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When anyone enters the higher fields of knowledge, he is able
to watch the operation of the law of karma and reincarnation. With clear
vision, he is able to see its application to others as well as to himself. At
that stage, everyone is able to see clearly his own past lives. He
distinctively remembers them. It is then that he knows that he has lived before
and he knows just where and when he lived. Also, he knows his karma earnings
and losses. He can see exactly how the law of karma and reincarnation works out
in his long succession of lives. How he came and went, times without number,
always bringing with him his unsettled accounts. He remembers just how he
suffered or enjoyed according to his debits or credits. He knows that always,
he had to pay, pay to the uttermost. The great law is then not mere theory to
him.
(Dr.
Julian Johnson; The Path of the Masters;
p.g. 322-323)
The phenomena of karma and
reincarnation are two intimately interwoven and inseparable concepts, whose
respective mechanisms are of such interfusion that the occurrence of one
automatically summons the other, in almost infinite dramatic episodes, in which
karma necessitates reincarnation and reincarnation results in the generation of
more karma; such that while those two terminologies and phenomena are not
transpositional, their relationship, interdependence and mutual reinforcement
can never be abrogated or mitigated.
Now, in strict
accordance with the rigour of the dependability, consistency and equitable
adjudication of the immutable, infallible, and inextricable law of karma, each
and every mortal must per necessity shoulder the full magnitude of the
responsibilities of the summation of his four modes of karma, namely, thought, speech, emotion and deed. Also, each mortal is inescapably
liable to the resolution of his fate, stored and future karma; and until the
exhaustive resolution of even the minutest iota of all these categories of
karma, the soul is forever held captive to its karmic entanglement. In view of
this factuality, the legendary Jesus stated:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the
Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the
truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least
stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is
accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and
teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven,
but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the
kingdom of heaven.
(Mathew
5:17-19)
In this excerpt, the legendary Jesus unequivocally confirms
that the law can neither be mitigated nor altered; and that even he himself as
the personal representative of the supreme Lord is called upon to fulfil this
law. The most critical sentence in that excerpt reads: …not the least stroke
of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is
accomplished…
This can only be construed
to imply that the exhaustive resolution of one’s karmic account is the only
available option, as even the minutest iota of karma in one’s karmic account must
be resolved. Thus, as regards the maturation of one’s karmic consequences, one
is beholden to reap the full spectrum of one’s magnitude of meritorious
transactions, while the compulsion to discharge the liabilities of one’s
unwholesome transactions is without reconciliation.
Jesus also intimated that while the occasion presents itself,
one should hasten to resolve one’s karma, before matters become exacerbated.
Thus as stated:
Leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go
and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Settle
matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you
are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the
judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I
tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
(Mathew
5:24-26)
Now, during death, the
soul simply disposes of the physical instrument and proceeds to the astral,
mental or pure spiritual realms, where its instruments would respectively
constitute the astral, mental and spiritual apparatuses respectively. If it
proceeds to the astral abode, there it employs the astral body as its
instrument of activity; if it proceeds to the mental body, there it employs the
mind and its mental accessories as its apparatus of service; if it proceeds to
the immaculate spiritual realms, there it requires no mediatory apparatus.
It so happens with frantic sympathy that death overtakes many
a soul, when the full scale of their karmic accounts have not been discharged.
So when death beacons, the individual simply adheres to the natural impulsion
of transference to another arena of action, in the invisible abodes; and upon
departure to that novel sphere of action, the karmic account accompany its
proprietor, just as a man can never dissociate himself from his own shadow; nor
can a dog secure divorce with its own tail. Just as an individual emigrating to
another country cannot fail to take along his bodily organs, such as his head,
lungs, legs, liver, etc, so does the soul never fails to emigrate with its
karma in the abodes of spirit. The emigrating individual may vacate his mansion
and its accessories, since a mansion cannot be squeezed into an aeroplane;
but as certainly as it should be, he is accompanied by his bodily organs.
Therefore it is stated:
When we cross the gates of death, our karma is all
we take with us. Everything else that we enjoyed in this life we leave
behind.... Our karma is the only thing that will count in determining our
rebirth, for our next life is nothing but the effects of our karmic tendencies
that materialise in our perception.
(TULKU THONDUP, Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth)
My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape
the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I
stand.
(Thich
Nhat Hanh)
O youth or young man, who fancy that you are neglected by the
gods, know that if you become worse, you shall go to worse souls, or if better
to the better. In every succession of life and death, you will do and suffer what like may fitly
suffer at the hands of like. This is the justice of heaven.
(Plato)
So, the fundamental
rationale for reincarnation is that, when the soul permanently discards its
instrument of physical expression; that is, the physical body, as it is the
case during death; and proceeds to the ethereal realms, without having fully
resolved its karmic account, that soul will ultimately be reborn on this
physical realm, where such karma was generated, to afford that soul the
opportunity to resume the resolution of its karmic account. Therefore,
reincarnation can be viewed as the
process by which a disembodied soul takes birth in another body, to enable it
resume continuity in the resolution of its unsettled karmic account.
The phenomenon of reincarnation is
unambiguously proclaimed even in the most famous religions of the world; for
instance:
Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were
with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
They replied, “Some say
John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets
of long ago has come back to life.”
But what about you?” he
asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
Jesus strictly warned them
not to tell this to anyone.
(Luke
9:18-21)
For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And
if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has
ears, let him hear.
(Mathew
11:18-20)
The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law
say that Elijah must come first?”
Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all
things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognise
him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of
Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he
was talking to them about John the Baptist.
(Mathew
17:10-13)
Lord Krsna declares:
As the embodied soul
continuously passes in this body from boyhood to youth, and then to old age,
the soul similarly passes into another body at death.
(Bhagavad
Gita 2:13)
Lord Krsna declares:
When one dies in the mode of goodness, he attains to the pure
higher planets. When one dies in the mode of passion, he takes rebirth amongst
those engaged in fruitive activities; and when one dies in the mode of
ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom.
(Bhagavad-Gita
14:14-15)
And an enquirer asked:
How
do I know if reincarnation exists?
And Supreme Master Ching Hai
responded:
We can know it, if we get to a certain level in our wisdom.
For example, when we pass the second grade of high school, we know many laws of
physics. We could experiment with them ourselves in our laboratory. Okay! If
you practice the Quan Yin Method, or sometimes another type of method, you can
get to the second plane, I mean the second plane of consciousness. There are
many levels, the second is not the best, it is one of the worst. There are the
third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, etc. The
higher the wiser, then you’ll reach the highest.
Now if you get to the second plane, you may know the past
lives of yourself and of many people. Then you know reincarnation really
exists. I can’t prove it to you. Your eyes cannot see further than a hundred
meters. But I can help you to develop your heavenly eye, then you can see
further, many generations behind and ahead, and then you can prove it to
yourself. Okay? But I tell you, this is not a good motive to meditate, because
to know the past lives is not so good for you. Suppose you know that your wife
was a tiger last life, then maybe you might have a nightmare. Yes? [Laughter]
You would be thinking: “My God, what if she becomes a tiger again [Master and
all laughed], or suddenly changes back to a tiger?” Yeah? It’s no good. Out of
God’s mercy, He draws the curtain between our life and the past, because we
have enough to deal with in this life. No?
(Supreme
Master Ching Hai: http://godsdirectcontact.us/com/teachings/AZreincarnQA.html)
And an enquirer asked:
Do I have a soul? If not, how is
reincarnation possible?
And Supreme Master Ching Hai
responded:
Well, the Bible says you have a soul, so you must have one.
(Master laughs) In reincarnation, it is not the soul that reincarnates
actually. The soul lives forever; doesn’t die, doesn’t live, doesn’t
reincarnate. It is the experience of life, the integrating process between the
physical and the spiritual when we are experimenting in the so-called life here
and which attaches to the knowledge of our existence, that reincarnates. And if
we do not detach ourselves from this kind of experiment that we call ourselves,
we reincarnate. Actually, we don’t reincarnate, we don’t die, ever. We are just
sick; we are just diseased with these incidents, with these disasters that
happen to be attached to us. If we don’t cut ourselves asunder from that, then
of course, we are forever connected with that. The cause and effect keep
changing, keep moving, keep adding, keep diminishing; and that’s how we say we
reincarnate. If we are not enlightened enough, that’s it.
(Supreme
Master Ching Hai: http://godsdirectcontact.us/com/teachings/AZreincarnQA.html)
And an enquirer asked:
Master, how can I remember my past lives, so that I can
retrieve the knowledge I learned then?
And Supreme Master Ching Hai responded:
No, no, it’s enough to learn in the present. Because in the
present life, we haven’t even learned enough yet. The past life is gone, and
God has drawn a curtain between the past and present. It’s for our own benefit.
Therefore, it’s not always necessary to trace the past. If we know too many
things about the past, without having enough power to handle it, or to improve
it concerning the present, then we will be in trouble. That’s why people
sometimes come into a possessed kind of state of mind. Or knowing too much of
the past, they will be miserable living in the present. Suppose you know that
in the past life, you were the sultan of such and such country, and now you are
driving a taxi. Would you like it? Or suppose that you know that last life, you
and your wife had some kind of bloodshed with each other. Now every time you see
her, would you be afraid that she killed you last life?
Can you ever be loving again to her? It would affect very
much your family harmony, your personal relationships, as well as your own
happiness. Is that not so? Therefore, we don’t need to know the past. We take
care of the present, and the future will come beautifully. Meditate on your
inner self, or choose whatever method you like. But I would only recommend the
Quan Yin Method, because I know after all the studies, that it’s the best; that
it’s the highest, the quickest, the safest. So we offer that to you, in case
you want to gain more knowledge in the present, and for the future. And the
past takes care of itself. The past is gone, the past we can just forget it.
(Supreme Master Suma Ching
Hai:
http://godsdirectcontact.us/com/teachings/AZreincarnQA.html)
And an enquirer asked:
Is reincarnation a choice of the soul or spirit, or is it
something that will occur without choice by the control and devotion of the
Higher Power?
And Supreme Master Ching Hai responded:
We have choice and we do not have choice. For average people,
there is no choice. For Buddha, Saints, Christ, they have a choice. They
consciously chose their parents, date of birth, place of birth and date of
death, of leaving the world. They were conscious before they came to the world.
They came by choice. They came to save the world, to help some of their
friends, to help those who prayed to them for their help. But other people are
compelled to reincarnate by their own deeds, their actions throughout past
lives. Our thinking and habits form themselves into an energy, and this forces
us to come into an environment to fulfil and to eradicate, if necessary. This
already-formed concrete energy has to be diluted.
(Supreme
Master Ching Hai: http://godsdirectcontact.us/com/teachings/AZreincarnQA.html)
As depicted by the above
quotations, Jesus strongly hinted that John the Baptist was the reincarnation
of Elijah; Lord Krsna proclaimed the legitimacy of reincarnation; Supreme
Master Ching Hai supplies an explicit authentication of the phenomenon. These
are all very great spiritual Masters of the highest spiritual order, whose
pronouncements are devoid of second-hand intellectual hearsay and self-stylised
metaphysical speculations; but whose accounts are founded upon authentic
spiritual investigation, first- hand knowledge and direct experience of the
exact mechanism of the phenomenon of reincarnation. The phenomenon is accorded
due validity in such spiritual movements as the theosophical society, Urantia,
Gnostic and all Eastern philosophies. Other mainstream religions such as
Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism are tenacious proponents of this phenomenon of
reincarnation.
Thus, when death overtakes
an individual and the physical instrument discarded for good, the ethereal
components of that individual proceed to the celestial realms, there to make an
appearance before the grand adjudicator, together with the full record of every
thought, speech, emotion and deed that he had ever exerted during the elapsing
life. Even though some of these exertions were conducted in downright secrecy,
such that while he was still in physical existence, nobody was aware of them,
at that moment, secrecy is brought to abrupt disutility, as his entire karmic
account is fully inscribed in his record and hangs over his head, in the like
manner that a dog’s tail is attached to its body. The account cannot be
concealed or falsified.
Based on the individual’s record, the grand
judge pronounces the verdict about the individual’s current state of karma. The
grand judge’s verdict cannot falter in resolution, nor is the verdict subject
to appeal. The verdict is immediate, categorical, impeccable and final; and even
the recipient of that verdict is fully satisfied; even if it disfavours him.
This is because in those realms, justice is clean and clear. Thus, the
feasibility for difference in opinion is non-existent.
If the individual’s life
had been characterised
by wholesome deeds, the individual might be assigned another physical birth,
which will permit him to resolve any outstanding karmic transactions, and
affords the individual the occasion to effect wholesome rectifications to his
unhealthy tendencies; and by so doing, ameliorate his karma. If the
individual’s life had been
characterised by pronounced moral and spiritual degradation, punctuated by
grave evil, the individual might be subjected to remedial punishment in one of
the custodian chambers in hell or purgatory, prior to reincarnation; to impress
upon his innermost consciousness that the wages of evil are weeping and
teeth-gnashing. If the individual is subsequently discharged from hell and
afforded the occasion to reincarnate, he will automatically shun those
tendencies that called upon him unspeakable anguish. The impressions obtained
from his experience in hell will be well engraved in his sub-conscious mind,
and this will somehow involuntarily and sub-consciously offer him an inner
voice, as regards the right choices in his contemporary instalment of reincarnation.
If the individual’s life
had been saturated with meritorious or wholesome deeds, he is assigned some
form of a paradise or heaven, there to reap the full dose of his merits; and
upon the consummation of those merits, he once more gets ready for yet, another
episode of reincarnation on earth.
For a reincarnating soul,
location, parents, time of birth and associated circumstances are all
preordained by his karma. Following birth, the soul slowly awakens to physical
consciousness, and begins resolving its apportioned karma, while simultaneously
generating for itself fresh karma. The great Masters who themselves directly
observe the unfoldment of this cosmic spectacle are only too conversant that the
individual is a product of alternating embodiment and disembodiment, in
monotonous and bewildering cycles of birth, death and rebirth.
The individual becomes
enmeshed in this cosmic recycling scheme, until he ultimately beholds the good
fortune whereby, the summation of his wholesome karma exceeds the summation of
his unwholesome karma, as to permit him to meet a living Master, a real
satguru, who, out of immense clemency and selfless love, sureties that
individual’s karmic liabilities and emancipates him from the arena of
befuddling mundane tribulations. Encounter with the living Master of the higher
order, is the ultimate and most significant occurrence in that individual’s
entire spiritual history of thousands upon thousands and even millions upon millions
of years.
Some enquirers might be
intransigently inclined to questioning why the soul does not resolve the
entirety of its karmic account in the spiritual realms following death. Well,
as to such an inquisition, it can once more be reiterated that since divine
justice is immutable and infallible, it ordains that the soul observes the
resolution of its karmic account in the exact circumstances in which such an
account was acquired. In so doing, the individual can more readily and somewhat
exactingly appreciate the consequences and implications of his deeds, thus
granting him an incentive to remodel his methods of pursuing spiritual
evolution.
Within the arena of
reincarnation, a male can reincarnate as a female; someone from one country can
reincarnate in an entirely different nation or even a different continent. An
individual can reincarnate in circumstances that are entirely diametrical to
his previous reincarnation, all dictated by the interplay of his karmic forces.
Indeed, the mechanism of reincarnation is very complex and even bewildering.
Some pragmatic cases of
reincarnation have been diagnosed and documented by Dr. Stevenson, a professor
of psychiatry, who for over three decades, assembled and examined countless
testimonials of reincarnation; and contained in his book titled Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation.
Dr. Ian Stevenson makes allusion to cases from numerous nations, encompassing
Brazil, Alaska, and Lebanon; where children provided vivid recollections of
their lives. Upon verification, the veracity of their previous lives
reminiscence was affirmed.
It should hereupon be
enunciated with due delight that the disciples of an ultimate high order Master
such as Supreme Master Ching Hai can never again take birth in this earthly
domain under the compulsion of karma. They will be liberated from the arena of
anguish and delivered to the rapturous abodes of eternal bliss. A disciple of
Supreme Master Ching Hai can only again reincarnate if he voluntarily chooses
to do so. But why would anyone choose to resume this distorted arena of earthly
anguish, when the sublime splendour of the exalted realms is his? Why would
anyone voluntarily succumb to the lacerating meanders of earthly life, when
they have beheld the prerogative of eternally basking in ultimate divine glory?
En passant,
it might appear relevant to encapsulate on the administration of karma in the
spiritual realms, since the modality of this karmic administration is entwined
with reincarnation.
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