic patterns, each amplifying the intensity of the other in a cumulative way.

One’s astrological birth chart may not always reveal in detail how a given cycle will manifest, but at least there would be good indicators of prevailing conditions and useful guides to what is to come, so that one may keep in mind that kind of ‘karmic weather changes’ and prepare oneself to deal with that ‘weather’.

Collective or Group Karma

Our personal karma and the underlying cycles are not the only factors that constrain an individual’s ability to achieve a goal. Collective or group karma also plays a role. An individual woman may have the personal desire to be president of a country, but the collective karma prevailing in many countries at present does make that desire much more difficult to be fulfilled than if she were a man. Collective karma operates within any group of which an individual may be a part: a family, business, community, ethnic or religious group, nation, species, even the whole Earth itself. Like individuals, these collective groups are subject to karmic propensities and to the underlying influence of astrological and other cycles. Therefore, one’s individual karma is always modified by the larger karmic contexts in which it is set, collectively or cosmically.

Sources:

1. Bruce R. Reichenbach, ‘The Law of Karma – A philosophical study’, Library of Philosophy & Religion, 1990.
2. Ray Grasse, ‘The Walking Dream – Unblocking the symbolic language of our lives’, Quest Books – Theosophical Publishing House, 1996.
3. Stephen Arroyo, ‘Astrology, Karma & Transformation’, 2^nd Edition, CRCS Publications, 1992.
4. William Walker Atkinson, ‘Reincarnation and The Law of Karma’, Global Grey, 1908.
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma