Karma the Mechanism

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

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SUTRAS
ATTRACTION TO KARMA
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ated state (noksa) it presents us with challenges3 that train and test our responsibility for our own actions.
Karma is a kind of subtle matter4 that constitutes the interactive karmic field which surrounds every5 living being - our 'karmic body'. Much of the karmic matter we attract to this field is discarded immediately. Yet particular types of actions and emotions cause a more intense, long-lasting attachment of this subtle matter to our consciousness. These types of actions and emotions are described from sutra 10 onwards.
A large part of the karmic matter stored in our interactive karmic field is inactive (latent)6. How long karma remains inactive and at what point in time it becomes active, is determined by what area of life it influences - i.e. by its character or type.
3 How much time we allocate each individual challenge and how in
tensely we experience them is entirely up to us. Knowledge how karmic mechanisms operate, a readiness to meet challenges, becoming aware of our emotions and consciously directing our actions considerably shortens the time we need for mastering our individual tasks. In this (learning) process karmic mechanisms offer an indicator of progress and proficiency that couldn't be more precise. 4 The idea that 'karmic molecules' exist might cause ironic smiles in
some. Yet we only need to recall that science found proof of the existence of molecules only in 1906 and that it took till 1920 to develop concepts for understanding atoms - all the while ancient Asian and even Western manuscripts described their existence and mechanics millennia before. And anyone who - only a hundred years ago - would have suggested that these particles presumed 'indivisible' were made up of even subtler units like quarks and leptons, would certainly have been subjected to ridicule as well.
Sure - our sacred science is currently far too proud to research karmic molecules - but give.it another 50 years and the situation might be completely different. Already now ideas that mind fundamentally affects matter keep popping up persistently in scientific circles. That science has not discovered karmic matter yet does not state anything
against its existence. 5 every being that has not yet reached freedom from karmic mecha
nisms - moksa 6 Sutra 17 describes the nature and purpose of latent karma.