Karma the Mechanism

Author(s): Hermann Kuhn
Publisher: Crosswind Publishing Germany

Page 14

THE MYSTERY
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We now are one of the first generations who needs to find our very own meaning, our very individual purpose of life. Since our survival (food, shelter, clothing, security, comfort) is basically assured, we now need to find our very own reason why we are here and why we need to go on living in the first place.
This longing for orientation, this desire for meaning beyond all our material comforts is one of the main reasons why the idea of karma attracts us.
Karma - however vague it might appear - delivers. It offers us the conviction that our life is not meaningless. It presents us with a range of goals: our liberation from life's restricting influences, the promise of higher - ecstatic - states of consciousness, a self-dete mined way to improve our conditions if we only choose a 'positive path, and finally the idea that all our action is relevant, is even noted down, recognized, though we couldn't exactly pinpoint where and how and why. And last not least, karma comes from the mysterious East, - it maintains a healthy distance to the established Western religions which many feel have failed to 'prove their claims.
All this appeals to us so much, all this provides answers in such a vacuum of meaning, that we eagerly accept its shortcomings, - like the looming mountain of past deeds that is growing rather than diminishing, - like the indistinct, disabling feeling that we accumulate more bad than good deeds, - like an almost endless succession of incarnations before us (which on the other hand also soothes our subconscious yearning that life might not be over after death, that we would get another chance), - like the idea - but also the hope - that it might take almost a miracle to resolve all this complex, entangled load.
Yet interestingly enough - none of our vague notions what karma is all about corresponds to reality. All our ideas about karma are so heavily flawed that we might well discard them altogether.
The fact that this word has been misunderstood and misused in the West - and in the East - takes nothing away from the validity,