Karma and Rebirth

Author(s): Christmas Humphereys
Publisher: Albemarle Street London

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WHAT KARMA IS NOT a world of Maya, is and will be the subject of suffering (dukkha), until that day when once again the dewdrop slips into the Shining Sea'. In other words, the Christian holds the soul to be the immortal part of man ; the Buddhist presses the analysis of our being a whole stage further back and claims that nothing in man is cternal, but only that Oneness, the Essence of Pure Mind which, though it shines in every man, is never his. The light in an electric bulb shines through the bulb, but the bulb does not own it. Nor can it claim any 'piece' of electricity as being in its possession, for that which shines now in a billionth of a second is gone. There is but a river of life or light that flows through a myriad conduit pipes. Nonc owns the river of Life, and he who holds its waters in his hand will find that in his attempt to possess the water he has stayed the flow, and all that he holds is ' dead'.
It is, however, as difficult to speak of the teachings of Christianity, as if they were all agreed, as of the teachings of Buddhism. The Founders came, and taught, and went away. Their followers treasured all that they remembered of what they had, or thought they had understood. This was later written down, or some of it, and thereafter generations of monkish cditors added, subtracted and altered the script to accord with their own by no means settled views. Finally we have translations, as accurate as the understanding of the translator and no more. Such is the history of the Buddhist and Hindu Scriptures, and assuming that Jesus was an historic figure, such was the Christian tragedy too. It is said that there are three hundred sects of Christianity; there are certainly six in Buddhism. But taking a reasonable consensus of belief in the two great rcligions, the differing views on 'soul' are of great importance. If I have a soul or, to be more accurate, am a soul with a body, and that soul is immortal and specially created by God at my birth, then I shall inevitably fight for the benefit and salvation of that soul, while vaguely hoping that those of my fellow men will be cqually fortunate. The feeling is that of separation, save for the common Father
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