Karma and Past Lives
Tony Crisp
In brief, karma is the situation of ones birth, its working out in the present, and the streaming influences from the past that flows into what you are and the events you meet in the present. It is the outworking and action of cause and effect. And although if we look around we can see that every observable object, such as a tree, has a cause, and is the result of events in the past, we seldom apply that to our own birth and life.
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Mark Twain wrote in his Autobiography, "I have been born more times than anybody except Krishna.." |
Karma is a Sanscrit word and Wikipedia defines it as follows: 'Karma is not about retribution, vengeance, punishment or reward. Karma simply deals with what is. The effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain and joy it brings to oneself and others. In religions that incorporate reincarnation, karma extends through one's present life and all past and future lives as well.' To understand this one does not need to believe that ones present personality will be transported into another lifetime. But taking into account that life is a balance between the changing and the constant, about the forms we know and the essence that lies behind the forms, it can be seen that the essence 'consciousness' absorbs experience - taking that into account one might see that Life creates form after form. The Essence dips into forms again and again. However, that may sound somewhat impersonal and ones experience of it is not at all impersonal. We do not need to believe that John or Mary as distinct personalities will be reincarnated at some time. Because the experience of John and Mary is absorbed, as described in some presentations of modern phsyics, they are a small part of the spirit or consciousness underlying existence that has existed throughout all-time. That spirit, of which you and I only reflect a small part, when we die will absorb the lessons of this life. At some other period that spirit will dip into human life again. |
For all of us, the past influences the present, whether that be in society or personally. So there are aspects of people who lived in the past that influence this life. But there is a way of thinking about this that I believe makes it reasonably straightforward. It doesn't seem to be a mysterious thing, and I don't know why people make of it such a mystery.
If you look at a tree, you can see it incorporates many, many past trees. It didn't suddenly emerge out of a vacuum, out of nothing. It has its present existence out of what existed in the past. Of course, because in our culture we are still labouring under the world view that the atom is the fundamental particle or material in the universe, we still see ourselves and the tree as simply a physical process. All our calculations about this leave out the factor of consciousness. Even trees have a form of sentience. They respond to light, to weather conditions, to their environment. Did you suddenly gain the type of awareness, perceptions, concepts you have suddenly in the here and now? Of course you didn't. Thousands of people pre-existed you who gave words, concepts skills that have together formed who you are. There are ideas, longings, weaknesses and blindness of which you are a very particular mixture. As you gain insight into yourself you begin to see these influences form the past more clearly. You are part of a stream of influence flowing through history.
Your Body is a Work of Art
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In your life, the stream of Life has bubbled up from under the surface again. It carries particular influences, minerals, qualities, from the past. Therefore I don't believe you are a reincarnation of a particular being. But you are the working out, the continuation of, things from the past. If we look at a painting, we see certain colours on it. That particular painting exists because of the texture, the minerals, the earth and chemicals that go into the paint or ink used. It is also a result of the movements, the skill the artist has put into it. It is an incorporation of all those things and many other things not mentioned. It is also an expression of the light that falls on it. Without the light it is not apparent. In different lighting conditions it will change its character in some way. |
So the painting is partly an expression of a human being and their qualities and skills; it is partly an expression of the chemicals and minerals and surfaces involved. As such it is an extraordinary thing. When we look at it we are witnessing all that goes into it. Maybe we don't realise it; perhaps we don't see everything that composes it. Maybve we don't realise that in its present form it has substances from when the earth was you, that it atoms are from the beginning of time, or that the canvas it is on was formed by the effort t of several people not even consciously known by the artist. And of course, the painting is unique. There will never be a painting exactly like that. A copy might appear on the surface as the same, but there will never be quite the same mixture of minerals, chemicals, movements, human qualities, that entered into the painting.
Our body is just such a work of art. It is an extraordinary blending of an enormous number of processes, age old elements, past influences and people. The influence is not just from our parents, but our forebears going back into prehistory. There is also the powerful influence of the time and period in history in which we are born and the periods prior to it that formed the culture we are born into. The culture we live in weaves itself into who and what we become. A child born in today's world will be influenced by the extraordinary number of chemicals and additives, medicines and drugs, alcohol and nicotine, that are part and parcel of life today. They are all factors that go into the make up of who the person is and becomes. They are the chemicals in the 'paint' of personality.
Then there are the unique events and circumstances of that individuals life. The people met, the relationships encountered, the opportunities and traumas that events bring. All of those factors are like the paint, the surface, the artistry and skill that go into producing a painting. The uniqueness of those factors reflects very particular colours in the light that is our life.
Of course this is an analogy but I think it is a useful one. Light has in it every conceivable colour. It is the surface that the light falls on that brings out qualities. So it is the uniqueness of our body and mind that bring qualities out of the infinite possibilities of life. Innate in the forms of life are all the lessons and experiences it has gathered through unimaginable number of lives and creatures. The surface our body provides draws out of that infinite potential very particular qualities. We are the person we become because of the blending of all those unique factors.
How can anything in the present avoid being influenced and formed out of factors from the past?
Everything in the present, whether it relates to agriculture, politics, religion or art, has arisen out of past influences and things learned. People see that and of course recognise their present life and feelings are connected with their immediate family and culture. What they often fail to see is that there are influences existing in them from the far past. So we can say that the present is an incarnation of the past in a new form. How is it we can't say that I am an incarnation of the past in a new form? We are not an incarnation of a tiny bit of the past, but a whole spectrum of it.
So the wonder of this is not that you or I are a reincarnation of a particular past personality, but that we are an expression of something that has always existed, and carries past wisdom and experience.
See: reincarnation and dreams.
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