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The men of old, while the chaotic condition was yet undeveloped, shared the placid tranquillity which belonged to the whole world. At that time the yin and yang were harmonious and still; their resting and movement proceeded without any disturbance; the four seasons had definite times; not a single thing received any injury, and no living being came to a premature end. Men might be possessed of the faculty of knowledge , but they had no occasion for its use. This is what is called the perfect state of unity. At this time, there was no action on the part of anyone – but a constant manifestation of spontaneity.
Chuang Tzu, op. Cit., ch. 16
Within millionths of a second following the instant of the primordial Big Bang of the universe, a multitude of forces began to act upon each other. Energy from the blast was converted into matter, gases from the blast were acted upon by other forces to form solids and liquids. These in turn were acted upon by other complex forces to form bio-chemicals and these eventually evolved into the human species which to this day, both collectively and individually, are acted upon by complex forces. As we have all learned in elementary school physics, all of these forces and energy forms can generally be said to interact in accordance with the principles of “conservation of energy”. That is to say that energy is neither created nor destroyed in any interaction between various forms of energy (including matter), but rather, simply changes from one form of energy into an other. As a result of this conservation of energy, for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction which is either, immediately observable or which remains latent for some period of time. For example, when one billiard ball strikes another, kinetic energy from the first ball is converted to acoustic energy (the sound we hear of one ball hitting the other), thermal energy (the two balls become heated at the point of contact), and kinetic energy which is transferred from the first ball to the second. No energy has been created or destroyed in the interaction, but simply new forms of energy have been created. None of this is new – it is well understood elementary school textbook science. However, this is also the definition of the somewhat mystical eastern term of “karma”. Karma is natural destiny. It is the consequence of actions at one moment of time balancing the reactions at future points in time.
Stated
in another way, just as it is the “karma” of two billiard balls to interact
in a certain manner in accordance with the principles of conservation of energy,
it is also the karma of individual human bodies (their thoughts and emotional
energies included), to behave in a certain manner in accordance with the principles
of conservation of energy. These actions and reactions cannot be altered just
as it is impossible to alter the action and reaction of the two billiard balls.
The laws which govern their behavior were set in motion at the time of creation
and nothing can be done about it. The only extension in meaning defined by the
term “karma” as applied to humans is that the conservation of energy
principle applies not only to the present physical body, but additionally to the
spirit body of “awareness” which shifts its focus from one physical
body to another at the time of birth or death.
Just as a drug induced hallucination is an abnormal state of existence so too is our current delusion of separateness and causality. What is the drug that has induced this hallucination ? It is simply the effect of cosmic energies that bombard the brain every moment. For these are the very same “billiard balls” which were placed into motion at the beginning of the Big Bang and which continue to affect everything they touch.
Neuro-anatomical studies have shown that even extremely mild exposure to various forms of electromagnetic radiation such as that caused by occasional solar flares, induces extremely vivid hallucinations - everything from alien abductions, to drug-like trances. It surely follows then, that the “normal” background level of cosmic radiation also has an effect on how we perceive reality and what reality we as a group, perceive through our senses.
Carrying this observation a step further, it would stand to reason that the cosmic radiation of different heavenly bodies could impact an individual in different ways depending upon the specific nature and intensity of cosmic radiation being imparted by that body or groups of bodies at any given point in time. Furthermore, each heavenly body has a unique ‘signature set’ of radiation emissions, which would therefore influence perception in certain typical ways.
The cumulative effect of all heavenly bodies would have a very strong influence therefore, on the overall reality perceived by specific individuals. This cumulative effect would be determined in some way, by summing the relative strengths of the electromagnetic emissions from various groups of heavenly bodies that were present since the time of birth of the individual. This would of course be a function of the time and place of birth of the individual.
The key to the development or awakening of inner knowledge is simply one of understanding. As the cocaine addict begins to understand and accept his addiction, as he begins to get a glimpse of the reality outside of his artificially induced hallucination, he begins to naturally, almost imperceptibly work his way out and find his way back home. Through a further series of analogies and thought exercises, we too shall begin to explore the beauty and peace of the true nature of reality around us, and through pure natural understanding, each of us, in his own way will begin to see a new way of appreciating the worldly circumstances which surround us and our own place within the cosmos.
Here we see again that karma itself is an entirely preordained deterministic process. “One’s Karma”, is simply the description of the ways in which one’s body is destined to behave as a reaction to various forces which have acted upon it (and the ways in which it has acted upon other bodies) in the past, in accordance with the principle of conservation of energy. One’s karma ceases, only when the chain of action and reaction also ceases. Hence, the teachings of Jesus Christ when he admonished us to “turn the other cheek” when struck, or in other words, surrender to one’s karma and not continue to seek to unleash new forces as a reaction to the effects of old ones.
Within this paradigm, societies, individuals, and all organisms can be modeled as automated vehicles (imagine a robotic dump truck) for the delivery of units of action and reaction, from one point in time and space to another. These transfers take place millions of times each day per individual in the form of internal thoughts, as well as external behaviors.
It is also beneficial, in our quest for understanding our perfect balance with the world around us, to see the phenomenon of Karma in a slightly different way. As we have stated, in the beginning there was absolute Union of all that we perceive as independent entities today. Twelve billion years ago at the instant of the Big Bang, all of time, space, all that has been manifested in the past, all that is manifest today, and all that will be manifest in the future were one. At the time of the Big Bang, Union manifested itself as the illusion of causality and separateness. It could be speculated that the illusion of causality and individuality are mechanisms, which have been created by Nature to allow us to explore ourselves. As greater degrees of self-knowledge are attained, the illusion of causality and separateness grow weaker as they are no longer needed for our continued journey towards Union. With the dwindling of these illusions of the separateness of time & space (or ‘Mayas’ as they are called in some ancient eastern philosophical schools), it would stand to reason that we are able to see the nature of the universe ever more clearly as we journey towards the ultimate goal of complete Union. Once this goal is reached, Maya, the illusion of separateness and causality is completely cast off and total knowledge without illusionary contamination is attained.
Classical science holds that the laws of both nature and physics can be modeled as a ‘control system’ negative feedback loop. Herein, external inputs are applied to the system and measurements are taken at the output of the system. Subsequent inputs are modified until the measured output becomes stable. That is to say, that further changes in inputs begin to have an increasingly negligible influence on the system’s output. Similarly, ‘Karma’ is simply a series of events or inputs to various individual ‘systems’. If this is so, it would stand to reason that just as in the case of classical control systems inherent in all of nature, karma too, would cease to manifest itself when the individual ceases to require it as a means of achieving inner contentment. Karma provides the outer stimuli that the individual needs to look within himself. When the individual has achieved Union, he is able to look within himself without the use of outer stimuli and therefore Karma is no longer required. Karma at such a stage would be a wasteful consumption of resources and energy and therefore like everything in Nature, (Nature being the most efficient mechanism of which we are aware), when it is no longer required, ceases to manifest itself.
Further contributing to the illusion of free will, is our apparent ability to control at the very least, the minor events in our lives. The destiny of the world may be predetermined, but if I want to, I can still get up and drink a glass of water right now - it is a matter of my own free will, or so we believe. And so perhaps, even the destiny of the world or other “major” events are also a cumulative result of my own minor efforts to exert my free will on the daily elements of life and are not as has been argued here, a matter of preordained destiny.
Such supposition is the frantic effort of the individual ego to assert itself in a losing debate. The minor actions in daily life are no more governable through free will than the prewritten destiny of the universe, for as we have seen earlier, the same deterministic forces which will cause the gases in the sun to extinguish itself also govern the dynamics, kinematics and biochemical reactions of our bodily actions - even my desire to get up and fetch a glass of water.
However, continued action on the part of every individual is required to provide the needed input for the series of chain reactions initiated at the time of the Big Bang and hence is the solemn duty of every actor in the pre-written play of the Cosmos.
Indeed, given that all events in life are fundamentally predetermined, it is very tempting to simply sit back and wait for things to happen on their own. If it is destined to happen then it will happen on its own. If it doesn’t happen, then it was never destined to happen anyways – right ? Wrong !
All events in life ARE predestined. But by “all events”, we also mean those events which appear to lead up to and “cause” certain climax events to occur. For example, if it is predestined that all of one’s teeth will decay and fall out, it may also be predestined that this will be caused by the fact that one haphazardly read this book, misunderstands the principle of predestiny (because he was predestined not to understand), and therefore decides to stop brushing his teeth every day (because he thought that he is predestined to have healthy teeth) and as a “result”, his teeth decay and fall out. On the other hand, if one is predestined to have healthy teeth, it is because he was also predestined for one reason or another, to undertake the necessary actions on a daily basis which lead to that “result”. If one is predestined to achieve an awakening of the eternal “Self” within, it will be caused by his predestined tendency towards self-examination, deep contemplation, search for spirituality and applying those principles in daily life diligently. On the other hand, if one is not predestined to achieve this inner realization, then somewhere along his quest, he will also be predestined to stumble (temporarily) on one of the steps towards this awakening, and will have to try more diligently again sometime in the future.
It is futile to imagine that while our awareness is seated within the individual self, we can say what is destined to occur and what is not destined to occur. This knowledge resides solely within our primordial, eternal, greater Self within, which caused “existence” to come into being in the first place. Only as we begin to loosen awareness from the grip of the individual self, and from the grip of the addiction to the senses and the ego, can we begin to glimpse larger and larger areas of the grand masterpiece painting of life – our Greater, Eternal Self Within.
The principles in this book should in no way be taken as an excuse to sit back and watch life pass by. Numerous self-help motivational authors and gurus of the late twentieth century tell us that we will only get what we want through our own strenuous persistent efforts, our own drive and determination. Although this is clearly a somewhat simplistic and rather erroneous view of reality from the frame of reference of the Greater Self within, it remains very sound advise from the frame of reference of the individual self with which we currently occupy so much of our awareness. The tools provided by motivational self-help authors are just another one of many life skills that can and should (depending on one’s personal character and preferences) be utilized in the play of life.
Life is to be “Lived”. Perform your duty passionately. Enjoy, be happy, learn and grow. The more that we do and experience in life, the more of life’s Karma’s we burn off. Simply be careful not to allow life’s accomplishments or disappointments feed the ego. The script of life is predestined, but the play is being performed for our own enjoyment and benefit.