KARMA
A Study in
Karma
by
Annie Besant
Published in
1917
The Third Thread
We have now
to consider how karma works in relation to activity, the third aspect of the
Self. Our activities – the ways in which we affect the outer world of matter –
spin the third thread of our karma, and in many respects this is the
least
important. Our thoughts and our desires so soon as they flow outwards, by
producing vibrations in the mental and astral matter surrounding us, or by
creating specific thought-forms and desire-forms, become activities, are our
action on the outer worlds of life and form, of consciousness and bodies.
The moment
they speed outwards they affect other things and other people, they are the
action, or the reaction as the case may be, of the organism on the environment.
The reaction of our thoughts on ourselves, as we have seen, is the building of
character and of faculty; the reaction of our desires on ourselves
is the
gaining of opportunities and objects and of power; the reaction of our
activities on ourselves is our environment, the conditions and circumstances,
the friends and enemies, that surround us. The nearest circumstance, the
expression of part of our past activities, is our physical body; this is shaped
for us by an elemental specially created for the task; our body is nature’s
answer to such
part of the sum of our past activities as can be expressed in a single material
form, and "nature" is here the Lords of Karma, the mighty Angels of
Judgment, the Recorders of the Past. Two parts of karma we bring with us – our
thought-nature and our desire-nature, the germinal tendencies we have
created in
our age-long past; the third part of karma we are born into; that which limits
our Self-expression and constrains us; our past action on the external world
reacts upon us as the sum of our limitations – our environment, including our
physical body.
It is
probable that a close study of past activities and present environment would
result in a knowledge of details that at present we do not possess. We read in
Buddhist and Hindu Scriptures a mass of details on this subject, probably drawn
from meticulous careful observation. At present, we modern
students can
only affirm a few broad facts. Extreme cruelty inflicted on the helpless – on
heretics, on children, on animals – reacts on inquisitors, on brutal parents
and teachers, on vivisectors, as physical deformity, more or less revolting and
extreme, according to the nature and extent of the cruelty.
______________________
KARMA
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Preface
Theosophy and the Masters General Principles
The Earth Chain Body and Astral Body Kama – Desire
Manas Of Reincarnation Reincarnation Continued
Karma Kama Loka
Devachan
Cycles
Arguments Supporting Reincarnation
Differentiation Of Species Missing Links
Psychic Laws, Forces, and Phenomena
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Three Fundamental Propositions Key Concepts of Theosophy
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Glossaries of Theosophical Terms
An Outstanding
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Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man? Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation Karma
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