Karma and Reincarnation

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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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